Who Are You Worshipping?

Project: to create a list of BEST AND WORST worship music within the last 10 years.

How do you even begin?

At first, you're thinking, "Well that's easy, I can think of quite a few songs that I don't like." But why don't you like them? They don't sound right to you? The lyrics make no sense? Are the lyrics wrong even? How about chord progression? Do you even know what chord progression means? Who are you to say a song is WORST? Someone out there likes it. At least the person who wrote it.

EXAMPLE:
Person #1 - "I'm don't like "Draw Me Close to You". It's too sappy! Too cheesy!"
Person #2 - "... but I like that song. It's pretty."

So how do you begin to define sucesses and failures withing the song writing community? Go to the root of the problem! WHAT IS WORSHIP MUSIC SUPPOSED TO BE AND DOES THIS SONG FIT THE BILL?

Worship music is from God, about God, and for God and his glory. That's it. Get all technical with me but that's what it boils down to. So why do we sing songs where every other word is the word "I"? Shouldn't it be "You"? I heard a song somewhere recently with this message: "My God is better than your god because my God does all these great things for ME in MY life." Those were not the exact words but you get the idea, don't you? What is that all about? One of my good friends described it as a "Neener Neener Neener" song. I couldn't agree more.

So if I don't like the words in songs these days, what should they be, you ask. Let me give you an example of BEST AND WORST, in my mind, now that I've thought it all out.

- Me Vs Him -

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ME

(Trading My Sorrows)

I'm Trading My Sorrows

I'm Trading My Shame

I'm Laying it Down for the Joy of the Lord

I'm Trading My Sickness

I'm Trading My Pain

I'm Laying it Down for the Joy of the Lord.

Yes Lord Yes Lord Yes Yes Lord

Yes Lord Yes Lord Yes Yes Lord

Yes Lord Yes Lord Yes Yes Lord

... amen?

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HIM

(Lord, You're Holy)

Wonderful, Glorious, Holy and Righteous.

Victorious, Conqueror, Triumphant and Mighty.

Healer, Deliverer, Shield and Defense,

Strong Tower and My Best Friend.

Omnipotent, Omnipresent, Soon Coming King,

Alpha, Omega, Lord of Everything...

Holy is Your Name.

I color coded it so you can see the difference. Red is me blue is GOD. Now which song do you thing pleases God more to hear? Or in other words, which song Praises God more? Now I'm sorry if you said "Trading My Sorrows" but I personally don't feel like worshipping myself instead of worshipping Him. Sound harsh? It should. This is IMPORTANT! We take this subject so lightly today!

"Oh, it doesn't matter... it's just a song! Stop being so picky/whiney/bossy/fussy..."

That's what I'll hear sometime. But hey, if someone took a verse of scripture and re-wrote it to the point of heresy would it bother you? (And just to take another quip at "Trading My Sorrows", what the WHAT is a chorus of YesLordYesLordYesYesLordYesYesLordLordYes supposed to mean?) >P

So the next time you're in chapel/church/worship night, and you're screaming the same four words (that have something to do with you) at the top of your lungs and the drums are getting louder and more and more exciting and your jumping and waving your hands and the band leader--sorry, worship leader, starts singing yet another octave higher, stop and take a look around. Who are you worshipping? Yourself? Your buddy up on stage wailing away on the guitar?

Once you understand what I mean, do something to change it.

Project: To not add to the worst worship music of the next 10 years.

But that's just my opinion...