In a
recent discussion on this very site some very interesting view points have started to come out. The main thread of the discussion ended up by talking about pulling our lifestyles into line with God’s kingdom – with issues like justice, what stuff we buy and our attitudes to things of the church. As the
resident worship leader (thanks for that title Rob) I thought I would have a go at delving a bit deeper into one of the aspects that was mentioned and that is the consumer fetish of modern worship.
Anon made some good points in my mind. Why does every worship leader think that they need to get recorded to feel like they have made a difference and is the effort in doing that a waste of time and money? As with all these things, i don’t see a straight yes or no answer.
First of all, lets admit we have a problem. It does seem to me that there is a seemingly huge amount of Christian musicians trying to get the limelight, trying to be the next best thing. Apparently in the US it is even more noticeable, as Christian music is a lot more popular over there than it is here in the UK. When you look at that in the cold light of day it seems as if loads of people are simply trying to make a fast buck out of worship; if they are not in it for the money, they are certainaly in it for the fame. When viewed in those terms, it can only be described as wrong.
There are however many good Christian artists who do not have this attitude. I’m quite an admirer of Matt Redman because from what I have read and heard him say and what I hear in his songs he is clearly a man who recognises that God has gifted him in writing music and seeks to use that to write songs that tell of who God is and bless His heart. Matt never set out to be someone who was famous the world over – he simply used songs to express his worship to God – which ended up being something that other people could also relate to. Now that people do know his name and do appreciate his music and the part it can play in our own personal and corporate worship, Matt seeks to resource the church with songs that are exercising his gifting.
I personally am very grateful for this – I love to worship God using song, whether that be on my own or with others and I never would have heard the songs of Matt Redman if he had never taken the trouble to record them, in the same way that I would never have read the Psalms of David if they were not ‘recorded’ in the bible. And so, looking at things in this light it is a good thing that he and similar artists take the time to record their music and earn money from it – just as it good for a book author or a journalist to get paid for using their creative giftings to bless others.
There are some concerns here though. Music is an extremely powerful God created gift; it can provoke memories, stir up emotion and can also act negatively against us. It is something that can be done by one person or by a group and is usually something that is enjoyed 
. I don’t know about you but I find it easier to remember exact song lyrics than I do passages of scripture. It is even easier to simply sing a song and not fully understand what it means or what we are singing (this was touched on in an earlier post). It has been said that the song writers of this age teach us more about biblical theology than the preachers and teachers (perhaps for the reason that it is easier to remember) and if there are even a handful of Christian artists who fall into the category of wanting fame for themselves rather than fame for God then this is extremely worrying. We need to be testing everything we sing and everything we read – because if we don’t then the ‘babies’ in our churches may grow up with some blatent untruths as the basis for their faith.
The other worrying thing here is the idea of ‘consumer’ worship. In the western world we are so used to having everything on tap – and so why shouldn’t we expect good worship when we turn up at church on a Sunday? The very reason is that worship was never meant to be like that. Worship is life, life is worship – it’s as simple as that. Corporate worship in our church meetings is primarily there to give glory to God and we do it altogether to build and encourage one another. We don’t do it just because if we don’t have some music then it doesn’t work or mean anything. The songs are their to aid us but I don’t believe that God simply wants to hear us repeat the words of someone else as we worship him, he wants to hear our hearts. Sometimes our hearts can be expressed through others songs, sometimes they do not. The ‘consumer’ worshipper says that when the song doesn’t say it, “ah well, I’ll wait for the next song” – when in fact the true worshipper simply carries on worshipping in whatever way they know how – because that is the only important thing here.
But note this is just talking about corporate worship – worship is life and when we meet together to sing worship to God it should come from the overflow of our worship to God that has been going on during the week. Louie Giglio once said that “We need to stop singing the songs, until we start living the life.” Amen to that.
Blymey, this is turning into a long post so I’ll end briefly. I just wanted to comment on my own personal viewpoint. As many of you know I have recorded some worship CD’s – they took a great deal of effort and while I see my failings and areas to improve upon, I am pleased with them – they are parts of me and my walk with God etched in 0′s and 1′s. The reasons I recorded them are in a post I did when I finally finished it but to summarise it was to try and get some music that talks about God’s love into the homes and lives of the people that live around me and our church. It is a deprived area and so we give them away for free. Why did I have to go to so much trouble to record them? Unfortunately it is because that if they were not of a high enough standard of quality they could not be taken seriously. As it happens, people see the CD and it looks genuine and as such it gives it credibility – bridging the first barrier that some people might have about listening to ‘church music’ (quite what they think when they listen to it is another matter 
). I have not knowingly given it to any record companies or managers (nor do I intend to) and so far I have probably actually sold only about 200 (with about 500 given away) – so that hardly makes it multi-platinum. In the worlds eyes, a failure – but who cares? I didn’t do it to impress the world, I did it to use a gift God has given me to bless a specific group of people.
Anon, I hope this has sought to expand on some of the ideas we touched on in the earlier post and I welcome any comments and thoughts any of you may have.
