The Narrative Is Gone
When I sing hymns like the one I posted yesterday, my heart comes alive. It tells a tale, a glorious account of death and renewal, betrayal and redemption, and mystery and revelation. It takes me on a journey, illuminating a path that has been traveled many times before and opening my eyes to a story that can deeply impact me.
When I sing modern choruses, however, I have a very different experience. Just check out this one, which often shares the same title, “Amazing Love”:
You Are My King
by Billy James FooteI’m forgiven because You were forsaken.
I’m accepted, You were condemned.
I’m alive and well, Your spirit is within me,
because You died and rose again.Amazing love, how can it be
that You, my King, would die for me?
Amazing love, I know it’s true.
It’s my joy to honor You.
In all I do, I honor You.You are my King.
I mean … it’s good, don’t get me wrong … but it’s also quite flat. The words speak Truth, but it’s impossible to tell where it’s coming from or where it’s going. The song conveys emotions but fails to connect them with a context. And the repetition that is required to sing these choruses often numbs me, turning off my mind and putting me into cruise control.
What’s missing, I think, is narrative. This communication tool, perhaps the most powerful and effective in our toolbox, is too often forgotten and ignored. We’ve lost the ability to tell a tale as we worship … and in the process, I think, we’ve crippled our own ability to intertwine our story with His.
So … how do we get the narrative back?
July 6th, 2008 at 8:46 pm EST
Hmm, we were just talking about this over lunch. I mean, about hymns vs. modern praise choruses. And today’s sermon also had to do with storytelling a bit: the pastor was talking about Eph. 2:1-10, and challenged the congregation to share their testimonies. Can’t say we went and did that over lunch, (though we talked about it,) but hearing people’s stories is definitely one of my favorite things. There’s just no arguing with changed lives. Regarding how to get that element back into our worship songs, I don’t know… Maybe try writing your own!
July 6th, 2008 at 9:09 pm EST
I also miss four-part harmony. True four-part harmony, in the right key.
July 6th, 2008 at 11:01 pm EST
Four-part harmony? You legalist, you! Four-part harmony requires discipline, and discipline requires rules, and that is SO old-fashioned and anti-Christian from a modern perspective. What? You don’t appreciate mindless repetition set to a Beach Boys tune? You have been seduced by traditionalism, Mr.Webel. Next you will be asking for classical guitar instead of somebody just strumming the few chords they know. Then you will admit a fondness for a cappella music, and will have to be excommunicated. You should get off your high horse and hold the bucket that the REALLY spiritual folks need to carry their tunes in.
Jesus loves me, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Sing it, people.
Ouch. Bit my tongue off.
July 7th, 2008 at 12:38 am EST
Haha … Willy, it’s good to have you around.
July 7th, 2008 at 8:25 am EST
I think we should go back to segregated seating and a uniform of black pants, white shirt, and dark tie for the boys and babushkas and toenail length Holly-Hobbie dresses for the ladies. Then all the worldly temptations of Mr. Webel (and others like him) could be squelched during the singing so he could concentrate on correctly harmonizing in four parts.
July 7th, 2008 at 8:31 am EST
Or we could just learn some better songs.
July 7th, 2008 at 8:59 am EST
The campus ministry I was involved with in college definitely stayed away from the “one word, two notes, three hours” kind of praise chorus. We sang a lot of hymns with new melodies (and some with the traditional melodies, too). The site below has lots of examples - audio and visual - of the songs that we sang in my campus ministry.
http://www.igracemusic.com/hymnbook/home.html
July 7th, 2008 at 9:04 am EST
By the way, I typed this post while sitting in a church service (believe it or not, it helps me focus). Ironically, we ended up singing the song I quoted, and one of the pastor’s main points ended up being that we need more narrative in the church.
Kinda spooky.
July 7th, 2008 at 3:58 pm EST
oh i could go on for hours about this.
i heart lots of hymns. and i didn’t really grow up knowing many, so it’s not like i’m hearkening back to the days of yore… i just like songs that aren’t about ME all the time.
July 7th, 2008 at 9:58 pm EST
or about how we long to FEEL some gushy warm FEELING in our bellies or to be DRAWN CLOSE and HELD TIGHT.
