Stop.

Before you read any further, read the best blog I have ever read. Because, in it, Michael Gungor says what I have always wanted to say but haven’t said- out of fear of hurting peoples’ feelings and sounding sacrilegious.

But I feel like now is the perfect time to speak up.

*** laughableBALLADS

Last week, around the time of all the pre-Grammy Awards hype, to take a break from hearing about all of the BEST music of the past year, I decided to look up what people thought was the WORST music of the past year.

As I had expected, most lists included Nickelback, Limp Bizkit, and LMFAO. That’s fair. They’re pretty terrible.

But what surprised me the most were the site reviews of the albums. The comments about the albums. The critique of the lyrics. The attack on the artists’ choices of musical arrangements… There were clear-cut reasons WHY the music just really, flat-out sucked last year.

The following are actual phrases that were thrown around on the compilation lists from MSN and PopMatters:

• Musically, this stuff is just lazy.
• Feeling like no effort was put into it.
• Frivolous.
• Disappointing simplification.
• A complete lack of anything original to play or new to say.
• The ballads are laughable as love-declaring soundtracks and… as generic as they could possibly come.

That last comment was the one that resonated for me. (The writer was referring to Chris Brown’s iffy album from 2011.) But this one specific critique stopped me dead in my tracks. It actually made me stop reading, rub my eyes, blink a few times, and then stare right back at the screen again.

“The ballads are laughable as love-declaring soundtracks and… as generic as they could possibly come.”

And that’s when it hit me.

Chris Brown’s album might as well have been a Christian album.

*** terriblyFRIGHTENING

In Francis Chan’s uber-popular book, Crazy Love, you only have to flip to the back cover to figure out the point and purpose of the contents inside. Even the book title intimates it. Kinda.

God loves us.

In and of itself, that phrase has been said countless times. It’s been written about countless times. It’s been preached about countless times.

And, Francis Chan decided to write a book about it.

I’m willing to bet that if his entire book was littered with ONLY phrases like “God loves us” and “He’s pretty awesome” and “I love Him, too” and “His love is crazy” and “His love is awesome” and “His love is crazy awesome”… and then, after a 100 pages with ONLY these redundant phrases, he decided to finish with one more: “God’s love is just so friggin’ crazy”… I don’t believe the book would have been as popular as it has been so far.

And if Rick Warren and Joel Osteen and Jentezen Franklin all wrote follow-up books with pretty much THE SAME PHRASES? We’d be talking about how unoriginal they all are. And how uninspired. And how mundane and redundant and boring it is to hear everybody say ONE thing EXACTLY THE SAME WAY.

That’s why I love how Chan talks about God’s love in his book. There are anecdotes and quotes and verses. And, above all, phrases that you’ve probably never heard before backed up by stories and reasoning that you’ve probably never heard before, either. At least in the context of what he’s writing.

And why shouldn’t he write this way? Why shouldn’t he write creatively? Why shouldn’t he write inspired? Why shouldn’t he write stuff that hasn’t been said in phrases that haven’t been used to describe stuff that’s always been talked about?

We EXPECT it from Francis Chan. And Rick Warren. And Joel Osteen. And Jentezen Franklin.

We EXPECT them to give us fresh perspectives on fundamental Christian truths.

We EXPECT this from them because they are serving a creative Creator who created them and got all their creative juices flowing in the first place.

They SHOULD be creative. And not redundant.

Not just for marketing reasons- to be different enough to sell their stuff. Not just for legal reasons- so that there aren’t copyright infringement and plagiarism lawsuits bandied about amongst all the writers.

But because, really, it’s the least they could do to at least TRY to explain a Creator’s love in creative ways.

So, we just come to EXPECT it from the writers of all of our favorite books.

The terribly frightening thing is that, for all that we expect from Christian writers and thinkers and communicators, we expect almost NOTHING like this from Christian musicians.

*** sellingOUT

For a lot of people watching NBC’s “The Voice” on Monday night, Anthony Evans’ audition induced a collective sigh of exasperation. Queen’s classic rock hit, “Another One Bites the Dust” probably started blaring in their minds.

And, for those of you reading this, either you or some Christian you know rolled their eyes or covered their face in shame or took to Facebook and Twitter to remark on how this guy had, in some way, “sold out” to the evils of secular music.

