Unexpected Moments of Worship
This happens to me ALL the time……
I have shared with many people that the thing Christians call ‘worship’ is a struggle for me. Its not that worshipping God is a struggle, just that doing so as a result of, or as influenced by a formulated and rather repetitive song is tough for me. We should all know that ‘worship’ is not exclusively a musical thing but i find myself wondering if many of us do know that. But this post isn’t about that particular issue…..
Anyway, music stirs up ‘unexpected moments of worship’ within me, music by ‘secular artists!’
This post is inspired by an article in Relevant magazine – you can read the full article here – you should. Reading it helped me gather my thoughts on this subject and pushed me to blog this. I say ‘pushed’ because for some people, this is controversial or risky ground.
A couple of weeks ago i mentioned a need to pause and NOT sing during Church and to assess in my own heart if i was singing the words truthfully. As the Relevant article points out; ‘So many songs seem to address lots of the bright and shiny emotions we feel about God, but sometimes, we can be left feeling detached when trying to worship.’
I don’t want to just re-blog everything the article says so i’ll just say that for a long time i have experienced more ‘unexpected moments of worship’ than i could possibly count. So much so that id say they are no longer ‘unexpected.’ Moments of ‘worship’ during singing in Church are slightly more unexpected if i am honest!
There are many examples in the U2 back catalogue. Seriously, have you ever heard a song of ‘worship’ as amazing as Yahweh? Crumbs from Your Table? I am only thinking of one album with these two suggestions, i could quote U2 for days on end!
A more recent example for me is Josh Ritter’s album So Runs the World Away, it provides a few amazing moments – in the song ‘Lark’ he sings;
“I am assured, yes I am assured yes
I am assured that peace will come to me
A peace that can yes surpass the speed yes
Of my understanding and my need”
I could rattle on here and quote song lyrics all day but my point really is that we can & do limit our worship experience by assuming God only shows up in the words of songs written by Christians who are in the ‘Christian music industry.’
Much of the music i hear within the ‘Christian genre’ is really bad. Outside of the confines of that industry, the music is better – it just IS – but also, the so-called ‘secular has more chance of inspiring ‘worship’ in me. Perhaps thats due to the honesty of the artists? Perhaps because they are spilling out the emotions of their heart into a song and not trying to create the new worship hit song?
God just does NOT define and categorise things like we do & an industry that is boxed in and confined to ‘Christians’ only making Christian music might just be very silly sounding to God – He works outside of all the rules we make!
I read the article yesterday, really good. I think we forget that all things that are good, ultimately come from God, and too often if it isn’t labelled as ‘Christian’ then it can’t be from God
ha – i had an argument with someone once about a song that i felt there was a great spiritual/Godly message in & basically they could not accept my opinion because they didn’t “think’ the writer was a ‘Christian’ and also didn’t know what the intentions were when the song was written……………….
people are strange (Jim Morrison’s words not mine – lol)
Fully agree. Lots of the music is bad. I actually wrote one for church last night and when I played it to k we started talking about how we could do it dynamically etc. At one point she said ‘but you just can’t do that in church’. If the devil isn’t supposed to have all the best tunes (founder of salvation army), why are we making it so easy for him?
Mmm i think i see what you are saying but i wonder sometimes why we write songs “for Church” anyway….
what i mean is, if you are a songwriter, you write songs.
If they fit what your own congregation uses or accepts then great & also there needs to be an ongoing tension of older attitudes loosening up to allow new ideas etc coming into Church life
But isn’t it dangerous to “write for Church’ or at best very difficult – you have so many pre-concieved ideas of what will be accepted & liked that essentially you are just giving the crowd what they want?
One of the things that will destroy your creativity is ‘only doing things your family will love.’ in this case, ‘family’ being Church – after all, worship songs/praise songs and music that evokes a worshipful response is not always music that everyone likes……….
If you are a singer songwriter, and your desire is to write songs, and praise god with them then do that, if its done with the right hear then God will accept your praise, Christians might not like the songs, Christians might not accept them for corporate worship, but big deal, the songs are still songs of praise to God
absolutely agree Connor – i think compromising that talent happens sometimes, which is sad
Like you say, if done with the right heart……..its good.
I guess my point about playing to the crowd was that some feel they have to resort to pleasing people & compromising their talent – the Church has done this with music/arts etc to some extent
I get what you’re saying here Ally. Very true on many levels.
Re: the comments though, I think it is appropriate at times to write a song for your own church community. In fact, I feel we need that so much more. Rather than just importing songs from all over the world, gaining expressions of our faith from within the family. Songs at times of sadness. Songs at times of joy. Songs at times of despair. Songs at times of hope.
