No, no, I'm not talking about Britney Spears or Justin Timberlake. It's much worse than that. "God is My Boyfriend?", a new column brought to us by RazorMouth, discusses the lack of lyrical depth in the modern "praise and worship" genre. This is something that I've noticed firsthand, having worked for Family Christian Stores a few years ago, and having been a member of a couple Charismatic churchs that I felt left something to be desired in the area of worship lyrics.

While at Family, we were constantly barraged by new "worship" compilation cds, new "worship" groups, and the now-obligitory "worship album" by popular pop and rock artists. It was not uncommon to find a good track or two on most of the cds that came through, but on the whole, they don't approach the lyrical depth of the hymns. Many of my favorite worship songs now are actually hymns that have been put to modern music. One album I came across that still means a lot to me today is "All I Can Say" by David Crowder Band, which had several excellent songs and a truly unique sound.

As for corporate worship, Genia and I were members of two Charismatic style churches [that will go unnamed] -- both of which lacked something when it came to the choice of worship lyrics. The songs seemed to be very "me" focused and very simplistic. Another commonality was their penchant for repeating the same song or chorus over and over again until they had completely lost whatever relevance they may have started out with. When Genia and I first started attending North Point Community Church, it was refreshing how God-centered the songs were. They seemed much more focused on God's character and His redemption. Refreshing indeed. Now that we are in Chattanooga and searching for a church home, we have visited a couple of Presbyterian churches, both of which worshipped primarily through hymns. One church had a traditional music style and one had a contemporary style, but the words of the hymns rang so true and were so affecting -- I lov!
ed both worship services. Hymns are where it's at, for the most part!