By Katie Ellington, Staff Writer
Worship music is a significant part of Christian culture. At Asbury, we spend about 30 minutes singing together in chapel each week. As young servant leaders, we have the responsibility to help shape church culture for future generations, so how should we define, select and create the music that we use to honor and glorify God?
In his book, Just Like Jesus, Max Lucado said this about worship: “Worship is the act of magnifying God. Enlarging our vision of Him. As we draw nearer, he seems larger.” If we are to truly magnify God, we must ensure that the melodies, lyrics and attitudes toward worship music accurately reflect him. We also need to create an atmosphere conducive to corporate worship.
In chapel and many American churches, most of the worship music falls into the modern, western contemporary Christian music (CCM) tradition. This isn’t a bad thing, but it can be restrictive. Trendy CCM worship services are often similar to concerts. The musicians onstage perform inspiring songs for people who may not have the vocal capability to sing along, and when worship songs are too difficult, people stop singing and merely observe. Corporate worship loses its function, which is to unite the church as we “set our minds on things above” and “let the message of Christ dwell among (us)…through psalms, hymns and songs from the Spirit.” (Colossians 3:2, 16)
We must also see to it that the words we sing express the truth about God and our relationship to Him. A troubling pattern in today’s church is emphasizing emotions at the expense of theological depth. Some songs include lyrics that are poetic but not necessarily truthful, like comparing God’s love to “a ring of solid gold” or describing it as fierce, furious and wild.
Other times, we take a true statement and sing it so many times that it starts to lose its meaning. While our emotions are a beautiful gift with which to glorify God, prioritizing emotions over truth demeans worship. Seth Hurd put it this way in his article for RELEVANT Magazine: “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.”
Our priority in worship should always be to know and glorify God as He truly is, yet many of today’s top worship songs focus only on God’s love and redemption instead of exploring other aspects of His character. This creates an inaccurate and skewed view of Him. Yes, God is loving, but He is so much more. God is holy. God is mighty. God is all-knowing and all-powerful. He is faithful. He is eternal. He is worthy.
Affirming these aspects of God helps us gain a fuller understanding of who He is. When we sing about God’s power, our hearts are encouraged because we know that our God is capable of protecting us. When we sing about his holiness, we are reminded that it is only by mercy that we may approach the throne of grace with boldness. When we sing that He is eternal, we are reminded of just how small and finite we are—we are led to humility, a trait that is absolutely necessary to live a life pleasing to God.
In the end, proper worship is defined by the state of our hearts. If our hearts are not open to worship, even the most profound lyrics and inspiring melodies are wasted. This means leaving our distractions at the door, as well as bitterness, worry or cynicism. This isn’t easy in a society where many have been hurt by the church—God has convicted me recently of letting my skepticism overshadow my worship. I’m slowly learning that critiquing the key of the song or the words on the screen doesn’t make me a better Christian; it makes me a Pharisee. In all our efforts to create quality worship music, we must remember that at the end of the day, it’s not about the music at all. It’s about the One we sing it for.
Photo of Betsy Oda
