If we only had a song about…
I was recently asked the question below by a group of songwriters in England. Perhaps it would be helpful for others?
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If Only We Had a Song About …
Dear Songwriters –
As a pastor, author, speaker, and stumbling, bumbling Christian, I am so grateful for people like you who write songs. Your work influences people in their relationship with God at least as much, I think, as sermons do. Probably more!
Of course, like sermons, our songs can influence people for better or worse. It seems to me we suffer from a consumerism in the “worship industry” (what a horrible term): people want us to deliver a certain feeling, and they often want certain clichés to massage them – not into alertness, but into a kind of somnolent passivity where they feel good again after a hard week. (I talk about this a bit more in a book I wrote with Tony Campolo, called “Adventures in Missing the Point.”)
Perhaps some of our problem is with the terms ‘worship songs” or “worship music” themselves. In Colossians 3, Paul talks about the value of singing to “teach and admonish one another.” Songs are there connected with letting Jesus’ own words live in our hearts. Perhaps we have become so fixated on overt worship that we’ve forgotten how to sing for other purposes – such as to teach and challenge one another with the word of Christ?
So, if only we had more songs that took the teachings of Jesus and set them to music that stayed in our hearts.
For example, we have a thousand songs about loving God, but how many songs do we have about loving our neighbors?
We have a thousand songs about God blessing us, but how many of our songs plead with God to bless the poor, the oppressed, the war-torn, the unloved? When we do have songs like this, they tend to use language like “the lost” and “the nations” which, I think, tend to create a kind of superiority in “us” versus “them” – the very opposite of what we need or (I hope) intend. Peter’s words in Acts 10:28, 34 tell us to be careful about our language. It’s easy for religious language – like racial language – to become polluted so that it is no longer gentle and respectful – as Peter also reminds us in I Peter 3:16.
Sometimes I think we’d be wise to have a moratorium on all Biblical language (enter his courts, praise his name, Zion, etc., etc.) – not so that we would become less Biblical, but so that we would be challenged to really think about what we’re saying instead of creating cliché trains of Biblical phrases that numb us like muzak or occupy us without nourishing us, like chewing gum. If we couldn’t use these shortcuts, how would we find ways to talk about God’s goodness, and especially God’s goodness in relation to people we consider “outsiders?” This whole area seems to me a subject so central to Jesus’ life and teaching that I often fear we have become a religion of the Pharisees and ceased to be followers of Jesus in deed (though we certainly say the “right” words a lot). Sorry, I’m ranting.
Anyway, songs that inspire us to see our neighbors with Christ-like eyes would be so helpful, so needed. Exerting ourselves in this direction will put us in touch with the whole prophetic thread of the Bible that is nearly always in dynamic tension with the priestly thread. While the priests exhort us to glorify the Lord (rightly, as they must), the prophets warn us that if we become so preoccupied with worship and piety that we forget about justice and compassion, God gets sick of our singing and sacrifices of praise.
I’m sure you’re already thinking about other areas – our need for songs of lament, songs of confession, songs which acknowledge how bad life feels at times, songs which acknowledge our doubt and failure as well as our faith and joy, songs which groan and moan as well as clap and dance. This may sound like “bad news” at first glance, but for strugglers (who isn’t?), it is so affirming and healing to have our “dark side” brought into the light, not left in secret.
And you’re probably already thinking about our need for songs of hope – not just for heaven after we die, but hope for human history, for the day when bombs and guns and tanks (swords and spears) are melted down and recast as playgrounds and park benches and toys for children (plowshares and pruning hooks). Singing a song like this sounds almost unpatriotic for an American, and perhaps for a Brit as well, living as we do in countries quite proud of their military power these days. Perhaps that’s exactly why songs like this aren’t being written … but should be. These kinds of songs will be at odds with the 19th-century eschatologies that still reign in so many of our churches, but sooner or later, somebody has to rock the eschatological boat, don’t you think, and get us looking farther back and farther ahead – finding hope for history, not just beyond history?
On a related note, you’re probably also thinking about our need for songs which question our reigning systematic theologies, which always run the risk of creating conceptual idols. The psalmists, like all artists (including the prophets), and like the Lord himself, frequently use dangerous language to help us see where our systematic theologies have become walls rather than windows, where they have succeeded in removing mystery rather than conveying it – with disastrous spiritual results. This deconstruction/reconstruction calls for real skill, real talent, real sensitivity to the Spirit of God … along with some old-fashioned courage, I would think.
I also write songs and inflict them on people from time to time, occasionally with some blessing I hope. So I know how hard it is to write songs that not only bless people but stretch them, challenge them, teach and admonish them. Better days will come, I believe, when we take on these harder challenges.
