I've Worked Out Why I don't like Hillsong Songs... It's The Guitars

This Sunday I got asked to play guitar at Church. The usual players were away or doing other roles in the service. We were doing the usual mix of Hillsong type songs. I'm sure that they might not all be all songs that have come out of the Hillsong church but to me they sound like they do. That is, they all have that ubiquitous contemporary soft anthem rock sound which, it's fair to say, the vast majority of the congregation really seem to like. 

Anyway, Saturday night and I started listening to and learning the songs. All well and good, but then I tried to emulate the sound of the guitar. I've got an idea how to get the contemporary worship sound, compression distortion a bit of chorus. It's all very controlled, very understated, very clean. The guitar will never surprise you like a Jack White guitar riff, knock you off you feet like an ACDC guitar riff or make discordant noises you're not sure are supposed to be part of the song like a Sonic Youth guitar riff. No, the sound is predictable, controlled and anything but wild. And for me this is the rub. For me, the guitar gives so much emotional potency to a song that more often than not I feel like I know what a song is exactly about without understanding the lyrics. Niravna's Smells Like Teen Spirit is just one great example of this. 

The guitar is the source of all those wild raw emotions we posses that we would want to unleash but it's just too impolite to do so. In contemporary worship it's these emotions that must be subservient to the harmonious singing, the constant solid bass line and the triumphant drums (that sound like they are from the last song in a movie where everything works out fine). The problem is sometimes things in life are not harmonious, they are not constant and things definitely don't work out fine. That's when the guitar needs to scream and wail. It needs to scream and wail when we cannot and this is why I don't like contemporary worship music. It's not the lyrics (as obnoxious as they can be) it's the guitars. It's the suppression of those wild raw emotions that I cannot suppress, especially if I'm being honest before God. 

In the end I found a sound that was half way between Jack White and the contemporary worship sound. Apparently, according to one person, reminiscent of early Radiohead.

Your Denomination Is Dying

Census data is out and chances are if you’re a Xn in a church that is part of a denomination your church is dying. At the moment I'm with the Uniting Church and at the current rate the will denomination will be empty by 2046. To be honest this might prove to be an optimistic projection. The Xn social service agency that provides services to the community under the denomination's name might survive but the functioning body of Christians? I don't know.

A friend of mine said we should just work out how to die well. Of course dying well rather than surviving is no problem if you believe in resurrection.  But, we don't do that well. We will fight to the bitter end to hold on.

Personally I like the quote I've heard Pete Rollins cite "The only church that illuminates is a burning one." I suspect that the more we paid scant disregard for the institution the greater it's chance of survival. Imagine if the Roman Catholic church sold all their buildings, gave compensation to all the sex abuse victims then on top of that gave money to victims from other institutions who had not been properly compensated. This sort of radical move would both destroy and revitalise that denomination all in one go.

Maybe the question denominations need to ask is not how do we survive the membership decline? But, how can we burn and burn most brightly.

When Life Hands You Lemons Trite Sayings Are Infuriating

Sometimes life hands you lemons and you have to make lemonade but some days life hands you a steaming pile of dog poo and matter what clever cooking technique you apply no one will ever eat the dish you serve.

For many of us in the first world a trite saying is almost all we ever need to get over all the little hurdles life throws at us. But sometimes things are just hard and no amount of bootstrap pulling is going solve the problem. This week I felt like I was handed a pile of dog poo and asked to make a three course meal and no amount of "have you tried cooking it with..." is going to help.

Sometimes we need people to be around us and not cook the dog poo. To agree that tonight we all won't eat in solidarity we will suffer together because sometimes that is all you can do.

Sometimes in a world where pursing love, mercy and justice gets you crucified there is nothing you can do but be crucified. Be crucified and trust in resurrection.

A similar saying is “Whatever doesn't kill you only makes you stronger” I recently heard Monica A Coleman answer this by saying, “sometimes yes but sometimes it makes you a weaker poorer empty shell of who you used to be.” Life can be harsh and it can be cruel and it can be damaging. For those of us in a more privileged background it can be easier to overcome adversity. For others it can be damaging and it is the damaged and the weak (the poor, the widow and the orphans – the phrase often used in scripture) that God calls us to walk alongside of.