Honesty in Church

Recently, I have been having some conversations over email with a friend and fellow worship leader about what congregational singing should look like. Here are some thoughts that have come out of that discussion.

Is there a place for acknowledging pain, sorry, doubt, etc in congregational worship or should this time be restricted to celebration and thanksgiving?

I feel like these two areas need not be at opposite ends of the spectrum. What I mean is, we should be completely honest to God and to others about our situations and feelings, but then we should also allow the reality of God and what he's done (and is still doing) to determine how we respond to our situations and feelings. Personally, I want songs that allow me to express myself with brutal honesty while also consistently leading me to Jesus, encouraging me to see my situation in light of the gospel. I think many contemporary worship songs do a very poor job identifying with the human condition and quickly jump to "happy-go-lucky, everything's fine cause God loves me." Mark Driscoll calls them "prom songs for Jesus."

Casting Crowns sing a song called "Stained Glass Masquerade."  It talks about how many of us in church put up fronts to make it seem like we've got it all together. We "put on painted grins" and "play the part again." I think a great way to fight against this temptation is to corporately sing scathingly honest songs about the human condition and our great need for Jesus.

A big reason I feel this way is that I firmly believe that to the degree we recognize the depth of our sin, brokenness, and need, we also recognize the greatness of God's love, mercy, and satisfaction. Tim Keller puts it like this, "We are more wicked than we ever dared believe, but more loved and accepted in Christ than we ever dared hope – at the very same time."

I think that it's possible to make too light of our sin and think that we need only focus on the positive aspects of God's love and mercy. I believe that this is what many contemporary worship songs do and I think we are missing out on a lot if the songs we are giving our congregations are a steady diet of this.

I had a conversation with a guy recently about this. I did a song for special music at church that spoke about our "crooked" nature. This man didn't think this song was appropriate for church. He didn't think it was a worship song. Now, I certainly don't think we should sing a whole set of songs that turn our focus inward and focus only on the negative aspects of our sin and need. But I told this man that in my observation most of our worship songs are on the far other end of the spectrum and quickly skate past sin and brokenness and jump right to God's goodness and love. But we can't fully grasp God's goodness and love unless we first grasp our desperate need. They have to go together. I don't think we should dwell on our sin just for the sake of dwelling on our sin. The purpose is to get us to see God's love and glory in all its fullness.

One last thought. Many rock and country songs do a wonderful job probing the depths of the human condition and speaking honestly about it. This is a big reason we find these songs attractive. We can relate to "I had a bad day." Where these songs fail is offering the true hope of Jesus. If the people in our churches are finding something that relates to them in these songs on the radio, shouldn't our church songs do at least equally well in speaking to the human condition? And having done that, to then lead them to see Jesus and how he helps them right where they are?

Functional gods

Tim Keller and many others are fond of saying, "Everybody worships."  The question is not "Do you worship?" but "What or who do you worship?"  It's not only religious people who worship.  We are all worshipers by nature.  We all will give our devotion, time, money and allegiance to something or someone-money, popularity, respect, image, possessions, comfort, business, sex, family, spouse, buying things, the weekend, vacation, work, children...the list could go on.  To what do you give most of your time, thoughts and money?  What do you value the most?  What, if you lost it, would devastate you.  Not just disappoint you, but make you lose all hope in life? 

I think it's true to say, as many have said, that whatever it is that we answer those questions with exists as a functional god in our lives.  It occupies a place in our lives that God alone is meant to occupy.  Jesus said, "Love the Lord you God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind" (Mt. 22:37).  What do we love with everything that is inside of us.  What do we delight in and enjoy more than anything else?  It is either God or a functional god. 

I like to use the analogy of the children's game King of the Hill.  In a way, life is a continual battle to keep God on the top of the hill of our lives.  Many other things are constantly vying for the throne of our lives and devotion; we are constantly allowing God to be pushed off the throne and giving our affection to other things.  But God alone deserves to be the King.  We were made to worship Him alone and will find our greatest joy in worshiping him alone. 

We all have our functional gods that seek to push God off his rightful throne.  The good news is that Jesus died for idol worshipers like you and I.  He died to free us from our self-imposed slavery to our idols and draw us to himself.   He died to free us from our devotion to things that lead to death (even good things that become ultimate things) and call us into devotion to the one thing that leads to life-Himself.  It's God's mercy, patience and kindness that lead us to repent of our idol worship and turn to Jesus as Lord (most valued) and Savior (most needed).

For further reading on this subject, see Tim Keller's book "Counterfeit Gods."