The Narrow Path Ministries

Okay everybody; see if you can guess where I heard this song (barfbag at the ready):

"Enchanted"

This world is enchanted
Lean closer to see it
This world is enchanted
Dare to breathe it in

Give us new eyes to see
Give us new skin to feel
Give us new lungs to breathe
The wonder underneath
The faith of a mustard seed
A Holy naiveté’
To swim in your mystery
We need to be free
Free to breathe it in
Free to breathe it in
Born and born again

Beautiful, isn't it? In a fairly gaggy, mock-Hindu spirituality, Greenpeace, "give me a break" kind of way?

Guesses? The "New Age" jazz station? Enya? Yanni?

You might guess that I was completely turned off that this song was sung during my church's "worship" set yesterday. Now, I love our worship ministers to death, and I'm on those microphones about once a month. But if I'd been on this weekend, I'd have sat out this song. Can anybody talk me down from the ledge on this one? What's Christian about this song?

And if you think the first verse was bad, the second one started with this gem:

"This world is transcendent..."

Blech. Transcendent? Unknowable? How, exactly? I'm sorry, but the only remotely Christian elements in this song are "faith of a mustard seed", and "Born and born again", but even this last one could be taken in context of a belief in reincarnation.

I know I shouldn't let something like this interfere with worshipping God, but it did.

The only positive thing was, we finished the time of worship with "This is My Father's World", which I loved.

Okay, enough ranting. Thoughts?

-Seth

I truly wonder what is Christian about most contemporary worship songs. Sure they praise God (for the most part) and they make you feel all warm and fuzzy and close to God but do they speak of the Gospel message?

i'm with you, seth. major gaggage. i think you should bring up your concerns. that song is a little too fast and loose. if they sang it in my church, i'd raise an objection. hopefully they'd listen.

TK

Hi Seth,

That song doesn't even make sense to me. The way I understand it, it's kinda pantheistic. What a wonderful song to be singing in church. But, maybe my interpretation is way off because "This Is My Father's World" is definitely not pantheistic, and maybe they were going for a theme (which I fail to pick up on.)


And the imagery is pretty poorly done, as well. This part:

• To swim in your mystery
  We need to be free
  Free to breathe it in

makes me think of trying to breathe underwater and I end up feeling like gasping for air.

Is the melody at least pleasant?

TK wrote:i think you should bring up your concerns. that song is a little too fast and loose. if they sang it in my church, i'd raise an objection. hopefully they'd listen.

I think they will. I'm very close to our Worship Minister, and I think he'll hear me. It appears, from the web search I did, that the song is of Mars' Hill origin, which frankly doesn't surprise me. It also seems to be connected to "This is My Father's World" on the CD it was pulled from.

Our worship ministry actually has a Livejournal for feedback on the services...solicited from the people serving that weekend, but open to anybody who wants to post. I'll post something there.

One point of clarification...this was a Missions-emphasis Sunday, with Luis Palau speaking, so I think the intent of the song was to get the Pew People thinking about a world larger than just our Worship Center (it's a Presbyterian Church, after all...but not the bad kind).

MichelleM wrote:Is the melody at least pleasant?

It's not Mozart, but it was kind to the ears...but the words get in the way.

I hear ya Seth.

The worship music that is sung where I go is awful. Many redundant phrases like "Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, yeah, ETC..." And the music it is set to sounds like a re-run of Sanford and Sons.

And to make matters worse, the Pastor feels the need to say "Amen" and "Praise God" after every single word....Kinda makes me think about what Jesus said regarding prayer.. "Mat 6:7 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen [do]: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

Update: I've communicated my thoughts on the song to the Worship Minister. It's been a lively email conversation. He does a great job, and I'm generally very impressed with the quality of the music (and lyrics) at our church. It's nice to have approachability in a church staff.