In the late 19th century, Charles Finney led multiple revivals in New York. A tireless preacher, abolitionist, and musician, Finney figured largely in what became known as the Second Great Awakening in the United States. A contemporary in New York wrote, “The whole community was stirred. Religion was the topic of conversation in the house, in the shop, in the office and on the street. The only theater in the city was converted into a livery stable; the only circus into a soap and candle factory. Grog shops were closed; the Sabbath was honored; the sanctuaries were thronged with happy worshippers; a new impulse was given to every philanthropic enterprise; the fountains of benevolence were opened, and men lived to good.“
As the revival passed, Finney observed that a desire for the effects of revival was causing new preachers to skip the step of repentance and Godly sorrow for sin, and instead structure their services to evoke an emotional response that mimicked the revivals he had taken part in. This led him to write a series of letters to American pastors, now known as Finney’s Letters on Revival. In these letters, Finney encouraged ministers to create revival by provoking their congregations to holiness, instead of creating a cheap emotional counterfeit to true salvation.
Today, modern worship teams often choose to counterfeit God’s intended role for music in the church, instead opting to evoke an emotional response in the way they structure their performances. Instead of leveraging music to teach & encourage believers to a closer walk with God through prayer and consecration, this entertainment-driven experience evokes a false emotional reaction that only mimics the true spiritual change that can be achieve through a deeper walk with Christ.
Long sustained chords, whispered phrases, a slow-burn of repeated mantras leading to a drum fill and an emotional key change — these readily and equally evoke physical and emotional reactions at a Celine Dion concert in Las Vegas, or in your local church. When the lights dim, the fog machines spin up, and the synthesizers hum, the congregation knows it’s time to “turn on” the worship.
If preachers are called to focus on the core message of the gospel, utilizing the truth of God’s word instead of cheap emotional rhetoric to encourage congregants to change, then musicians should be held to the same standard. What if music leaders chose to structure a set of hymns and choruses to cause the congregation to sing together, thinking and dwelling on the goodness of God? What if the goal was not to engender emotion, but was instead to remind believers that they are in church, to set aside the outside concerns that they brought into the sanctuary, and to prepare their hearts and minds to consecrate to a deeper walk with Christ?
What if the song service is equally tempered to both praise the Lord, and to teach new attendees about the nature of Jesus’ sacrifice and how they can be saved? This is the role of music in the church, and as musicians our job is to present the gospel in song. Anything else is cheap fakery, and we shoud avoid it all costs.
But, you might ask, what about venerated hymns that often bring about emotional reactions? Doesn’t the chorus of It Is Well With My Soul utilize repeated phrases? Absolutely it does. However, it is coupled with doctrinal teaching in the verses that anchor the repetition in scriptural truth. My sin, o the bliss of this glorious thought… is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more.
There is nothing wrong with having an emotional reaction to the message of the Gospel — in fact, a youth minister in my home church in Los Angeles was often heard to say “If that don’t light your fire, you’re wood’s wet,” and he was right! However, the emotion should arise as a reaction to the truth of a Biblical message, not in response to a songwriting device that triggers the reaction regardless of the song’s lyrical content.
Compare that to Jesus Culture’s “Spirit Breaks out.” The lyrics seek revival, but only in the context of “praise.” There is no sense of repentance, no call for a deeper walk, no theological underpinning.
Spirit break out, break our walls down
Spirit break out, Heaven come down
King Jesus You're the name we're lifting high
Your glory shaking up the earth and skies
Revival we wanna see Your kingdom here
We wanna see Your kingdom here
Compare that to Jesus Culture’s “Spirit Breaks out.” The lyrics seek revival, but only in the context of “praise.” There is no sense of repentance, no call for a deeper walk, no theological underpinning.