How Does Our Worship Music Measure Up

In our Connections worship at First Baptist, we hope the music we share helps us focus our attention on who God is in our lives and how much we need him. In addition to modern worship songs, we include classic hymns as a way to connect with the strong traditions found in worshiping communities all over the world. An article by Matt Odmark (Jars of Clay band member) in CCM Magazine brings perspective to the use of hymns in modern Christian music.

Excerpt from May 2005 "Hymns" issue of CCM magazine:

" " One reason I feel really connected to hymns is that I feel hymns are written for people, basically good people, that need a way to express how much they love God. That's me, people who have limped into church, knowing they really don't deserve much from God. Hymns are written to those kind of people."

It is this phrase "basically good people" that I have found myself wrestling with. You see, I have found that hymns are a particular grace to people who don't feel all that "good." Instead, they meet us in that crucial moment when we first enter church and are reminded we have not been who we had hoped to be throughout the week. "I was not near as faithful, patient, kind, or compassionate as I wanted to be and knew that I should have been." The best hymns confront this need head on, and not only express how great our need is, but what a great Savior we have for our need.

We are at a crucial moment in western church history, and we need more art and music that meets us in this way. Most of our modern "Christian" music assumes too much. We are anything but a group of "basically good people" who just need a new and interesting way to express how great we think God is. We are broken and rebellious people who most often can't hear or see God, much less want to be changed by Him.

Shouldn't the art whose primary purpose is to draw us into worship start here? In fact, if we really begin to unpack much of what Jesus said in his parables and preaching, isn't it this feeling of basic "goodness" that is most often the primary barrier to true spirituality? As American Christians, this should profoundly trouble us and reveal that we must cling to the mercy of God perhaps more than other Christ-followers in the world.

Hidden in this truth is a clue as to why I feel the church right now is hungry for hymns. There is a unique and transcendent beauty in a worship that has its roots connected to the ongoing and ever present work of Christ in the world, yet gives us wings to envision a future even more perfectly shaped into the kingdom that Jesus himself promised would come. When our churches can begin to sow this reality into our hearts, whether it is through teaching, preaching, painting, or song, then it is my belief that we will all taste afresh the freedom that truly makes us free. "