Genre: “Jesus is My Girlfriend” (Hillsong U and Kutless fans – please read)

A couple of things pop to mind after reading this:

First of all, I don’t think it’s fair to judge a band based on one song’s lyrics. I try not to listen to Hillsong too much because the commercialism and prosperity leanings kinda disgust me (maybe that has changed over the years, but from what I hear… it hasn’t). But maybe that’s not what you’re trying to do… perhaps it’s more a comment on the genre.

So, second, the thing I really dislike about the “Jesus is my Girlfriend” type of song is that it usually doesn’t really say anything. Nice flowery language that makes a person feel good without really having to commit to anything typifies the genre. That’s really unfortunate. In my mind, that prevents it from being true art… which is meant to challenge preconceptions and bring about change.

I’m reminded of a song by All-Star United that describes how I feel quite well… it doesn’t really talk about the “Jesus is my Girlfriend” songs, but I think the point applies:

Song of the Year

Word to the GMA
I’m a big up trippin’
G gave me a song tonight
He’s my dog, it’s like I be Rogers
G be’s my Hammerstein

I’ve got a song from above
Give it up for Jesus
Let’s see if God gets a Dove
And then shows up to accept

This is the Song of the Year,
Let the message be clear
I don’t need you to adore me
‘Cos it’s all about God’s glory
Something’s gone very wrong
If we’re chasing the Song of the Year

Testimony Testimony
Testimony Testimony
I’ll never be the same
Holy Holy
Worthy Worthy
Something Something
That rhymes with Jesus’ name

That oughta do
Guess I’m through
Time to canonise
I like to write movies too
About Christian superheroes
Who join forces to ward off the Antichrist

It’s the Song of the Year
But God’s still unimpressed with our radio success

This is the Song of the Year,
Let the message be clear
I don’t need you to adore me
‘Cos it’s all about God’s glory
Angel choirs sing along
If it’s really the Song of the Year.

© 2006 All Star United / Double Happiness Record

I agree Michael. This troubling trend has been developing for many years in the “christian” music scene. I’ve always thought it was a shame, when a group, either intentionally waters down their lyrics, or worse, allows the record execs to influence their music in such a way that it is “more marketable” to a broader audience. Why is the secular music scene so unashamed of saying what they mean, but the christian music scene has to craft their lyrics so that more people will listen? If you are interested in spreading the message of Christ, then say what you mean. If you are interested in record sales, don’t pretend to be a “christian” band. “So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” Rev. 3:16

You could argue that crafting your music in such a way draws in an audience that wouldn’t otherwise listen to the message of Christ. Then, once you have developed that “relationship” with them, you have an opportunity to go deeper with them, to where they may be open to Christ through it. Unfortunately, most “christian” concerts and band websites these days only make vague references to God, so the argument falls flat, because there is no effort made to connect the unbeliever directly with Christ.

With all that said; I’m not against “christian” bands making good, clean music. It doesn’t have to be overly “spiritual” in content, all the time. But, if you are going to call yourself a ministry, serve Him openly. Don’t shy away from proclaiming Christ’s name. If you are referring to him in your song, say His name. If you are crafting music for a broader audience with the intent of developing a relationship with them, so they may be open to hearing about Christ; craft your shows and websites so that the message comes through.

Michael,

While I have to agree with you in general, I will comment on “Draw Me Close,” which is not a Kutless original, but was written by Kelly Carpenter (who was one of the worship leaders at a church I attended some years back). I would have to say that it was not Kelly’s intent to hide the fact he was writing a worship song; in fact, it probably wasn’t written with the intent of even recording it. He’s one of the most humble, sincere guy’s I’ve met, and I’m guessing this came out of a time of personal worship. He doesn’t have that “worship star” mentality that seems more and more common.

I can’t speak for Kutless.

But back to your point: I have for the most part given up on contemporary worship music and really don’t listen to “Christian Ghetto” music at all. Theology is conspicuously absent. But then, it’s pretty absent in much of contemporary evangelicalism, which is why I’m back in a liturgical church.

Just a quick couple notes:

I don’t completely disagree with you here. There is a danger of watering down the message.

But I think the difference here is that these are actually supposed to be worship songs – not just Christian rock – and so they are more intimate. Wouldn’t your wife, if you were talking directly to her, feel a little weird if you had to keep saying her name every other sentence, just so everyone else who might be listening would know that you were talking to her?

In the case of Christian rock, it’s a different story, since that’s meant for entertainment, and is sort of more like communication between the band and its audience.

And, finally, just a quick point: that second song is actually kind of old – it’s originally by Michael W. Smith…

Not a basher, but the more I see of Hillsong in general, the more uncomfortable I get. Just something about the whole thing in that video is unsettling…

Kevin Burgess » Kevin, what if your music isn’t crafted that way but just sort of happens that way? For example, when I sit down to write a song it is usually based on an event I have experienced. I may or may not mention Jesus in the song. The song may be about politics or economics or celebrity culture.

