Mark is married to Jo and is a 23 year old youth and schools worker based in South Cave (near Hull). Mark spent 4 years as a youth worker in Peterborough whilst studying for a degree in youth work & ministry with Oasis.
Recently I’ve been leading more worship at church and also I’ve been listening to a lot more Five Iron Frenzy and it strikes me that worship songs tend to be very similar, all full of the same kind of language and all making very similar (yet worthy) points about God, however very rarely do you find a worship song with anything profound….I should add that by worship song I’m thinking of people like Matt Redman, Tim Hughes, Stuart Townsend, Ben Cantelon etc.
Although musically Tim Hughes and Matt Redman’s current albums are brilliant and will set a new goal for quality in Christian worship music the lyrics lack anything new.
This is where Five Iron Frenzy come in….I’ve been listening to a lot of their ‘Electric Boogaloo’ album which I believe is one of their best and the lyrics of the song ‘Far, Far Away’ have really struck me, they’re not overly profound but they seem to take a very different angle than the lyrics our average church songs take…so here they are:
Staring at the shoreline
wishing for some hope
the weight of empty fishing nets
is more than twisted rope
And underneath stern faces
they wait with baited breath
with broken hearts from hoping
while casting out their nets
See the figure on the shore
He speaks His words like plain men sing
His hands they still have holes in them
glory to the King
[Chorus:]
Can you hear the bells are ringing
far, far, away?
Can you hear the voices singing
far, far, away?
I know that one day soon a song shall rise
you’ll hear it with the sleep still in your eyes
And Peter was a liar
a traitor just like me
and Judas was a hypocrite
and Paul a Pharisee
When truth can be so distant
and hope evades our reach
Peter swam across the water
and found it on the beach
I hear they’ll hang you upside down
stretched across two boards
for hearing distant voices
and crossing to the Lord
The thing with this song is that theologically it’s brilliant, at the same time I think it puts things in a very different way….I hope you like the lyrics as much as I do.
I wonder if there’s a place for songs like that in church worship?
Ah, markazoid, you echo my sentiments entirely! Christian music is so generic when it’s out of a box that it begins to not mean anything anymore… well in principle it does but I don’t think that human spirits are inspired by worn out idioms, metaphores and cliches sung to generic 3 chord patterns with the chorus sung 87 times at the end. The formula can only last for so long!
Other FIF of gustow include:
World Without an End
In the soundless awe and wonder
Words fall short to hope again
How beautiful how vast Your love is
New forever, world without an end
and
Every New Day
Man versus himself
Man versus machine
Man versus the world
Mankind versus me
The struggles go on
The wisdom I lack
the burdens keep piling
Up on my back
So hard to breathe
To take the next step
The mountain is high
I wait in the depths
Yearning for grace
And hoping for Peace
DEAR GOD INCREASE!
Healing hands of God have mercy on our unclean souls once again.
Jesus Christ, light of the world burning bright within our hearts forever.
Freedom means love without condition,
without a beginning or an end.
Here’s my heart, let it be forever Your’s,
Only You can make every new day seem so new.
It’s all gravy.
So anyway, I personally find that my commune with God works better when real people use less formulaic words