My good friend, Todd Agnew, posed this question recently.
"What Songs Does the Church Need?"
Here is my response...
I think statistically, there are people in every worship service who are facing hurt, pain, loss, and suffering. With so many “happy” songs, we might be fostering a perceived prerequisite to “put on our happy faces” in corporate worship.
Personally, my pain often comes from my own sin. I cannot recall too many songs about confession and repentance. “Change my heart, O God”...“Your kindness leads me to repentance”.
I am thinking of small groups who share “prayer requests” and it’s almost always concerning physical issues. I thought we were supposed to “confess our sins, one to another…” THAT’s the kind of healing I need! Or courage to die to self? Perhaps a song with a long instrumental bridge where there is time for God to illuminate the sin that separates us. Goofy?
“It’s our confession, Lord, that we are weak…so very weak, but You are strong….” opens communication in a pure way for me. I can rarely utter the word “weak” without immediately sensing my guards coming down, my eyes being opened to how God sees things, and my heart breaking for -yet another- chunk of time I’ve tried “it” on my own AGAIN. Though I am annoyed when songs are overly repetitive, I NEED “Let your mercies fall from Heaven” to repeat a kajillion times…it’s one song, that facilitates worship for me, and I ALWAYS feel like it ends too soon:)
I love all the songs about how great and powerful God is, but I feel like we don’t totally make the connection that THAT power is available for our daily lives…to do “far greater things”. Perhaps the oom-pah musical swagger of “There is Pow’r, Pow’r wonder-working Pow’r in the precious Name of the Lord…” ironically shut my generation off to the Power of those lyrics.
Your thoughts??
