“Consider This” Blog

In this great state (and across our country), complete tribal loyalty is something we are very familiar with, and I’m not just talking about collegiate athletics. These days, it seems we are being asked to choose a new side every week: republican or democrat; pro-mask or anti-mask; black lives matter or all lives matter. Our culture has led us to believe there is no middle ground on any of these issues. You’re either all in, or all out, and the tribalization only grows stronger when there is partisan alignment on all of these issues.

As a Christian, the way I am seeing this play out on social media is very troubling. I am watching well-meaning brothers and sisters, both inside and outside of our church, passionately engaging in these cultural issues from convictions that seem to have been formed more by a tribal, political allegiance than by a spiritual allegiance. In other words, I am watching people’s political identities lead the formation of their spiritual identities when it should be the other way around.

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“I think repetition in worship music bothers us because we can sense our hearts subtly shifting from passionate declaration to mindless recitation with each repeat. We too quickly grow numb to the powerful truths we are declaring and can sense our spirits groaning, “Thank you, next.” … The easy solution would be to remove or shorten the repetition in our worship songs. But if God does value this repetition, what would it look like to change the way we engage in these moments? How can we use these repetitions to deepen our expression of worship and protect our hearts from moving too quickly to mindless recitation?”

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