I’ve been off-blog for a while, doing things like–well, like this: giving an interview to Drew Marshall, who runs an unconventional radio show out of Toronto.
Brother Marshall manages in less than 20 minutes to get me to commit myself (not an easy thing to do, as readers of this blog well recognize) to opinions about Marci McDonald’s book, street preaching, Making the Best of It, Chris Tomlin, Dave Crowder, and, of all people, Mark Driscoll.
FWIW, here it is–along with Drew’s much longer interview (he knows where the listeners are) with Brian McLaren, a founding member of the rock group “Kansas,” and other (more) interesting people.
I agreed with your critique of the inferior lyrics that are being written for some Christian songs. Someone called it 7 11 music. Seven words said eleven times.
I think I may have missed the blog post about CCM … can anyone link me?
Great interview, Dr. Stackhouse. I always appreciate the audio content, as I can easily listen to at work without being distracted from the task at hand. Thanks!
Search for “Chris Tomlin” and you’ll find it…along with a kabillion comments…
I caught the interview and completely enjoyed your segment. Which led me to your essay about contemporary lyrics in church music. Amen! Along with our common appreciation of Steve Bell’s work, I wonder if you are also a fan of Rich Mullins? How I miss the musical genius who would routinely string complex sentence across several lines of beautifully scanned lyrics:
i.e. Calling Out Your Name
…
From the place where morning gathers
You can look sometimes forever ’til you see
What time may never know
What time may never know
How the Lord takes by its corners this old world
And shakes us forward and shakes us free
To run wild with the hope
To run wild with the hope
The hope that this thirst will not last long
That it will soon drown in the song not sung in vain
And I feel thunder in the sky
I see the sky about to rain
And I hear the prairies calling out Your name
———–
I can imagine some harried PowerPoint projector person valiantly struggling to keep up with lyrics like that during congregational singing …not! But I do love Rich’s songs.
I look forward to hearing you on the radio again.