Funny thing about getting a hole in your blue jeans. You rarely notice the start of the thing. A small frayed area becomes a little hole. The little hole becomes a big hole. And then the jeans are not terribly useful.
In my opinion, that’s a metaphor for the state of today’s Christian music. I stumbled on to the problem when trying to find songs that would match a series of devotionals I was doing. You can find tons of songs that “Wanna praise the Lord. Wanna praise the Lord. Yeah. Yeah. Yuh-yeah…Wanna praise the Lord.”
But the moment you step away from what we typically call “Praise and Worship”…good luck finding anything. Doubt me? Okay…
Where are the songs that speak of embracing sufering? Where is the musical cry for fasting? And where are the songs that talk about loving my gay neighbor across the street? How many songs have you heard that instruct you to forgive a sister or brother…even when you don’t feel like it? Where are all the songs that compel us to share Jesus verbally? Come to think of it, the last time I heard a serious song about the rapture was “I Wish We’d All Been Ready.” And that came out back in 1973.
There’s a hole in our music. It’s kind of crept up on us—like that hole in your favorite blue jeans. We’ve allowed the feel-good music to fray the very fabric of our song content.
There’s a hole in our music. But the good news, we can fix it—if we choose to. (1:25)
First, we need to hit the pause button on songs that “makes us feel good.” Got enough of those in the works already. Second, we need to intentionally platform songs that call us to a deeper, fuller more biblical Christian expression. Finally, we need to craft fresh new music that speaks to all of the Christian life.
As I finger the hole in our music, those are my thoughts.