Kauflin on Top 10 Ways to Write Bad Worship Songs

Bob Kauflin posts his "Top Ten" list.
Note particularly:

6. Make sure the majority of your songs talk about what we do and feel rather than who God is and what he’s done.

and

10. Forget about Jesus and what he accomplished at the cross.

_IT_ came upon a midnight clear

See http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif for words.

The lyrics were written written by Edmund Sears, pastor of the Unitarian Church in Weston, Massachusetts. Rev. Sears was a graduate of Union College and Harvard Divinity School.

The lyrics aren't about Jesus. They're about the message of Peace presented by the angels.

More sloppy theology

Hallelujah (Your Love Makes Me Sing)

by Brenton Brown, Brian Doerksen

Every time I see you, all your goodness shines through
And I can feel this God song, rising up in me

Who has seen God?

"God song, rising up in me" ?

The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies

The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies of St. Stephen University, St. Stephen, New Brunswick, is trying to tackle the problem of producing contemporary songs with deep theological content.

I must admit the the "E-word" in their name raises hackles for me. But they're worth watching (and hopefully benefiting from).

John Stackhouse is not in love with Jesus!

Dr. John Stackhouse explains here.
HT: Justin Taylor

Interview With DA Carson on Worship.

Here are some nuggets [each taken out of context] from an interview of DA Carson, PhD, research professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. The entire interview with a followup series of email is available here.

I would abolish forever the notion of a 'worship leader'. If you want to have a 'song leader' who leads part of the worship, just as the preacher leads part of the worship, that's fine. But to call the person a 'worship leader' takes away the idea that by preach­ing, teaching, listening to and devour­ing the word of God, and applying it to our lives, we are somehow not worshipping God.

And because it is not only adoration of God and confession and so on, but indoctrination-that is, teaching one another-it needs to be biblically true. A great number of con­temporary choruses are impressionistic rather than contentful. You don't come away having learnt a great deal. There are some exceptions, but on the whole that is true and we just have to work harder at this.

My mother died of Alzheimer's disease, over nine years. Nine or ten months before she died, you'd get a small flicker from the eyes or squeeze of the hand if you held up pictures of her grandchildren. Six months before she died, if you sang an old hymn like 'Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine', you'd get a squeeze. Or a quote from the King James Version that she'd been brought up on. That was about the last thing that produced any response in her. The most deeply embedded memories in that decaying brain were those old hymns and memorised Scripture. There is some­thing worrying to me about a genera­tion that sings choruses that won't last more than five years. There's not much memorization of Scripture, and there's not much memorization of doctrinally profound hymns. I want to see that reborn. Nobody's going to die remembering 'He's a great big wonderful God'.

HT: Jason Taylor's Between Two Worlds

Consumer Soteriology

We Believe In God
(Amy Grant/Wes King)

Note the couplet:

If you believe in God / if you say you need Jesus
He'll be where you are / and He will never leave you

So much for faith and repentance!

Why do we "need" Jesus?

We believe in God / and we all need Jesus
'Cause life is hard / and it might not get easier

I guess I might have trouble meriting heaven by myself, so I need help of some sort from Jesus. In this song, is he my savior, or my example or friend or therapist or life coach or what??