I've been terribly busy starting off 2012 right as the Year of Being Invested. That's meant a deeper involvement in the things that I love than I had last year. And I love a great many things.
This last weekend, the youth ministry I work with had our annual winter retreat. It's a story in itself that I'll spare you from, but I wanted to share a quick story from our last night at the camp ground.
Christian bands are not known for their originality. Worship bands, even less. Mostly, I think it's understandable. When leading a group of people in something, sometimes you have to hit the lowest common denominator to find community and some kind of shared knowledge. But this band this weekend didn't seem to have that philosophy.
We stood up to sing and I heard a familiar guitar riff. I tried to place it, but I just assumed it was one of the probably hundreds of Christian songs I've memorized in my lifetime. Then they started singing. "I need you so much closer... I need you so much closer..."
Right about 3:00 in... You'll hear that beautiful line...
It's one of my favorite Death Cab for Cutie songs. In a worship service!
Normally, I'm categorically opposed to appropriating secular songs into worship services. Usually this is done just to be "relevant" or "edgy". It tends to be a desperate attempt to "culturize" the church, which almost always robs both the song and the church's message of their power.
(My church once did this awful rewrite of "Sweet Home Alabama" that was turned into "Sweet Home Up in Heaven." I nearly died. They've never done it since. Praise God. Seriously.)
This, however, carried none of that spirit. This was recognizing that, though the original artists didn't intend to worship God with their music, God was still honored. God can be worshiped with songs that were not expressly created for that intent. It was beautiful.
As the song continued, we stopped repeating "I need you so much closer", but the guitar line undergirded a transition into a more familiar song, transposed and rewritten. It was a beautiful experience and truly worshipful (at least, to me).
I would like to see more of this in the Church, I think. The redemption of lines, riffs, and pieces of popular songs. It models an engagement with culture that glorifies God and calls attention to the common grace given all of us as image bearers of the Creator. It's something I strive for in my life and, for me and the few others in the room who knew Death Cab, it turned into one of the more beautiful moments in the weekend.
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