Now That I've Gotten Started ....

HERE is the link to the Christian Copyright License Incorporated list of the Top 25 worship songs sung in the United States for the most recent six-month period, ending February of this year.

In the interest of time we'll talk about the Top 10. I've just looked over the lyrics to each of them. Now let me say that this is not a critique of any particular song. There are wonderful songs on this list, songs that the Church will be, and should be, singing for a long time. "Blessed Be Your Name," "How Great Is Our God," "God Of Wonders:" Man, those are good songs, just to name three off the top of my head.

But when we look at the larger context of the kinds of songs we are singing, again and again, in our churches, and actually scan the lyrics, we'll see that we're returning to the same themes over and over and leaving out key elements of our faith. For instance, what did Christ do, that was physically and historically validated by human beings, that no other religious leader did? He rose from the grave.

Here are the references to this event found in the Top Ten worship songs:

1. "From the cross to the grave, from the grave to the sky / Lord I lift your name on high."

2. "I'm alive and well, Your Spirit lives within me / Because You died and rose again."

That's it. Two. Now, does that mean Tim Hughes shouldn't have wrote, or we shouldn't sing, "Here I Am To Worship," for instance? Of course not. It's great; it's Biblical. But clearly there is an opportunity for songwriters, worship leaders, singers, and congregations to add songs about the distinguishing characteristic of Christianity, the resurrection, to the repertoire of current church songs.

Here are the references to the Second Coming, or time of final judgment and triumph of good, in the Top Ten worship songs:

1. "One day every tongue will confess You are God / One day every knee will bow."

One. One reference -- two lines of one song. Now granted there are songs which say things like "we will forever worship you" or "You are forever God." Which are true and good statements, and the songs that express those sentiments belong in our canon of songs. But brothers and sisters, are we proponents of yin-yang theology? Is there an end to sin? Yes. An end to war? Yes. An end to strife? Yes. Will God and Satan coexist forever? No!

There is an end; there is a victor. And we are supposed to talk about it, walk about it, sing about, dance about it, write about it, paint about it.

And there is an end to our personal struggles. Will Satan be allowed to torment, accuse, confuse, and tempt us forever? No, no, no, no! We have a predestined end and it is GOOD! One that we're supposed to remind each other of -- Paul tells us to comfort one another with this teaching:

I Thess. 4:17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage each other with these words.

Can I get a witness? Can I get a witness? Let me hear you, Amen Corner.

So songwriters, have you got writer's block over topics? Singers, looking for some vital but not done-to-death things to record and perform? Pastors, looking for some new themes? How about the resurrection, ascension and return of our Lord?

And let me say once again that I'm not claiming the writers of the songs polled disobeyed God in writing the songs that they did, or that there are incomplete elements to their own theology. I'm just saying, for whatever reason, there are gaps, huge gaps, in the core Christian doctrines that we sing about in our churches these days, which presents good opportunities for those involved in Christian music.