Ministering in an increasingly secular culture simply means that the people we reach will often be biblically and religiously illiterate. It is a thrill to disciple such new Christians and to watch God transform their lives. However, unraveling years of wrong thinking can present a unique challenge.
This is no different in the area of music. The work of sanctification radically changes every area of the believer’s life. The fruit of the Holy Spirit replaces the lusts of the flesh (Galatians 5). But God is not interested is simply replacing the repertoire of new Christians; God is interested in reshaping our affections from the temporal to the eternal.
As churches, we generally do not integrate new believers into our worship. There is no orientation to congregational singing or learning the songs of our faith. In fact, I’ve sat in classes in Bible colleges that encouraged me never to use the same song within a 3-6 month period. That practice (and many others like it) is designed for leading a church full of long-time Christians, not a church reaching new believers.
So how can we take meaningful steps in developing the praise of new believers in our congregations? What are the important elements and practices that help to shape their affections for God? It will take more than just an exchange of repertoire.
In the next three posts, I’d like to present three practices that can help to develop the praise of new Christians.
Choose songs that communicate truth powerfully.
We must choose songs with a text that not only communicates truth but does so in a powerful way. There are three reasons why songs filled with truth should be a paramount concern in worship.
The truth is of utmost importance in worship.
As I shared in my article A Call for Worship Leaders Part 2, worship requires a presentation of and a response to truth. If we don’t have both, worship did not take place. We understand through experience, however, that merely speaking truth does not always result in a response at all, let alone the right response. For more discussion on this point, refer to my article Continue in Singing.
Creatively expressing truth engages the mind.
This ought to be our concern in using music: how can we creatively and effectively use the medium of music to communicate truth in a fresh and engaging way? The following quote expresses very plainly how powerful music and art can be in disrupting our familiarity with the Gospel in favor of a new, childlike awe.
“We very readily cease to ‘see’ the world we live in, and become very desensitized to its distinctive features. The aim of poetry is to reverse that process, to defamiliarize that with which we are overly familiar, to ‘creatively deform’ the usual, the normal, and so to inculcate a new, childlike, non-jaded vision in us. The poet thus aims to disrupt ‘stock responses’ and to generate a heightened awareness: to restructure our ordinary perception of ‘reality’.” (from Hawkes, T. Structuralism and Semiotics, 1977, p. 62)
Poetically communicated truth can be more memorable.
If we want to present the truth in a way that encourages a response to truth, emotionally in affections or practically in life, that truth must be memorable. People may not remember your witty outline, but they often remember a quote or a poem or an illustration. What makes truth in music memorable is a memorable text.
Take, for example, the truth about justification by grace through faith without works. The truth permeates our Gospel and is preached almost every Sunday. While it is certainly a meaningful truth, it can become so familiar that it loses its effect in our hearts and minds. Kristie Braselton wrote the song “Christ Has Conquered All” which includes these powerful lyrics to express the familiar truth in a fresh way:
The sum of all my sacrifice, though joyful, fails to justify
I cannot pay for grace that’s free, nor add to work that is complete.
Three considerations when evaluating the truth in music
First, the truth should be readily understood by the congregation.
When considering the text, be sure the poetry is not so sophisticated that it confuses the truth. Be careful about a text in which the imagery or metaphors are unclear. These texts often lose their potency due to a lack of relevance and understanding. How can a new believer dwell on a truth he does not yet comprehend?
For example, most people would not understand the phrase, “Here I raise mine Ebenezer” from “Come Thou Fount.” This does not mean we shouldn’t use the song, but recognize that the poetry is not clear to most people. If you want to use that song and those lyrics, you must make an effort to explain it.
Consider also those texts that are simplistic. Simplicity could be advantageous in a congregation containing primarily new Christians. The opposite is true with mature believers who may need to see God’s truth in fresh, new, or profound ways.
Second, music should reinforce the meaning of the text.
One element of a “timeless” song is that the powerful text is coupled with music that accentuates the mood and emotion effectively. A rich text married to poor music will be middle class at best.
Third, we should always present truth with excellence.
We believe in the primacy of preaching. Don’t let that deceive you into thinking that the other crucial parts of the service are any less important. Perhaps I can restate this effectively by saying that we believe in the primacy of declaring God’s truth, both Who He is and what He has done.
Make the first priority of any song selection the quality of the text—its truth, its poetry, its power.
I taught this session at Spiritual Leadership Conference 2017. If you’d like to listen to the presentation in its entirety, you can do so here.