The problem comes when we over emphasise/focus on the music element of our gatherings together. I mean, if I had friends around to my house, it would be a bit random if we sang all the time and didn’t hear what was going on in each others lives!!
How we need other expressions from our church family. Conversation. Communication. Art. Poetry. Photography. Other things that give us those ‘unexpected moments of worship’ you spoke of.
Hm I take on board what you said about “writing a song for church”, but realistically most artists will at some point write a song that will be better received by an audience. I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. Thinking how a song will be received by an audience is one way of self-regulating the quality of your stuff. “Would I enjoy this song at a show?” is a fair challenge to give yourself. Maybe this dilutes the purity of the ideas or the creativity or whatever, but I don’t think it does. It’s fine being like “I’m gonna make the music I like and if other people don’t like it screw-em and if they do then it matters little to me”, but such is a bit of an arrogant self-regarding attitude. In my life I have written one song that I was comfortable using to be sung by the congregation and it happened organically rather than intentionally, but that’s not necessarily the way round it should be.
Before I write a song there is always some catharsis (I finally understand that word after watching inception, ha), some reconciliation of ideas in my mind that I want to achieve. In short.. I want to write a song about X it will start at A and B will happen and we’ll conclude at C. The subject and plot and conclusion of the song are usually self-defined, but there is nothing to say that it has to be that way.
Someone might say “Drew. I want you to write a song about.. I don’t know.. Dying to self and living for Christ.” Is it not the same as when Drew says that to himself?
The one thing I should say is that it’s much harder to work that way. For me, and I think for a lot of creative people, it’s easier to complete an idea that comes from myself because I simply HAVE to finish that idea or I might not be able to sleep or work or whatever.
Worship. I think we have it the wrong way round with songs. We are expecting a lot of the time to be singing a song and then be moved to worship when really in worship we should be moved to singing a song. This is how it works at football matches and it should be how it works in church except that the object is God and not ManUnited. It’s one of the reasons we gather to worship in the first place. So if one does not believe in what he is singing it’s kinda empty.
As for Josh Ritter I would be careful with giving too much credit to him for moving you to worship or whatever. You seemed rather dismissive of “Oh, but he’s not a Christian” and I think wrongly.. He’s NOT a Christian. Would you have him come speak in church? Then why allow him to influence your worship? There are a lot of artists who use biblical imagery to perpetuate their essentially non-theistic viewpoint and they become popular because the language used in the bible is so beautiful. Josh Ritter’s message is often humanistic (in the newer sense of the word) and non-theistic (as opposed to atheistic). It’s not unreasonable to ask ourselves what his intentions were when he wrote the song and what the song means. He wrote others
Peter said to Paul “You know all those words we wrote?
Were just the rules of the game and the rules are the first to go
But now talking God has Laurel begging hearted for a gun
I got a girl in the war man I wonder what it is we done
Too much emphasis is put on “what does this song mean for ME” rather than “What does it mean?”
Rick – hearing ya – i guess there can be pure and honest motivation for “writing for Church” – i didnt make that clear in my comment.
Its hard to distinguish between all the reasons why people write “worship” but i guess my concern or criticism is that people sit down to write with the primary motivation of making it fit in a genre or making it acceptable/liked/applauded as a great ‘worship song’ – and that comes from hearing people say things like ‘i want to learn how to write the next big worship song’ or ‘i wish i could write a worship hit like matt redman/tim hughes etc’
The motivation in that is wrong whereas the motivation in what you say is correct
Oh and in my more cynical moments I think the problem with “worship” music is not so much that people write songs for churches to sing, just that fifth-rate songwriters say to themselves “I know, if I write some naff songs that talk about Jesus they’ll be well popular.”
That is manipulative and patronising of people and betrays a contempt really for the listener and if that is the attitude of some people they will have to answer for it.
In my less cynical moments I rebuke myself for thinking of worship musicians that way and pretending to know their hearts..
Graeme, LOVE what you’re saying about being moved to sing, rather than singing a song and being moved to worship. That’s a very different church gathering though.
In fact, I think thats essentially what I’m talking about above – a different type of church community where we are sharing openly our expressions of faith….rather than 1 person using a platform to perform songs or express personal views.
I’d want to push you further on your last line. Not ‘what does this song mean for ME’ but rather ‘what does it mean for us.’ I’m desperate to found a corporate language of faith in our gatherings…and perhaps songs inspired from within the community might help.
