Jump directly to the Content

How Today's Worship Music Stresses the Wrong Words

"It's All About Who, Jesus"--Part 2

(Editor's note: We invited J.D. Walt to respond to Brian McLaren's column, "It's All About Who, Jesus?" J.D. speaks as a pastor, composer, worship guide, and leader of emerging ministers at Asbury Seminary.)

I had the privilege of co-writing (with Chris Tomlin and others) a short chorus called "The Wonderful Cross." It's a small part attached to the big Isaac Watts hymn "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross." The words to the chorus are:

Oh, the wonderful Cross. Oh, the wonderful cross,
bids me come and die and find that I may truly live.
Oh, the wonderful cross, Oh, the wonderful cross,
all who gather here by grace draw near and bless your name.

From time to time we get e-mail about the song. One such e-mail came from Dan, who excoriated us for celebrating the cross and a gospel that would "bid us come and die," as Dietrich Bonhoeffer so aptly put it. Dan closes his letter with this:

"Don't get me wrong, when that song is being ...

March
Support Our Work

Subscribe to CT for less than $4.25/month

Homepage Subscription Panel

Read These Next

Related
Anatomy of a Spiritual Leader
Anatomy of a Spiritual Leader
A conversation with Gordon MacDonald
From the Magazine
Should the Bible Sound Like the Language in the Streets?
Should the Bible Sound Like the Language in the Streets?
Controversy over Bibles in Jamaica, the Philippines, and Germany reveal the divide between the sacred and the relatable.
Editor's Pick
What Christians Miss When They Dismiss Imagination
What Christians Miss When They Dismiss Imagination
Understanding God and our world needs more than bare reason and experience.
close