(NB: The title is asked in a truly inquisitive manner, and not in a rhetoric manner.)
My last post below made me ponder about something…
For all music-loving Christians out there who may or may not be interested in writing Christian songs, what do you think should be the main reason/purpose for a Christian to write original Christian songs?
(Choose one option)
1) To educate the listener about Christianity and theology through the song lyrics
2) To evangelise and bring the listener to salvation
3) To attract the casual (secular) listener to the world of Christianity through music
4) To glorify God
5) To express your innermost feelings about God, e.g. thanksgiving, joy, reverence
What say you?
Once you’ve given it some thought, you might want to read two very interesting articles (here) and (here) which offers a relatively relevant opinion on this matter.
Point 5 here.
A Christian musician has a unique mode for delivering the Good News, the primary work of a Christian (Matthew 28:18-20). Any other reason to write a Christian song (hymn?) is just icing on the cake.
1) To worship GOD (this is the main point…the rest are actually all part of worshipping GOD)
2) To minister, whether to Christians or pre-believers
3) To express thanksgiving, amazement, love, etc. to GOD
If it’s a GOD-given gift, use it in obedience & fulfillment of GOD’s purpose in your life.
No. 4 AND 5.
Interesting articles there! Leaves me thinking lots abt contemporary worship songs now.
Heh so cute, there are li’l coloured patterned pics appearing with each comment ;p
do we have to pick one? can we pick all?
i think it depends on the message in the song. AND depends on the audience.
Thank you all for sharing your thoughts!
Personally I think different Christian songs might serve different purposes. However, certain purposes might be more pertinent than others.
I personally think that original Christian songs can be a good way to i) proclaim the greatness of God, ii) allow ourselves to express our innermost feelings about Him, and iii) perhaps witness to non-believers through our heartfelt songs.
So basically, it’s kinda like options 4, 5, and 3 in that order.
Hymn-lurver: Those cute little pics seem like a new function which WordPress has recently implemented. Nice!
thanks for the question and the links in this post, jeremy. It has always been one of the questions I cannot put down.
I would go with No. 6 to teach and admonish one another. In 1st Corinthians 14 Paul used the criteria “does it build up the church” for every aspect of a corporate gathering. This should be the motivation for writing songs. We want to edify and build each other up.
Now in that we might be writing songs that magnify the greatness of God, exalt some attribute, or joy in what the cross has done, but ultimately we should say to ourselves will this song build up the church or does it exalt man.
Just my two cents.