As a worship leader and Christian
song writer, Christian music is something I listen to, think about, write, and
play a lot. And I want to say first off,
I love it. The fact that God gives us
the gift of music which is not necessary to our survival, but adds enjoyment
and beauty, is something I appreciate deeply.
Within the Church, it’s one of the most emotionally loaded topics in
common Christian discussions, in my experience.
Music in general is close to our hearts as a culture. So, I wanted to talk about some of the
dangers that we need to be aware of as Christians who listen to Christian
music, whether sporadically or exclusively. There are two dangers, to be exact,
that I would like to talk about.
Danger#1:
Assuming Truth
The
first and I’d say most dangerous aspect of Christian music is that we don’t
typically listen with a discerning ear. Music
has a way of sneaking past any safe guards we may have . We can easily assume that because the artist
is Christian, the song is on Christian radio, or because we sing it in church,
that it’s true. However, from listening
to countless hours of Christian music, let me tell you that unfortunately
that’s not always the case. The tricky
part is that every Christian song that we've probably ever heard sounds very “Christian”. A song may use familiar words or phrases that
we've heard in church or even read in the Bible, but that does not make it
inherently biblical.
We
are typically familiar with the concept of biblical discernment with how we
process preaching. We are taught to
emulate the example of the Bereans in Acts 17:11 who were “examining the
scriptures daily to see if these things were so”. So as Paul was preaching to them, they were
testing everything He said against the scriptures. We may do that as we listen to preaching, but
it’s not as common for that kind of filtering to be applied to Christian music.
But,
why should we exercise the same kind of discernment with Christian music that
we do with preaching? Because probably every single one of us who have any
background in the church, have memorized more songs than scriptures. Why? Because for reasons that I cannot really
explain, music is a very effective teaching medium. That’s why we teach children the ABC’s as a
song, and they never forget it. That’s
why to this day I still remember all the multiples of 3, how conjunctions work
and the process of a political bill becoming a law - thanks to School House Rock. So, whether we realize it or not, we are
being theologically and doctrinally educated through the songs we listen
to. The lyrics with the melody tattoo
truths onto our minds and hearts. So we
need to make sure that the “truth” of the song lines up with the truth of the
Bible.
Now
this requires us to know our Bibles. We
have to know the truth so that we can discern what is true and worship in truth
(John 4:23-24). And although the music
we listen to as Christians may not be on our radar as one of the major ways we
learn theology, we have to understand, it is.
With every song we memorize, we are learning a proposed “truth”, but it
may or may not be biblical. We may be
filling our minds with false teaching put to music, making it more likely to be
stuck in our heads until it misleads our hearts.
Danger#2:
Worship Confusion
The
other potentially dangerous thing that I’ve come in contact with as a worship
leader is the confusion about what can/should be categorized as worship
songs. Now if we define worship as “the
acknowledgment of worth”, as most dictionaries and google do based on the Latin
origin of the word, then a worship song should be one that leads us to
acknowledge the worth of God. How can a
song do that? Well, the most effective
way is for it to present the worth of
God. Every song paints a picture or
tells a story. When it comes to worship
songs they paint a picture of God. This
is also why the first danger we discussed is important: because if a song is
painting a different picture than the Bible does, we have a problem. But, with that being said, a worship song is
one that should proclaim who God is and what He has done, giving us the
opportunity to acknowledge His worth.
I've listened to a lot of “worship music”, been to many worship concerts and
conferences for worship leaders; even there, it seems that there is some
confusion about what our musical worship is supposed to accomplish. I was at one worship conference where the
entire song set was composed of songs whose primary focus was on who we
are. Here me out: Understanding that our
identity is in Christ is a good thing, but worship is not about our worth. It is about His.
Even
in the midst of songs like this, we can worship God, but we have to take
matters into our own hands. To lead our
hearts to consider such truths as “who are we that you are mindful of us” and
to pray things like “God thank you that because you are a loving Father you
have adopted me as a son, I want to praise you for the work you have done in
giving me this gift that I do not deserve” are just two examples that come to
mind when I find myself being led to
focus on my worth in Christ rather than the worth of Christ Himself.
I
am not saying that these songs are evil or should never be listened to. I think they help us to learn and find a
solid sense of our identity in Christ in order to combat the lies our flesh and
the Devil teach us. However, we are not worshiping God if we remain the
focal point. They are songs of
encouragement, proclaiming biblical truths that we need to take hold of as
followers of Christ, but the worth of God in those songs is not the primary
focus, and in worship it MUST be.
Also,
if we find ourselves in the midst of identity crisis, tragedy, trial etc. the
best course of action is not for us to try and boost our self-esteem using the
truths of the Bible to re-kindle a sense of self-worth or self-belief. There’s a fine line there between clinging to
our Gospel identity and worshiping ourselves, one that I personally try to
steer clear of for the sake of my own heart which I know easily falls into
selfishness and pride. The words of a
pretty well-known hymn say it better than I can: “turn your eyes upon
Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face
and the things of earth (our troubles,
fears, insecurities, struggles, etc.) will grow strangely dim in the light
of His glory and grace.” The most
effective approach for us to remedy the afflictions we are faced with is not to
focus on ourselves or even try to focus on the problem; it’s to focus on
Jesus. And what I can say from personal
experience and observation is that when we focus on Jesus or the Father, or the
Holy Spirt (preferably all three), then our problems get put in right
perspective, and things end up falling into place.
You may have realized that the
danger is not so much in the music itself as it is in how we process or use
it. The truth is that we are responsible
for guarding our hearts against these dangers to make sure we are not being led
into confusions or distortions of how God has called us to use music and
participate in it. So, as fellow
worshipers of God, I prayerfully urge you to be aware of the dangers of
Christian music. Don’t abandon it or run
from it; that’s not what I’m trying to say.
My hope is that we would embrace the beautiful gift God has given us in
music that expresses the truth, but simultaneously be watchful because we can
so subtly and sweetly be led astray.
