Jars of Clay: Rebuking the Modern Church

Hello readers,

Recently, I was reading about Jars of Clay's semi-recent departure from modern contemporary evangelical Christian culture. I don't know if you've heard about this, or if you even care, but it has pointed out some things which have absolutely enormous implications for Christians everywhere today.

 As I was reading, I wondered, "Did Jars of Clay denounce Christianity? Do they now separate themselves from God in this action of separation from contemporary Christian worship music? If not... what are they? What DO they believe?"

while reading Dan Haseltine's words (lead singer for Jars of Clay), I took a step back from my own bias and thought for a moment. I looked at what he said, and then looked again at who I claimed to be and what I claimed to believe.

And I was frightened. I realized that he was right!

Here is an excerpt from a few years back, in Haseltine's article An Unfinished Record, an Uncharted Path.

 "These songs are honest expressions of what life around us looks like. The descriptions of love and pain, loneliness and hope are real to us. It is what frustrates me about the general church audience. If artistic expressions do not have an evangelical agenda, or they don’t explicitly cheer for Jesus, they tend to fail commercially. In my experience, the music with those kinds of agendas is shallow and somehow not ultimately believable to me. Ironically, what people probably want, and have a hard time articulating, is a description that gives voice to their experiences of doubt and faith and life, but they have been tricked into a very narrow view of where those descriptions come from. And so they often settle for the Jesus cheerleaders or worship songs that have been loaded with sentimentality but not reality. People set expectations that they are going to connect with real life during their worship services through the medium of worship music. At the same time, people may forget entirely or dismiss the movie that described a portion of hard life that their soul found resonance with, because it wasn’t in a church context. This doesn’t mean there is no space for evangelicalism. But it is such a tiny sliver of the entire pie."

He was right. The "Jesus cheerleaders" (another name for Christian alternative music) had too much control, and their messages were far too narrow-- and not in a good way. Some may refute me by quoting Jesus and saying that "The way is narrow" but they don't realize that what they are showing is in fact only a part of the way of life to which Scripture calls us-- their way is more narrow than Jesus' Way!

I'm not saying that we shouldn't continue to do worship music. What I am saying is we spend more time in worship singing about our faith than because of our faith. How often do we quote Scriptures in songs without actually adding something of significance that God has shown us in our own experiences? How often do we sing the words of other people-- not necessarily because the words are meaningful, but because someone who is a "strong Christian musician" wrote them? How often do we mean what we sing wholeheartedly? Yes, we sing a "New Song" about "Worthy is the Lamb" -- but every new song never really seems all that new. Nothing artistic ever shows up, because most of the Calvinistic fundamentalist Christian contemporary groups are more worried about getting their doctrinal ideologies into their music than actually making good music.

What a mess!

Jesus taught us how to pray-- not how to sing. I think He did so on purpose. Perhaps He wanted us to worship Him in our own unique way. Perhaps, after all, free will may play some sort of role in the way we love God and worship Him. Maybe we can freely chose Him-- and maybe we can freely chose how to worship Him as well. Maybe there are no set standards for how to worship. Maybe its better to go off alone on your guitar or piano and sing something you made up on your own that has real meaning to you concerning God's Love than to sit in church and listen to the doctrine-of-Glory/grace songs that your pastor picks for you deliberately each Sunday. Maybe we've taken a step in the wrong direction.

And our artistic talent shouldn't stop at worship service, anyways.

We shouldn't  think for a millisecond that unless there is some scriptural reference to our art, we ought not to do it-- that if a song isn't explicitly about Jesus, we can't listen to it. Or if a painting isn't a Biblical portrayal, that we shouldn't enjoy the art. Surely, all true art is inspired by God. It's like Scripture for the senses. Don't reject the baby, just because you don't like the bathwater. Don't reject the art, just because it isn't explicitly "evangelical." That's another thing the modern church does. if art doesn't fit with their extremely narrow agenda-- well, we discard it. That's that.

We so often blame the secular world for not going to our churches, wearing our T-shirts, and listening to our music. Did you ever stop to think that maybe...

WE are the ones to blame for this?

"I have attempted to provide questions that could lead to a more love based approach.   This has meant taking a careful and often critical view of contemporary church behavior and culture.  At times this has led me to unproductive and unfair assessments of the churc)h culture.  Other times, it has helped me navigate around unhealthy environments and practices that could have caused me to hurt people." --Haseltine

Perhaps the world is hurt by our condemnation. Perhaps, as Rob Bell said, we should put down the bullhorn and take a step in their direction. Perhaps, instead of clenching our hands tight against the world, we ought to open our hearts and hands and give them Love. After all, that's what the gospel is really about. It isn't about the doctrines-- although doctrines matter-- it's about the Love that is shown to every human being on the planet by Jesus Christ. Behold, He stands at the door and knocks. But does He barge into your house like a bull in a china shop?

No. He is gentle, inviting, and more importantly-- Loving. He extended His hands to us-- and all He asks is that we don't resist. Not that we are unable to resist grace-- but we owe our very lives to Him, and therefore we have no right to resist. Sadly, some do-- perhaps because they don't see Christians practicing what they preach.

Maybe we should change our views on some things. Maybe God DOES love the whole world. And maybe, instead of sharing doctrinal opinions and dogmas (like Calvinism, Fundamentalism, or Escapist Christianity) with them-- we ought to share our LIVES with them. Our experiences, our dreams, our love, our laughter, our sorrow, and our faith. All of these things are what make up the true Church. We are a community that lives together, and Christ is who inspired us to do so. We ought not to exclude anyone-- because Christ did not exclude us. We are to be the means of showing love to the whole world, with no exceptions. There is not a single person on earth who we ought to withhold our community. As C.S Lewis once said, "To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable in others, because Christ has forgiven the inexcusable in you." This is the message Jars of Clay wants to spread-- and I myself support it without exception.