RIGHTEOUS ROCK

"Secular songs in worship."

That's a biggie these days, isn't it?

That one came through the Skribit suggestion box over on the toolbar, and even though it said "anonymous," I know who did it. And you will pay...

No, this is a great issue for discussion. And as with almost everything we talk about around here, every church is different. Every congregation responds in its own way to stuff. It should also be noted that I've got friends in churches that do use secular tunes and my friends and I politely and respectfully disagree...like Christians should, right?

But...this is my blog and I typically try to give my honest opinion, so here we go.

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I actually don't like the idea of using secular songs in worship. I have a few reasons. Some of them are serious, some of them may seem a little silly, but hopefully they'll make sense. Here's why I don't dig the secular tunes...in no particular order.

#1. WANNABEs
My first reason is a pretty simple one. I don't like doing secular songs because of what they produce in a band dynamic. Time after time, I've seen praise bands take on a secular song as if it's their one chance to finally "rock" in church. And let's face it - aren't most praise bands filled with middle-aged white dudes who used to dream of being real rock stars? In my experience, doing secular tunes brings out a lot of silliness. Players tend to overplay and ham it up on stage, which I personally don't think benefits worship. It's true that there are lots of great secular songs out there - full of truth, honest questions, musical creativity. I just don't like what it does to us. (Why do rehearse the Lifehouse cover 13 times but play through our worship set barely once in preparation?)

#2. WHAT WORSHIP IS FOR
Let me start off by saying that I like evangelism. And I do not consider myself a Calvinist. But I do hold Sunday worship as "the Lord's day." Now, we can argue about the actual "Sabbath" all you want, but I believe that Sundays are for worship. The saints to gather, give praise unto God and study the scriptures. No doubt, lots of people give their lives to Christ on Sunday mornings, but I'm always going to be leery when someone starts talking to me about what we can do to our Sunday worship to bring in more "seekers." There are times and places for intentional evangelism. I just don't believe that worship is up for debate - I don't believe we approach that sacred time before the Father with a sideways glance to all those "other" folks who might be watching.

And this is about as "postmodern" as I get, gang. But I do believe that the community which we share as we sing, pray, study scriptures, baptize and take communion speaks volumes of who God is. I believe that our worship "paints a picture of the Father." I believe the promise of God that "if I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me." I strongly believe that Sunday worship is a time dedicated to lifting God up - exalting, extolling and seeking Him. And I believe He's big enough to reach someone regardless of the song that's playing.

#3. BRANDING
This one is gonna' go off the rails a little bit, but I think it's pretty sound...for the most part.

I don't like secular songs in worship for the same reason I don't like doing a sermon series based on the TV show "24" or "Lost." (I'm indebted to Andrew Osenga for his wise words on this trend.) It always seems like we trying to steal a brand here.

When we do a series called "What Not To Wear," are we really doing anything remotely close to that fashion TV show or are just lifting the title so folks will come to church? Because if somebody shows up at your church because they think two very well-dressed, fit TV hosts with shiny white teeth are going to give out makeovers to the audience, then they are going to be pretty disappointed.

To me, secular songs are like this. As I said, secular songs have a lot of good questions in them. Some even have some pretty significant truth statements in them. I just don't know what those songs are supposed to do to our congregants. Show our faithful that we're cool because we know secular songs? Show our guests that we're "doing church differently" by recognizing truth within non-Christian songs? I don't think using cover tunes does either one of those things.
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I think what really hurts in doing stuff like this is that we don't really have a way to judge success or failure here. I was once at a church that did a very awkward cover of a classic rock and roll song. It wasn't cool and it wasn't funny and I'm still not sure why they did it. And there was pretty obvious confusion and apathy in the crowd, too. But did the band ever hear that? Did anybody find a pastor the next week and say, "Hey, that was weird and it made me feel like somebody just hijacked our service for about three minutes." I didn't.

I think secular songs are way cool for the band and service planners...I'm just not sure they fit into a time of worship.

My two-cents. Now...what's YOUR take?