{"id":1736,"date":"2011-11-04T09:54:15","date_gmt":"2011-11-04T14:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/wc\/?p=1736"},"modified":"2011-11-04T09:54:15","modified_gmt":"2011-11-04T14:54:15","slug":"words-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/wc\/2011\/11\/words-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"Words Matter"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Today\u2019s post is written by Matt Nightingale, Director of Worship Ministries at\u00a0Redeemer Covenant Church<\/a> in Tulsa, OK.<\/em><\/p>\n

In the Better Together group this week, we’ve had quite a conversation going about words. One of my favorite songs is called “Language” by Suzanne Vega. In, ironically, some of her most beautiful poetry, she captures the fleeting nature of words and our seeming inability to communicate accurately. Toward the end of the song, in frustration, she sings,\u00a0“I won’t use words again. They don’t mean what I meant. They don’t say what I said. It’s just the crust of the meaning with realms underneath. Never touched, never stirred, never even moved through.”<\/p>\n

And yet, as Covenanters, we claim to be “people of the Book.” We ask “Where is it written?” Words matter. And as confessing Christians, we proclaim that Jesus Christ is “the Word” made flesh. John 1:1-3 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.\u00a0He was with God in the beginning.\u00a0Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.” In Genesis 1, we read that God created everything through words, through the Word. He literally spoke everything into existence.\u00a0Words\u00a0matter.<\/p>\n

But we are fallen. Words have the power to bring life and to create beauty, yes, but they can also be used to destroy, to enslave. Even the redeemed, those of us attempting to bring glory to God through our lives and our language, can fail\u00a0miserably\u00a0in this area. And if, as Chris claimed last week<\/a>, “we are what we sing,” then what do our words say about who we are? What does our misuse of language in our songs of worship say about us? And what can we as worship leaders do about it?<\/p>\n

A few days ago, one of our members posted the following comment\/question:<\/p>\n

i tend to shy away from any songs with warfare language and tend to cut out a lot of verses in old hymns that talk about “i can’t wait to leave this earth and go to heaven”. also, i try and change words to be more gender inclusive (not using the word “man” to represent both genders). does anyone else have personal preference or ministry context issues that tend to shape what themes you do and do not include in what are otherwise non-issues?<\/em><\/p>\n

It’s a good and fair question. Here’s just a sampling of some of the responses:<\/p>\n