Loosen My Lips

I apologize if I offend, but the current environment of "praise and worship music" really annoys me. I feel the majority of it is canned, planned, and not actually very expressive of the human spirit. In short, modern worship music is not very worshipful. Why? Because "worship" has become a musical style, not a lifestyle. It's common now to hear someone say something similar to, "I like rock, rap, worship, country, and gospel, but not classical." To my ears, almost all worship music played on the radio today, or in most churches for that matter, is carbon-copy-cliche. We've learned a musical vernacular that lets us know, "Oh, now is the part where I stand up and raise my hands." I'm pro-standing-up-and-raising-holy-hands. However, I don't see much true worship in music anymore. I see very little actual expression of self - very little of "giving self over" in not only raising holy hands, but dancing. Why not? I have a theory, a hypothesis, and an example.

My theory is that the majority of praise and worship music today is very limited thematically. Faith, grace, praise, worship, and God's love - that's about it. I rarely hear songs of lament, anger, or questioning, though much of the Bible deals with it. If there is a song of that nature, it's likely an older song modernized, like It Is Well. I don't know about you, but many times on Sunday morning, I need to express anger, rage, frustration, sadness, or any other emotion that is common to everyone else in the congregation, yet those emotions are not acceptable musical emotions in church! Imagine, what would it be like to go to a Sunday morning service and everyone join in a very loud, electric, kinetic lament? Besides being simultaneously cathartic and revolutionary, it would be one of the most soul-ministering things in a church in a long time (therefore, it'll likely never happen; if it was attempted, no one would actually participate). But no, churches feel they must be cheery and chirpy, even maniacally so. So, we put on our brave, happy face.

My hypothesis is that most true corporate worship happens not in the church, but at rock concerts - some Christian, and some not. The dynamic of a loud rock concert is much more liberating and freeing than almost any Sunday morning worship service anyway. Why? There's no pretense. One can dance or clap or sing along, or not, at his own volition. You will find at a good rock concert by a good band people singing as loud as they can. You will not find that at church. You will find at a good rock concert much that equates to David dancing before the ark. You will rarely find that kind of freedom and abandon before God in a church. Now, I'm pro-church; I'm an ordained Baptist minister. I'm also pro freedom and abandon in the musical aspect of worship. I fear that while the church is the place to be Spiritually fed because it's there you find the Spirit of God and His Word, it's also one of the most confining in terms of spiritual expression. As Bono once said in an interview, "The idea of turning your music into a tool for evangelism is missing the point. Music is the language of the spirit anyway." I would apply that to all Christian life, not just evangelism. Using music as a "tool of worship by doing it 'this way'" misses the point.

There are many artists that are great at inspiring this level of cathartic release: King's X, Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Wilco, At the Drive-In/The Mars Volta, and Twothirtyeight come to mind, and of course U2. My example is this worship song, played not at a church, but at Red Rocks in Colorado. The greatest Christian artist of all time, U2, performs Gloria with an entire crowd worshiping along. Whether or not most of the crowd understands what they're saying is not the point here. The point is, they've abandoned their fear of looking funny to dance before the ark. (It doesn't hurt that U2 are unarguably one of the five best bands ever).

Three things to note while watching: First, they are all fantastic musicians. They "play skillfully on the harp before the LORD" (Psalm 33:3; Isaiah 23:16). Second, it doesn't sound like a praise and worship song is supposed to sound. Why? Because U2 doesn't play the rules of "praise and worship" as a style or genre. Remember, Bono says trying to make something a praise song misses the point. A person alive in Christ should just write songs, and suddenly, it's a unique praise song, not one that conforms to any sort of formula. And third, notice that the communal, colossal throb of a huge number of people in sync, pouring themselves out with "crashing cymbals" is much closer to the tribal, temple worship of ancient Israel than anything the Church does today. They banged on things to get God's attention back then. Today, we're afraid of losing our hearing. Let us pray with Bono in Gloria, "Oh Lord, loosen my lips."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRYKs8AgQVA

Here are the lyrics:

I try to sing this song,
...I try to stand up but I can't find my feet
I try, I try to speak up but only in You I'm complete

Gloria...in te domine
Gloria...exultate
Gloria...Gloria
Oh Lord, loosen my lips!

I try to sing this song,
I...I try to get in but I can't find the door
The door is open, You're standing there, You let me in

Gloria...in te domine
Gloria...exultate
Oh Lord, if I had anything
Anything at all I'd give it to You
I'd give it to You

Gloria...Gloria...