"If I had more time, I wouldn't have written" and sloppy music

I always wonder why I become so much less productive when I have more time on my hands. If I can get two loads of laundry done each Monday night (the time I normally do laundry), how come I don't do any laundry over a 3 1/2 day weekend? That's right, no laundry. I also didn't vacuum, clean or write or read anything. (Wait...what did I do?) It's like the old saying goes: "If I had more time, I wouldn't have written" because I'd have been busy not being busy, or because we are forced to be productive when we have little time in which to produce. When we have more time, we slack off.

Anyways, I guess I did "find time" this weekend to reorganize my guitar songbook and print off some "new" songs to play at small group on Wednesdays. Which brings me to my next point. When I was first choosing songs to put in my book (my "repertiore"?) I only picked ones that were good in my opinion...meaning theologically accurate, lyrically and musically well-written, and God-focused as opposed to self-focused. You may have no idea how difficult it is to find songs like that from the trough of sloppy "worship music" today. You also might not realize how difficult it is to find older, better songs that a) aren't next to impossible to play well on a guitar and b) most people know well enough to sing. It's pathetic how we all (excepting those good ol' Baptists, can I get an Amen?) been weaned off the solid stuff and become complacent with, and ignorant of, iffy theology, a distorted view of ourselves and God, and downright sloppy lyrics in our church music. Most "worship" songs are made up of short, pithy lines which, save for the all-encompassing universe of Christianity and Christian living, bear no relation to the other lyrics. In addition, they generally don't focus only on God, instead choosing to spotlight MY reaction to God. Not that there isn't a time and place for considering that, but I think "worship" (the time we get together and sing) is about considering God and his attributes. Which of course partly includes what God has done for us...and that's fine. I'm just sick of the same "You satisfy me" junk, time and time again. I have all the time I need to think about myself, and corporate worship should not primarily be that time. I'm not saying all new music is bad, because it's not. Obviously. But as a whole, the genre "Praise And Worship Music" has a miserable track record in the areas of sound theology and proficiently-written score and lyrics.

With that being said, I direct my gripe at the songwriters and the worship directors at the churches, and not usually the singers. Generally, I think when people sing these songs, they truly are worshiping. Maybe it's just that, in the habitual or accidental corporate exclusion of other songs, most simply don't know what they're missing. It's the fault of the people who write the songs, and of the people who choose to promote them to their congregation. (And obviously, in most cases people respond to the "style" of music they're used to...which isn't necessarily bad, it's just lame. But I don't want to hear any of this crap about "I can't understand that old stuff" or "I can't understand that new stuff." Unless you're like five, you can too understand it...if you want to.)

Therefore, I have decided to start gradually importing the kind of music that I think "my girls" want to hear into my songbook. When I play, it's next to impossible for me to worship anyways. So why was I enforcing my (okay, pretty stringent) standards on people who don't care? I guess I didn't realize that I might have been distracting the others with songs they don't necessarily "enjoy." It's a little sad because I feel in one sense that I have compromised myself and my position on this issue. I guess I will keep introducing that "new old" music...a little at a time...and keep trying to encourage clear thinking in how we view music.

more to come later. I might write about this on the other blog so stay tuned if you really desperately want to hear even more of my opinions. :)