Graeme – point taken about Josh Ritter but i am saying its those words from a few songs that impact my thoughts – a few lines scattered throughout a few songs and not the overall message of Josh Ritter per se…
Thats the danger in this i guess, that someone thinks i am holding up Josh Ritter in higher esteem than Christian artists – thats not what i am saying
Finding that balance of what it means for ‘me’ and what it means is a tough one – the whole aesthetic of Church is so directed at “me’ though – i admit thats a struggle but i wouldn’t rule out that God can use a moment in any song, worship or otherwise, to speak to me in a way that others will not experience – finding a healthy balance of that is a challenge though or we can isolate ourselves
“I’d want to push you further on your last line. Not ‘what does this song mean for ME’ but rather ‘what does it mean for us.’ I’m desperate to found a corporate language of faith in our gatherings…and perhaps songs inspired from within the community might help.”
I’m reading a great book at the moment about church in todays culture, and one of the keys things the author is pushing, is the idea of the church as corporate, and reading the bible etc, but with a mindset of plural ‘You’,
Before the invention of the printing press, everything to do with church was very communal, and not individualistic, but as culture and technology has changed, from the printing press, to telegrams, to mobile phones, culture in general has become more individualistic, and the church has reflected that.
We need to reclaim our whole worship of God as a communal thing, I’m not saying stop personal worship, but shift the focus slightly.
that probably makes very little sense, I tend to waffle a lot
Graeme – on your cynical point – reminds me of the kid in sunday school who thinks Jesus is the right answer to every question…………:)
Ally I don’t have time to reply to everything, but “God can..” arguments can be used to justify pretty much anything.. God can bring good from a bad situation, but as Paul says “Should we then do evil that good would come..”
However I’m gonna continue to listen to JR and see where his perspectives co-incide with mine and what parts of his morality are worth taking on board..
It’s a whole other discussion about whether something being “non-theistic” is necessarily bad..
I totally do not believe that the “ends justifies the means’ though i think its easier to say honestly that ‘God can’ in many situations ………..as opposed to ‘God can’t’
Maybe my denominational background (i had to mention it) flavours my thoughts on that…..but seriously, the amount of things that i grew hearing God could not do…….”that God’ was in a box, confined to behaving how some people were comfortable with, which is not how God works….
BUt yea, i hear ya, not disagreeing – finding everyone’s thoughts fascinating
28″Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Matthew 11
Thrice – deff not seen as a “Christian” band have a song “come all you weary”. It has been said thought that Dustin Kensrue has professed his faith publicly before, and writes spiritually/morally positive lyrics.
“Come all you weary with your heavy loads
Lay down your burdens find rest for your souls
Cause my yoke is easy and my burden is kind
I’ll take yours upon me and you can take mine
Come all you weary move through the earth
Surrounded by rest stones and kicked out of church
A couple of loaves sit down at my feet
Lend me your ears and break bread with me
Come all you weary
Come gather round near me
Find rest for your souls
(By the rest stones)
Come all you weary, crippled you lay
I’ll help you along you can lay down your canes
We’ve got a long way to go but we’ll travel as friends
The lights growing bright further on towards the end”
Picked up on this from your twitter feed! Good discussion
great title as well – maybe one of the problems is church wants us to have “expected” moments of worship too much – within a tightly designed formula. Anything outside of that is messy and can’t be controlled. So many modern songs seem cynically written for a reaction by the time the chorus is reached, or the bridge, or the acapella bit, that any spontanaeity is lost.
Ephesians says to encourage each other with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. I’m not sure that “spiritual songs” is referring solely to the praise and worship genre
Okay I got a bit sidetracked from reading the comments I almost forgot what I was going to say when I first read this post! I totally agree with you. Worship is not just the singing in church on Sunday and thankfully more people in my church are understanding this. I totally agree that God uses other “secular” artists to glorify Him. Like you, I am moved by many of U2′s songs. In fact, when I was at their concert a couple of years ago in Toronto, I found myself “worshiping” in song to God. They were singing the song,” In the Name of Love,”and I remember it was a beautiful moment in arena. It was a powerful God moment for me. I also remember thinking all of these people around me are singing, with their arms raised, “one man comes in the name of love…” They were actually singing to Jesus…it was soooo cool. I experienced “church” at that U2 concert. I know Bono was criticized( in church circles) over here for his spirituality and not being more “bold” about his faith. Also, Amy Grant was criticized for “crossing over” to the secular world!! This never sat well with me. I recently read Bono’s biography where he was interviewed and it was fabulous. He loves Jesus more than I realized. ANyways..didn’t mean to digress, that is another topic…but I enjoyed your post…good things to think about. Karyne
Incarnation’s the word, methinks: our God dives in where Christians fear to tread.
Coldplay does it for me these days.