American Idol 'Shouts to the Lord'

I know this is over a week late, but I thought I would comment on what happened during the group song portion of American Idol during "Idol Gives Back" week. Since it has been covered extensively in the Christian blogging community over the past week and a half, I won't go into all the details of what happened. But at the end of the show, which focused on needs in Africa, the remaining contestants sang "Shout to the Lord", the popular Christian worship song by Darlene Zschech (pronounced "Check").

Now to those of us that are evangelical Christians, "Shout to the Lord" is an extremely popular song. In fact, it is currently the fifth most popular song in American churches today (according to the CCLI.) But for the general population, I doubt very few of heard of it. And now thanks to the makers of American Idol, tens of millions are familiar with the song.

There has been quite a scuttle about AI's choice to perform this song. Some argue that since it is a thoroughly Christian worship song, it has no place on a secular show with all the contestants having to sing it. On the other hand, some Christians are bothered because the opening line of the song was changed from "My Jesus, My Savior" to "My Shepherd, My Savior." Some thoughts...

1. I'm happy they did the song. I think that having a Christian song sung at the end of a night devoted to giving was appropriate. While other religions also are involved in giving, I doubt any other faith gives more time, money and resources to Africa than the Christian church. Obviously, the producers of the show were fine with it and that is why they performed the song. Another thoroughly Christian song, Amazing Grace, is sung all the time by non-Christians and nobody says boo about it.

2. Since American Idol is easily the most watched show in the U.S. right now, millions of viewers got exposed to a song (and possibly a genre of music) that they were previously unfamiliar with. I don't have any high and lofty notion that millions placed their faith in Christ the night the show aired, but my guess is that the iTunes ranking on Shout to the Lord went up dramatically in the days following the performance. And just maybe some of those people that bought that track, bought some others and might find a relationship with God as a result.

3. I do wonder why they changed the opening lyric. I'm not mad about it...just curious. I know the reasons why they changed it (not wanting to offend and all), but if you're gonna do the song, then do the song. Jesus has been mentioned in other songs on the show (e.g. just recently with Dolly Parton) , so why eliminate His name when it is in the context of adoration? For those of us that hold this perspective, we also need to be okay with it were they to do a song that refers to some other faith's deity (e.g. Allah, Krishna, etc.) In a pluralistic society, if we want our views expressed, we have to allow for others as well.

For some more complete insights on this, I suggest you check out Joshua Harris' blog. Josh is the author of the popular book, "I Kissed Dating Goodbye", and a very good friend of mine. No, I'm just kidding. I've never met the dude, but do check out his posts.

Technorati Tags: american idol, shout to the lord, idol gives back

Exhibiting Social Grace

Some wise words from my friend, Gilbert...

The Scriptures talk about three kinds of witness.

1. The witness of our words.
2. The witness of our actions.
3. Our witness as the body of Christ.

Have you ever been in these situations?

• You go out to eat with friends and one person is really rough with the server? It seems to go beyond the quality of the food. I have been embarrassed by the lack of respect that I have seen some Christians treat those who serve us.
• You are riding with someone and they cut another off in traffic? Last week, someone followed me out of the church parking lot and I watched them lay on the horn toward another driver. It seemed unwarranted. Would they have been as aggressive if they weren’t so anonymous behind a wheel?
  
• What about situations where you thought a simple “Thank you!”, “Please.” or “Excuse me.” would have been the obvious thing to say and it did not happen?

I often wonder where manners went, why we lack social graces in our dealings with others and why we neglect the little things that show respect for the other person. The little things, like a kindness, a smile and common courtesy make such a difference in whether a person enjoys being around us or would rather not. My wife always asks the person doing check out in the grocery store how his or her day is going. Chris says she wants to leave them more encouraged than drained from having spent that moment with her.

Now here is why I am talking about this. We will be more effective witnesses as we reflect Christ in how we treat others. So often people don’t regard our message about Christ because our lifestyle doesn’t match our words. Paul says to the Thessalonians in his first epistle to them. “You know how we lived among you for your sake.” (1:5b) Are we salt and light? Do they see something different in how we treat others?

But more than the witness of our words, our witness as the body of Christ is enhanced when the non-Christian comes into our fellowship. Do they see something different there? Jesus says, “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:35. The body mode in our evangelism model is even more strategic today in light of the need for others to belong on the way to believing. With the breakdown of the family, we need to teach the social graces that used to be taught at home. We provide valuable interpersonal skills when we do.

