*Now Playing:*
Song: "O Worship the King"
Artist: Passion
Album: Hymns - Ancient & Modern
Writer: Robert Grant; arranged by Chris Tomlin
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I recently picked up this worship CD by Passion called Hymns: Ancient & Modern and I absolutely love it! Over the past few years, I've been striving to lead the latest and the "coolest" worship songs out there... but it's great to dwell in the roots of today's worship music. While reading through some of the lyrics in these hymns, the poetry and the expression of those lyrics really hit me. With this CD, what's awesome is that the classic hymns retain their amazing lyrics... with a few new choruses thrown in... but have the modern worship sound from the Passion Band. As Passion founder Louie Giglio said, "...adding new skin to the old hymns...". What Louie also said was how amazing it is that we can worship God with songs written hundreds of years ago alongside songs written only a few months ago... worship has been around that long and people of the earth have been worshipping our Lord in music and in song for so many years. It blows my mind... and just think that the popular worship songs we're singing today will become "ancient hymns" to the next generation of worshippers.

The other day, I had a discussion about modern worship music with my university fellowship and the point arose where some of today's worship songs are a little too.... simplistic... superficial... After listening to these hymns and appreciating the amazing lyrics they provide, I sometimes tend to agree. Sometimes, I feel modern worship emphasizes catchy lyrics and catchy tunes but sometimes at the expense of depth and resonance. I find that the million praise songs written each year around the world sometimes seemed derived from a cookie-cutter formula... to the point where certain phrases seem overused. I know that the lyrics are just a medium for us to focus our worship upward to God, but sometimes I wonder... God gave us this amazing gift of music, the amazing creativity to write praises to offer back up to him, and the language and dialect to express ourselves... and we can only come up with the same phrases over and over? ... I dunno...maybe I'm just looking too much into it. When leading worship to my church on Sunday mornings to a congregation that consists mainly of youth, children, and young adults, I wonder if they understand what they're singing. One time, we were leading the song "Trading My Sorrows" by Darrell Evans, with a very catchy but simple chorus of "Yes Lord, Yes Lord, Yes Yes Lord..."... and the guest speaker brought up a notable point... he asked us if we knew what were saying/singing "Yes" to.

I think it's important for us to understand the significance of what we're singing... because we're offering up praises to the Lord. If a church is not aware of the worship they are lifting up, then Sunday morning simply becomes a weekly sing-a-long or a karaoke event. As a worship leader, this thought has challenged me to understand fully any praise songs I lead before leading them... to see where they're coming from, and to see where the writer was directing us. God calls on us to worship him every moment... but with all our hearts... and I want to send direct, clear messages up to God saying "I Love You".... "You are Holy"... "Hallelujah"... that come straight from my heart, through my voice... because they are sincere words of praise and worship.