July 7th, 2008 at 10:07 pm EST
There’s definitely a lot more “truth” in a lot of the older hymns, which I feel the newer praise choruses often lack. And I’m a big fan of the beautiful harmonies… Still, when I used to sing a lot of those hymns in the traditional church I grew up in, I usually didn’t pay much attention to the depth of the words I was singing, often because I was concentrating on the harmony parts. Maybe that’s my own problem, but for me, having a simpler chorus sometimes helps me focus more on who I’m worshipping and just dwell in His presence. But then again, beautiful harmonies also help me to marvel at the awesomeness that is my God, the Creator of the music I so adore. Hmm… Guess it’s a matter of balance between worshiping in spirit and in truth, and loving God with both our hearts and minds.
July 8th, 2008 at 10:13 am EST
Personally I don’t think worship has much to do with singing at all.
July 8th, 2008 at 12:21 pm EST
I’m really, really hoping that this is not because of the fact that I was singing on Sunday!
July 8th, 2008 at 1:13 pm EST
Haha … no, Lindsey, I wasn’t at Four Corners, I was here. I definitely think that our music at 4C is leaps-and-bounds beyond that of many other churches, especially musically. But I still think we could be a lot more conscious about the use of narrative (lyrics, scripture readings, testimonies) in our corporate worship.
And Steve … maybe worship doesn’t have much to do with singing, but I think that singing should have a lot to do with worship, especially at church!
July 8th, 2008 at 9:39 pm EST
I agree completely Lance.
July 16th, 2008 at 8:24 pm EST
How do we get the narrative back? Sing more hymns! (and per Ronda, sing every verse)
I personally like a combination of good old hymns and newer stuff. I also love it that our kids sing hymns (and other types of music, too) in their Sunday School classes.
July 17th, 2008 at 4:30 am EST
Some of the old hymns are so “old” that people today don’t understand the jargon being used. IMO, that is equally bad as singing the same line over and over a billion times, because it still has no meaning to the singer.
I still think the answer has NOTHING to do with the song / hymn / style.
Worship is how we live our lives 24/7, the choices we make to be obedient or not, the love we choose to show to the ‘unlovable’ or not, the Good News we share with those who need it or that we don’t share. That is worship.
The song(s) we sing for 20 minutes on Sunday morning are not going to change the position of our hearts from anything other than what they were for the other 167.5 hours of the week. …well, if it does, than it’s shallow at best. IMO
July 17th, 2008 at 7:32 am EST
I agree in part. Coming together with the family of God does strengthen my faith, and singing great songs or hymns which tell the Gospel encourage me greatly. Corporate worship is a very important aspect of what the Bible teaches, and singing great hymns of the faith propels us towards God and towards other believers as we live in community together.
Our church uses a great combination of musical styles, with an emphasis upon worshipping from the heart, not just on Sundays, but as a lifestyle through the week. Our kids learn great hymns in their Sunday school classes along with other fun worship songs.
The only thing that changes the position of our hearts is the Spirit of God! He can use a great hymn to to do that! (or a fellow believer, a scripture verse, etc.)
July 17th, 2008 at 8:44 am EST
Or a BANJO-man. (If you go to our church.)
July 20th, 2008 at 6:08 am EST
I routinely stop singing mid-verse when I encounter a song that talks about my wanting to “touch” Jesus etc. etc. It’s me me meeeeee half the time in many newer songs - I’m going to do this, I feel that… I like many newer songs, but depth and some sense of Biblical correctness should, IMO, be benchmarks!
July 20th, 2008 at 10:03 am EST
I listen exclusively to christian music… that’s not too common for a 14yo… anyway, i have lost almost all interest in CCM because the music is cookie-cutter, and the lyrics all sound the same, the vocals are almost all copying off each other, and most of the time, all the new “singles” sound the same as mainstream music (…coldplay)
I listen to bands such as Delirious? and Audio Adrenaline (the singer for which sounds regrettably like rod stewart) who are borderline ccm because of their originality, but for the most part, i feed off of alt/metal music. P.O.D. www.payableondeath.com, is one of my favorite band because of their ability to have heavenward lyrics in a real way.
Hymns are great too, although i don’t have any on my worn out iPod, i love singing them on sundays (especially when i know the words and tune) because they give a break to the lame and overused praise choruses that are repeated over and over….