‘Adding some Jesus’ to a song, to me, is as bad as avoiding him intentionally.

Color me: mixed feelings.

Alden » Hey Alden,

Thanks for the background info on the writer. He, like others who release art “into the wild”,probably dislikes some of the ways it gets used. But the fact is he at some point owned the rights to the song and has some say in how it is used. And when a band like Kutless records it, I imagine the royalty payments are pretty sweet.

I had shunned modern worship music for a few years, only to take another look and find that there is actually some good stuff there. Hillsong does some great tunes, Chris Tomlin has been putting out musically and lyrically well-crafted music for about a decade now, and then there is Townend and Getty who wrote “How Deep The Father’s Love For Us” and “In Christ Alone”.

Take another look. You might be surprised.

Diane » Diane,

There is a paradox at work. Yes, they are intimate songs, but at the same time they are trying to accomplish intimacy en masse. Have you seen the size of these concerts?

So while a song like “Draw Me Close To You” might be an excellent song to use in a personal worship time, here you have a hunky beefcake singing in front of a rockin’ band, belting out a tune to predominantly teenage girls, half of whom are already infatuated with the singer. Now add hormone factories… I mean teenage boys, to the mix, standing in close proximity to these girls and you can see how there might be some mixed feelings happening.

All that to say when I was that age and a girl said “draw me close to you” I really wouldn’t have cared why or to whom she was singing it. Maybe teenage boys aren’t like that anymore. ;-)

Aaron » Hey Aaron,

I’m actually not that down on them in the lyrical/musical department. Its all the image marketing that gets me.

One night as I was cuddling with my wife I sang thru most of “Draw Me Close” to her. She knew the song, and didn’t appreciate that I held her in nearly as high esteem as Jesus.

Anonymous » Great test. Must introduce that to and then enforce it with my song leaders. “If its something you can sing to your significant other while cuddling, let’s not bring it to the congregation.”

Michael, I’m not suggesting that every song should say Jesus, just because it is a Christian song. If the song was written purely for the “worship” audience, I don’t necessarily have an issue with it. We all know who “you” is. Maybe “you” should be capitalized here. I have noticed though, that several of these same songs are picking up secular air play, which bothers me a little. It wasn’t written for that audience. It seems to me like a bit of a slap in God’s face to play it to an audience who will assume the song is about another person. The meaning has been completely lost on the audience, and redirected from God to a person.

There are several bands (that I listen to, by the way), who are christian bands, whose songs will not be sung on Sunday mornings though(Michael, you know my taste in music), who make the same vague references to God, rather than proclaiming His name when they refer to Him. Part of my beef with these bands, is that for me, part of the allure of their genre, is their unashamed declaration of their message. When the music is in your face, but the lyrics are unclear, the passion and the message is lost on me.

Good discussion!

hmm, interesting artical, definitely made me thing. although the videos don’t work on my browser i definitely know kutless and hillsong quite well…

I agree with you that maybe there should be concerns as to how mainstream some of our christian bands are going where they have the temptation to take the glory, rather than give it to Jesus. I don’t believe nessasarily that that has happened here, but i can see how it would be a temptation when you get bigger in the music industry…

These songs may be simple lyrically, and don’t go quite as much in depth, but i believe them to be more intimate love songs to Jesus. Is there something wrong with that? I don’t totally understand why there is a huge problem with the lyrics. To me they sound theologically sound. Sure, maybe the name Jesus isn’t thrown in there every other line, but throwing the name in there just for the sake of doing it, isn’t really the right thing is it?

Good thoughts, appreciate the article.

Michael

I don’t really see the problem with the lyrics. You said if you take out “I’ve got a Saviour and He’s living in me” it becomes one of those songs where it could be talking to a boyfriend/girlfriend. But what if you don’t take it out because it is already embedded in the song, then you know exactly who they are talking too. Plus after I read this I put on that Hillsong CD and just listened. They mention God and Jesus A LOT! So what if they refrain from it for one song. I agree with the previous writer where throwing it just for the sake of it being there is not the right thing to do. And as a songwriter you should be able to appreciate the fact that it’s not easy to write a song, so maybe throwing You in there was a little easier that trying to fit the word Jesus in every line.

As for Kutless they didn’t even write the song, they just covered it for a worship album as you know. And you called their singer a “hunky beefcake singing in front of a rockin’ band, belting out a tune to predominantly teenage girls, half of whom are already infatuated with the singer.” Are you saying that guys who are a “hunky beefcake” (which the hunky part he definitely had no say in the matter, he’s just another one of God’s awesome creations) cannot be a singer if that is where his passion lies? As for the teenagers and their hormones, I think he is trying to do his best at not letting anything happen by singing a worship song and trying to Draw Them Closer to God!

