{"id":2378,"date":"2013-10-13T07:13:26","date_gmt":"2013-10-13T13:13:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/?p=2378"},"modified":"2013-10-13T07:13:26","modified_gmt":"2013-10-13T13:13:26","slug":"have-you-outgrown-modern-worship-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2013\/10\/have-you-outgrown-modern-worship-music.html","title":{"rendered":"Have You Outgrown Modern Worship Music?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>I read a great post this morning from my friend Jovan Brown on his blog Toward Fatherhood<\/a>. Jovan is talking about why he finds modern worship music to be less significant as he enters into the way of descent. He\u2019s finding most of those songs are really designed for the way of ascent, or the first half of life. Here\u2019s an excerpt:<\/p>\n

Eldredge calls it the Cowboy phase. Rohr calls it the Heroic Journey. It\u2019s the young age of missions trips to poor, mountain villages. It\u2019s the time of stern declarations of right and wrong, of individualization, of iconoclasm. Rohr points out the \u201cnecessary egocentrism\u201d of this very important stage of development. \u201cNot in love with God,\u201d he writes, \u201cbut in love with the idea of being in love.\u201d I spent my time in that phase. It was amazing and life-affirming. I hoped it would never end. But a grain of wheat cannot live in one season forever.<\/p>\n

This is why I have such a hard time connecting with a lot of modern worship. The songs (like many sermons) are in love with the idea of being in love, but their lyrics still reflect the shallow, untempered optimism of youth. They demand that heaven come down, Jesus come into the room, or all creation dance and\/or bow (though no one usually does). They declare the power of Jesus name over evils and ailments and all feelings of loneliness. But those clouds look a lot less fluffy once you\u2019ve fallen through a few. Dating Jesus is a younger man\u2019s game. The music is great, but for me, right now, it\u2019s mostly past tense.<\/p>\n

So please don\u2019t be offended if I remain seated through your modern worship set, skip tracks on Crowder\u2019s new album, or sigh, \u201cWhat does that even mean?\u201d halfway through a Watermark offering. I do not disdain the music; in fact, I marvel at all who have the music in them, who create it not because they can, but because they must.<\/p>\n

But such anthems no longer belong to me, nor I to them. I\u2019d love to hear a maturing voice of Christianity when I turn on K-Love. Until then, I\u2019ll be at home listening to Nouwen and Manning and Lamott sing their silent songs of not knowing, and of being ok with not knowing, and of learning to be loved, and hopefully loving someone else somewhere along the way, maybe.<\/p>\n

Because it\u2019s 10:58 again, and I am sitting down.
\nI don\u2019t want to small talk with friends or full-body hug my bros until I feel people starting to stare. I\u2019m lucky to have made it to church at all, and I\u2019ve come craving rest.
\nI\u2019ve come to rest from the weary work of growing up.
\nI\u2019m outgrowing modern worship.
\nAnd thank God for that.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I think this is an interesting analogy, or observation. It leaves me wondering if there is some sort of 2nd na\u00efvet\u00e9 on the other side of these beginning stages of the second have of life. Will the innocence return later on? Is there a decade or two during which it all sounds immature, and then a blissful return to innocence that allows us to engage in the songs again, but mean them in a new way? I hope so, and I sometimes think I\u2019m feeling that innocence again, especially with certain kinds of simple \u2013 almost trite \u2013 worship songs. I know it\u2019s not all of the time, but there are moments when a really simple thought (You love me, oh how you love me), will absolutely reduce me to tears and I\u2019ll be thinking, \u201cWhere did that come from? I don\u2019t even like this song!\u201d<\/p>\n

I also like that he notes that he has a hard time connecting with a lot of modern worship, not all of it, because there are some writers and some songs that are, simply put, rich. There are still songwriters who are tapping into the deeper well \u2013 I\u2019m thinking of Gungor and All Sons and Daughters, among others.<\/p>\n

Good post Jovan; it is speaking to me as I prepare for worship this morning!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I read a great post this morning from my friend Jovan Brown on his blog Toward Fatherhood. Jovan is talking about why he finds modern worship music to be less significant as he enters into the way of descent. He\u2019s finding most of those songs are really designed for the way of ascent, or the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1118,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[231,233,622,119,13,120,791,421],"class_list":["post-2378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-anne-lamott","tag-brennan-manning","tag-ccm","tag-jovan-brown","tag-richard-rohr","tag-toward-fatherhood","tag-worship","tag-worship-music"],"yoast_head":"\nHave You Outgrown Modern Worship Music?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I read a great post this morning from my friend Jovan Brown on his blog Toward Fatherhood. 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