American Idle? Where are the Manly Songs?

Is it my age (44) or has something gone awry with contemporary Christian worship? I used to love contemporary worship songs when I attended Inter-varsity Christian Fellowship in college. But even then I remember being clued into the words and what I was actually singing. There's no doubt that the advent of contemporary Christian music in worship has been spawned in the attempt to attract non-believers to attend church who would otherwise be completely turned off by stodgy old hymns. But where has this led us? Has the American church become idle in its monitoring of the actual content of our worship? Take a look at a popular worship song. Here are the lyrics:

This is the air I breathe

This is the air I breathe
Your holy presence
Living in me

This is my daily bread
This is my daily bread
Your very word
Spoken to me

And I ... I'm desperate for you
And I ... I'm lost without you

This is air I breath
This is air I breathe
Your holy presence
Living in me

This is my daily bread
This is my daily bread
Your very word
Spoken to me

And I ... I'm desperate for you
And I ... I'm lost without you (eh hey, yeah)
And I ... I'm desperate for you
And I ... I'm lost without you

And I ... I'm desperate for you
And I ... I'm lost without you
I'm lost without you
I'm lost without you
I'm lost without you (father)
I'm lost..without you

This is the air I breathe
This is the air I breathe

You can readily see numerous occurrences of personal pronouns. I count (25) occurrences of "I", "I'm", "me", and "my". I count (16) occurrences of personal pronouns for Whom I assume is either Jesus or God (this is not clearly spelled out and for all I know the lyricist could have been singing to Buddha) and this is being liberal with some of the terms used and giving the lyricist the benefit of the doubt. But aside from the tally of personal pronouns for me vs. personal pronouns for God (and the fact that the song for me is just to "gooey"), what are we actually singing about here? Yes, the song opines that we need God. But nowhere does it say why. So you are left with merely an emotional proclamation of how God makes me feel. This song is really about how the presence of God has affected someone emotionally, not theologically.

Now, I am not advocating that we resort back to hymns. But I don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater here either. The great thing about hymns is that they are packed with theology. They are the worship of God through the singing of absolute truths. Just look at songs like "Amazing Grace" or "And Can It Be That I Should Gain?", they are packed with theology and they speak of what God has done as opposed to how we feel. Our feelings are inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. I am not questioning whether or not a worship song should move us, but I am questioning what it is about that song that moves us. Are we moved because the song is melodious and wispy and zeros in on how we feel, or are we moved because we are overcome by the realities of what Christ has done for us? It's great to attract non-Christians to worship through contemporary music, but what is the goal here? Simply to get non-Christians to become Christians through emotional singing, or to bring non-Christians to faith through overwhelming truth that breeds an emotion of its own upon conversion?

I have to mention one more popular song here. And it is oddly enough called “The Heart of Worship”. Look at the first few lines:

"When the music fades
And all is stripped away
And I simply come
A Longing just to bring
Something that's of worth
That will bless Your heart"

Now this is an interesting concept (pretty existential) the idea of us being able to give God something to bless Him (truer theology is that we have nothing of merit to give Him, and that is why we need Him in us). But so far the focus is on us and not God. Not saying the song doesn’t have good intentions, but it certainly does not pass the litmus test of being “worshipful”. The next few lines:

"I'll bring you more than a song For a song in itself
Is not what you have required
You search much deeper within
Through the ways things appear
You're looking into my heart"

Again, good introspection here from the lyricist, and I’m sure this was an outpouring of real emotion into song. But it still does not qualify as worshipful. Now here is where it gets interesting:

CHORUS:
"I'm coming back to the heart of worship
And its all about You
All about You, Jesus
I'm sorry Lord for the thing I've made it
When its all about You
It's all about You"

The lyricist states that they are coming back to the heart of worship and that it should all be about God. EXACTLY, that is what worship is – completely about God and not us. Then there is the lament of making it something else. I would be very curious to know what that "something else" was although I could guess based on the fact that this is still about the lyricist and not about God. “I’m” coming back to the heart of worship (even though worship is about you). And even though you are the heart of worship, “I” am sorry for what I’ve made it. Again, great introspection and realization of what worship should be, but this song is about someone’s experience and NOT about God. I’ll stop here, but the lyrics do not get any more worshipful. And that is not a slap on the song. The song is what it is – a melodious outpouring of the lyricist’s experience, but it should not be confused with worship. But since it has the word “worship” in it, I guess we think we should sing it in church (this, and because it manufactures emotion within us). I think what bothers me most about this song is that I fully believe it was written with the full intent to be used in Sunday worship, otherwise the chorus seems contrived and doesn't fit with the previous introspection. In other words, worship is mostly used with a sense of "corporateness" whereas introspection is individual.

Where are the manly songs with bold affirmation sung loudly as opposed to the "whispery voice" meditative songs?! And where has the notion developed that true worship involves overt feelings? And where is the balance in singing about God’s holiness as well as His love? Have we abandoned the fact that the mind must also be engaged in worship? Has anyone ever thought to contemporize some of these old hymns? Let's revisit the old hymn "And Can It Be That I Should Gain?". Look at these lyrics:

"Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray—
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee."

Now that's some "manly" truth! Certainly we could "contemporize" this.

All contemporary Christian worship songs are not as lacking in theology as the ones I have mentioned here, but even the ones that contain some amount of theology still lean on manufacturing emotion or sentimentality by focusing on how the Christian feels rather than focusing on what God has done and letting these truths naturally create emotion. It could be argued that singing "Amazing Grace" to the tune of Gilligan's Island could be more biblical from a worship standpoint than singing some of our contemporary songs. This begs the question as to whether or not the emotion generated actually stems from Christian joy or from mere sentimentality. One of my favorite old TV shows was Wild, Wild West. One of the evil characters on that show "Dr. Loveless" made the statement one time that always stuck with me. He said, “Faith without doubt is mere sentimentality." And after looking at most of the contemporary Christian worship songs, I have to wonder whether or not sentimentality in our worship songs creates a false sense of salvation by having more of a foundation in emotions rather than truth. What sustains and comforts us in our times of trial - the feelings we had when we were singing in worship, or the absolute truths we were singing about and can sing about during these trials as reaffirmation?