Dateline- bringing the church into the world instead of the
world into the church
I would like to address a subject of which I am quite
passionate: playing secular music in a church service. This is a relatively
recent trend, rooted in the seeker sensitive movement. Today, we have
everything from Bon Jovi (“Livin’ on a Prayer” seems to be a worship team
favorite) to the Black Eyed Peas being played right alongside Chris Tomlin
tunes and “Amazing Grace.”
As a person who released 2 secular albums and played
countless concerts prior to my conversion, I cannot tell you how disturbing the
trend of using secular songs in a worship service is to me. In fact, as you may
recall, I also did my PhD dissertation work on the subject of popular music and
the church. Let me put this straight; not one born-again musician I spoke with or
researched puts ANY stock or merit into the songs they wrote prior to being
saved. In fact, the majority of them have completely removed questionable songs
from their own concert set lists. Bottom line- these are multi-million album
selling, Grammy award winning, superstars of the art and you would never hear
them playing their own songs in a church, so why do we think it is okay for us?
Now, let’s get to the heart of the matter. People believe
that if we play secular music in the church we will attract lost souls into
God’s house. If that is the case, if it is indeed true that playing secular
songs is a key ingredient to evangelism, then we have a serious issue to
confront… What is the issue? Simply put,
we blew it. We (the churches in America) missed a golden opportunity to
evangelize by not playing Beatles and
Rolling Stones tunes in the 1960’s, Madonna and Prince jams in the 1980’s, and
Nirvana and Alanis Morissette songs in the 1990’s. Imagine the throngs of
screaming teenage girls that would have flocked to the chapel to hear “I Wanna
Hold your Hand”, the new wave kids that would have turned our sanctuaries into
discos as they grooved to “Little Red Corvette”, and the teenage boys that
would have packed our aisles to zone out to a rockin’ live version of “Smells
Like Teen Spirit?” Do you sense the sarcasm here??? And for those who want to
try to cram some theological interpretation into secular songs and claim that
the Bible can “speak” through them- isn’t that the same logic by which Charles
Manson amassed his murderous cult?
Remember, I am not some “music prude.” We use every genre of
music in our services from organ hymns to heavy metal but you will never hear
us stain the walls of God’s house with secular lyrics… period. Oh, it’s not
that we can’t do it; our worship team could play anything… I mean that
literally, we could play anything. I have played in several cover bands doing
everything from Black Sabbath to John Cougar Mellencamp and my brother played
in a band that was known to sell out nightclubs by playing full-length, pitch
perfect versions of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” “The Wall” “Led
Zepplin IV” “Appetite for Destruction” and other well-known albums. But just
because we could doesn’t mean we should. The worship hour is for God’s
glory, not our own. We prefer to use our skills to showcase our Lord’s work,
not to promote a top 40 hit.
My advice to anyone on a worship team playing secular music
in the church is this- spend less time on Youtube trolling for songs other
people wrote… spend more time with God, write a song about Him, and worship Him
with it. He has given you the talent and a venue, steward them well.
Let me leave you with this true story. The band W.A.S.P was
one of the most notorious groups ever.
In the 1980’s they got a 4 million dollar contract to record their first album,
which was loaded with violent and pornographic lyrics. The church responded to this by buying
tickets for W.A.S.P. concerts and praying for the band during their live shows
(which makes one wonder if people need to start attending worship services
simply to pray for the worship teams who are performing secular songs???).
Anyhow, Blackie Lawless, the founder and lead singer of the band, became a
Christian. W.A.S.P. released an album last year called “Golgotha.” The main
line in the chorus of the title track simply states, “Jesus, I need you now.”
Now, there’s a song I WOULD sing in church.
