The other day I was listening to Christian radio and heard a
song I was not familiar with—“More Like Falling in Love” by Jason Gray. As I
thought about the lyrics they made me distinctly uneasy. One line that is
repeated several times is “It’s gotta be more like falling in love than
something to believe in; more like losing my heart than giving my allegiance.”
The story behind the song (found here) clarifies
his intent somewhat, but I still have problems with the message. Gray said,
“I think we’re in danger of making
our faith about intellectual beliefs of facts of who Jesus was and is today.
The danger, at least for me, is that a solely intellectualized faith can lose
its heart, and over and over we are told in Scripture that the heart matters.”
While that may be true to some degree, I don’t think that is
the predominant problem with American Christianity. It seems to me that we are
far more likely to pursue some kind of emotional response that may have very
little to do with the facts of who Jesus was and is. Yes, faith is more than an
intellectual exercise, but it is also more than a love affair. Gray’s lyrics
set up a false dichotomy. Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with
all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37
ESV). Faith requires engagement of both heart and mind.
In his chapter in Standing on the Promises, Larry
Knowles wrote:
“Let it be said again that worship
ought to engage the mind and the
emotions. Careful wording and cerebral agreement alone do not a worshiper make…
There is no doubt that the love of God is something the Christian will want to
internalize personally and celebrate with emotive affection… Our concern with
heavily romantic or sensory lyrics is that they communicate God’s love as
primarily a subjective phenomenon, grasped mainly by its emotional and personal
impact. Granted, these words may come from the genuine experience of a
lyricist. But the glut of choruses that talk about ‘falling in love with Jesus’
finds no correlate in Scripture” (178-179).
Someone may say, “True, but Christian radio is not worship.”
The average listener is drawn to songs that stir their emotions, not necessarily
those that clearly represent scriptural truths. That’s one reason I rarely
listen to the radio. Listeners tends to identify artists they like, and then
listen indiscriminately to anything that artist wrote. A large percentage of
the new songs that get introduced in churches start out on the radio, and many
church music leaders don’t evaluate songs by their theology. Church leaders
should be cautious about “endorsing” artists who are not consistently
presenting solid theology.
I have a bit of a pet peeve when it comes to music used in
worship services. In many churches the music is unbiblical, unsingable, or
(often) unrelated to the day’s sermon. Since Jesus proclaimed that “true
worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is
seeking such people to worship Him” (John 4:23b), those who plan the worship
service and choose the music have a responsibility to lead in spirit and truth.
Alistair Begg gave three guidelines on worship music:
- It is biblical, being grounded in the truth of Scripture.
- It is rational in that it engages our minds.
- It is clearly spiritual in that it involves the very core of our being.
Begg also quoted from Keith and Kristyn Getty’s helpful
guidelines from 5 Ways to Improve Congregational Singing. Their first point, “Begin with the
pastor,” states:
“Ultimately the buck stops with him
in congregational worship. Every pastor must be intimately involved in the
language being placed in the congregation’s mouth, for that singing ultimately
affects how they think, how they feel, how they pray, and how they live.”
In Christian freedom, we can each listen to whatever we like
on the radio or online, and churches are free to use whatever music seems to
best fit their context. But personally, I have found that “taking every thought
captive” (2 Corinthians 10:5) is closely linked to “making your ear attentive
to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding” (Proverbs 2:2). Our ears
and eyes are the two primary methods of input to our thoughts and beliefs. If
we aren’t paying attention for ourselves, no one else is likely to do it for
us.
“Keep your heart with
all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life” (Proverbs 4:23).
© 2019 Dawn
Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated all images are copyright free from
pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of
my church or employer.