Why Worship Songs Are Not "Christianese"

Christianity and Culture, Part 3

Welcome to part 3 in what I originally thought would be one post addressing a controversy from a few weeks ago, on whether certain worship songs should be avoided because they are inaccessible to unbelievers who might find themselves attending a service.

In Week 1 I wrote about what it means to make Christianity accessible, and suggested that the basic goal should be to make the message of Christianity intelligible to people. Last week I followed up on that idea by acknowledging that making Christianity intelligible does not mean we ignore or cover up the part of it that are confusing or difficult. Making our faith accessible means helping people understand it as it is, not as we (or they) might wish it to be.

This week I finally want to talk about our worship songs in particular and the idea that we should consider avoiding lyrics that are confusing or difficult to understand. The thinking runs like this: Imagine a guy whose wife drags him to church one Sunday. He stands there, listening to the worship songs, hearing words but not understanding what they mean. He feels like an outsider, that Christianity is something foreign to him and that he simply does not get. So, instead, we should avoid “Christianese” language in our lyrics and sing songs that even a guy like him can understand.

Except, I do not actually see any problems with the scenario above. I do not think it is a problem when a non-Christian does not understand certain worship lyrics because they are concepts he is unfamiliar with.¹ Moreover, most of the examples of lyrics that are supposedly “Christianese” are, in fact, not.

When people come to church they should be able to understand the message of Christianity. But that is not the same as a person (1) understanding every word that is said, or (2) feeling like an outsider. Frankly, non-Christians are outsiders when they attend church. Moreover, Christianity clearly articulated should often sound foreign because it is very much at odds with some of our basic cultural values. Making the message of Christianity accessible does not mean making non-Christians feel like they are already insiders. Welcome? Yes. That there is no difference between them and those worshipping? No.

Even lifelong Christians sometimes feel like “outsiders” during worship, when we feel distant from God. Sometimes worship reinforces that feeling (“Why does everyone else seem to feel close to God but me?”) but sometimes it can speak the words we need to hear. Moreover, our worship songs should often challenge Christians and push us to go deeper into Scripture. If every potentially confusing or difficult Christian concept is “Christianese,” I’m not sure that leaves us with anything to sing about.

In any case, I do not think we should worry that difficult words or ideas are inherently exclusionary — we all navigate these sorts of things all the time. Here’s an example of what I mean. I live in Charleston, South Carolina. When I check out at any given store, I hear “Have a blessed day” as often as, “Have a nice day.” That’s just life in the South. Are non-Christians confused by this? Do they feel excluded? Of course not.² It’s just a kind thing to say, and everyone understands it. No one wrestles with the concept of blessedness, even though if they stopped to think about it, they would probably acknowledge that they have never tried to define it.

Photo by NATHAN MULLET on Unsplash

Here’s another example. A Brandon Lake song we sing a lot right now in my church contains the line,

"I wanna gift like Mary, I wanna break my vase.”

Now, if I wanted to nitpick, I could argue that line is actually less accessible than, for example, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God almighty.” Why? Because while a person can pretty easily guess what the hymn is trying to convey, the line about Mary requires them to have knowledge of a specific Bible story. If a person doesn’t know the story about Mary breaking her jar of perfume and anointing Jesus, that line might sound strange. How are they supposed to know why breaking a vase equates to giving a gift? Also, my guess is that every non-Christian hearing that line would assume it is about Mary, mother of Jesus, which would be wrong.

But who cares? It’s a catchy song, it’s fun to sing, it has a ton of biblical references, and people really, really like it. In other words, it’s about as accessible as a worship song can be. And when someone hears the term “holy” in church, they might not be able to give a textbook definition of the word (can you? Can I?) but they do understand that it conveys something about God’s “God-ness” that is beyond us. I think that’s more than enough. It’s ok for people to realize there are things about our faith they don’t know yet, and that need to learn more.

In the end, I think it’s fine for people to know they are on the outside looking in. We’ve all felt that way about hobbies, friend groups, etc. And when that happens, we decide that we either want to find a way in, or not. Do we really want people to come to church and think “I don’t think anything about this would change me”? No, we want them to think, “This is what I’ve been searching for my whole life.”

Inaccessibility, whether with hobbies or with faith, means people either being so confused that they are repelled, or realizing they are not welcome. So, when it comes to the Christian message, make it clear and understandable. And when it comes to music, make sure the songs are fun to sing and that the words aren’t badly written. Brandon Lake wrote the song I mentioned above, with Mary and her vase. There are a whole lot of people who love his songs right now, even though they’ve never set foot in a church and definitely don’t understand all the lyrics. And a lot of them are finding their way into church as a result. That sounds pretty accessible to me.

1. If people do not understand lyrics because they are poorly written (as many contemporary worship songs are) that is a completely different thing. I’ve been a Christian for pretty much my entire life, and I find myself fairly often hearing lyrics in church and wondering “What does that even mean.”

2. I mean, some people complain about it but no one likes them very much.