I have been reading a devotional this year, Wisdom for the Way, about selected writings from Chuck Swindoll. In a selection entitled “Helping the World on to God”, Swindoll quotes Matthew 5:16, “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” Then Swindoll comments,

“[The world] will see “your good works,” Jesus said. Like what?

They will hear your courtesy.
They will detect your smile.
They will notice that you stop to thank them.
They will hear you apologize when you are wrong.
They will see you help them when they are struggling.
They will notice that you are the one who stopped along the road and gave them a hand.
They will see every visible manifestation of Christ’s life being normally lived out through you. They will see all that and they “will glorify your Father who is in heaven”
We are the ones who help the world on to God.”

I am sure that there are many of you who have some simple messages that teach practical ways to respect others, describes common courtesy and social graces and, generally, what it means to be kind to others. Let’s help each other create ministries that are more inviting places for the non-Christian and, in so doing, our evangelism will be more effective."

What do we do with this Jesus?

The following words were penned by Douglas Kaine McKelvey for the liner notes of the 2000 Jesus miniseries soundtrack. I love the picture that McKelvey paints of the Jesus that I know and love -- the Savior who stood up for the mistreated and loved all those that crossed His path. I think it's especially appropriate as we remember Christ's death, burial and resurrection. Read on...

"What do we do with this Jesus? This was the question on everyone's mind at the swing-point of history 2000 years ago. The Jews, the Romans, Herod, Pilate, the High Priests, even Jesus' own disciples - they all found themselves wrestling with the same perplexing question: "What do we do with this man?" For some reason he didn't seem to fit very conveniently into anyone's agenda - personal, national, religious or otherwise. The Jews wanted a warrior king to drive the occupying Roman army out of the promised land. The Roman's wanted to maintain and expand their empire over the known world. Everyone else just wanted what people everywhere have always wanted: pleasure and prosperity and to be left alone.

Jesus came along and upset all of that. He refused power. He didn't seek fame. He treated the pleasures of this life as inconsequential. He humbled himself as a servant and his selflessness alone became a walking indictment of all human agendas - base and noble alike. It's no wonder he made people nervous. He was like a splinter in the soul. Even those who despised him couldn't ignore him. They buzzed around him constantly, angry and perplexed.

In their defense, his presence must have been a bit overwhelming. The story of his life on earth are more than we seem eager to contend with today, but people then had no choice but to physically rub shoulders with him. They walked the same dusty roads and breathed the same air. There wasn't any getting away from it. He kept popping up at odd moments, infuriating people with his compassion, perplexing them with his gentle wisdom, and frightening them with his unbearable love. And then there was the whole business about claiming to be the Son of God.

Truth is, Jesus was an absolute scandal. He taught that the least were the greatest, the rejected were the blessed, the wise were the foolish, the weak were the strong, and the secure were the lost. He taught that people should selflessly love, not just their friends and families - which would have been difficult enough - but strangers and enemies as well. He called on those possessed by their possessions to leave their wealth behind to follow him into a life of uncertain suffering for the one promised consolation of his love.

His words grew so appalling one afternoon that many of his followers gave it up for good and returned home, muttering that his teaching was too hard. They had had enough. Those who stayed were apparently in too deep already. Most scandalous of all was the way Jesus publicly and persistently rejected the proud, self-righteous religious leaders of the day and instead drew prostitutes, half-breeds, political revolutionaries, smelly fisherman, and turncoat tax-collectors into his circle of friends - all of whom soon and somehow found themselves, by his very acceptance, transformed from what they had always thought they were into a new existence as children of God.

It's one of the eternal ironies surrounding Jesus that those who allowed the exposure of their own weakness, shame, and guilt were the very ones who were afterward able to drink with joy from the fountains of eternal forgiveness and love, while those who fought desperately to prop up their own crumbling facades of self-righteousness were in the end reduced to a ridiculous position, raging blindly against love and their own liberation. Jesus was always hard to take that way - an insult, even - because beneath it all, it seemed that everyone needed him whether they wanted to or not, prostitutes and Pharisees alike.

And that really was the crux of the problem. His very nature exposed the heart and forced the hand of everyone around him so that in the end, after the haze and baggage burned away, it was all laid out pretty simply. You were left with only two possible ways of answering the question "What do we do with this Jesus?" You could either follow him or you could crucify him.

2000 years of science, progress and religion don't seem to have changed things for us all that much. The human heart is still the human heart. Nuclear power, psychotherapy, and satellite television notwithstanding, most of us still find ourselves - in our more honest moments - faced with the same troubling question and the same simple options that perplexed Christ's contemporaries...

"What do we do with this Jesus?" It is something to think about...