Is this how far we have come as a society?

We can’t just be happy for a guy- who happens to be Christian- who is merely pursuing his dreams?

Sure, Evans (who spent the last decade in the Christian music scene) has sold out tours. He’s had major Gospel records and albums. He’s been on stage as a backup vocalist to Bono. He’s kind of a big deal.

In my own church, we cover his songs or have adopted his arrangements into our worship sets. I have the utmost respect for him.

But, what if being pigeon-holed into Christian music was not his lifelong dream? What if he grew up wanting to perform positive (and not necessarily “Christian”) music with positive lyrics to large audiences all across the world- because he wouldn’t ever be able to reach these people from within 4 walls of a church building or a church-funded concert or a church-related function?

Can we not just be happy for him?

Can we not understand that he took a major risk by standing in front of those 4 superstar musicians/coaches, singing a song with their backs turned to him, potentially failing to sing well enough to get any of them to turn around and vie for his alliance?

Can we not see how humbling that moment is?

Or do we have some kind of unnatural alliance to Christian music that blinds us from seeing the potential of POSITIVE music to impact a whole world OUTSIDE of our churches?

Secular music isn’t, by definition, “evil.” And by no means does secular music HAVE TO BE negative.

Maybe some of us don’t get that.

But most of us don’t expect anything for/from Christian music to begin with.

*** greatFAITHFULNESS

I joke about this often with my friends.

And, before I get hate mails and mean looks from everybody I encounter on the street, I mean no disrespect by the following comments. I appreciate all the work and all the good this artist has done for Christian music.

But Chris Tomlin’s lyrics bore me.

Read that carefully before you dismiss me as a satanic loon.

I didn’t say he’s a bad guy. I didn’t say he’s a terrible singer. I didn’t say he’s not inspired.

But his lyrics bore me.

Remember those negative critiques for the Worst Albums of 2011 that I mentioned earlier? The “disappointing simplification?” The “complete lack of anything original to play or new to say?”

When you are a singer/songwriter and you release tracks with “Great is Thy faithfulness” strewn across every other line, you’re leaving yourself open to disappointingly simplifying stuff. Or completely lacking anything original to play or new to say.

Is Chris Tomlin a bad guy? No.

Should we expect more from a creator of music that attempts to describe a creative Creator who got all of Chris’ creative juices flowing in the first place? You better believe it.

Because we expect MORE from Francis Chan and Rick Warren and Joel Osteen and Jentezen Franklin than for them to each just write the same tired lines in every single book that they write. And, to some degree, they’re writing about the same stuff Chris is trying to sing about. And, to some degree, they’re inspired by the same verses and profound moments in prayer that Chris is inspired by.

At some point, when you’re content with redundancy, there is a lack of originality. Of creativity. Of distinction.

At some point, you’re just being LAZY. You’re just doing what everybody else has done. Over and over and over and over and over again. Before you even came along.

So, when Chris Brown gets bashed for creating an album with “ballads [that] are laughable as love-declaring soundtracks and… as generic as they could possibly come”… we need to criticize Christian music for the same failings.

Yeah, I know God’s faithfulness is great. I’ve sung hymns that talk about that at church since I was old enough to utter words.

Yeah, I know God is awesome. I know He is pretty cool. I know He’s strong. I know He loves us.

But, Christian musicians, can you stop just regurgitating phrases and lines that we all know about? Is that so hard?

DID THAT STING? Sorry.

The first response everybody has for redundant Christian lyrics is “They were inspired during their prayer time to write about it, so don’t blame them for just speaking the truth.”

Francis Chan talks about how he was inspired by one phrase before he wrote Crazy Love: “God loves you.” … And he wrote 205 pages about how CRAZY this love is.

205 pages and a mind-blowing, profound bestseller. From one single common Christian phrase.

So let’s STOP making excuses for redundancy.

John Mark McMillan was inspired by God’s love, too, when he wrote the now-ubiquitous church staple “How He Loves.” He explains that, in the song, he didn’t want to talk about a “Hollywood, hot pink love… [but a] kind of love that’s willing to love things that are messy and willing to love even the difficult.”

Now, I’m not saying that every person can take “God loves you” and turn it into a New York Times bestseller. Or a song that rocks the very bedrock of American Christendom.

