vanilla
There is always a slight terror involved in admitting publicly that you are different. Should I stay quiet, letting people like me for what they know I appreciate, or take the chance and express my preferences, knowing they may dislike me for it, or appreciate my honesty?
I'm one who generally likes strong flavors, rich, meaningful experiences. Blandness is not my forté. I drink espresso straight, I drink Guinness instead of Bud, I drive a supercharged car, I married Christy. I also like rich music in many forms, from Wyclef Jean to NIN to Allison Kraus to Billie Holiday.
This weekend at Westwinds, the 'walk-in' and 'walk-out' portions of the service is a live DVD of Switchfoot. For the life of me, I can't see what anyone sees in this band. Everyone I know seems to love them. I listen to their music (and now see the heavily overdubbed live show) and see all the flavor of reheated plain oatmeal. It's not like I've just not heard them enough to 'get it' either; the only way I can drive from work to home without hearing something by them (or a soundalike band like Matchbox Twenty or Goo Goo Dolls, each of which were doing boring music before Switchfoot came on the scene) is to not listen to the radio. They started out in the Christian music world, which may be why so many people like them, but to me that simply explains where they learned to be so generic sounding.
Maybe it is the blandness within Christendom that disturbs me so much, how so often, even at 'arty' places like Westwinds, we settle for the mundane. I should think we should be the ones striving for more and better, and living life fuller. Yet the less-progressive churches settle for Maranatha! songs, and the more progressive ones are stuck with Charlie Hall and David Crowder Band and the newer Chris Tomlin works. To me, these are songs as devoid of flavor as can be, and worse yet, I find them less spiritually meaningful than the average Pussycat Dolls song. Why can't we be singing songs with great flavor, with great spiritual meaning? Where is the Robbie Seay, the Paul Beloche, the Jon Shirley music? How about the Enter the Worship Circle music, or music by those who have been in the circle (100 Portraits/Ben and Robin Pasley, Waterdeep/Don and Lori Chafer, Ben Kennedy, Barry and Michelle Patterson, Kate Hurley)? How about playing music written by those who work with one body of believers for a time, leading them in praise and adoration, rather than those professionals who show up, put on a glitzy show or conference, then are gone before people come down off the natural high of a rock concert and find out how shallow these songs are in daily life?
Because the masses love it. Because bland songs are easy to sing, and when the soundguy bumps it loud, and the musical energy is high, and everyone is swept away in the concert, the musicians can drop it down, strip away all the music and let the audience (not congregation, not body of believers, audience) sing along, and feel the powerful sway that all music has. Then we believe we have had a spiritual experience. Nevermind that the words held no meaning, nevermind that Britany Spears does the exact same damn thing. It happened at church, so it must be God, right? Right?
I have found that every close encounter I have had with god has been frightening. Not in a "ooh, wasn't that scary cool?" way, but in a bone jarring, fight-or flight, fear of death way. Even more amazing is that the draw to experience it, to collide with god, is even stronger. And I walk away with a complete inability to explain the beauty of it. My very limited understanding of Christian mysticism suggests that I am far from alone in this.
When was the last time you were scared for your life in church?
posted by nathan @ 10:51 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
No, no, no! Vanilla is too nice. I love vanilla. I think it is more like those gluten-free saltines... without the salt.
captcha: zkojex
Preach it! Hearing most Christian songs makes me wish I could write music so I could do it better. (Sigh.) The power of music is such a beautiful thing, it's hard that it's abused so horribly. I've played in orchestral pieces that brought me near to God. I've listened to secular songs that bring me to the throne. But in the place where God's presence should move like a mighty wind, we hear the same tired pieces until we no longer go to services. The rocks will cry out!
captca: nailch (Nail the church to the wall!)
Yeah. I hear you, man. Problem is, most of the music we may gravitate towards isn't always singable in the worship setting. So, those songs end up as "feature" selections. Also, I think you would have to admit a fair amount of your own personal preference has tainted (or at least flavored) your disdain. Two worship music labels turned down my album last year stating it was not "reproducable" and "too complicated for the church."
After graduating youth group and realizing that listening to secular music would not put me in Hell, I saw how disappointing Christian music really is. We should be the most creative, ground breaking people since we serve the most creative power in the universe.
As far as worship is concerned, lately when I have been choosing my set list, I go from page to page and end in frustration. A lot of the good songs are played out. A good chunk of the songs I enjoy in personal worship don't translate to congregational worship.
But really, beyond that, all we need to worship God is to remember who He is and just sing of it. Often times at Real Life we spend time just saying who He is all at once and lifting our voices together.
Just some thoughts.
Personal preference is always involved; I tried very hard as I wrote this to repeatedly mention that this was how I saw it (note the repeated use of "to me..." and many, many "I" statements.) And most of this is heavily informed by swing away from Christendom (the organization that is Christianity) and into the Revolution, by my desire to swing away from the social club that most of church feels like to me and into the deeper life with God. As such, I want music of praise and adoration that is deep. And I want rock and roll (et. al.) that is not boring. Please note that those do not have to overlap for me.
To be honest, if a "worship label" turns down an album, that should probably be taken as a compliment. Those labels exist to make money, not to lead people into relationship with the almighty. And they know that Christendom wants its music shallow and bland, and that anything else does not make money. (Again, I refer to David Crowder.)
I find that my lack of TV watching notably influences my experiences as well. I don't watch TV at all anymore, only movies. And I listen to my iPod, not the radio. As such, I am not used to commercial breaks of any sort. When watching a movie, I find that the first 10 or 15 minutes is really only getting me warmed up for the movie experience, and it has to take me into the mood and keep it there to be a good movie. Too often at church I feel like there are constant emotional 'commercial breaks', if not outright channel flipping. The first song serves as a prelude, the second as a warm-up, and maybe, if there is a consistent emotional flow, I can begin to enter a state of praise and adoration on the 3rd song. And it doesn't have to be music; videos, prayer, scripture, or whatever can work, as long as it is thematically in line. But coming out of a good (or even mediocre) song and asking how I am feeling, talking about the game yesterday, playing an unrelated video, etc. completely breaks that.
And the problem is that I don't watch TV. I don't deal well with the breaks. For me, most of it feels like everyone else came to hold their breath and sink under the water for just 60 seconds, and I sit there with my scuba gear wanting to dive. It only takes people coming up for air twice before I take my gear off.
The Good Friday service of 2005 at Westwinds dived deep. It jumped in musically, set a mood, followed a flow, and never took a break. I have never experienced anything like it, before or since. It gripped me powerfully in unexpressable ways. It was a truly epic movie. And I'm weary of sitcoms.
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