as full of a picture of the revelation of God as revealed in the Bible as you can .
And I think sometimes in the very worst cases , lyrics can be an afterthought for some worship songwriters . Other times there ’ s an appreciation of a good lyric , but perhaps we ’ re not fighting as hard as we can for them . And so , I want to challenge myself and a lot of other worship leaders , “ Hey , I think we can do better here . I think we can up our game . I think we can spend longer crafting things . I think we can bring in people who will help us , like theologians and preaches poets , and together we could probably bring a more wholesome , deep biblical offering ”. I ’ ve carried that in my heart for a long time and decided actually , why not do a few podcasts and why not do some events that will keep this conversation going and make sure that we are at least thinking about these things ? And so we have two more WOR / TH events this fall , one in September at Biola University , and then one in October at Wheaton College near Chicago . And we ’ ve only done one so far . It was in Washington DC , and it was just a wonderful time . We had Pat Barrett , Jason Ingram , and a theologian called David Taylor . And it was just a brilliant flow . And the thing I love most is I could tell in the room that there were people so hungry to learn and grow and stretch themselves as worship songwriters and worship leaders in this area .
And I think the other side of it is though , I don ’ t want to discourage anyone or put a big downer on things , there are some really beautiful signs of life and growth and progress in this area too . One example I would give , in recent years , we ’ ve had these kind of almost like modern hymn style songs , “ King of Kings ”, by Brooke and Scott Ligertwood , and Jason Ingram , “ Living Hope ”, by Phil Wickham and Brian Johnson , “ Praise the Name ”, a few other examples like that . And what ’ s interesting about these songs , they have multiple verses in a bit more of a hymn style . And because of that , they ’ re packing in a lot more theology into the song . I actually ran a few of them and measured them against the Apostle ’ s Creed .
Because in the Apostle ’ s Creed you can identify 25 themes that are sung about . And I realized , “ Man , “ King of Kings ” has 17 out of those 25 themes that are found in the Apostle ’ s Creed . Just in that one song !
And so there is a case sometimes you ’ ll hear various people saying , “ Oh , worship music is so shallow these days ” or “ Worship music . It ’ s not like the old hymns ”.
And sometimes that ’ s a very unfair comparison anyway , because they ’ re taking the very best hymns that have survived down through the decades and centuries and they ’ re taking the Top 10 and then comparing them against everything that we are singing in 2024 . That ’ s not a fair comparison . But the other side of things is actually , let ’ s take a few songs , if we zoom in on a few of the very hugely sung songs right now … some of them are intensely Biblical and full of aspects of the nature and character and story of God . And so actually , I ’ ve been quite encouraged too , to be honest .
[ WM ] That is something good . Matt , Ok … last question here . What words of encouragement do you have for our readers ? These folks are worship leaders , worship bandmates ( guitar , keyboards , drums , bass ) and tech teams . They are serving week-in and week-out .
[ Matt ] I would say that one thing to think about is we ’ re so prone to think about all the outside stuff . The outside appearance , like developing your musicality , training up a band , rehearsing as hard as you can , pushing the envelope creatively , upping your game production wise . And there ’ s nothing wrong with any of that if that ’ s coming from an explosive heart of worship . That stuff ’ s all fantastic .
But what I ’ m realizing more and more is it doesn ’ t really mean a whole lot if what ’ s happening backstage isn ’ t healthy and wholesome . And a pure offering and thinking a lot about the fruit of the spirit . The way we interact with each other , the way we behave backstage , the way we conduct ourselves with our lifestyles and with our language and how we do life on and off stage .
Is there great example of the fruit , the spirit , the love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and gentleness and faithfulness and self-control ? Let ’ s zoom in one , is there kindness ? I say I ’ ve been to a lot of churches who are smashing it production wise , but you can ’ t find a drop of kindness backstage .
You would think that efficiency was a fruit of the spirit . And so , I ’ m not against any of the outward stuff . I applaud it … striving to bring our best in those areas . But I want to make sure that we ’ re also ministering with the fruit of the spirit . We ’ re being patient with each other . We are carrying joy onto the stage . And when we got off the stage , we ’ re being loving . We ’ re being kind .
And this is slightly off track , the late Eugene Peterson , he said it ’ s very hard to distinguish between excellence and ambition . And he said , the reason is because we don ’ t have very good models of that . And in the world most times you see excellence , it ’ s absolutely inextricably linked with ambition . The two things are flowing together . And so it ’ s a great question for us … with our striving for excellence , but making sure that the motive behind it is pure . It ’ s a huge thing .
I think about that so much these days , because I think how must God look on it when he ’ s looking down on our offering ? What is it really going to mean to him if you ’ re smashing it with this amazing version of a song , but you were just impatient or unkind to someone backstage 10 minutes before ? That ’ s going to be absolutely zero to the heart of God .
[ WM ] I love it . Good answer ! Well , I ’ ve kept you over our time . Thank you for kindness ,
[ Matt ] It was great to see you as always .
www . mattredman . com
June 2024 Subscribe for Free ... 25