But, should we not be EXPECTING more than just redundancy in Christian lyrics?

I’m genuinely thankful for the simplicity in Chris Tomlin’s music. I don’t hate him. Or his heart.

But, why does Christian music have to be mind-numbing? Why does Christian music have to have the same tired cliches about “resurrection,” for example? Why can’t THIS be what we EXPECT to hear about resurrection? Or THIS?

Why can’t there be more John Mark McMillans and Phil Wickhams in our Christian crowds?

In the aforementioned blog, Michael Gungor refers to Christian music as a kind of “musical zombie.” It just exists. It often doesn’t have a creative identity. It often has no distinction. It often has no “soul.”

Does this mean that Christian music, at all levels, is meaningless and NOT inspired? No.

But ought we expect MORE from Christian music? Yes.

Absolutely.

Unequivocally. 

Yes.

Chris Brown’s album got slammed for being boring and dull and cliche and “laughable” and “generic”… And, if you really think about it, how much Christian music should be slammed for the same reasons?

And all Chris is singing about is sex and drunkenness and lewdness and provocativeness. That’s his inspiration. Christians, supposedly, are inspired by a God whose mercies are new every morning (that’s also a common lyric, actually!) and who created EVERYTHING… 

Why are we settling for what Chris Brown is settling for?! Why are we settling for boring and dull and cliche and laughable and generic?!

Why the heck are we settling for anything LESS than the most profound, deep, powerful, compelling, mind-blowing, earth-shattering songs humanity can conceive of?

Maybe we all just really love Chris Brown so much that we are content with the redundancies that he’s content with.

Maybe Chris Brown is really a Christian artist.

*** stillCHRISTIAN

On some level, our contentment with unexceptional Christian music and lyricism extends to our expectations of the artists’ dreams as well.

A musician who happens to be Christian doesn’t get respect if they make “secular” music- which, by definition, merely means anything that doesn’t directly have to do with religion. Secular music is NOT necessarily anti-religious or demonic.

Christian music is NOT necessarily an antithesis to “secular” music.

Here’s an analogy.

In the NBA, teams play Conference opponents and non-Conference opponents. There are either opponents who are in a team’s own conference or not. From there, you can break it down into LEGITIMATE Conference opponents and WEAK Conference opponents. Or LEGITIMATE non-Conference opponents and WEAK non-Conference opponents. The good opponents and the bad opponents. Whatever… But, at the core, in the NBA, it’s either Conference opponents and non-Conference opponents you’re dealing with. And, even deeper at its core, all those teams are essentially just playing basketball. Period.

Time zones may separate the Conference they play in, but they’re all NBA teams.

In much the same way, music is split into something it is and something it isn’t. There are folk songs and EVERYTHING ELSE that is NOT folk music is considered non-folk songs. Country music and non-country music. Rap music and non-rap music.

The ends of the spectrum don’t NECESSARILY contradict each other.

Christian music and non-Christian music work in much the same way. Except that “non-Christian music” is called “secular music.” It’s not necessarily contradictory to religion. It’s not necessarily anti-religion. It’s just not overtly Christian.

So, yeah, Lady Gaga is secular and she’s a little bit odd. Sure, Nicki Minaj is secular and sacrilegious and has an affinity for obnoxious wigs. Sure, Katy Perry is secular and can’t stop singing about making out with girls and extraterrestrial copulation and waking up in Vegas with a terrible, regretful hangover.

But that doesn’t cover ALL secular music. It doesn’t even cover a tiny glimmer of ALL secular music.

Needtobreathe is secular. Switchfoot is secular. Lifehouse is secular.

You can still be a “Christian” in a secular (which, by definition, merely means non-religious and NOT anti-religious) music world. 

It’s possible.

Throwing your hands in the air out of frustration because Anthony Evans is now a lost cause of some sort is preposterous.

You don’t even know him. Don’t start pretending.

You don’t know his heart. His desire. His dreams.

Secular music gives him the opportunity to reach a world OUTSIDE of church with a POSITIVE message that they normally wouldn’t hear.

Much like Jon Foreman was able to turn his secular Switchfoot fame and success into an opportunity to record 4 solo albums that overtly talk about the Church, Christ, and His love.

Wake up, all you Christian critics.

