Archive for category Music
See You in a Couple Days
As this is being published (I wrote it last week), my wife Nichole is in surgery to have the remainder of her thyroid removed. She has undergone a similar surgery back in 2009 and it is hard to believe we’re here again.
Here are some videos for you to watch while we wait to see how the procedure goes:
Enjoy.
Worship Isn’t About Music
It is about our heart. Sadly, this is how our music can sound to God’s ears when we are more focused on “our thing” instead of His.
Music that Lets the Heart Lead the Way
This post appeared in a slightly different form in 2008. I am reposting it because I believe it is still true. The content of this post may be offensive to some Christians, and that is definitely not my intent, so if you are offended, please accept my apologies.
I’ve never been a big fan of prom songs for Jesus. I have tried to like a lot of the mainstream Christian contemporary music, and there are a few artists out there who really strike me as incredible – Keith Green, Michael Card, Rich Mullins.
For the most part, however, the Christian music market feels recycled, bland and uncreative. Either the musicians are stealing phrases from their “secular” influences or they’re producing pure vanilla music in the name of creativity. It is an epidemic that has made me something of a cynical old crank when it comes to Christian music.
(And lest you think I am picking on only ‘contemporary’ Christian music, I feel this way about a lot of the hymns in the hymnbook as well. There are plenty of derivative, conventional tunes and predictable, mediocre lyrics in there, so there’s no reason to focus only on contemporary music.)
What Is It?
How many love songs to Jesus do we really need? And how many musicians are actually satisfied playing Gsus, C2, D2, Em7 OVER AND OVER AGAIN?
I understand the rationale behind praise and worship music – they are writing songs in recognizable, easily sung settings. I even understand the desire for contemporary Christian artists to “sound like” secular counterparts, but where is the creativity of the Spirit?
When I listen to something so tremendously creative like Starkindler or Hidden Face of God – in my opinion, two of Michael Card’s finest albums – or the demos of The Jesus Record by Rich Mullins, I come away frustrated by all the wanna-be’s who populate the Christian musical landscape. Card’s work in particular is just light years ahead of most of the stuff that passes for Christian.
If you’ve never listened to Michael’s music, then you might be tempted to class him as just “Christian” music, but he is so much more than that. The lamenting open chords of “The City of Doom”, the Celtic resonance of “The Hidden Face of God” or the Hammond organ and saxophone laying down incredible R&B influences in “Soul Anchor” – all of them are reflections of the message he is trying to convey. More than any other musician in the Christian world, Michael is a creative soul. Creativity transcends labels, and when it is really unleashed, the result is true music, true expression of the soul.
There is a famine of true creativity in Christian music today. It is reflected in the weak, unexpressive worship music churned out by the CD full from music mills around the world. You can hear it on any number of Christian CD’s that are feeble attempts to Christianize secular hip hop, alternative rock, nu-metal, swing and any other style you can imagine.
Rather than leading our culture, rather than speaking what is in our hearts, we attempt to get a set of beliefs to conform to particular musical styles. Erwin McManus speaks strongly to this problem of letting culture lead us:
An Alternate Way of Thinking
Rather than being Christian musicians, I think we need to be musicians who are Christian.
If we stop trying to do the “Christian” music and just write and play from our hearts, I think something new will come out of us – music with a spirit, with something distinctly Christian and yet creative. It can be done – Michael Card does it all the time – and it can probably even be done in whatever musical form is appropriate to it. I just don’t think it can be done when we’re focused on an agenda. Music is not about an agenda; it is just about the music. Music is the language of the heart, something more than just musical phrases and lyrical motifs.
That’s just my opinion.
Why Don’t We Use the Title ‘Worship Leader’
One of the first things we did in forming Bedford Road Baptist Church was get rid of the title ‘Worship Leader’. We did not make a big deal about it, and only the elders and the music team we told we were no longer using the title. We just dropped it from our vocabulary.
Over the past few months, people have begun asking, “Who is the worship leader?” and my most common response is, “The pastor leads the worship gathering.”
Consider this quote from D. A. Carson:
I would abolish forever the notion of a ‘worship leader’. If you want to have a ‘song leader’ who leads part of the worship, just as the preacher leads part of the worship, that’s fine. But to call the person a ‘worship leader’ takes away the idea that by preaching, teaching, listening to and devouring the word of God, and applying it to our lives, we are somehow not worshipping God.
This is a worthwhile observation. In the postmodern church, it has become far too common to distinguish ‘worship’ as the music of the worship gathering. This simply is not Biblical.
We abandoned this title of ‘worship leader’ and instead have a team who work together to take us on a worship journey – from the band who plays accompaniment for the congregation to the elders who lead in prayer to the preacher, we are all leading worship.
if you would like to read more about this subject, this series of articles from Bob Caughlin of worship matters.com are worth considering.
