Shadowlands

  I went to church. The worship leader smiled and said, “Today we’ll teach you a new song!” Here we go again. “HALLE!” A pause. “LUJAH!” What a terrible song. Then the song continued as a remix of Amazing Grace . Now it felt insulting. Are we, as Christians, supposed to enjoy a worship service no matter what? The people in the front row were just jamming it out. Was that what I was supposed to do? We hear about Christians with abundant joy in their hearts and on their faces, made possible by their strong faith in Christ. Is that what this is about – to be a strong believer is to rejoice in any worship song, Philippians 1:18 style? I think it’s objectively true that some songs are “better” than others. To go one step further, some genres are more suitable for certain purposes than others. The most popular song at a rave is probably not going to be well received at a funeral. At what point do we decide that a worship song is “not good enough”? Langu...