Worship in the Club

Hello friends,


I was driving home from a meeting today, and I'm pretty sad to announce that I was indeed listening to KISS FM. Yeah, I like pop music. What of it?


For all it's catchy beats though, I do like to make fun of the complete lyrical depth of some of these songs on the radio. Because "yes, of course we does" must make every English teacher's skin crawl. These songs have a complete lack of depth in their lyrics because I think, with subtle few exceptions, pop music has been reduced to one simple agenda:


Make people dance in a club.


It drives me kind of crazy when you get a song that has absolutely nothing to say but "everybody get up and dance!" It feels like the song is telling me what to do, and as I'm usually in the car when I'm hearing these songs, and dancing is out of the question!


But as I was thinking all of this on my ride home today, I started to wonder about the songs we write for worship. How many of them are just like that? Jesus died for our sins, so let's all get together in the club and put our hands up!


I get kind of conflicted here, and my brain starts to hurt drifting between two different thoughts. On the one hand, the death and resurrection of Christ is a huge moment in human history, and it absolutely deserves to be celebrated! Go crazy! Put your hands up! Dance! Sing at the top of your lungs! As someone who leads worship for a Presbyterian church, we could admittedly use a bit more celebration in our worship services!


But then again, is the worship music we create a little bit too shallow? If the only thing we're singing about is the party that is either here and now or the party that's coming in the next life, then are we robbing people of the deep and rich traditions of the Christian faith? Would it kill us to have a few more songs that use the language of grace and forgiveness (I think a series is coming on this...stay tuned!)


What do you think? Are we balanced in our songwriting, or could we use a touch more emphasis on one side or the other?

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