Grateful for the invitation to converse with you –
Brian McLaren
0 Comments8 Minutes
This Good Earth
Brian D. McLaren
I grew up going to church, and frankly, as a boy I didn’t like it. I didn’t like getting dressed up as we had to do back in those days. I didn’t like my clip-on tie (remember those?), my stiff white shirt, the shiny black shoes that I couldn’t get dirty. I didn’t like having to sit still or be quiet or not run or listen to long sermons that almost never held my attention for even one squirmy minute. Later, in spite of my distaste for church, I did come to love God, which may be a miracle of sorts considering what young boys are put through in the name of piety.
But I do have one memory of something close to joy from my childhood in church. Two memories, actually, and they are closely related. One was singing the hymn “Fairest Lord Jesus,” and especially the lines, “Fair are the meadows, fairer still the woodlands, robed in the blooming garb of spring. Jesus is fairer, Jesus is purer, who makes the woeful heart to sing.” I wasn’t sure what a woeful heart was, although it didn’t sound good, but I was sure about meadows and woodlands because I had, from my earliest childhood, a love for the outdoors and all living things that could be found there.
The other memory is connected to another hymn, “How Great Thou Art”: “When through the woods and forest glades I wander, and hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees, when I look down from lofty mountain grandeur, and hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze….” Again, woods, forests, birds, mountains, brooks, and breezes spoke a language my boy’s heart understood, and I so remember taking a deep breath to belt out the chorus that followed this verse: Then sings my soul, my Savior, God, to Thee: How great thou art, how great thou art!”
Many of us, I think, feel that a forest is the original sanctuary, that wading in a stream is the primal baptism, that climbing a mountain is the best pilgrimage, that picking wild blackberries and drinking from a natural spring are a trans-denominational form of communion, and that listening to the song of a wood thrush or the approach of a thunderstorm is the kind of natural preaching without which no human preaching has any traction.
Years later, when to my surprise I became a pastor, I tried to bring this love of God’s wild places and living creatures more deeply into public worship. Sadly, there were too few resources available. So over the years I began writing some, including the following litany, a spoken word with a simple sung response:
We thank you Lord, for this good earth.
In the beginning, you created the heavens and the earth, and you said that all creation was filled with goodness, beginning with the goodness of light. We thank you, Lord, for sun and moon and stars, for sunrises and clear days and bright, moonlit nights. We also thank you, Lord, for the gift of night – for time to rest, to sleep, to dream. And so we sing …
We thank you Lord, for this good earth.
We thank you, Lord, for continents in their slow journeys, for mountains that rise and rains that erode them grain by grain to the sea. For prairies and rolling hills, for beaches and deserts, for woodlands and glaciers, for rainforests and tundra, we thank you, for all are filled with goodness. And we thank you, Lord, for springs and streams, for marshes and estuaries, for rivers and bays, for seas and the great oceans. For the precious gifts of soil and water and air, without which we could not live, we thank you, Lord. And so we sing …
We thank you Lord, for this good earth.
We thank you for the wonder of life, Lord, for the grandeur hidden in a single living cell, for the marvel of DNA, for the amazing processes of respiration, digestion, reproduction, growth, and adaptation. How amazing are your creatures, Lord – the field mouse that hides in tall grasses, the gray whale that rises in the ocean, the swallows that soar and dive above the surface of a still pond, the tiny red eft that lives so quietly in the forest, the salmon that fight currents to return to the stream of its origin, the gorillas and elephants and giraffes, the butterflies and dragonflies and ants, for beloved dogs and cats and other creatures who become part of our lives. We thank you for these companions, and so we sing …
We thank you Lord, for this good earth.
But Lord, we cannot only thank you. We must also confess to you our sin in failing to honor and care for your beautiful and good creation. How many precious and irreplaceable species have gone extinct because of our greedy rush to make money, our ignorant slowness to understand the intricate balance of your works, our prideful and careless desire to act, not as stewards of your world, but as its heartless slavemasters and selfish tyrants. Air, soil, and water show ugly symptoms of our own inner pollution; they suffer because of the greed, arrogance, lust, ignorance, and hate that pollute our hearts and cultures. We are sorry, Creator, for our offenses to your creation, and we wish to stop polluting, defacing, and destroying your world; instead, we wish to care for, protect, love, preserve, and appreciate your beautiful and manifold works, and so we sing …
We thank you Lord, for this good earth.
We thank you, God, for speaking to our world through Jesus. He told us that just as you care for every sparrow, you care for us. He reminded us that you give the wildflowers their natural beauty, and you wish to clothe us with beauty in a similar way. He taught us that wisdom is hidden in the growth of the smallest seed, in the turning of seasons, in every corner of your amazing creation. He taught us to see every creature as beloved by you, God our Father, and he called us to live with your love pulsing in our hearts. So let us learn to see and love this good earth as Jesus did, and to care for it, and enjoy it, and rejoice in it, so the earth may indeed be full of the glory of the Lord as the water covers the sea. And so we sing …
We thank you Lord, for this good earth.
And we sing again …
We thank you Lord, for this good earth.
And we sing again.
We thank you Lord, for this good earth.
Amen.
