Jesus, Lover Of Chris Tomlin’s Soul

Often called America’s Worship Leader, Chris Tomlin returns with his new album, NEVER LOSE SIGHT, on October 21. As the songwriter behind the worship favorites “How Great Is Our God,” “Our God,” and “Whom Shall I Fear,” Chris’ songs lead people to the heart of Jesus and into a deeper worship of Him. Featuring “Good Good Father” and the new single “Jesus,” this brand new album is filled with songs that draw us closer to Jesus and give voice to our praises, prayers, cries and hopes.

These words were taken from the publicity release of Grammy winning-artist Chris Tomlin’s new album, Never Lose Sight. Tomlin, if you’ve somehow never heard of him, is commercial Christian worship’s favorite superstar. According to CCLI reports, he is likely the most sung songwriter in the church today, and his record sales have topped 30 million.

Any time someone says a song has the power to heighten people’s worship in such a way, I confess I’m automatically skeptical. When a record company says their product can do so, it’s cause for concern. The purpose of worship in the church is, as Robert Webber so succinctly put it, to “do God’s story,” so that as the divine Subject of worship, God impacts us in such a way that we would continue to enact God’s story in the world around us. If Tomlin’s songs are to lead us into deeper worship, they must be a remarkable account of God’s character, attributes, and work in human history.

Ultimately, this album can’t live up to the hype.

These songs portray Jesus in one of three ways:

1. An awkward composite of random attributes.

Example: “Jesus”

This track does a lot of talking. It talks a lot about who Jesus is, but ultimately there is no organization, no overarching theme. It’s summation is found in the last lines: “There is no one like you, Jesus / There is no one like you.” This is true, because all we have are a few lines strewn together about things that Jesus can do that makes him less clear than before.

Other examples: “All Yours,” “God and God Alone,” “Glory Be”

2. Chris Tomlin’s personal friend and possible romantic partner.

Example: “First Love”

I wrote a love song for my wife, Kelsey. This is how it goes.

You are still my first love
And all I am is yours
You are still my anchor
Forever I’m secure
You are still my first love
You’re my guiding light
You’re with me in the fire
And you lead me through the night

You have my heart
You’ve won my heart

Oh how I love You, Kelsey
You are my greatest joy
How I adore you, Kelsey
Oh, my soul rejoice

It’s a bit amateurish, sure, but a love song it is. Except I didn’t write this. Chris Tomlin and some other boys did. And it wasn’t to a girl named Kelsey, it was for this guy named Jesus. The fact that we’re still singing Jesus-is-my-girlfriend music after it was satirized by South Park should bother us a great deal. What we see here is a tame God who is here mainly to meet my needs and make sure I have a peaceful life of worship and leisure.

Other examples: “Good Good Father” (which I covered in detail here), “The God I Know,” “Yes and Amen”

3. A leading man, a heroic figure, showing up just in the nick of time to save us from whatever ill might befall us at any given time.

Example: “Impossible Things”

Jesus is the guy in the movie that foils the terror plot and gets the pretty girl at the end. He’s the one who is quick on the draw. At the very end, when all hope is lost, here comes Jesus to save us and blast our enemies into oblivion. They usually end up sounding like a defiant, somewhat haughty refrain of “My daddy can beat up your daddy.”

Other example: “God of Calvary”

After listening to and reading the lyrics to this album, I think sixsteprecords is guilty of false advertising.

If I had to write a review like the one quoted at the beginning, it would go something like this:

American church idol and pop superstar Chris Tomlin returns with his new album, NEVER LOSE SIGHT, on October 21. As one of many credited songwriters behind spiritual-but-not-religious favorites “How Great Is Our God,” “Our God,” and “Whom Shall I Fear,” Chris’ songs lead people to like the way recording technicians mix his voice with the generic sounds of sixsteprecords studio musicians, and into a deeper understanding of Chris’ own perception of God and his unmistakable late-20th-century evangelical pop theology. Featuring the bad, bad song “Good Good Father” and the new single “Jesus,” this brand new album is filled with songs that we hope make you feel things for Jesus and make you and your churches spend lots of money on our product. And don’t worry. There are no weird churchy words or difficult concepts, just a lot of Jesus love.

If we’re to believe that albums like this draw us into deeper worship of the real Jesus, then we’re forced to measure that depth through the subjective metrics of personal emotion (“This is how Jesus makes me feel.”), individual benefit (“This is what Jesus means to me!”), and an overarching self-referential perspective (“God is enthroned as I worship God.”)

And, oh yeah, through our cultural addiction to commercial pop music.

How in the world are we falling for this? Because we’re suckers for catchy, artistically bankrupt music and vapid, sentimental lyrics. It’s a marriage made in worship industry heaven. That’s why music like Tomlin’s sells. But while Tomlin encourages us to never lose sight of how God makes us feel, we must realize that we know better. We know that we walk by faith, and not by sight, and the meat of our worship, both personal and corporate, isn’t found in riding the emotional wave of commercial music, nor in the personal comfort of a daddy-god, but in the muck and the mire of bringing the beauty of the “already” into the ugliness of the “not yet.”

This is why the church needs to boycott the worship industry before it kills worship altogether.