Matt Redman Saying Worship Has Become Too Focused on Us Matters Because Christian Music Keeps Confusing Encouragement With Worship

Modern worship music is full of reassurance.

I am chosen.

I am free.

I will overcome.

God is with me.

There is nothing wrong with those truths.

Matt Redman’s concern is about proportion.

In a recent RELEVANT interview, the veteran worship songwriter argued that contemporary worship songs need to recover more language focused directly on God rather than continually centering the worshipper’s identity, feelings and breakthrough. (RELEVANT)

That is an important distinction.

Christian music has absorbed the language of therapeutic culture.

Identity.

Worth.

Healing.

Personal victory.

Again, none of those things are unchristian.

But worship becomes distorted if God mainly appears as the person who improves our self-understanding.

The center quietly shifts.

God becomes supporting character in the story of me.

The Psalms hold a broader vocabulary.

Sometimes the singer is devastated.

Sometimes triumphant.

Sometimes confused.

But the psalm repeatedly looks outward.

Who God is.

What God has done.

The character of God that remains when the singer’s emotional state changes.

That orientation matters because worship is one of the few cultural practices intentionally designed to decenter the self.

Most of modern life does the opposite.

Your feed.

Your preferences.

Your brand.

Your story.

Your personalized recommendations.

Then worship gathers people and says:

Look somewhere else.

That is spiritually countercultural.

Redman’s critique should not lead to another formula where songwriters count pronouns.

The deeper question is orientation.

When the song ends, did I mainly feel better about myself?

Or did I see God more clearly?

Sometimes both will happen.

But the order matters.