As for the whole mainstream and marketing thing I totally agree with you. That picture of the Hillsong singer is just wrong for any band, but especially for a Christian Worship band.

i’ll leave my comments about the boyfriend/girlfriend theory to none other than South Park’s very own “Faith + 1.”

Enjoy!! http://watch.thecomedynetwork.ca/south-park/season-7/south-park-709-christian-rock-hard/#clip10912

For those of without the time to watch the whole episode, the genius lines are:

“Cartman: All right, guys, this is gonna be so easy. All we have to do to make Christian songs is take regular old songs and add Jesus stuff to them. [some sheet music is shown. Cartman has already crossed out the original author's name] See? All we have to do is cross out words like “baby” and “Darling” and replace them with [writes next to "baby"] Jesus. All right, Butters, give me a beat. [Butters doesn't understand, but starts drumming. It's rather good] Okay, nice. Very nice. All right, Token, give me a smooth bass line…”

There’s some background to the Hillsong video that I’m pretty sure none of you know. All I suggest is that you don’t talk without facts. ….I do think there’s is some mishap among the worship/christian music scene, but Hillsong is not a part of that.

I agree with many of the sentiments expressed here about signing songs to Jesus that echo what one expresses to his/her partner. However, it is also important to take a step back from our criticisms of “mushy” praise music. Allow me to share a quotation to stoke the fires of discussion:

“While we might be rightly critical of the self-centered grammar of such choruses (which, when parsed, often turn out to be more about “me” than God, and “I” more than us), I don’t think we should so quickly write off their “romantic” or even “erotic” elements (the Song of Songs comes to mind in this context). This, too, is a testimony to why and how so many are deeply moved in worship by such singing. While this can slide into an emotionalism and a certain kind of domestication of God’s transcendence, there remains a kernel of “fittingness” about such worship. While opening such doors is dangerous, I’m not sure that the primary goal of worship or discipleship is safety…[Such a view] suffers from a “quasi-rationalism that sneers at such erotic elements in worship and is concerned to keep worship “safe”.

From James K.A. Smith “Desiring the Kingdom”.

New article on RelevantMagazine.com relates to this topic:
http://www.relevantmagazine.com/god/church/blog/19090-high-on-jesus
First paragraph: “”This could just as easily be about cocaine use,” I thought to myself. The writer of this particular worship song, it seemed, went out of his way to avoid mentioning the name of Jesus. The phrases “I’m spinning around” and “I can’t stop moving” were repeated several times. “I need more of you” was echoed throughout the chorus. Because I was in church, I knew the song had to be about God, but I started to smirk when I thought about the words being applied to chronic drug use. I turned to my wife and she gave me one of those half-critical, half-curious stares. Then I leaned in and whispered what I thought was so funny. She glanced up at the lyrics on the screen in front of us; then she giggled silently, covering her mouth (because she has better manners than I do).”

i do agree with most of you about “Christian” bands who puts Christ in a glass box under a cubbord to sell more records, i want to comment on Reese’s post: Reese im a south african, i stay very far away from the place where these songs have been created, i cant get the inside info that you can so i peurely see a song for what it is. there is a song that you might know it’s written by lighthouse and its name is “everything” first time i heard it i thaught ” what a wonderfull song to play my girlfriend on valentines day” i liked it and visited youtube to checkout the video and guess what, they where singing about Jesus in the video even when it has no relation to God whatsoever. Christian bands are becoming more mainstream, esspecially the christian rock bands, i don’t really listen to international worship bands anymore because of this, here in sunny south africa we have some of the most pure Christian bands in the world that really spreads the word and love of God, i would love to sent you a link so that you could listen to some of this great music only problem is that most of these songs are in afrikaans ” flemish like” but there is one universal verse that you can look up on the net witch occurs in one of these songs “soli deo gloria” “all the glory to God” anyway. i pray for all the bands out there to find guidance, hope, truth and love. whe are not the ones to judge any of these bands for none of their songs are written for us but sollely for God, it’s God Whom must deside if he likes the music or not. let us not fall into evil and do what God forbids us to, let us not judge so that others cant judge us, let us use our healthy God given brains to choose the music we listen to. go stand infront of a mirror, look at yourself and ask yourself “do I see Jesus in me” be pure of heart and love Jesus only, you will reep the rewards for ever more and even when your love for Jesus brings judgement upon you, keep your faith in Him for He will save you from those who haunts you, and you shall live by His side untill the end of days.

