(To read part one, click here.)
It must have been over twenty years ago now that I was sitting with my family in church, and the “Praise” band started rocking out. Apparently, they were singing about heaven, and this is what I heard:
It’s a big, big house
With lots and lots a room
A big, big table
With lots and lots of food
A big, big yard
Where we can play football
A big, big house…
“No,” I thought. “It is decidedly not. They can establish a precedent for food, but that’s clearly a metaphor. And definitely, you won’t be able to play football there. Why would you want to? You’re in the presence of Jesus.” And it did not minister to me.
In fairness, that Audio Adrenaline song was probably not written for corporate worship. So, why were we singing it in church? I believe songs we sing during worship services should… be worshipful. Is that too much to ask? At my church lately, and at other churches I have attended, the songs are often about us, about our feelings, and how excited we should be. Often, I am not feeling the sensations expressed in the songs, so I feel inauthentic trying to get them out of my mouth. Or we have sometimes taken to singing nonsense phrases like oh, oh, oh, oh, and I honestly don’t know what to do with that since I encounter no content I can genuinely use to communicate with God. I stop singing what feels to me like juvenile nonsense and simply try to worship in my heart. But I am distracted.
Finding Music That Resonates Personally and Spiritually
I don’t mind Christian music that is not worship music. In fact, I like a good deal of it. If it doesn’t resonate with me as I am listening, I can and often will search for another song. In the 1980’s, artists like Keith Green, Steve Taylor and the Imperials used to appeal to me, with their moods often mirroring my moods. Maybe I’m just a captive of my own generational thinking but during that same era I was also profoundly moved by the lyrics of Isaac Watts and Charles Wesley, as I am today. But in the 21st century I have struggled to find much in the way of music that appeals to me culturally.
I like what I like. (This may not be profound, but Captain Obvious would have concurred.) Though I have returned to appreciating some rock & roll in the past year or two, this is more of a recent development after a pause of thirty-five years or so. The music that has primarily appealed to me in recent decades has been more acoustic oriented. I enjoy attending festivals that are promoted as “Bluegrass-plus” or something similar. Whatever you think of the banjo, I have no apologies for my string-band passions, but most of what I listen to has very little to do with the sounds originating from my adopted home state of Kentucky. What I primarily listen to sounds very 21st-century to those of us devoted to acoustic music.
Experiencing God Among the Mandolins
Two years ago, I attended one such festival that I found to be so delightful that I am returning there this month for my third straight year. On the first night that year, the Yonder Mountain String Band broke into an extended jam on a rock and roll song from 1958, “Don’t Let Go.” This was the month before the general elections, and I had been carrying feelings of ongoing dread. I sensed our nation was about to plummet into a prolonged period of darkness in which enmity towards one’s ideological opponents was about to increase, and warfare was likely to be waged upon the strangers and marginalized in our land. I was trying to drum up interest in a ministry that would focus upon a large but largely ignored minority, and I was experiencing both thoughts of morbidity and profound sadness. Something gripped me as the band repeated a simple phrase that lifted my spirits and gave me hope: “Hold me tight and don’t let go… don’t let go, don’t let go.” Was it the Holy Spirit? The power of acoustic jam-band music? I’m not certain, but I felt profoundly comforted, and I continue to express similar hopefulness when I reflect upon that night. In my heart, the song became a passionate invitation for a Comforter to embrace me in my distress with a grip that would last eternally.
On night two of the same festival a band of virtuoso musicians called the Travelin’ McCourys took the stage. I have enjoyed their music since their inception as a more jam-band friendly offshoot of the Del McCoury Band. Midway through the set they played a song I had not heard previously. The melody was breathtaking and the lyrics expressed poetic gratitude:
I was grounded
While you filled the skies
I was dumbfounded by truths
You cut through lies
I saw the rain-dirty valley
You saw Brigadoon
I saw the crescent
You saw the whole of the moon
As I would learn a few days later, the song was written and originally recorded in a fairly hard- rocking style by an Irish band I had barely heard of, the Waterboys, but it resonated more with me now that it had been transformed into a style closer to my comfort zone. The lyricist seemed to focus on either a partner or a close friend who had been able to conceptualize a fuller picture for his life than he had. To me, it was as if God was assuring me that even though I had questioned many of my decisions, and made some questionable ones myself, I had not strayed critically from the redemptive trajectory that had been his desire for my life. Until now I had only been able to see a fragment of the drama he had prepared for me. I now stood at a critical junction that would result in the fulfillment of the chief things he had wanted me to do. He had been able to see the entire Big Picture plan for my life which continues to deepen and develop. As I travelled with the McCourys on that night, the lyrics also deepened to magnificent effect:
With a torch in your pocket
And the wind at your heels
You climbed on the ladder
And you know how it feels
To get too high, too far, too soon
You saw the whole of the moon.
Two or three weeks after I returned home from the festival, America grew a little darker as I had sensed it would. Even so, I felt well prepared to tackle the challenges I knew would soon emerge. I had heard from God, and he was revealing designs for my life which I had only been partially able to see, as through a glass, darkly. I had been retrofitted for the impending changes by two compositions I couldn’t eradicate from my thoughts. The first song had served as a prayer for me, and the second was an exclamation of gratitude for God’s omniscience. Both had left their imprints on me.
