I noticed an unusual article from a few years ago trending on The Gospel Coalition Blog. It’s an interesting topic… 10 Hymns Youth Groups Should Sing. I think I shared the article here back when it first caught my attention. Some of the 10 Hymns I am not even familiar with but the point of the article is that we need to have students singing songs that make them think. I was especially thrilled to see “This is my Father’s World” on the list because it is one that I believe all churches and youth ministries need to sing today. You may wonder why I single out that hymn in particular.
I strongly believe that younger generations need the assurance and comforting truth found in that specific hymn. I have written about the climate anxiety that kids today are experiencing and believe that hymn reminds us well of the sovereignty of God in His creation. Shortly after Greta Thunberg came to the US and lectured the United Nations, I suggested that specific hymn answered the question “What would Jesus say to Greta?”.
Today I watched an episode of Alisa Childers Podcast in which she interviews the authors of a new book titled “Counterfeit Kingdom: The Dangers of New Revelation, New Prophets, and New Age Practices in the Church“. The book is about the New Apostolic Reformation, a theological movement or trend that is dangerous to the wider church. One of the ways that the theology of these churches spreads is through their very popular worship music. Their songs are sung in most evangelical denominations in America and well beyond.
The authors devote a chapter of their book to the subject of the music and suggest that churches would do well to steer clear entirely. Though not all the songs reflect theological errors, some do in very subtle ways. We know that when we discover a new band we like, we want more music by them. That is human nature. So in order not to see our people lured into bad theology, we should just skip all the music from New Apostolic Reformation churches. (not to mention when we use their music, they are making money via CCLI and therefore we are funding it)
Music is in many ways a form of catechism in the church. What we sing, we come to believe and what we sing repeatedly we reinforce. For well over a decade in my previous position, I told musicians that led worship how we did not sing songs from certain sources at our youth events. Given those events brought together youth groups from lots of different churches, I took some flack for my stance. However, I have strong convictions about why what we sing with students matters.
Students today are living in a feelings driven world. They need robust songs to express great theological truths to God in worship. There are lots of modern hymns and songs that reflect the sort of depth we need to reinforce in their faith. My standard has included that if a song can be mistaken for a love song on hit radio by changing only one or two words, it probably does not have what we want to reinforce in our students.
We should help students reflect on what they sing and ask the tough questions with them. What do these words mean? Do I believe them? Should I believe them? Should I live them?
I’ve managed to get through writing this without giving into the temptation to name the sources of the music. The podcast names a half dozen of which several are among the most popular songwriters in the contemporary worship scene.
Leave a Reply