I love this blog by the way, I have been reading so many great articles and it has been a fascinating journey into the minds of a lot of men and women that I really admire. One of which is Mark Driscoll. He is provocative, authentic, truthful and full of sass who is constantly turning out great quotes that get you thinking. In reading through an article he wrote about the dangers and shortcomings of the “megachurch” one quote really stood out to me.

“The major blind spot of megachurches is that they tend to be very effeminate with aesthetics, music, and preaching perfectly tailored for moms. Manly men are repelled by this, and many of the men who find it appealing are the types to sing prom songs to Jesus and learn about their feelings while sitting in a seafoam green chair drinking herbal tea—the spiritual equivalent of Richard Simmons. A friend of mine calls them “evangellyfish” with no spiritual vertebrae.”

Article from Christianity Today called “Men are from Mars Hill” posted 7/04/2006

Wow, that certainly sums up a few churches that I have been to and explains the lack of true masculinity and the over abundance of estrogen found there. I’m happy to say that I think our church strikes an incredible balance in appealing to both men and women from the ambiance, to the worship to the preaching and has found a way to be sensitive but not wimpy, passionate but not flaky and masculine but not chauvinistic. When I read the line about singing prom songs to Jesus it gave me such an image of what I don’t want the worship songs I write to evoke. I don’t ever want my worship to be a big cheesefest with ewwy gooey lyrics that don’t translate into any actual life experience and I think communicating our love to God and His love towards others deserves a bit of forethought and integrity in the delivery. Again, I don’t think that we are in danger of singing worship songs that would appeal to the spiritual equivalent of Richard Simmons, certainly not with Kyle & Aaron at the helm, but it was more of a heart and mind check for me when writing lyrics. Do they sound like they could be playing in the background of some tacky 80’s teen flick or do they sound like a passionate lover pouring out the deep cry of her heart to her true love? Even as I’m writing this I want to tell myself that if I did say something lame and hooky to God, He sees my heart and would know the true source of the words but since scripture says “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks” I better check my heart to see if its producing shallow and juvenile puppy love songs or deep expressions of a life lived in true intimacy with Jesus.

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