Jesus is my NOT my boyfriend

An ongoing challenge of Contemporary Worship Music is the “Jesus is my boyfriend” problem.

In so many contemporary praise music songs, the lyrics emphasize a love of Jesus (or by Jesus) in words so vacuous and atheologic (or a-Christological) that the references to Jesus could be replaced with the name of one’s boyfriend, girlfriend or spouse.

In honor of St. Valentine’s Day, on Friday Jonathan Aigner of Ponder Anew posted a blog entry entitled “Turning Modern ‘Worship’ Song Lyrics into Valentine’s Day Cards”. He takes a dozen CCM songs and adds clip art to bring out the Valentine’s Day romance motif.

One excerpt is from “Fierce” by Jesus Culture:

Like a tidal wave
Crashing over me
Rushing in to meet me here
Your love is fierce 

Meanwhile, “Your Love Never Fails” by Newsboys says

And when the oceans rage
I don't have to be afraid
Because I know that You love me 

Clearly these and other “Jesus is my boyfriend” songs don’t belong on Sunday morning. I’ve only briefly worshipped at CWM (or blended) churches, but it appears that the more theologically serious leaders of these churches are aware of this phenomenon and seek to avoid it.

The risk is that parishes may have musicians with more or less theological background, and clergy who are less attuned (or to busy) to head off these problems. This is exactly the problem that a denominationally approved hymnal solves. Of course, making a new hymnal every 40 years is directly contrary to the goal of performing on Sunday morning the latest song off the CCM bestseller list.

There is the separate issue that many CCM songs have an emotive, manipulative nature of the lyrics and music that emulates contemporary pop music. But that’s a topic for another time.