Trinity - Matt Redman
Judging by her questions, my four-year-old daughter Maisey is becoming quite a theologian. Recently with her little enquiring mind in overdrive, she threw a tough one at me: "Daddy, is Jesus God or is He the Son of God?" Taken by surprise, I tried to explain as simply as I could that He is both. "Aaagh!" came her frustrated response, "That's
so confusing!" And smiling to myself I was glad that she wanted to get a clearer picture of who God is.
There's a strong challenge out there for worship leaders and songwriters today to present a clearer view of who God is through the songs we sing. Not only is it a matter of honoring God's name as wholesomely as possible-but also our songs of worship play an important part in affecting people's view of God. A scary and weighty responsibility.
Urgent Attention
I recently wrote to church leaders from various streams of the Church, asking them to identify which theological areas need the most urgent attention in today's worship song output. In other words, where are the gaps and blind spots in our current worship diet? By far the most frequent answer was the Trinity. As Chris Cocksworth, Principal of Ridley Hall, Cambridge, summed it up:
"We need ‘the Trinitarian geography of Christian worship' to be made clearer in our songs of worship." [1]
Professor Lester Ruth of Asbury Seminary recently completed a fascinating study into the usage of Trinitarian worship songs in the U.S. church between the years of 1989 and 2004. He identifies the seventy-two most used worship songs over that period, as documented by CCLI, and studies their content, particularly with a view to assessing their Trinitarian content. Professor Ruth discovered that none of these seventy-two songs explicitly refers to the Trinity or the triune nature of God, per se. And, even more to the point, only three of the songs explicitly refer to, or name, all three Persons of the Trinity. In particular, very few of them specifically name God the Father or the Holy Spirit. These shocking findings should be a wake-up call to songwriters and service planners everywhere.
Theological Confidence
My own theory is that for many of us musicians, our lack of Trinitarian-shaped output is due to a lack of theological confidence in that area. For sure, we know that God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But perhaps we have felt a little less sure of how these three persons of the Trinity interrelate when it comes to worship, and we end up petrified of writing something which may be at best misleading-and at worst, heretical. Instinctively therefore, we'd rather avoid the area altogether-rather then end up in some kind of theological pile-up. For others, there may be different reasons. Perhaps we have simply not thought about this area enough. Whatever the case, the corrective has come, and the call now is for songwriters and worship leaders to actively respond.
We Write What We Read
The best way to produce "output" is to first receive "input." We must immerse ourselves in this theme-gathering pointers from as many books and teachers as we can. Sometimes a theologian will help us put into words and more fully understand what instinctively we know to be true-and therefore take us some way towards helping others find a voice. There are times when we should write overtly Trinitarian songs, addressing and responding to each person of the Trinity by name. There are several songs available where we sing to the Father in verse one, the Son in verse two and the Holy Spirit in verse three-and this is great. But this need not be the only model. At other times, our references might be less explicit, yet a sense of Trinity should always be there in the background. Robin Parry says, "When it comes to worship, Trinity should be like the grammar in a sentence." [2] It is not always explicit, but it underpins and shapes everything.
Returning to some wise words from Chris Cocksworth:
"Sometimes I feel that our worship songs do not allow the song that Jesus sings to the Father to be sung in me. Although the songs take me to Jesus, they don't always take me in, with and through Jesus to the One He calls Abba." [3]
Service planners and worship wordsmiths, let us take up the challenge.
Matt Redman's songs include "The Heart of Worship," "Better Is One Day," and "Blessed Be Your Name." As an author he has written The Unquenchable Worshipper, Facedown
and Blessed Be Your Name.
Matt, his wife and three children reside in West Sussex, England. SOURCES:
[1] and [3] Chris Cocksworth,
Inside, Out Worship, Matt Redman and friends, Regal Books, 2005
[2] See Robin Parry's excellent new book
Worshipping Trinity, Paternoster Press, 2005.
