I’ve never understood pop

Pop culture has always been a mystery to me. The only “trendy” think I can recall I ever wanted was Super Mario Brothers 3. But that game was so good I can still play it today. I like things because of their individual quality, not because they are popular.

I understand pop even less in the church, and this is why singing today bothers me some. When I think of the new songs that we have starting singing in the last 10 years, I can only imagine singing a handful of them 10, 15, 30 years from now. So why I ask, are we wasting time with the other ones?

Most of the songs I like predate my lifetime entirely, one by about a thousand years. There is one common theme in the songs I like, good lyrics.

“My sin oh the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin not in part but the whole, is nailed to the cross…”

“My savior forever, He sought me and bought me with His redeeming blood.”

“There is a God, He is alive, in Him we live and we survive.”

“When nothing else could help, love lifted me.”

“He could have called ten thousand angles, but He died alone, for you and me.”

Please, someone explain to me why we must sing songs like “in moments like these, I sing out a song, I sing out a love song to Jesus” to the neglect of songs that carry a more powerful message? In my humble but correct opinion (to steal a line from Joe) singing exists for 3 reasons:

1) To worship God.
2) To communicate the message of Christ.
3) To help us memorize truths of God, because it is easier for us to memorize things in song.

Only two things we do as Christians truly involve the whole church at once, communion and singing. Other then that it is sitting there listening to one person talk. If that is not a compelling enough reason to hold your singing to a high standard, consider that there is truly only an audience of One (that matters). I doubt anyone will argue with me on that point, but I think we run in to trouble sometimes when trying to implement that.

That does NOT mean we must sing technically correct. If a sweet old lady can’t sing quit on key, it’s not the end of the world. At the same time, she has a responsibility not to hinder the worship of anyone else by trying to dominate the song with her volume.

This means we should be considerate of what people want to sing, but not patronizing. If the teenagers want to have some of the newer songs included because they know those songs better, that is absolutely fine with me, we should include songs that includes teenagers. At the same time, they have no more right to direct the worship then the 74 year old man who has been at this church for 30 years. We should not throw out the favorites of the 74 year old because we are so busy planning something to patronize to the youth group, only no one has ever bothered to ask them if they actually like those songs in the first place.

What is the best way to accomplish this? Sing everything, in balance. The balance does not have to be exact, just make an attempt at it. Joe has a good system for this in pulling out his cards to be sure he is rotating the music. Later this year my congregation will have it’s new building, Lord willing that is, when it happens we will start having Sunday night worship again. I am going to be a song leader (we use more then one) on Sunday nights, and I have a plan for what I want to do.

I will take a long list of songs on the computer, everyone I know. It will then be my effort to go through that entire list, without repeating a song (exceptions made for invitation and closing songs). By taking this approach, I know there will be something for everyone, which is what it is really all about. Worship isn’t about you, and it isn’t about me, it’s about us rejoicing to God. Singing lets us tell those who don’t know Jesus about the joy we have. If a song accomplishes that, I like it. If a song does not accomplish it, I don’t like it.

Some of the new(er) songs I like are: Lamb of God, Greatest Command, There’s a stirring. They are songs that effectively tell biblical truth, and for that reason we should sing them, not because they are new.