Mark Evans, _Open Up The Doors: Music in the Modern Church _(Studies in Popular Music)

Indescribable, uncontainable,

You put the stars in the sky and you know them by name.

You are amazing God!

All powerful, unchangeable,

Awestruck we fall to our knees and we humbly proclaim

You are amazing God, you are amazing God.

Recently, a friend recounted to me a conversation regarding the popular worship song Indescribable, made famous by Chris Tomlin and subsequently in Louie Giglio’s ‘Indescribable Tour’ around the USA, praising ‘God the star-breather’, aided with beautiful pictures of the universe. The question was posed to her “…Is this actually a Christian song, as opposed to Jewish? …Isn’t it able to be sung from multiple faith perspectives?” Without really saying much on this song, as a songwriter, it highlights for me the inherent dangers and perhaps deficiencies of contemporary worship songwriting – the risk of communicating certain concepts while losing others. For example, Creator God is also the same God who chose to reveal Himself through the incarnational and saving work of Jesus Christ.

In his book Open up the Doors: Music for the Modern Church, Dr Mark Evans poses some excellent questions, “...to what extent should the congregation be aware of the music around them, that is, focused on those creating it and the quality or attributes of it? Similarly, how does the music team of a church distinguish their functionality, being simultaneously performer desirous of quality, consumer of worship, and, ideally, humble servant leader of the congregation?” (p.13). Seeking to bring God a worthy offering is central to the Christian faith, and nothing is more passionate than discussions about worship. This book is concerned with assisting in guiding these discussions, in the hope that through them we may be empowered to choose the best possible vehicles for our praise.

Christian music used to occupy a central place in the music culture of society. Now it has become a bottom feeder in the near endless escalation of sub-genres and popular music forms. It is time to expose congregational song to outside forces. Not only am I speaking of the performance and dissemination of contemporary congregational song; it is time that the music also opens itself to academic critique and rigour. Our music has a spiritual purpose, to be sure, but that does not excuse mediocrity... those of us involved in practicing modern church music should be ever seeking to enhance and craft those gifts bestowed upon us; that our art be the best we can offer to the congregation, and to God. In that sense we ‘fling wide the heavenly gates, prepare the way of the risen Lord¹ (p.3).

Developed from his PhD thesis, and as the Head of Contemporary Music studies at Macquarie University, Evans’ scholarly approach to worship music is encouraging. As a text-book for students interested in contemporary worship music, it is probably more useful than others such as Wilson – Dickson², particularly to Australians. The book synthesises both the theological and musical perspectives (suggesting the bounds of a theomusicology informed by both these disciplines). Setting worship music within the ‘vernacular³’, Evans provides a biblical and historical background (ch 1 and 2) and covers topical issues such as hymns vs choruses (ch 3), the challenges of the production of worship music (ch 8) and creation of Christian celebrities or ‘star texts’ (ch 5). Given that “…for classically trained church musicians and traditional hymn lovers, Hillsong is like the proverbial elephant in the room apparent to all, but totally ignored or dismissed”⁴, it is an excellent sign that Pentecostal music (and churches such as Hillsong, CCC and Planetshakers) are included in Evan’s book, especially considering their influence on Australian worship.

The book is worth buying for its appendixes alone, charting the presence of words such as ‘Lord’, ‘Jesus’, ‘Holy Spirit’ and ‘God’ across eleven pages of contemporary songs. In the vein of Marva Dawn, Evans has worked to provide thematic categories for analysing contemporary song⁵. However his descriptive categories use language somewhat foreign to the average Pentecostal (his ‘confessional songs’ would probably translate as ‘repentance songs’, ‘Spirit testimony’ songs would probably form two different categories rather than one, and so on). Some more work needs to be done in this area, particularly to determine whether types such as ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ are helpful in understanding worship and its place in our communities.

Evans brings his unquestionable strength of musicology to the book, stating “…congregational song is not produced in isolation; it is a consequence of numerous factors: denominational, national, economic and cultural - to name but a few... dealing only with the notes, or solely the lyrics, is a disservice to the discipline and the researcher alike”. Given that criticisms of contemporary music often separate the lyrics from the music, and/or fail to take into account the cultural meaning of certain songs, Evans’ comments deserve commendation in explaining the psyche of the recording songwriter. Perhaps in educating the buying (or perhaps more appropriately, singing) public, we are also empowering them to make better song choices for their local church given the largely global nature of the music industry.

Complaint against musicians and songwriters providing the songs sung in church seems to be growing⁶. Every frustrated theologian attending a contemporary Pentecostal church is most probably burning to ask ‘… will my worship pastor, our church songwriters and publishing executives read this book?’ Well, critique unwittingly places itself on the other side of the production process, but academics need to read this book and inform their critique of the songs delivered each Sunday, and perhaps that is more to the point. If theomusicology as a discipline improves, perhaps there will be less banal lyrics and unimaginative musicality in church. Every worshipper seeking more inspiring songs should be encouraged, but change may be a long journey rather than a short sprint.

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