If the lyrics of a song can be equally applied to the crush of a 17-year-old girl as they can to Jesus, then we should seriously question it being used to point a group of believers’ collective hearts to God. In some genres of music, a great melody is enough to create a good song. Worship should say something, and that message must be in line with what the Bible says is true about God.
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It is very true that a number of ‘worship songs’ have the spiritual depth of a thimble. Of course, if the plumb line is a Fanny Crosby lyric, it is a hard comparison!
I like to think of this, though: Those secular songs written to unnamed lovers MIGHT be song writers searching for God. I doubt they would agree. But it makes for interesting conversations about searching for the divine and how man corrupts God’s gift of relationship…
I like the article for thinking through not just “is it theological” but also addressing reginal and racial divides in our music.
But I don’t agree with all his points. His comments about loves songs of a 17 year old don’t hold water in my opinion. I work with 17 year olds – and I would love for them to write a worship song! The older girls in my group are some of my most spiritually mature!
The article has me wondering – what DO we want from worship songs? Maybe that would be worth another look.
– Oeland
I posted this simply because it helps get folks thinking about worship music and the content in them. I did not read the comment about love songs and 17 year olds as suggesting that youth cannot write worship songs but rather that he was suggesting that some of our worship music could be played on the radio and interpreted not as worship but as a teenage love song.
I have a great book on my desk called “Worship Matters” that I hope to post some quotes from soon which suggests that worship music should be based on scripture.
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