Book Notes: And Now Let's Move into a Time of Nonsense by Nick Page

"And now let's move into a time of nonsense" is Nick Page's witty, funny, tragic and telling critique of Christian worship music produced over the last twenty years, which is the staple diet of many congregations. It was also an excellent and unexpected Christmas present this year!

Page uses the cringe-makingly delightful device of a mythical Christian worship leader, called "Kevin", who embodies all the very worst of the errors in the contemporary scene. His crass acceptance of some social/musical norms, his shoddy workmanship justified on the basis of his staggering egotism and overdeveloped sense of calling, his bewildering shallowness and lack of broader perspective - are all things we have encountered (in ourselves and others), but not usually in as concentrated a form as we get with 'Kevin'!

Page's aim is to to chart the recent trends in popular Christian culture, which in his view have eroded the value of much of what is sung in churches, by an uncritical acceptance of the 'singer-songwriter' model. He argues that while the pop-song format might be contemporary and relevant in some ways, it is also problematic in terms of being a helpful vehicle in which to understand, give voice to, and really feel biblical truths. On page 30 he puts the boot into the superficiality of much of what he has been asked to sing in church:

Examples of the kind of laziness that irritate Page are the unthinking recycling of tired, cliched images, which have the aura of sounding spiritual, but are anything of the sort if they do not contain truth expressed understandably. Songwriters who cut and paste lyrics from their PC Bibles do not escape Page's censure either, pointing out that this is rarely done with any respect for the context from which the words were lifted. Amazing Grace, on the other hand he notes, is a thoroughly biblical song - which despite its many, many verses has only one direct Bible quote. Yet no-one could question that Newton effectively created a vehicle for the expression of worship within the language of his time.

I think that Page is pretty much spot-on with his analysis of much contemporary 'worship'. He, of course, generalises and wrote his book before some of the more recent songwriters sought to actively avoid the pitfalls that he describes. Within the remit he has set himself, his analysis of the church music worship is disturbingly accurate though.

The problems with this book are two-fold, and do not lie in what it contains, but in what it excludes. These might be described as problems of omission and problems of perspective.

The problem of omission is that as an analysis of contemporary praise/singing it does not address the fundamental issue of imbalance in contemporary output. In his devastating essay, "What do miserable Christians sing?" the reformed polemicist Carl Trueman laments the decline of Psalm singing in churches. The reason for his lament however is not an antiquarian desire to resurrect derelict cultural practices, nor is it a snobbish denunciation of modern people or their culture; rather his lament is over the loss of our opportunity to truly lament! The Biblical Psalmists job was to take all of the people's experiences of life and to provide a musical vehicle for these to be brought to God in worship. So the Psalms of Ascent are joyful, enthusiastic and rousing celebrations of the goodness of God. These are of the same genre as the vast bulk of our contemporary Christian songs, an emotional and spiritual homogeneity which Page does not challenge sufficiently. The Psalms on the other hand also contain things such as deep laments, and even complaint! Today such lyrics are almost entirely absent from our song books, and so no voice is given for pain, suffering, bereavement, disappointment or depression to be brought before God. As such, worship services can be exclusively aimed at the joyful or, offered as a form of escapism to the troubled. All this is blaringly and shockingly unbiblical. One great example of a songwriter getting this right is "How Long?" by Stuart Townend where he invites the congregation to join in the prayerful words:

How long , before You drench the barren land?
How long before we see Your righteous hand? How long
before Your name is lifted high? How long before the weeping turns to songs of joy?

The problem of 'perspective' on sung worship in Page's book is that although he is excellent on detail, he doesn't take a step back and seek to examine the place of singing in worship at all. He seems to accept the assumptions of those he critiques, that singing is the central activity that Christians will do when they meet together. This perhaps shows that this book is a little dated, in that in the decade since Page wrote the book the so-called emergent churches have severely criticised the relevance of sung worship, and in some cases actually abandoned it. My contention, as I have blogged before, is that the NT churches were more focused on eating together (being) whereas we have become more focused on singing together (doing). Page set himself the narrow target of examining the church music of today. His book would have greatly benefited from a broader analysis of the place of singing in worship altogether.

Despite those caveats, this book remains an intelligent, provocative read which would be usefully read by anyone involved in leading worship services, as well as anyone who wants to write truly worshipful songs. As a person who not infrequently looks at our worship songs and thinks.... "what?!?" it was a joy to know that I am not alone in my sense of alienation. We need books like this.