Rediscovering Christian Music Beyond the Mainstream
My search for Contemporary Christian Music that appeals to my ears and heart had played out along a thoroughfare distinguished by small pinnacles and valleys. Sometimes I might hear a song or two that gave me hope that the genre (really, a family of genres since the “CCM” label is distinguished by lyrics rather than by musical style) was not totally dead to me. Each year at Christmas, for example, I sought out new versions of reverent old songs which resulted in the discovery of an appealing CCM artist or two. But the songs I enjoyed the most were usually those performed in acoustic arrangements that resisted sounding either too twangy, too precious or too adult-contemporary-driven.
I frequent a large, well-organized “Traditional-Plus” festival in North Carolina every couple of years, and on one of my last sojourns there I was introduced to the pure and original sounds of a string band called The Arcadian Wild. One of the chief songwriters plays guitar, the other favors a mandolin, and a young woman plays violin, all making great harmonies together. They are accompanied by a double-bass player, not always the same instrumentalist, but whoever they employ at the time uses a bow on most of their numbers, more like a cellist than a jazz- or bluegrass bassist. The effect sounds somewhat like Appalachian folk music meshed with the heart of chamber music.
The beauty of the music is what initially drew me to this band– wonderful melodies, skillfully played– but after listening to them on Spotify for a few months I realized that the lyrics were inspiring as well. A good deal of cynical content populates my own lyrics because my calling is partially prophetic; I often feel the need to illuminate some of the pain and vices I observe on a daily basis as an urban minister. The Arcadian Wild take a different approach, though, composing songs that always seem to reassure and uplift the human spirit. This is an innovation I might be wise to focus upon more consistently. One of their early songs is written in praise of the selfless ethic of a man on their management team, with lyrics encouraging him to take adequate time to care for his own needs. Another song admonishes an extended family member to stick with his virtuous wife through the hard times. A recent release establishes simply that it is “Cool to Know You.”
The Arcadian Wild: Christian Faith Without Confrontational Evangelism
This band does an annual engagement at a small, rather sketchy-looking venue in my city, and I’ve seen them perform there three times in the last four years. Their camaraderie with the audience is endearing, and they often end their shows by gathering in the middle of the venue to perform a final song without amplification.
The last time I saw them they performed a number that immediately became my favorite. It begins as an apparent tribute to the father of the lyricist:
I’m standing on your shoulders
You turn my green to golden
It still comes as a surprise
Whenever I look in your eyes
Without fail I always find the man I want to be;
I’m standing on your shoulders.
As the song develops, it becomes clear that the relationship he is most grateful for is one with Christ, upon whose shoulders he is standing today—without whom he would have been able to accomplish little. A year or so after I first saw them perform in North Carolina, I realized that this was, indeed a Christian band who had met one another at Lipscomb University—a Disciples of Christ institution founded on Restoration Movement fervor– and they had reeled me in without my realizing I was enjoying a Christian band. Had they been travelling in CCM circles, I probably would not have discovered them, and doubtless most of their fan base wouldn’t have, either.
This winsome band was not trying to evangelize like singer-songwriter Carman had back in his era. Had it been me, I might have chosen a bolder or more confrontational approach in the way I presented my art as a mature believer with an advanced degree in Evangelization Studies; And I might have well been misguided in so doing. Perhaps the band members don’t even share my philosophy for intentionally reaching people. I’m not a musician, just a poet and lyricist with no significant audience, so how valuable would my counsel be when I don’t have to navigate any ongoing connection with their audience? Relationships are more valued by younger people in the 21st century church than when I was their age, and the era of confrontational ministry in North America seems to be largely behind us. In any event the choice isn’t mine to make, and both the artistry and the popularity of the Arcadian Wild may well be enhanced because they follow their own instincts rather than those of a Dwight Moody or a Charles Finney.
Listening for God’s Voice Through Art and Music
One of the keys to interpreting artistic expression is to be flexible and defer one’s dogmatic tendencies. If you recognize lyrics that challenge or inspire you, dig a little deeper. See if the Lord is trying to get you to notice something. If the words are not perfectly theological, though, this might even be helpful if it causes you to take a second look at the content and weigh it against what you believe. So-called Christian lyrics are sometimes not theologically accurate, either. If songwriters express ideas that appear strange or novel, they might be heretical; But on the other hand, they might be inspired. Either way, we should not neglect the task of observing with our critical lenses intact.
Allow art to do what art is supposed to do: To inspire, challenge and provoke you toward greater reflection. If it causes you to think in a way that makes you less faithful to Christ and his church, or provokes you to uncharitable behavior, you can leave it off your playlist.
The Bible doesn’t provide strict guidelines on how we are to enjoy/not enjoy the arts, but it does give us plenty of guidance as to how we should conduct our affairs. Let’s expose ourselves to things that aid us in cultivating the Fruit of the Spirit in our lives.
Photo by John Lyttle on Unsplash
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