Christian music does NOT have to stay confined within the 4 walls of a church if the same positive values and messages can resonate and point to God OUTSIDE of church. In a secular music industry.

The world needs radical transformation.

It’s time Christians embraced their potential.

*** loweredEXPECTATIONS

MADtv used to run a skit where a character would sit on a couch and describe themselves to the camera- an interpretation of dating service testimonials. But, the joke was that these characters were the most incredibly unattractive, flawed, undesirable people you could ever hope to meet. The skit was called Lowered Expectations.

And, in a lot of ways, expectations for Christian music/musicians is comical, too. Because we don’t expect anywhere near as little from other walks of life.

We don’t expect graphic designers- who happen to be Christian- to only make church flyers and church conference flyers and church concert flyers for the rest of his/her life.

We don’t expect architects- who happen to be Christian- to only design church buildings.

We don’t expect bakers and chefs- who happen to be Christian- to only make a living from church bake sales and fundraising cookouts.

We don’t expect athletes- who happen to be Christian- to only participate in sporting events that are hosted and organized by their churches and their affiliates.

But… we cringe when we see a Christian singer- who is one of the best we’ve got- get on a stage and risk embarrassing himself in front of 4 major recording artists… all for a shot to pursue his dreams and get his voice out to the world.

How does that even make sense?

I’m thankful that Jeremy Lin is a Christian spokesperson taking over the NBA.

I’m thankful that Tim Tebow is a Christian spokesperson taking over the NFL.

I’m thankful that 4 Rivers Smokehouse is one of the most critically-acclaimed restaurants in the United States and that its founder, John Rivers, is Christian.

And don’t tell me that the potential for NOT giving God glory as a secular musician is greater than it is for an athlete. Or a chef. Or for any other profession.

And don’t tell me that Christian musicians should avoid secular music because the temptations in the secular music world are greater and more threatening than the temptations in the sports world. Or the culinary world. Or anywhere else.

When is the last time you went to your local basketball court and thanked/acknowledged God out loud for every great steal or block or three-pointer or pass or crossover or basket? The spectators cheer after every great play and we can’t even throw both hands up to God and defer the praise for the good stuff we do even on a LOCAL basketball court.

You think it gets any easier as a professional athlete? You think it’s easier for them to give God glory when the bright lights of strip clubs and the access to drugs, alcohol, and sex beckons them at every corner?

Christian athletes are expected to be better off in their world than Christian singers in a secular music world?

What the heck is this even being based on?

Temptation is temptation. The lure of fame, power, and money is everywhere. Get over it.

It’s time we told our phenomenal Christian singers to pursue their dreams (if they have dreams of a foray into secular music). It’s time we told them that they don’t ONLY have to use their gifts in the 4 walls of church and the limited reach of a Christian recording contract.

Not that Christian record labels are bad or terrible or inferior in any way. But, if somebody’s got a dream, TELL THEM TO PURSUE IT!

Without compromising their beliefs. Their faith. Their Christianity.

It’s time we started expecting MORE.

*** lessLAZY

The world needs more John Mark McMillans. People who can say something NEW and PROFOUND about an all-loving God simply from a phrase like “God loves you.”

The world needs more Francis Chans. People who can write 200 pages of compelling anecdotes and analogies and thoughts about an all-loving God simply from a phrase like “God loves you.”

We need less of the generic. Less of the mundane. Less of the redundant.

We need less of the LAZY.

Our God is terrific. He’s great. He’s phenomenal… And it’s time we took our inspirations seriously enough to reflect our genuine appreciation of Him.

It’s time we expected more FROM our Christian musicians and singers. Because we know the cliches already. We’ve been there and done that. We want to know how deep they’ve been in the presence of God where REDUNDANCIES CATEGORICALLY FAIL TO RECORD THE REMARKABILITY OF GOD.

It’s time we expected more FOR our Christian musicians and singers, as well. Let them follow their dreams. Let them take their gifts to the largest of stages- secular or not. And genuinely cover them in prayer so that the crevasses and cracks of the world don’t become their downfalls.

Expect more from Christian music than “the ballads… [being] laughable as love-declaring soundtracks and… as generic as they could possibly come.”

Let Chris Brown keep on making that kind of music.

Christians need to start making our own.