Sunday morning "i"Tunes

I came across an interesting article about the common themes of "I" and "me" in contemporary worship music. The article is from blog.worship.com and refers to a book by Matthew Ward, former Christian rocker and member of the band 2nd Chapter of Acts. Ward comments in his book...

I took note of what types of worship songs we sang. Several groups from different parts of Europe led worship, singing their songs in their native tongues, with English translations projected on a screen. The vast majority of the songs European Christians had written were "we" and "us" songs. But the groups also threw in some songs from the United States—and I was surprised to discover that the majority contained lyrics centered on "I" or "me."

You can read the rest of the article here. Pretty interesting observation, huh. I think that this is an easy trap for us to fall into. Me & God. I and He. Not Us and Thee. Next time you are at church check out the theory that American Christians are into singing lots of "I"Tunes. It's not that these are bad, because each individual is accountable to God for their own life. But that it's incomplete in that God is primarily into gathering a people. In our small group last night we saw the same idea come out in Paul's writing.

Do you not know that you (plural) are God's temple (singular) and that God's Spirit dwells in you? I Corinthians 3:16

What if Christianity were more about WE than ME? What if Christian discipleship meant repenting of my individualistic tendencies? What if confession of sin was more than a me&God private thing, but was God's tool for creating intimacy within his people? What if conversion to Christianity also meant conversion to Christian community?

Sing about it on Sunday, then weigh-in with your thoughts.