
In my last post, I made a rather basic thesis. To paraphrase it, church leaders need to be discerning in the selection of the songs its congregation sings. The influences in contemporary Christian music (and I’m a big supporter of new music) have secular markets in mind which affects the specificity of its lyrics.
One of the most famous advantageous opportunities of what I’m talking about involves a very successful secular song recorded by Joe Cocker back in the 70’s. Billy Preston and Bruce Fisher wrote the song “You Are So Beautiful To Me” hanging around a piano at a party as a worship song. This was in a period of Preston’s life when he was writing some gospel music (although it’s doubtful that Preston was converted—but it is well-chronicled that in the hippie movement it was also “cool” to read the Bible and talk about Jesus—reader take note of the Doobie Brother’s song “Jesus Is Just Alright” as another example).
Well, Cocker heard the song and did the opposite of what I’ve been talking about….He took a song that was initially written about Jesus (again, overlook, for the sake of argument, the tenuous spiritual condition of the writers) and he turned it into a love song to his lover (whoever that might have been). Let’s look at the lyrics:
You are so beautiful to me
You are so beautiful to me—can’t you see?
You’re everything I’ve hoped for
Everything I’ve dreamed
You are so beautiful to me
What many Christian songs written today are doing is the same thing going the other direction. They want their lyrics to be vague enough so that a believer might buy the artist’s music to sing about Christ and the unbeliever might buy the product to sing about their human love interest. (I realize that Preston and Fisher may not have had a “market” in mind when they wrote this song—especially considering the fact that the “Christian” music industry was only in its infancy.)
Is there anything basically wrong with that concept? Not on the surface. Am I suggesting that a believer is in sin to listen to/sing a song that has such veiled language? Of course not. Worship is about the heart—especially when dealing with such unspecific lyrics. But here are applicable verses that you may not have considered:
But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an ungifted man enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all; the secrets of his heart are disclosed; and so he will fall on his face and worship God, declaring that God is certainly among you. 1 Cor. 14:24, 25
One of the primary contexts of 1 Cor. 12-14 is dealing with the charismata and for the sake of this discussion I will not debate continuationism/cessationism. Another primary principle of these chapters is corporate edification. There is a third element and it is brought to a focus in the aforementioned verses and it is the way a church ministers to the unconverted in a church service (contrary to the seeker-friendly model). My points will be:
A Biblical Congregation Can Be A Prophesying Congregation. (Stay with me on this one!)
The Way A Congregation Worships Is Not For The (Initial) Participation Of Unbelivers.
The Way A Congregation Worships Should Convict Unbelievers.
I will unpack each of these points (and any other points that I further discover) in my concurrent blog entries. Stay tuned! (Looks like this is turning into a series!)
Interesting background on that song. I've heard other songs that I've thought "Gee, point that 'you' in the right direction and it could be a worship song." Didn't realize that was actually the case with that one.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to your points.
Doug