Read this story.
The Good News: He doesn't have cancer.
The Bad News: He's a d-bag. But at least he is a d-bag with a hit worship song, which is apparently all he wanted in the first place. So congrats...d-bag.
Now, can we all stop trying to write "hit worship songs" and actually try writing songs that just glorify God?
~ download new single ~
~ bill's new album ~
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6 comments:
So the bigger question here (and one that I'm honestly wrestling with...) is can a song still bring glory to God when the author has a huge moral failure.
If Chris Tomlin cheated on his wife... if Matt Redman got caught drunk driving... would "Blessed be Your Name" and "How Great is our God" still be good songs? Would you still use them in a worship service?
I guess the obvious theological answer here is yes... if the only things we could use to help spread the gospel were things that came from perfect people... well, we wouldn't get very far.
That said, I won't be doing this song for awhile... it just feels wrong. It's really hard to imagine what would lead a person to lie to his own family about having cancer. D-bag doesn't begin to do it justice.
It's sad... it's not like we needed to give the rest of the world ammunition to use against us but here we go again. Have fun with this one everybody.
yeah...pretty bad stuff. Sad...among other things. However, the next time he sings this song it might be sincerely done, seeing how god will definitely have to do a lot of healing in this...just not life threatening cancer.
remember Bill in Phillipians Paul says, "whether for good or ill at least Christ is being preached..." At least thats what I take comfort in when d-bags are causing all kinds of crisis' of faith. It is an important step in anyones walk to realize the faith we have does not come from the person who led us to Christ, but Christ crucified for us...deep I know, but I do have this side.
see greg...it isn't the moral failure i'm struggling with here. heck, every song ever written was written by a man or woman who has failed morally in one way or another.
no, what bothers me is the apparent motivation with which this song was written. i have no reason to believe that this guy wrote this song for any other reason than to accumulate glory for himself. he certainly has not earned the benefit of the doubt here.
i don't know if i'll do the song or not. that honestly doesn't concern me at that much right now. my struggle is that i know this guy isn't the only one in the worship biz working harder for his own glory than God's.
Oh, I would agree 100% that there are a lot of folks in the "worship biz" working hard for their own glory... often because the label told them too. Why do you think all of the "hit" worship songs have the same 4 chords.
What I'm wondering is this... can you choose your songs in a vacuum... can you remove whatever it is you know about the business, the people involved, the industry, and whatever motives might be at play, and just say "is it a good song?" I say yes... and I realize I may catch some heat for this but...
I still think Healer is a good song. If Chris Tomlin is writing one "hot worship anthem" per record to appease his label, that doesn't mean that the "hot worship anthem" won't be a good song. It doesn't mean it will either (see the Newsboys for an example of this) but it doesn't automatically mean it won't and as soon as you start trying to play judge and jury you're left with nothing to sing.
I mean, we don't know the hearts and minds of the great hymn writers... maybe Fannie Crosby was trying to get more hymns in the book than the Wesleys... maybe Isaac Watts had a sleazy manager and perhaps John newton had an ironic t-shirt and a faux-hawk. I don't know and really, I don't care. That wouldn't change anything about those songs really... either they are good or they aren't... they are true or they aren't.
I guess what I'm really getting at is that I'm trying to care less and less about the forces that are creating the music we're doing and simply choose the right songs for our congregation. I know for certain that 99.9% of the people in the seats don't know jack about the music biz or any of the stuff that irritates the heck out of me so for me to let that cloud my judgment on what is a good song to do and what isn't just doesn't seem right.
Of course, I could be wrong.
Hey, shouldn't you guys be having a baby right about now?
It looks like Wednesday morning is when we are going to be having this baby (I CAN'T STINKING WAIT!)
But until then...its nothing but bitter rants about everything that is wrong in the world!
I totally get your point, man. And I do agree. But at the same time, while no...I can not play judge and jury on everything, I do feel a responsibility to do my best to only lead songs that I can personally sing with a clear conscience. Now I would be lying if I said that I was always able to do that, but it would be a disservice to Crossings if I didn't try. I really do believe that.
Maybe the answer is being less cynical. It probably is. And for the most part, I feel like I am able to do that (you know...until some d-bag sticks oxygen tubes up his nose in order to sell more records). But either way, I do feel responsible to play judge and jury to some extent when it comes to picking songs to sing on Sunday mornings. And no...I don't feel like doing that leaves me with nothing left to sing.
But either way, I do agree with you and I fully admit that I am being overly cynical here. But hey, if you can't vent on your own blog...
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