So much worship music that is produced today contains virtually no lyrical content. Simplicity is the name of the game now, with cliched phrases like 'I live for You', 'You are my everything', 'I worship You', 'I praise You/Your Name', 'You are (my) God' cropping up constantly, multiple times in multiple songs. It is my opinion, reflecting on the history hymns and Christian music, that these frou-frou content-less worship songs will not last, and will have a legacy as long as their cd sales are maintained, and no longer.
Many worship songs now sound like they are written to provide a catchy hook-filled 3-minute piece of contemporary indie/rock music, to which the lyrics are just incidental, where the sum message of the whole song is something like 'yeah, we're all Christians and we think God is just really great'. Many Christians who have been at it longer than 5 or 10 years get very easily exasperated at worship music which is so clearly aimed at those whose level of immaturity means they can only relate to very primitive expressions of commitment. The hymns which last are those with a real and compelling message, not just 'yeah Jesus, yeah Jesus, yeah Jesus, Jesus yeah' repeated 18 times with drums and guitar riffs. Ok, I am being facetious, but you get my point.
The hymns from this generation which will last into the next, and maybe beyond, are 'Heart of Worship' and 'Blessed be Your Name' by Matt Redman, both of which have themes of pain and repentance expressed poetically, 'Here I am to worship' by Tim Hughes, which is a simple but beautiful piece of poetic reflection of the paradoxes contained within the story of the incarnation of Christ, and a response of worship to those mysteries. Arguably, Graham Kendrick is the greatest hymn writer of our time (certainly in the english-speaking world) with 'Shine Jesus Shine', Darlene Zschech with 'My Jesus My Saviour', and there are some others, but the one thing they have in common is that they labour over their lyrics. The songwords they write are crafted, pruned ruthlessly and shaped into something which is as good as they can get it. Craftmanship is missing among many worship writers today, and we must strive to get it back.
Charles Wesley is pretty much universally acknowledged as the greatest British hymn writer of all time, and I agree. They lyrics to 'And can it be' just blow me away with their multiple levels, their evangelistic edge, and their sheer originality. Look at verse 4 -
'Long my imprisoned spirit lay
Fast bound in sin and nature's night
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light!
My chains fell off, my heart was free!
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee!'
Just typing in these lyrics, my eyes are welling up with tears. The imagery is incredible; and he is not taking this from the bible directly and just reshaping a passage of scripture (that i know of), he is telling a story, painting a picture with incredible creativity, and casting that imagination and imagery into poetry and song, so that anyone able to sing can participate in the vision. Reading the above verse, I imagine Charles sat in a dark dank prison cell, a dungeon, with shackles, manacles, chains around him, in a zombie-like near-death state. Christ enters the cell in line 3, and His eyes flash rays of flaming light which illuminate everything, break the chains binding Charles, and wake him from his stupor, setting him free in every way. In line 6 Charles follows Christ out from the dungeon into the open, as His disciple. These are lyrics which have lasted for 300+ years, and I have no doubt will continue to be among the most popular hymns in the world.
In this country, some Christians (me included) often feel that we have to choose between good music or good lyrics. If we want to sing worship songs with powerful words and compelling themes, we have to sing them in a dreary stone chapel to a centuries-out-of-date musical style and a pipe organ, and if we want to experience a style of music that is accessible to us, not alien and disconnected from our time and culture, we often have to endure 3 or 4 of the latest worship songs which no-one really knows, which have lyrics that make anyone with an academic mind (or mental age over 15) cringe to sing before we get to the occasional gem which has both lyrical content and enjoyable music. Why should worshipers be encouraged and uplifted only by the music, or only by the words? Why can't we have both? Some of the writers I mentioned above have managed both. A good example is 'In Christ Alone' by Townend and Getty, which is excellent in its lyrics and theology, and also frankly anthemic in its music.
If it works out that there is a way I can run my own personal music business one day, and if I decide to do some work in Christian music, it would be awesome to write something that is widely used and popular, with both content and musical relevance, because that is what we need in British church music, desperately.
Many worship songs now sound like they are written to provide a catchy hook-filled 3-minute piece of contemporary indie/rock music, to which the lyrics are just incidental, where the sum message of the whole song is something like 'yeah, we're all Christians and we think God is just really great'. Many Christians who have been at it longer than 5 or 10 years get very easily exasperated at worship music which is so clearly aimed at those whose level of immaturity means they can only relate to very primitive expressions of commitment. The hymns which last are those with a real and compelling message, not just 'yeah Jesus, yeah Jesus, yeah Jesus, Jesus yeah' repeated 18 times with drums and guitar riffs. Ok, I am being facetious, but you get my point.
The hymns from this generation which will last into the next, and maybe beyond, are 'Heart of Worship' and 'Blessed be Your Name' by Matt Redman, both of which have themes of pain and repentance expressed poetically, 'Here I am to worship' by Tim Hughes, which is a simple but beautiful piece of poetic reflection of the paradoxes contained within the story of the incarnation of Christ, and a response of worship to those mysteries. Arguably, Graham Kendrick is the greatest hymn writer of our time (certainly in the english-speaking world) with 'Shine Jesus Shine', Darlene Zschech with 'My Jesus My Saviour', and there are some others, but the one thing they have in common is that they labour over their lyrics. The songwords they write are crafted, pruned ruthlessly and shaped into something which is as good as they can get it. Craftmanship is missing among many worship writers today, and we must strive to get it back.
Charles Wesley is pretty much universally acknowledged as the greatest British hymn writer of all time, and I agree. They lyrics to 'And can it be' just blow me away with their multiple levels, their evangelistic edge, and their sheer originality. Look at verse 4 -
'Long my imprisoned spirit lay
Fast bound in sin and nature's night
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light!
My chains fell off, my heart was free!
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee!'
Just typing in these lyrics, my eyes are welling up with tears. The imagery is incredible; and he is not taking this from the bible directly and just reshaping a passage of scripture (that i know of), he is telling a story, painting a picture with incredible creativity, and casting that imagination and imagery into poetry and song, so that anyone able to sing can participate in the vision. Reading the above verse, I imagine Charles sat in a dark dank prison cell, a dungeon, with shackles, manacles, chains around him, in a zombie-like near-death state. Christ enters the cell in line 3, and His eyes flash rays of flaming light which illuminate everything, break the chains binding Charles, and wake him from his stupor, setting him free in every way. In line 6 Charles follows Christ out from the dungeon into the open, as His disciple. These are lyrics which have lasted for 300+ years, and I have no doubt will continue to be among the most popular hymns in the world.
In this country, some Christians (me included) often feel that we have to choose between good music or good lyrics. If we want to sing worship songs with powerful words and compelling themes, we have to sing them in a dreary stone chapel to a centuries-out-of-date musical style and a pipe organ, and if we want to experience a style of music that is accessible to us, not alien and disconnected from our time and culture, we often have to endure 3 or 4 of the latest worship songs which no-one really knows, which have lyrics that make anyone with an academic mind (or mental age over 15) cringe to sing before we get to the occasional gem which has both lyrical content and enjoyable music. Why should worshipers be encouraged and uplifted only by the music, or only by the words? Why can't we have both? Some of the writers I mentioned above have managed both. A good example is 'In Christ Alone' by Townend and Getty, which is excellent in its lyrics and theology, and also frankly anthemic in its music.
If it works out that there is a way I can run my own personal music business one day, and if I decide to do some work in Christian music, it would be awesome to write something that is widely used and popular, with both content and musical relevance, because that is what we need in British church music, desperately.
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