Funny How History Repeats Itself…
Posted by Erik in Doesn't Fit in a Category, Music, Things We Shouldn't Discuss on April 1, 2010
The very first song I learned to play on the guitar was “Eve of Destruction”, written by P. F. Sloan and best known as performed by Barry McGuire in 1965. I don’t know why my dad taught it to me – probably because the chords were pretty simple – but it has stuck with me over the years. I was just thinking how eternal the words are, especially in light of the series we’re getting ready to teach from the Book of Ecclesiastes.
It amuses me that in 1965, McGuire and Sloan were protesting the escalation of the Vietnam War, the draft and segregation and yet in 2010, the words could just as easily be applied to current events.
So, without further ado, I give you, “Eve of Destruction”:
The eastern world, it is exploding
Violence flarin’, bullets loadin’
You’re old enough to kill, but not for votin’
You don’t believe in war, but what’s that gun you’re totin’
And even the Jordan River has bodies floatin’
But you tell me
Over and over and over again, my friend
Ah, you don’t believe
We’re on the eve
of destruction.
Don’t you understand what I’m tryin’ to say
Can’t you feel the fears I’m feelin’ today?
If the button is pushed, there’s no runnin’ away
There’ll be no one to save, with the world in a grave
[Take a look around ya boy, it's bound to scare ya boy]
And you tell me
Over and over and over again, my friend
Ah, you don’t believe
We’re on the eve
of destruction.
Yeah, my blood’s so mad feels like coagulatin’
I’m sitting here just contemplatin’
I can’t twist the truth, it knows no regulation.
Handful of senators don’t pass legislation
And marches alone can’t bring integration
When human respect is disintegratin’
This whole crazy world is just too frustratin’
And you tell me
Over and over and over again, my friend
Ah, you don’t believe
We’re on the eve
of destruction.
Think of all the hate there is in Red China
Then take a look around to Selma, Alabama
You may leave here for 4 days in space
But when you return, it’s the same old place
The poundin’ of the drums, the pride and disgrace
You can bury your dead, but don’t leave a trace
Hate your next-door neighbor, but don’t forget to say grace
And… tell me over and over and over and over again, my friend
You don’t believe
We’re on the eve
Of destruction
Mm, no no, you don’t believe
We’re on the eve
of destruction.
Getting Excited for Easter?
Here’s a clip of the Grace music team practicing for Easter. If you look close, you can see our brand new drum kit and our incredibly excited drummer. They’re doing a stellar job, and I am wicked excited for them to lead worship on Easter.
There are 200 seats in our auditorium. I believe God can fill them all. We’re looking forward to seeing what he is doing in this season!
My Five Biggest Influences
Posted by Erik in History, Media, Movies and TV, Music, Personal on March 5, 2010
So, Jesus and the apostle Paul are givens and I am not one to offer super-spiritual thoughts in things like this. Here are my five biggest influences in the way I think and work.
#5 – P.T. Barnum
For all of his quirks, P.T. Barnum was probably the greatest showman and entrepreneur of American history. He knew what people wanted before they knew they wanted. Some of his skill was learned, but most of it was just innate. He gave an unbelievably hurt and broken nation a form of entertainment they had never imagined and changed the world around him with performers and presentations. He single handedly brought America into the global entertainment market.
#4 – Bill Bryson
A few years ago, my wife bought me a book as a birthday present. The book, A Walk in the Woods, was by an Iowan who had lived in England for twenty years and at the time lived in Hanover, New Hampshire. His name was Bill Bryson and he made me laugh – made me laugh so hard I fell out of bed. Since then, I have bought or traded for almost every book Bryson has written. Bryson has influenced my style of humor and writing more than anyone else I’ve ever encountered.
#3 – Donald Miller/Brian McLaren
I know, they’re not one person; but I read Blue Like Jazz and A New Kind of Christian back to back and I think of them as one book, even if they aren’t. The composite of these two writers gave me permission to pursue Christ as I am rather than becoming something distinctly ‘Christian’ to follow God. They catalyzed my faith and my ministry.
#2 – Michael Card
Michael Card is one of the best Bible teachers of our generation, and he is a staggering musician as well. While his style is not a popular one, he has taught me more in his music than I learned in Bible college. Every time he is in the area, I am there – in the front row if possible.
#1 – Rich Mullins
If there’s anything to be said about struggling faith, Rich Mullins said it and said it in meter. Good musicians are rare in Christianity, and good song writers are even more rare. Rich Mullins was both – more poet than theologian, with a heart’s longing for Christ that few Christians could ever lay claim to. My wife introduced me to him, and I own every CD of his work.
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