Joshua Haymes, Christian publisher and missionary to urban America, has made an appeal for more masculine sounding worship in our churches.
Joshua highlights a pressing concern within the modern evangelical Church—namely, the prevalence of effeminate themes in worship music. The plea for a shift from songs portraying Jesus as a romantic figure to those emphasizing Christ as the Conquering King resonates with the desire for a more robust and doctrinally sound musical expression.
Can we please make worship music masculine again?
Effeminacy is a huge problem in the modern evangelical Church, and it comes through loud and clear in our worship music.
Instead of singing songs/psalms about Christ as the Conquering King, we sing songs that describe Jesus as my boyfriend.
Most modern worship music is feminine, gnostic, and individualistic.
It’s all about stirring up warm fuzzy feelings about our personal relationship with Jesus.
In fact… if you didn’t even shed a tear or have a single goosebump during the worship set on Sunday are you even saved?
Maybe the lights weren’t dim enough…
Or maybe the worship leader didn’t nail that key change while he/she was repeating that chorus over and over.
This feminization of the church is a major contributing factor to men walking away from the church for decades. It has become clear to many men that the cost of being a good churchmen is emasculation, and it’s a price they’re not willing to pay.
The critique of contemporary worship music as leaning towards femininity, gnosticism, and individualism prompts reflection on the broader impact on the Church. The assertion that this trend has contributed to the exodus of men from congregations underscores the perceived cost of emasculation associated with being a faithful churchgoer.
This is a tragedy not to mention a false binary and it has devasted the church in the West.
Our society is enviably discipled by the worship music we sing at Church on the Lord’s Day.
It’s time we dispense with the Jesus is My Boyfriend songs and sing like the psalmist.
The proposal to reintroduce vocabulary emphasizing strength, battle, and triumph seeks to redefine the lyrical landscape of worship, aligning it with a more assertively masculine tone. This call to action aims not only to address a perceived crisis within the Church but also to impact societal discipleship through the influential medium of worship music.
So here are some key vocabulary words for our songs that will indicate a return to healthy masculine worship music.
– Lord of Hosts
– Conquer
– Enemy
– Hell
– Satan
– Battle
– Wicked
– Foes
– Bulwark
– Triumph
– Devils
(Not a Comprehensive list)
Reaching our neighbors, and our nation with the Gospel will require manly Christian men, singing manly Christian songs
Do you enjoy my weekly blogs? Help me reach more people, and please share this with your friends. Thank you!
Jeff Hagen
President & Founder
Hill Cities, Inc.
