Re-defining "Church Music"

On September 22nd, the David Crowder* Band dropped their 5th full-length album, and first since 2007, entitled Church Music. I have been really intrigued by this project ever since they announced recording back in either January or February. And I became even more intrigued when I heard that the album was going to be called, Church Music. The concept for this album is a way to re-establish the mission or motives of the band.

If you pre-ordered the album a cool Church Music Magazine came along with it and this magazine shed some light into just what the band was thinking when they were writing/recording. In one of the articles, which was a transcript (with side notes) on a recent talk head guy David Crowder gave, Crowder concluded that the future of "worship music" is this: "It will reconcile order and perceived chaos, that it will point to the chaos, that it will point to the limitlessness of things, that it will point to the irrationality of where we are and in so doing, it will probably point to the most irrational thing of all, which is grace."

As a Lutheran I love that. I love that he recognizes, coming from the "evangelical" world, that worship is about an order amidst what may seem like chaos. The chaos, as he revealed earlier in the article, is usually the world surrounding and what people bring to the table as they come to church. People have chaotic lives, the world is chaotic, and in worship order brings a reconciliation of this chaos driven world. Chaotic sinful human beings engage order in worship done right.

His take on the limitlessness of things caught my eye too. I am someone who outside of faith related things doesn't show very much emotion. And yet while there seems to be a "limited" function in the church service it is really the limitlessness that defines what is all about: Sins are forgiven, the Word is preached, and the Sacrament is given. In conjunction with this being "limitless" it smoothly goes into what he was talking about being irrational. Sins being forgiven, the Gospel being preached, and Jesus being present in the Sacrament are all extremely irrational things.

In 1 Corinthians 1 we see St. Paul talking about how "rational" this all is when he calls the cross "the folly" or "the foolishness" because of how utterly ridiculous it truly all sounds. Yet, amidst the chaos, and amidst the irrationality the cross is "the power" to those being saved.

I could not do the band justice by doing a full blown album review. The album is 17 tracks long and each track flows seamlessly into the next as though the near 90 minute excursion were one big song. This album transcends music period. If you're a fan of music and not even a fan of Christianity you cannot give this album an objective spin and not coming out realizing the genius of it all. Get the album, spend the 11 or 12 bucks it will cost you. You will not be disappointed.

It's a musical and spiritual endeavor that engages a chaotic culture head on and brings with it the very Gospel of Hope that changes the world.