Voices in my Head (the Rick Lee James Podcast) Episode 633: Sturdy Worship Music

I’ve been struggling to put into words why so much of the worship music I’ve encountered in the church, especially over the last couple of decades, leaves me unsatisfied. I think this is why.

I spend my days with dying patients, grieving families, people battling addiction, loneliness, and unanswered prayers. Could the songs we sing in our worship gatherings bear the weight of those realities?

Many of our songs revolve around repetitive calls to praise and focus heavily on the worshipper’s actions: I sing, I praise, I shout, I declare, I come out of the grave, I dance, I get wild, etc…

My concern isn’t that these songs call us to worship. Scripture certainly does that. But too many of our songs seem to have very little to say beyond that call.

To be fair, there are exceptions. New works from Every Moment Holy, The Porter’s Gate, and CityAlight, among others, give voice to suffering, loss, doubt, and hope. They remind me that there are writers creating songs for people living through real life hardship. But those songs seem few and far between in the worship life of many congregations.

The Psalms, Israel’s hymn book, give us language for lament, grief, repentance, waiting, and hope. They tell the truth about life while bearing witness to God’s faithfulness. I wish more of our worship music did the same.

As a songwriter, when I write for congregations, I don’t want to write songs that simply work in a worship set. I want to write songs that can survive in hospital rooms, in the funeral parlors, in the midst of a divorce, or in the difficult transitions of life. I want to write and sing songs that mean something when the miracle doesn’t come, when suffering doesn’t go away, and when death is near.

We need more songs that are sturdy enough for real life. To paraphrase the apostle Paul, I have not already attained this, but I press on. I hope other writers and music leaders will too.

 

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“Heaven Is Full of Criminals”

 

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