The Christian Imagination

As I was preparing for Bible study tonight, I decided to get out my guitar and find some songs about community and loving each other. I have about 200 songs in my worship folder (choruses and camp songs mostly). Of those, only 1 song, Bind Us Together, was clearly about loving my neighbor. Two other songs, One Tin Soldier and Love the Lord mentioned it. That’s 3 out of 200. I then looked in my CCM binder, and while the ratio was better, it wasn’t that much better.

I’m reminded of a concert I attended by a Christian musician named Wayne Watson several years back. After he performed a love song he wrote for his wife, he told a story. At the end of a concert, he was approached by a gentleman. The guy said, “That one song, it sounded like a love song.” Wayne nodded yes. The guy then asked, in a low, firm voice, “What’s that have to do with God?” Wayne answered, “Everything.”

I briefly contemplated singing some mainstream (otherwise known as secular, but I hate the term) songs for worship, so we could sing about loving each other. Can loving my neighbor be an act of worship? Isn’t loving my neighbor one of the essentially ways I show love for God? How many non-Christians write songs about loving another person? How many Christians write songs about loving other people? And when I say that, I’m including songs of romance, but not limiting it that kind of love.

I briefly contemplated singing Hold my Hand by Hootie and the Blowfish as worship. Not to be relevant, but because I recall many years ago singing it at camp with a group of friends. And as I’m thinking about it tonight, it just strikes me as odd that we, as Christians, seem so uncomfortable with the idea of songs about loving each other. We seem more comfortable with the Song of Solomon as allegory. Somehow the idea of a guy speaking loving words about his wife, publicly, sensually, is just too much for us as Christians to accept. Or maybe I’m misreading the Song of Songs…

Did you know that ‘Christian’ music is the only modern music categorized by lyrical content rather than style? Did you know that most Christian music currently produced comes out of a business industry where most of the formerly independent Christian music companies have been acquired by large mainstream companies like Universal, Sony BMG, and others? Did you know that worship labels like Integrity Hosanna have sent cease and desist letters in the past to websites who published chords to worship songs?

Regarding the latter, they have the right, it’s copyrighted material, but it also underscores the fact it’s a business. CCM and Worship music are now on the music industry radar because they sell. In the early days of contemporary Christian music, many people, like Larry Norman, sang songs about Jesus because they wanted to, even if it meant no one listened. Soon after, many churches got on board with the idea of ‘doing something for the youth.’ Christian ‘rock’ and ‘Jesus’ music also gained favor under the notion that they were tools for evangelism. The reality is that most Christian music is consumed by Christians, and while there are certainly non-Christians who have been affected by Christian music, it is largely ineffective for evangelism.

The very nature of the industry is that it has a target market, Christians, and therefore must, as a whole, sell to that market. As such, there are certain limitations of image and content that go along with it. I once heard a Christian musician ask whether there were any unattractive musicians in the industry. Also, like the mainstream industry, it is a youth-dominated industry, mostly following trends of the mainstream industry. In terms of content, I once heard Charlie Peacock say that if he put Jesus in to song to please someone, he’s being unfaithful, and equally unfaithful if he doesn’t include Jesus to please someone. Part of the disconnect with contemporary Christian music is that it’s content is rather limited in scope, and this is partially because the Christian music industry is market-driven. That’s great for those musicians who genuinely want to write music on those themes, but it’s tragic that so many themes about life are missed in the industry as a whole. Based on that reason alone, it’s not surprising most non-Christians aren’t interested in ‘Christian’ music.

These trends have been changing the last few years because of drastic changes in music promotion and delivery because of the Internet. More musicians choose to go independent so they have more creative control of their music and careers, and that’s a good thing.

So, what is it that makes Christian music, well, Christian? Is it still Christian if the studio musicians or producer aren’t Christian? Odds are someone in the process of production, promotion, or delivery isn’t a Christian. What if a Christian sings a song written by a non-Christian? Or vice-versa? If a Christian writes songs without obvious Christian themes, is it Christian? Is there certain content that must exist for the lyrics to be Christian?

I used to think so. It was only after 4 years of going to a Christian liberal arts college that I could no longer justify, as a Christian, listening exclusively to Contemporary Christian Music or Worship music. This will be a multi-part blog post, where I’ll look at various aspects of this discussion.

1. What is music?
According to Wikipedia: Music is an art form consisting of sound and silence expressed through time. That is a rather uninspiring definition, isn’t it? Let’s begin with music though, most noteably instrumental. What makes instrumental music good or bad? Quality? Style? Creativity? Complexity? Number of instruments? The composer? The performer? The producer? The distributor? The audience?

2. What is Christian music?
That is the primary question. What is it that makes a song Christian? Are some instruments more holy? Are some styles more righteous than others? For instance, would Classical music be more Christian than Jazz music? What about quality? Does it matter? Should Christians not care about music quality? Does quality affect the listening experience? Are all people who desire to play music good at it? Is the heart of the person more important than their ability? Is it primarily evangelistic or primarily for the encouragement of Christians? If the former, how effective is it? If the latter, why is the lyrical content so limited? What lyrical content would make a song Christian? What if a non-Christian writes an honest song about Jesus? What if a Christian writes a song about a descriptive song of walking down the street that is purely descriptive with no mention or implication of anything relating to the Christian life? Is that Christian?

So, we begin with lots of questions…

In case you don’t know, my church body, Timberline Oldtown, meets in a coffee house on Sunday mornings, specifically, Everyday Joe’s Coffee House, in downtown Fort Collins, Colorado. I’m not always excited to go to church services. Sometimes I get lost in them. Sometimes I don’t feel like I can give the right answer to ‘How are you?’ Sometimes I’m anti-social. Sometimes I’m not feeling all that loving. Sometimes I miss how much God loves me. Sometimes I don’t go to worship, and the whole ordeal takes effort.

That day was not today. Today, I went to church to worship a God I love, a God who I desperately need, a God who loves me. I felt loved today. It was a delightful surprise to find out that Aaron Strumpel would be leading worship this morning! If you don’t know Aaron, he is wonderful, he is family, and if you haven’t heard his album, go to his website, and listen, and buy. At Timberline Oldtown, we used to have a worship leader. About a year ago, he left for a new adventure, and so we started having various friends of our community lead worship in the interim. We’ve been doing that for about a year now. I like it. I like the variety of music. I like seeing different people’s hearts. Today Aaron led a few of his own songs. In the next few weeks, we’ll hear a variety of choruses, maybe even some hymns. The spectrum of songs is beautiful to me. There’s something quite profound, after all, about singing a song that people have worshipped to for 500 years.

Worship, of course, is about more than music, more than singing and song. Still, singing praises to God is quite mystical when our hearts are worshipping together in community…

Here’s a clip of Aaron playing his song ‘Family’ at Everyday Joe’s a few months back: