Theology vs. Pragmatism: The Foundational Difference Between Worship Discussions Then and Now

Church history knows no division between theology and worship.  As worship became “institutionalized” in the Church in the Middle Ages, though perhaps excessively mystical, leaders of and reflectors on worship did so through an intensely biblical-theological grid.  The writings and leadership of church music pioneer Hildegaard von Bingen attest to this. 

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Review of The Mercy Seat / The War by Jamie Barnes and Brooks Ritter

Jamie Barnes, The Mercy Seat
Brooks Ritter, The War (split EP)
Released: February 22, 2011

There is something very special going on in Louisville, and my writing a review about this “happening” is kind of like the woman who was straining just to get a finger on the hem of Jesus’ robe—just a touch is all I ask.  God has gathered a whole lot of young talent and put it under one ecclesiastical roof.  This is the best summary I can give for what is happening with Sojourn Music.  Sojourn Community Church is a multi-site community with a strong vision for how the arts are a part of God’s kingdom-restoration in the community.  You don’t see too many churches out there with this vision.  But before I heap accolades on the music of two incredible singer-songwriters, Jamie Barnes and Brooks Ritter, for their latest split EP, The Mercy Seat / The War (read Sojourn's description here), let me begin by commenting on something rather unrelated to the music itself.

Jamie Barnes and Brooks Ritter are humble, generous men of God.  I met Jamie several years ago when my wife and I took a field trip out to Sojourn in the summer of 2008.  I met Brooks just over a year ago at the Calvin Symposium on Christian Worship in Grand Rapids.  I was flying solo, and Jamie took the time to single me out and invite me to a few social gatherings where I got to hobnob with Keith Getty, Kevin Twit, Mike Cosper, and other heroes of mine.  Jamie’s hospitality in that act meant a lot to me and spoke volumes about him.  Brooks engaged me in a bunch of conversations, and he always exhibited the uttermost kindness and humility, even as I told him that he had an incredible, one-of-a-kind voice.  These two are men of character, and that is perhaps the most important thing I could say about them.

OVERALL COMMENTS

The album itself is just incredible.  It is true artistry, which does not kowtow to simplistic pop sensibilities.  It is a “split EP” in the sense that it is a full, ten-song album split down the middle.  The first five are Barnes’ songs; the last five are Ritter’s.  All songs are either explicitly based in old church hymns, or else they are haunted by the spirits of the great English hymn writers.  But this is not a “worship album.”  It is definitely solo material, some of which can be (and has been) transposed into the context of corporate Christian worship (e.g. “The Mercy Seat” and “Absent from Flesh”).  Recorded live at the 930 Art Center in Louisville, KY, the stylistic diversity in these ten tracks is astonishing.  Jazz, gospel (black and white, mind you), blues, grunge, soul, country, rock—they’re all here.  Yet this smorgasbord is no hodgepodge.  The cohesion comes from its production, themes, and the souls of the singers themselves. 

If you can’t afford the whole album, you must at least get Barnes’ “Absent from Flesh” and Ritter’s “The War.”  In my opinion, they are the best songs on the album.

Theologically, the album is rock-solid.  Texts which are based in time-tested hymns from greats like Isaac Watts are nearly always a slam dunk in the Department of Biblical Conformity.  Barnes and Ritter write the kinds of songs that will last in Christian hymnody. 

THE MERCY SEAT  |  JAMIE BARNES

Barnes says, “If we’re being honest, we all have this longing for an advocate, and a lot of the songs on my side of the EP have this hint of desperation in them.”  That’s a great summary statement of the textual trajectory and musical edge which unify the five songs.  Musically, Jamie provides an aural feast.  His songs keep his voice in a modest vocal range, and his smooth, simple singing style perfectly fits the “longing” and “hint of desperation” he intends.  My favorite feature of his music here are the use of horns, sergeantly peppered throughout the EP.  The slippery, jazzy “Dark Passenger” has some moments of tight ensemble, especially among the horns.  There is an exquisite moment, just around 3:44, where the vibrato between two instruments locks into eerie symmetry.  Verse two is powerful:

Why do these hands withdraw from worship,
And battle your embrace?
They clinch in anger far too often,
And seldom stretch in faith.

“Jealous Arm” contains a haunting chord progression at the front-end that moves from the major tonic chord to the minor.  The ghostly, Coldplay-like piano line accentuates the tense nature of revelry in the jealousy of God.  The first verse:

Is this the way we repay our God?
Who among us has he not made?
Forsaking His face for the sculpted things
We have shaped with our evil hands.
And where are they now, our silent golden cows?
His swift and jealous arm has thrown them down.

The choice track, however, is “Absent from Flesh”—roomy drums, earthy claps and slaps, and wailing horns make this an exquisite, original, and inspiring piece.  Co-writers Barnes and Watts, though separated by nearly three hundred years, together celebrate the eschaton:

Absent from flesh, O glorious day!
In one triumphant stroke
My reckoning paid, my charges dropped
And the bonds ‘round my hands are broke.

I go where God and glory shine,
To one eternal day
This failing body I now resign,
For the angels point my way.

Hearing the unparalleled hymns of Isaac Watts so beautifully re-dressed and re-given to the modern church simply makes me want to dance naked in the streets. 

THE WAR  |  BROOKS RITTER

Many singers, including myself, shake their fists toward the heavenlies that they were not graced with the golden voice of Brooks Ritter.  No joke: the first time I heard his voice, I pegged him for a fifty-year-old, black Mississippi Delta bluesman.  This twenty-something has all the soul, presence, and maturity of a voice twice his age, and he stewards his gifts well throughout this EP.  “The War,” a grungy blues tune, introduces Ritter with a punch to the belly, and the left-hand-calloused fingerprints of Neil Robins’ axe-work (of Dirt Poor Robins and No More Kings) are all over this number.  It’s reminiscent of Soundgarden at the height of their music-making.  The text of this song’s chorus characterizes the posture of the whole album—centered upon the gospel of the finished work of Christ:

Though the scars of my sin run deep
They’re washed in the flood brought from Calvary
Remind me O Lord in my hour of deed
The war won  for the redeemed!

“Good Day” takes a stylistic leap in a different direction.  It is a black gospel number, through and through, full of clever colloquialisms fitting to the genre.  This song rocks:

Well, hey, Jesus the God man came to the Earth
He opened his arms to the children of dirt
He was singing a new song, “Child come on I’ll show you the way”
It was a good day when the Lord came
You know it was a good day

My Jesus came through the desert
He walked on the sea and died on the hill of Mount Calvary
He went to the grave but checked out on the third day
It was a good day when the Lord came,
It was a good, good day.

I love the thought that Jesus “checked out” of the grave on the third day like it was a hotel room.  The ease with which Almighty Christ sealed His victory over death is worthy of such a thought.  The next song, “Waters of Forgiveness,” is a soulful white gospel number that one could hear arranged for an all-male quartet.

In the words of Barnes: “This record, it’s more than just making music for our local church.We want to be a community of artists…So it’s important to us to publish music and to publish books and things of that nature…These songs are just a way for us to point to truth.  Hopefully that’s what good art will do, point to a good God who’s the author and creator of everything.”  God has given the Sojourn community a unique call with the provision of unique resources.  The Mercy Seat / The War is proof that these artists continue to steward such gifts well.  A while back I posted on why worship leaders should be theologians and theologians worship leaders.  Barnes and Ritter are worship leader-theologians par excellence.  Go get this album, people. 

Review of "Come Away," by Jesus Culture

If you've been following my blog for a while, you know that, even at the relative beginning of my career as a pastor and worship leader, I want to be a part of God's work in mentoring and raising up the next generation of pastors and worship leaders.  Every other week, I meet with a bright young man, Robert, who I believe God is calling to ministry in some capacity.  Every once in a while, we have an assignment.  This one was for Robert to use some of the analytical tools we've been discussing to review a new worship album.  I encouraged him to review the important criteria for choosing worship songs and to take a look at some of my reviews.  After processing a few drafts, this is what Robert produced.  He did a great job.  Feel free to comment!

*****

I like to say that this album is a cotton candy album. It is sweet and good but its volume is largely disproportionate to its density. Jesus Culture itself is actually a series of conferences which started in 1999. Out of these conferences came the Jesus Culture music which has its sights on sparking a revival of God-fearing, Jesus-glorifying Christians on a global scale. Come Away is a live album.

MUSICALITY

The music in the album was comfortably overshadowed by the lyrics. The musical arrangements never distracted from the text being sung. Towards the beginning of the album the music felt one-dimensional and wasn’t a whole lot to write home about. However, there was a noticeable progression in the complexity of the music as the album played. The first track kicked the album off with a repetitive, four-on-the-floor rhythm accompanying solid, down-stroking guitar chords. The  4/4 with down-strokes lingered with nearly the entire album broken up by a few of the songs which had dynamic rhythm, volume and guitar riffs such as track three, "You Are My Passion" (one of the two strongest tracks). The album closed with a pointed rhythm and a lightly syncopated vocal refrain. This closing track felt the strongest of all ten tracks. Mostly because the much repeated refrain was musically interesting enough to keep from becoming monotonous, but at the same time not so interesting that it was distracting from the words.  Come Away’s music felt typical of most modern worship: sincere, bright and easy to pick up for Sunday morning.

THEOLOGICAL CONTENT

In the textual territory, the album was full of strong and largely vertical worship lyrics (vertical worship=talking to God; horizontal worship=talking to creation about God) . One could step behind these lyrics and worship with them sincerely. However, they did not really delve into fresh aspects of God’s glory. The album was full of a lot of stock “christianese” such as, “Come into my heart,” and, “You’re so amazing, God.” I mean that not to say that they did a bad job, but rather that they only said what one would expect. My other critique for the text of the album is that the words are extremely "seven-eleven-ish" (one phrase repeated over and over). This is not bad, however there is a demographic which finds it difficult to worship with such repetition. There is nothing within the lyrics which is theologically unsound or out of context (both biblical context and contextually with the rest of the lyrics: no random, disjointed phrases). Some of my favorite lyrics on the album were from track six, "Freedom Reigns," which talks about the freedom gained from Christ. The song’s refrain is,

If you’re tired and thirsty, there is freedom
Give your all to Jesus, there is freedom.

These lyrics stuck out to me particularly because they draw a synonymous line between God’s grace and freedom. Most of the words are pointed directly at God, praying for Him to bring a passion for Christ to the youth of this generation.  All in all, the text is solid.

As a final summation, Come Away is an album full of good 2-3 minute worship songs. Unfortunately, every song was an average length of 7:45. This made the songs feel overly repetitive and "fluffy" (except for the final track, "One Thing Remains").  I like the album and commend Jesus Culture for their work in bringing this music to the table

-Robert



Worship Leaders Should Be Theologians, and Theologians Should Be Worship Leaders

In preparations for a sermon on Psalm 29, I re-opened two influential works in my own life and theological development: Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology and A. W. Tozer’s The Knowledge of the Holy.  The two theologians share a feature in their respective works—a feature which is instructive to both theologians and worship leaders alike (not that the two have to or should be separate offices).

For too long, the church has functionally made theology (study and meditation upon God and the Bible) and doxology (worship) two separate enterprises.  We have “theologians” and “pastors” on one side, and we have “worship leaders” on the other.  And the church has suffered greatly because of this bifurcation.  At least part of the reason that critics of modern worship are justified when they accuse contemporary churches of “dumbing down” the sacred expression of the gathered people of God is that we’ve made this split between theologians and worship leaders okay.  We’ve fostered it with our employment structures.  We’ve encouraged it with our niched resources and industry.  We’ve catered to it with our degree programs. 

Grudem and Tozer show us that there is a different way.  They’ve peppered doxology throughout their theology.  In fact, both The Knowledge of the Holy and Systematic Theology end each chapter with the text of a hymn.  For example, after expounding “The Infinitude of God,” Tozer ends with two verses of a Joseph Hart hymn:¹

This, this is the God we adore,
Our faithful, unchangeable Friend,
Whose love is as great as His power,
And neither knows measure nor end.

‘Tis Jesus, the first and the last,
Whose Spirit shall guide us safe home;
We’ll praise Him for all that is past,
And trust Him for all that’s to come.

Similarly, Grudem ends his Chapter 11, on the “Incommunicable Attributes of God,” with the famous hymn, “Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise.”²  He explains why he does this in his preface:

I do not believe that God intended the study of theology to be dry and boring. Theology is the study of God and all his works! Theology is meant to be lived and prayed and sung! All of the great doctrinal writings of the Bible…are full of praise to God.  …True theology is “teaching which accords with godliness” (1 Tim 6:3), and theology when studied rightly will lead to growth in our Christian lives, and to worship.³

Just because theology is an academic discipline, complete with published works and degree programs, does not mean it should lack passion and praise.  Just because worship is artistic, expressive, and emotional does not mean it should lack theological reflection.  There are many implications for all of this, but here are some:

·   Theology should drive our worship—what we know about God should fuel our praise of God.

·   Worship songs, even simple ones, communicate theological truths and therefore shape the thinking and spirituality of the people of God.

·   Professional theologians should therefore be some of the most passionate worshipers in our congregations.

·   Professional worship leaders should therefore be some of the most rigorous theologians in our congregations.

·   Good worship leaders will examine and evaluate the songs they lead not only for musicality but for theological content.

·   Good theologians will regularly worship, on the spot, with their pupils, turning the classroom into a sanctuary.

*****

¹ A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1978), 48.
² Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994), 183-184.
³ Ibid., 16-17.



6 Fundamentals for Worship Leading

Bruce Benedict of Cardiphonia (a great site on worship, liturgy, and the synthesis of the traditional and the modern) offers a full description of these 6 fundamentals that I find right on target...and convicting.  Here's a summary:

1. Worship Leaders must cultivate a life of faith.
2. Worship Leaders are called to be shepherds and guardians.
3. Worship Leaders are called to be great musicians.
4. Worship Leaders are called to be administrators.
5. Worship Leaders are called to be liturgists.
6. Worship Leaders are called with a calling.

Hmm...a lot of this sounds strikingly similar to pastoral ministry.  Maybe worship leaders are supposed to be more than just rock stars.

Worship Leaders & Pastors: No Whining During Holy Week

Last night, after our Maundy Thursday Family Service, when almost everyone was gone, I noticed that the light in our Senior Pastor's office was on.  Don Sweeting will be leaving us in a few short weeks for a new call as President of Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, and I dearly love the man, so it was a peaceful opportunity to let him know how much I appreciate him and will miss him.  Of course, Don and I have never been prone to brief conversations because we're always rabbit trailing into discussions on theology, worship, and philosophy of ministry.  Don mentioned something that resonated with me.  He said something to the effect of, "Pastors that complain about the extra work load during Holy Week and Easter don't realize what a blessing we have."

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Why Every Worship Leader Should Study Rock History

In yesteryear, it was common for aspiring church musicians to pursue degrees in church music.  Those paths of study included music history…and for good reason.  Traditional church music is a descendant of western classical music.  For those of us who have studied classical music, we all can attest that we are better at our craft of making and performing music because we have studied the ebbs and flows of music history.  Through the lens of a singer: one does not sing Handel like one sings Puccini; one does not sing Bach like Vaughan Williams; one does not sing Schubert like Dvorak.  Ultimately, it is only a study of music history that can teach you these things.  Show me a great classical musician, and I guarantee that they are a tenacious student of music history.

I believe the same is true in this subset of western music known as rock and roll.  The best rock artists of any era were almost always ardent students of rock history.  Name almost any great rock band/artist (e.g. the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin, etc.), and you will find that they were apprentices in the school of rock history. 

Modern worship finds itself squarely within the broad rock and roll tradition (personally, I view modern folk music [i.e. 1960s and beyond], which is where the roots of contemporary worship lay, as a part of the rock and roll tradition).  If this is true, and if we are called by God to glorify Him with the best of our skill (Psalm 33:3), then we should take the study of our genre seriously.  This may sound outrageous to some, but I believe that if Christian colleges and seminaries are going to offer “worship leader” tracks and degrees, a necessary and fundamental element of that curriculum should be a course or two in the history of rock and roll.  Again, music history is a foundational element in sacred music curricula.  Why is the history of rock and roll being ignored in these new iterations of church music study?  Is it too sacrilegious, because rock and roll is “secular”?  Is it too silly because rock and roll isn’t a “real” art form?  Hmm…

Given that neither college nor seminary prepared me to understand and appreciate the art form that I find myself immersed in as I lead worship week in and week out, I’ve begun a self-study quest.  I picked up some DVDs on the history of rock and roll, which were mildly helpful, but gave too much attention to the depraved lifestyles of rockers (which is NOT a good reason NOT to study rock history, by the way...the debauchery of classical music composers and musicians was just as dark*) and not enough attention to the music itself.  I plowed through a third of Rolling Stone’s history of rock and roll, but a lot of the same emphases emerged.  Furthermore, it wasn’t cohesive, but piecemeal and disjointed in its approach.  I’m now 100 pages into Joe Stuessy and Scott Lipscomb’s Rock and Roll: Its History and Stylistic Development, and I’ve found this to be the most satisfying treatment.  I’ve begun collecting albums of key figures in rock history.  (Muddy Waters arrived in the mail two days ago.)  I’m probably going to have to get a book or two on the blues and dive into that, as well.  I’m piecing it together and learning as I go.  And as I’ve done it, I’ve found my leading enriched, my understanding deepened, and my artistry improved. 

Maybe this post piques some interest in some of you, and perhaps we can collaborate and dream up a curriculum or syllabus to propose to a seminary or Christian college with a worship degree or emphasis.  In any regard, it’s becoming clearer to me that, so long as the prevailing form of modern worship is rock, every worship leader should study rock history.

*Along these lines, I wonder if some of the negative impact of our fundamentalist roots as evangelicals leads us to devalue the study of rock tradition or consider it an evil pursuit altogether.  Hopefully we're at a stage in our own history where we realize that we can, in wisdom and maturity, discerningly sift good from bad in such a pursuit, so as to not throw the baby out with the bathwater.