Sundays all across the country was another torturous round of metrosexual “worship songs”

music

Ok so why use the seemingly pejorative description in my header?

Frankly because it is the best word picture I could come up with. There is a growing cancer in our churches, one of many, where we have allowed the effeminate to infiltrate our flock in the guise of worship songs. These songs take up a couple of flavors and are driven by what passes for “Pop Christian” music broadcast to the surrounding culture at large.

Here are a few types to consider:

God as my girlfriend / boyfriend: Yes, we are to love God  with all of our heart but that love is reverently delivered to a Holy Righteous God. To diminish His position by lowering Him in the relationship to that of intimate lover is a perversion of the proper response we are commanded to have.

The 7 eleven: The same seven words sung over and over and over again, “can you say vain repetitions boys and girls”. We are to love God with all of our minds, robotic repetition does not a follower make. Yet in the culture that surrounds us this passes for intellectual thought and has infected Christian worship helping to create ankle deep faith and puddle deep reverence. We call this God inoculation. Just enough inoculation to God to not really follow Him. Our adversary could not be happier.

The emotional sway: Songs that appeal to the emotional experience of salvation and relationship with God. These songs drip with slobbering self gratification as it is turned from being all about God to being all about them.

So how do you know how bad your church falls into this? One way is to count how many times on any sunday you sing a hymn that is speaking deep seated truth and how many of the above songs are in the mix. To be clear I am not advocating for old hymns only all the time. I grew up in the episcopal church where all we sang were funeral dirges. There are good rich in theology songs being crafted today as well but they speak of the truth and that requires thought and contemplation.

These songs don’t appeal to the emotional and often get passed over.

What do you do about It?

First talk to you music director explain your concerns and ask if they would be more careful in choosing the songs they prepare for worship. If you see no change ask to meet with the pastor and the music director explain your concerns to them.

Print this blog post and bring it to the meeting if you find it hard to speak out.

Keep in mind they may not even be aware of this as a problem, you could be helping to educate them. Contrary to popular belief they don’t know everything and the good ones are humble enough to understand this.

Sadly many churches will respond by the dreaded “lecture Sermon” about how if you don’t like the music you are divisive, intolerant,  and without grace. This response is from a defensive prideful tower and uses the bible to beat the sheep. A clear warning to watch closely what else is being taught. You may have even bigger issues to deal with.

Does your church fall into this category ?

Leave a comment and let me know.