Long time CCM (contemporary christian music) musician and innovator David Crowder shared his thoughts with Worship Leader magazine. His comments about worship, liturgy, history and change are insightful and worth sharing.
Author: Jeremy Armstrong
Rituals
are everywhere. They are found in the mundane as well as the formal.
From the ritual of waking up and making coffee to the way we celebrate a
birth or mourn those who have passed. Beyond that, our worship services
are rich with ritual. There is a time for the welcome and a time for
the doughnuts. There is a time for a rock ’n’ roll band to take the
stage and a time for the video announcements. A time for the pipe organ
to play the Sanctus and a time for the passing of the peace. The
question every leader struggles with is “when is it time to change?”
When is it time to build something new, and when to build by tearing
down a practice that no longer reflects the values of your community?
The David Crowder*Band dealt with just this issue during the past year.
We were fortunate enough to sit with David Crowder as he and his band
were on the final leg of their final tour and on the cusp of a new
direction—a new song. The topic of conversation? The past. And when is
it time to make changes to our rituals.
The news that David
Crowder*Band was releasing their final CD was a bit of a surprise to
many followers. But what isn’t a surprise is the breadth and scope of
their final offering: a double CD with over 90 minutes of music, it’s
massive, and it’s a ritual of worship. But not just any ritual, DC*B
created a Mass—a requiem to be more precise. For those rusty on the
early church’s Mass nomenclature, a requiem is the celebration for the
repose of the soul. Their final offering is a funeral CD. How
appropriate. Of course it’s “In the happiest of keys.” The David
Crowder*Band has never shied from the past. Their first CD had a classic
hymn cover, before that was a hip thing to do. Throughout the years
they’ve busted out Bluegrass, “Church Music,” keytars, and now a Mass.
The question becomes, is this a reaction to the current state of
contemporary worship where there seems to be a lack of regard for church
history? Not exactly.
“It’s more a lack of complexity,” explains
Crowder. “What’s majestic and beautiful about a lot of the older liturgy
that we’ve maybe misplaced is that that it feels transcendent. Many
times the liturgy was like a journey. You couldn’t just pop in for half
the service and get everything. You know, you can pop in a lot of
contemporary services and not be very confused by any of it. That’s not
necessarily a bad thing but, it’s like the show
Lost. The
reason that show was so attractive was because there was an exploration
that it demanded of you. You couldn’t understand everything that was
really happening. I think there’s something very attractive about
worship where everything is hinging on mystery, and it’s a difficult
thing to put your head around. It’s more complex.”
It’s clear that
Crowder isn’t alone in this view; the next generation of worshipers
(who will also become the next generation of leaders) is far more
interested in the past than many worship settings allow. “There are so
many college students that are attached to what we’re doing,” says
Crowder. “And the thing I love about where they are in life is that they
want desperately to live for something bigger than themselves. Of
course, that’s not new to our theology and our theological approach to
life, but it is something that’s been a huge social trend. It’s even a
buzz amongst corporations; in their need to market to this younger
generation they have to somehow present a product that’s bigger than
just consumption.
“And the younger generation is finding that this
present moment is not sufficient enough. That we need something that’s
bigger than just ‘the present.’ And we need words that say something
that’s bigger than the present. But we cant’ look into the future, so we
look backwards and pull from what has already been said. In doing so we
also realize that we’re not alone in this present moment, but in fact
our history is with us.”
Back to the Vulgate? Yet
Crowder admits, some of that mystery also came from the services being
presented in a language other than what the people were speaking. Martin
Luther felt strongly about this issue (obviously not in favor of it),
as do many people of faith today. There is a time to discover which
worship practices are becoming idols in and of themselves. And, this is a
contemporary issue as much as a traditional one. It’s not just a
question of when should we trade the organ for a guitar it’s also have
our projected motion visualscapes covering the entire back wall of the
sanctuary become a distraction?
“For us it’s always been we want
whatever we’re doing to be an authentic extension of what we are about,”
says Crowder. “So if, as musicians and humans, we are exploring
different ideas and sounds, it should come out in how we lead. It’s
authentically part of who we are. But if the motive is ‘we want to be
cutting edge,’ it feels contrived. It works when it’s an extension of
who we are, and we can’t help but explore how to move people through
this or that media. There is a very significant shift that happens with a
change of motivation, and the results between the two are almost polar
opposites of each other.
“So I think that’s why a lot of times you
go into a setting and the creativity feels very contrived. And there
are other moments where you go in and it honestly moves you. I really
feel like there’s an authenticity there that is all based on motive. But
on the other side, I also feel like there’s an equal falseness to just
tear rituals down because we feel guilty for having them there. The key
is not to build or tear down media, but to find humans that are part of
our community that God has gifted in unique ways and allow them to
express their giftings in a visible way to move us as a community. If
that is happening, you don’t have to worry about the falseness.”
Saying Goodbye As
worship leaders, as pastors, as people who simply live in this world,
it is important to examine if our hearts are truly passionate about our
mediums of displaying Christ or if we are simply drawing lines between
numbered dots because that is what we have done for so long. As Crowder
says, it’s a matter of authenticity. And where the David Crowder*Band is
concerned, this question recently became more poignant, and it began
the process of tearing down the ritual of David Crowder*Band.
“We
have always had a bizarrely long term vision in terms of our six
records,” shares Crowder. “But we could never see past record six. And
we would talk and talk about it wondering what could be next. But as we
were about to start this last record, we decided that we really needed
to sit and think and pray and talk to the people around us and figure
out if we are going to continue doing this just because it works. Or if
we should be open to something new. After some time, everybody came back
and there was a real cohesion and sense among all of us: ‘Yeah, this is
it. This is the end. And it is painful.’
“But as scary as it
sounded, we knew we were going to have another chapter coming. We have
talked about the band as a sentence, and now, we are at the end of the
sentence. It’s time to put a period on it. But after the full stop, it
will be time to write a new sentence. And I hope the best sentence is
yet to be written.”
Requiem “Now
we realize that there’s almost a multiplication in what we are able to
do,” continues Crowder. “All the guys want to keep making music and have
even already started working on stuff. That part is really exciting.
And for myself, I’ll continue to live the way I’m wired. And I feel like
I’m wired to help figure out ways to serve the Church musically.”
Of
course of all our rituals, one of the most complex is understanding
that there is a time to say hello, and a time to say goodbye. The David
Crowder*Band has chosen their final record,
Give Us Rest (A Requiem Mass in C [The Happiest of All Keys]),
to represent their goodbye, “And it’s all centered around the
Eucharist,” finishes Crowder. “And so we thought, man, this is a great
place to finish things up—to just come back around this. I guess the
period at the end of the sentence would be Christ and his sacrifice, and
his in-dwelling.”
That sounds about right for a faithful band of
worship leaders who have continually moved forward in creativity while
relentlessly keeping the focus on Christ and his victory. Maybe we
should call it an exclamation point.
