Hey Church!

People occasionally ask me how I feel about singing worship songs written by someone with questionable faith or published by a church with notoriously poor theology. One school of thought is to condemn songs that are produced by popular churches like Bethel, Elevation, and Hillsong because their pastors preach false doctrines from the pulpit. Further, some ban the work of writers and artists who are Roman Catholic, perform at a liberal venue, or associate with a “prosperity gospel” church. A host of bloggers and social media warriors regularly charge pastors with leading their flocks astray by allowing such songs to be sung in worship services. 

I am very thoughtful about what we sing in worship here at Rio. And yet most of our songs have come from what some would name as forbidden writers and churches. So, how do I sleep at night, knowing that I am propagating bad theology and leading you all astray? By tracing the purist’s logic to its honest conclusion and finding it to be an utterly untenable position. While I certainly respect and admire the obedience of one who stops listening to certain music based on a personal conviction, to go on and assume the role of judge and jury over the Church at large is unhelpful and lacking in grace. 

First, it is fallacious to deem a song “anathema” based solely on the behavior or beliefs of its author. If our Confession upholds baptism’s validity regardless of the officiating minister’s virtue, how much more confidently can we assert that the Spirit can use a song for His glory and purposes, even if the writer is apostate or embroiled in controversy? We must focus our scrutiny on the content of the song itself, rather than what circumstances brought it to life. If we threw out every song written by a sinner, we would have nothing left–not even the Psalter! 

Second, our analysis cannot demand a piece of art to do the work of discourse. “The sun rises in the morning” is poetry. One who hears it will either interpret it as such or call it “false teaching.” When a worship song calls God’s love “reckless,” the poetic mind hears, “God spared no cost to chase after me!” But those who expect truth to be expressed in concrete, literal terms can only hear blasphemy. This confusion of genres is the basis of far too many of the objections I have heard leveled against contemporary worship music. If you want a thorough treatise on the nature of love, read Bernard of Clairvaux’s On Loving God. If you want to experience the love of God, open your poetic mind and sing Cory Asbury’s song “Reckless Love.” (I learned today that he’s on the “forbidden” list too)

Finally, we should remember that the songs most pleasing to our Father are the ones we offer in faith. We will never get the language perfectly right, our prayers will fall short, and our understanding will always be limited. But thanks be to God, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us and the Son stands in the midst of the congregation, singing, dancing, and rejoicing over us before the Father. Now we see him dimly, as through a foggy glass, but one day we will see Him as He is. 

Let us have grace for the writers and churches that God has blessed with such incredible talent. I may not visit them on a Sunday or listen to their pastor’s sermons, but much of the music they produce is truly a gift to the Church.