Harris Shares His thoughts on “Shout to the Lord” on AI as Well as the Inside Scoop

Josh Harris, pastor of Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, Maryland sums up his thoughts on the ever popular worship song “Shout to the Lord”. He also reports an insiders look into some of the controversy that has been brought up. Below is an excerpt. Read the whole thing here.

Josh Harris:

So I’m more excited about Christians inviting their unbelieving friends over to watch American Idol together so they can build friendships and establish a platform for sharing the gospel in that relationship than I’m excited about an occasional worship song being sung on the show. If both happen, that’s cool, too.

Oh, and let me gently disagree with people who are upset about the song being sung, edited or not. Don’t get so worked up about unsaved people singing songs of praise to Jesus. It happens every Sunday in churches around the world. It happens in my church every Sunday. Thankfully, a large portion of people at our church are Christians. But there are many people who claim to know Christ that don’t. And there are many unbelieving people who come who need to repent and believe.

Here’s reality: we live in a secular, pluralistic society. We need to be good neighbors to agnostics and atheists and people of other religions. Christian faith and practice shouldn’t be forced on others. And we shouldn’t be overly surprised when “gospel” music that is very meaningful to believers is co-opted and used in secular settings by people who don’t have personal faith in Jesus. How many times has Amazing Grace been sung and loved by people who don’t really grasp its truth? Like it or not we live in a culture where many people view gospel music as merely a style that is part of a cultural tradition. That’s all it means to them.

Moments like this are reminders for me that the songs and trappings of Christian culture are not the hope of the world—Jesus is! We need to make him known. We need to love and seek to serve the world around us through prayer, through faithful evangelism, and through Christ-like service of those in need. Our goal is not building a more air-tight evangelical bubble. Neither should our goal be hoping that our subculture will burst out into the broader culture to great acclaim.

Being Shaped by Truth

(1) We adopt a “chastened” correspondence-theory of truth that is less triumphalistic than that of some in the older evangelicalism. But we also reject a view of truth that sees truth as nothing more than the internally coherent language of a particular faith-community. So we maintain, with what we hope is appropriate humility, the principle of sola Scriptura. (2) Though truth is propositional, it is not only something to be believed, but also to be received in worship and practiced in wisdom. This balance shapes our understanding of discipleship and preaching. We want to encourage a passion for sound doctrine, but we know that Christian growth is not simply cognitive information transfer. Christian growth occurs only when the whole life is shaped by Christian practices in community—including prayer, baptism, the Lord’s Supper, fellowship, and the public ministry of the Word. (3) Our theoretical knowledge of God’s truth is only partial even when accurate, but we nevertheless can have certainty that what the Word tells us is true (Luke 1:4). It is through the power of the Holy Spirit that we receive the words of the gospel in full assurance and conviction (1 Thess 1:5).

Excerpt taken from The Gospel Coalition’s Theological Vision for Ministry

Criticism God’s Way

Taken from the Spring 1999 issue of The Journal of Biblical Counseling, (Vol. 17, No. 3) in an article entitled “The Cross and Criticism”.

I see my brother/sister as one for whom Christ died (1 Cor. 8:11).

Keep on loving each other as brothers (Heb. 13:1).

I come as an equal, who also is a sinner.

Are we any better than they? Not at all. For there is no one righteous…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:9,23).

I prepare my heart lest I speak out of wrong motives.

All a man’s ways seem innocent to him, but motives are weighed by the LORD (Prov. 16:2).

The heart of the righteous weighs its answers, but the mouth of the wicked gushes evil (Prov. 15:28).

A wise man’s heart guides his mouth, and his lips promote instruction (Prov. 16:23).

I examine my own life and confess my sin first.

Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, “Let me take the speck out of your eye,” when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye (Matt. 7:3-5).

I am always patient, in it for the long haul (Eph. 4:2).

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. (1 Cor. 13:4).

My goal is not to condemn by debating points, but to build up through constructive criticism.

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may give grace to those who listen (Eph. 4:29).

I correct and rebuke my brother gently, in the hope that God will grant him the grace of repentance even as I myself repent only through His grace.

And the Lord’s servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth… (2 Tim. 2:24-25).

Bob Kauflin: “Shout to the Lord” on American Idol

American Idol surprisingly decided to start the show with Shout to the Lord again. One interesting difference is that they actually used “Jesus” instead of “Shepherd”. I have posted the video below along with an excerpt from Bob Kauflin of Sovereign Grace Ministries. Click here to read his whole post.

Bob Kauflin:

Hearing “Shout to the Lord” on American Idol is an opportunity to pray that God would use this event for his glory and fame, for the advancing of the Gospel, and the building up of his church. It also motivates me to pray for purity, discernment, and holiness in the church, and that we would reach out to those who don’t know Jesus without embracing worldly values or godlessness.

Would it be great to see more Christian worship songs sung on American Idol? Sure. But when a Christian song receives national attention or reaches number 1 on the charts, it’s no clear sign one way or the other that the Gospel is advancing or the church is having more of an influence on our culture. It can just as easily be a sign that the church is being swallowed up by the culture because it’s indistinct from the world.

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