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In Case You Missed It…
…”How Great Thou Art” is not just indicating sequence but causation. When this one thing happens, THEN SINGS MY SOUL. I always liked this song, but it took me far too long to pick up on this. O Lord my God! When I in awesome wonder Consider all the works Thy hand hath made. I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, Thy power throughout the universe displayed. Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee; How great Thou art, how great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee: How great Thou art, how great Thou art! When through the woods and forest glades I…
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Critiquing Critiques of Criticism
[Note: This post was inspired by my friend Lisa’s blog about worship music criticism.] I remember the first time I criticized worship music. It was in kindergarten. We would sing this song where half the class would jump up and sing “praise ye the Lord,” then as they sat back down the other half would jump up and sing “hallelujah!” I decided it was shallow and repetitive, and as I recall we sang it all the time. Fast-forward to the new millennium. I was a late-bloomer in terms of modern music, but I had embraced CCM (or “Contemporary Christian Music,” for the uninitiated) when I first heard Jesus Freak as…
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Jesus Loves Me, This I Know
Those of you who know me well are acquainted with two of the deepest passions in my life: music and Christianity. Because of this love, I am often hard on both—especially when they are found together. I want so much more for them than what they often are now, though I’ll be the first to claim I haven’t got it all together myself. I’ll spare you all my thoughts on worship music at this time. Instead I invite you to ponder with me a problem I hadn’t thought of before: the problem of God’s love in our worship. It would be nothing new to simply say our worship music is…