How New Worship Preferences Brought Poetry Back Into the Church
Posted January 14, 2012
Our graduated students continue to be an incredible blessing to me. Some of them still get to spend time with me, talking about life and what God’s leading them through. It’s sometimes surreal speaking with them now as adults.
It’s hard not to picture the punk freshmen, who seemed to only care about Mountain Dew and Pop-Tarts. Now, seemingly all of a sudden, they are the signed, sealed, delivered, Christ-focused adults; making their way within the Universal Church. It is truly remarkable to witness!
As history has told us, young people have, and likely will continue to thrust the world into change. Typically, they’re open to new ideas and new ways of doing things. They just plain haven’t settled.
Young people in the church are no different.
Many times we see young adults grabbing onto and promoting the latest when most of us are holding onto the safest. They are a key part of our vision casting, and we should pay attention to what’s important to them. It might just give us a glimpse into the future.
All this considered a few of our graduated students are these kinds of people. They seem to be on the cutting edge of what the Universal Church is unfolding next. Something that has sparked my interest as of late, is a move back to poetry.
Through the ’90s, I never would have expected to go to a Christian music festival and see poets mixed in with my favourite hard rock bands. Flash-forward to today, and it’s a trend that is growing in popularity. The dramatic spoken word seems to be making a huge comeback within alternative Christian circles and it is fascinating to watch. (Thanks to one of our grads, named Jessi; I have already featured Levi The Poet on this site.)
This brings us to last night’s conversation.
Another one of our grads named Keith sent me a text, telling me I needed to check out a poet group called Listener. It turns out that Listener has been touring with some of Keith’s favourite bands. I should mention that Keith is a metalhead. He’s into the kind of music that most of the Christian conservative world would find distasteful. Some may even judge the sound and question these bands’ Christian character, without really diving into the lyrics.
Keith continues to choose artists who have devoted their lives to Christ, putting forth unique sounds (whatever they may be) to reach their culture, and glorifying God in their way. As a youth pastor, I have learned that the sound just doesn’t matter. The lyrical content is the key to an artist’s heart. The sound may hold the emotion, but the words hold the message.
Getting back to our new trend in poetry and our newfound artist, Listener. Keith told me to watch a video designed around Listener’s title “Wooden Heart“. Needless to say, I was impressed! I listened as the poet described the church, in one of the most unique ways I have ever heard. Check it out below.
For me, the refrain of the poem sank deep into my heart, with every repeat.
“So come on and let’s wash each other with tears of joy and tears of grief. And fold our lives like crashing waves and run up on this beach. Come on and sew us together, tattered rags stained forever. We only have what we remember.“
Perhaps, this is a small glimpse of the kind of worship that we’ll see in worship services of the future. I can’t say I’d be disappointed.
Join the Conversation; Share Your Thoughts
- How do you see young people’s worship preferences impacting the future of the Universal Church?
- How have you shifted your view of worship over the years?
- What are you listening to now that honours God and tells the Christian story?
Thanks for your blogs man! Keep up the good work. For anyone else reading this and is interested in “Listener” (and likes hardcore music) should check out one of the most AMAZING music videos of all time. It’s called “David De La Hoz” by “The Chariot”. Go check it out!
Thanks for your comment, Keith. Hopefully, my post will throw you a few more interesting Twitter followers! Thanks for keeping me in the loop on the future of the church and thanks for supporting my writing!
Great post. Listener are a fantastic example of Christian music that is more devotional in focus than it is sing aloud worship music. It connects with the fringes of our culture and yet also resonates with deep spiritual waters.
Save up your hopes friends is a call to discipleship. Wooden heart is all baptism. Building bridges (name escapes me) challenges our iCulture and focus on me me me.
The poetic form has always been the voice of the prophets, but its been lost. Let’s listen to walter brueggemann and get it back.
A few years back I wrote a paraphrase of the Church of England communion liturgy in a more beat poetry style. The Beat Eucharist was not for style’s sake, but to reconnect the hunger for God with the poetic. To speak hungrily of the desire to follow Jesus with everything we have.
To go where he leads, even if it is to the dark and dingy poetry club on the corner of the “worst” street.
Awesome insight! Thank you so much for taking the time to respond with such deep content. As for your paraphrase of the Church of England communion liturgy, you need to YouTube it! Once you have, I’d love to write a post on it and then embed the video. Drop me a line if you ever get it online. Thanks again for the great comments and thanks for supporting my writing!