I would love like to see Christians to take our singing and playing craft more seriously. We seem to have fallen in to a rut of “campfire music / singing” and though there is nothing wrong with that (for people 16 and under) this seems to keep getting spoon-fed to the church as “great modern worship.” Paul said when I was a child I spoke as a child I reasoned as a child etc. but when I became older, I put away childish things.” I wish we could do that. Also: David played skillfully before the Lord. Old testament singers & musicians were hand picked by by their talents first and then weeded out by their dedication to God (because they had so many people “trying out” that were skillful, they could afford to do that). Nowadays what we do is we pull in anyone “who’s heart is right” and leave out the talent part altogether. Paul said to run the race for the victor’s crown. The bible instructs us to study to show ourselves approved. Yes of course it means to study scripture but also to strive for excellence in all we do. I’m not in any way trying to eclipse the holy consecration of one’s self unto our creator in an abject posture of total surrender and holy communion unto our Lord, but I would so love to see the church take God seriously as though they are playing before a King, rather than it be “just good enough.” (PS: and why does it all have to sound like bad Coldplay meets Bad U2?…sorry had to ask)

-Vocal Coach Ken

@Vocal Coach Ken: Good points here Ken.

I am soooooo weary of the U2 guitar sound…

I just found Hillsong. i love their music and Brooke Fraser. I grew up in church listening to straight gospel music. Slow gospel songs you feel in your bones or ones that make you jump out of your seat. Now that I am older my music taste has changed. I no longer listen to R&B like I used to and Hip Hop is no longer part of my music vocab. I love Rock… more like Indie rock with a kick of folk and pop. So when I heard “From the Inside out” at church the other day I was hooked and went straight to the computer to find the origination. This is how i found Hillsong.

I’m a woman who loves Jesus with all of her heart. I have Jesus and the spirit leads me in life. Listening to Hillsong all i wanted to do was praise him. To sing “Hosanna” on the roof tops as loud as possible. I got an itch or a yearning to get up and sing my heart out in praise to God. I grew up with GOSPEL music that made me feel the same. I don’t believe that the whole taking this out then you can sing it to your boyfriend argument is fair. Jesus is a personal relationship. The love of Christ can be compared to the love of a spouse. You love no one or at least in scripture it says you are to not love anyone more than your spouse. Not even your children. But no one more than God. So the love of your spouse is the strongest love you have next to God there is going to be similarities. Doesn’t mean any of those similarities are sexual but the desire to be with God and your spouse for them to comfort you in times of need. To have trust and confidence in you.

Without the God in my relationship there would be none. So I think it is unfair of you to have that argument because there is no other relationship in this world like the relationship with your spouse and Christ. Just like your relationship or love for your spouse is closely related to the love of your children. you could take a love song and instead of saying darling or baby add your kids name and it would work as well.

My music choice has changed so my worship taste in music has too. That is why I love hillsong. The genre is so closely related to Indie Rock and I love it. I feel the spirit and I think if one can feel the spirit then it is up to the individual to find what brings forth that feeling of love for Christ and the Holy spirit when listening to worship music.

Ok, I haven’t read the other comments so if I may be repeating anyone, I apologize. The comments are strictly directed toward Micheal Krahn. I don’t get it man. There are hundreds of worship songs that refer to God as you. I’m going to take time to find them now but if you reply back and proved to me that you read this I will. It’s not a way to disguise being Christian that is the most absurd thing I have ever heard. They are obviously Christian worship groups, now even if they were a Christian rock group like say Fireflight or RED does it matter how we reach the lost, as long as they’re being reached? I find it most appalling that you even wrote this article thing. These bands are amazing Christian musicians who give all the glory to God. For you to say such things is completely wrong. I really don’t what else to say, I’m completely disgusted.

Oh man. This is such a great blog post. Hillsong can be very annoying. And that picture? Racy, yes. And I’m a youngin and I think so!

Titus 1:15 “To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted.”

i do not see any problem with the lyrics.

You need to get your fact right, if the Lord have not said they annoy him, why do yo become enraged. as long as the songs are lifted up to the Lord they are not meant for you.

Racy Picture? 

That’s some of the most legalistic junk I’ve heard.  Those in Christ live under FREEDOM, not slavery.  If the woman in Hillsong wishes to take a “model-esk” type picture, then she is FREE to do so.  It’s not racy one bit.  Girls enjoy looking and taking beautiful pictures, there’s nothing wrong with that at all.  I think it’s a great picture.

 If it causes you to stumble, is that her fault or yours?

These songs cannot be sung to the same tune to a mortal individual. Just listen to the music.

What’s wrong to the lyrics? It’s up to you whether you’ll mean the lyrics of the song senselessly or you sing the lyrics of the song to “Jesus”. And I strongly believe that the composer and singers of these songs have made everything out of this FOR JESUS..