During my twenty-four years as a pastor, I must confess, I grew to love being in church. I loved what happened when people gathered and slowed down together, opening their hearts to who and what matter most. I loved the hush of the eucharist, the mystery of prayer, the celebration of gratitude, the transparency of the confession of sin, the daring hope of the creeds, the momentous possibility of the benediction. Given the choice, I would hate to have to choose between a gathered community of people with sincere faith and a quiet walk “through the woods and forest glades.” In the end, I think each enriches the other. And at best, walking through the “fair meadows” and “fairer still woodlands” is an experience of prayer, just as gathering with the community of faith involves recalling and celebrating the beauty of God’s world. I’m glad we don’t have to choose either, but can joyfully receive both.
0 Comments10 Minutes
Ten Commandments for Welcoming a New Pastor
I. Thou shalt not compare the old Pastor and the new Pastor, for the Lord thy God has made each person unique and wishes you to appreciate each original creation.
II. Thou shalt not expect everything to stay the same when the new Pastor arrives. Nor shalt thou resist change, nor assume that change is bad, but thou shalt trust that the Lord thy God isn’t finished with your church yet and is bringing change for your good and the good of your mission.
III. Thou shalt not make graven images of thine old grudges, nor shalt thou keep stale disappointments in the temple of thine heart, but thou shalt forgive and move on in the grace of the Lord thy God, for how can thou ask God for mercy unless thou give mercy from thine heart?
IV. Thou shalt not commit gossip, nor shalt thou fearfully complain, nor shalt thou listen to those who do, but instead thou shalt entreat them to adjust their attitudes and lighten up, for everything shall be alright, and in fact, shall turn out very well indeed – better than you can even imagine.
V. Thou shalt not commit nostalgia or say that the old days were better, for in so doing thou shalt make thy judgment come true. Be assured that the Lord thy God is not falling asleep at the wheel, but will be with thee and surprise thee with abundant blessings, more than thou canst contain or count.
VI. Thou shalt not factionalize nor create “us-them” divisions, but thou shalt unify with thy brothers and sisters even when they annoy or confuse you.
VII. Thou shalt not come to the new pastor with your demands, pressure, complaints, bad reports, manipulations, threats, agendas, unsolicited advice, or snide comments. But thou shalt say, “Welcome! How can we help you? We love you! We would like to increase our giving significantly. We’re praying for you and your family. Welcome to our community! We baked you some cookies!” And each week, thou shalt do so again and again until the new pastor begs you to stop.
VIII. Thou shalt increase thy giving, and not withhold thy tithe, but invest thy money and thine heart in the future of thy community of faith and mission.
IX. Thou shalt not come to thine old and former pastor with anything but praise for the new pastor, but thou mayest bring thy concerns to God in humble prayer, and if thou must, thou may also share concerns with the duly appointed leaders of the church.
X. Most important, thou shalt trust God, and stay connected to God, and draw strength from God, staying deeply rooted in the message of God’s grace. For God is good, and God will never leave you nor forsake you. You can count on that for sure!
0 Comments4 Minutes
Confession of Faith 2
We believe in God the Father
Who created all that is
And gave our ancestors the dignity of freedom,
Which we abused and are abusing still.
God grieves over our evil
And calls us to his better way.
God loves the whole world,
And sent His Son, Jesus, to save, not to condemn.
We believe in Jesus Christ,
Born as God-with-us,
Who taught us in parables, who performed signs and wonders,
Who healed the sick, touched the unclean,
Received failures and welcomed them to his feast.
He trained common people as disciples and sent them into the world with his saving love.
He was betrayed, rejected, mocked, tortured, and crucified.
But he rose from death and is alive and with us always,
And lives in us, the hope of glory,
Indwelling and filling us through the Holy Spirit.
We believe in the Holy Spirit
Who unites us and gives us gifts so we can serve one another in love.
The Spirit transforms us to live in the way of Christ
And empowers us to make Christ known in gracious words and deeds of justice and compassion.
The Spirit bears fruit in us of love, joy, peace, and all sorts of goodness
And is at work in the world, moving like the wind.
The Holy Spirit invites us into the eternal dance of love:
Father, Son, and Spirit, mutually indwelling,
Moving for, with, in, and through creation,
Forever and forever.
Amen.
0 Comments2 Minutes
A Confession of Faith
We believe that God the Father,
Good Creator and giver of life,
Calls us to love all creation
And care for it as respectful stewards,
To do justice, to love mercy,
And to walk humbly with God.
We believe that Jesus Christ,
Sent from God to save and lead us,
Teaches us to love God with heart, soul, mind, and strength
And to love our neighbors as ourselves,
So we see God in the poor, oppressed, condemned, and forgotten,
And embrace all people with God’s true compassion.
We believe that the Holy Spirit
Unites us in God’s eternal dance of love,
Empowers us diversely to serve and love,
Expresses through us the fruits of love,
And fills us to overflow with grace, truth, beauty, and life
As God’s agents in this world.
0 Comments1 Minutes