An edited version of this article was recently published in the HSU Brand. Pick one up if you’re on campus!

Jeremy Camp was in town a few weeks ago with Bebo Norman and Natalie Grant, and it was a really fun show. Bebo Norman is a fantastic songwriter and first-rate acoustic performer…I was really excited to be able to see him live for the first time. Natalie Grant put on a surprisingly entertaining show…I was honestly shocked at how fun it was. And Jeremy Camp, well, he’s Jeremy Camp, so his performance was undeniably solid, even though he usually doesn’t do a whole lot for me in either music or lyric departments.

As I was enjoying the music, I looked around me and couldn’t help but think that it’s just cool that we can be bring our youth group to an event that provides a ton of rockin’ good fun while still promoting a positive, God-centered message. It’s hard for me to not get behind that. Nevertheless, I found myself growing a bit uncomfortable during certain portions of the concert…mainly, the “worship” portions.

When Jeremy Camp prayed “we want this night to be completely and totally about you, God,” it was hard to doubt his sincerity. Yet, I think it’s undeniable that this concert literally could not have been all about the Father. The unmistakable screaming of about 500 teenage girls behind me let me know that this was at least 50% about Jeremy Camp. I mean, would the Abilene Civic Center have been packed out for a “generic” worship service? I doubt it. We came to see Jeremy Camp put on a show, and then participate in some worship songs. If it really had nothing to do with any earthly person, then there’s no reason to put names in headlines.

I have no issues with Christian entertainment or Christian entertainers in principle. I really appreciated and enjoyed 90% of last night’s concert. But I do have concerns about the increasingly blurry line between a worship service and a “worship concert.”

In my view, a worship service is God’s people coming in community to him, not to any mortal man, for the purpose of praise, adoration, and the hearing of his Word. On many levels, the worship concert experience is similar…there are certainly worshipful moments, usually a decent amount prayer, and Jeremy Camp even gave a brief devotional message based in Scripture. While those things were present, however, the majority of the event was still entertainment-driven–which means it was necessarily more about Jeremy’s charisma and my response to the fun, catchy music.

As a musician, I understand the power of music to evoke certain emotions, and I’m certainly not opposed to emotion in worship, but in these concert situations I find that it can be easy to confuse our emotional response to the music and a favorite celebrity with a meaningful encounter with God. This is dangerous territory to be traversing, but I felt that Jeremy Camp actually did a pretty good job navigating that particular minefield by rooting the “worship set” in songs that had lyrical substance.

I don’t want to be a Debbie Downer about what was really a great, fun time participating in Christian music, but I can’t shake the unease that hits me when I hear Christian entertainers talking and behaving as if what they’re doing isn’t entertainment. It may be entertainment and more, or even God-driven entertainment (I’m fine with that), but it’s entertainment nonetheless, and we need to be careful that we don’t equate a concert with our more community-driven, truly Christ-focused church gatherings.

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New song! This is a simple recording, of a simple song, about a simple realization. It’s about that moment when you really, truly understand that what you need more anything else in the world is someone outside of yourself. As usual, everything was done at home with the usual gear, mastered/mixed in Ardour, and Amber provided the always-lovely backing vocals. Be on the lookout for Matt Ashton’s mix for Autumn Street Records on YouTube soon.

• download recording in mp3 format (higher file size, high quality, works with every player)
• download recording in ogg format (lower file size, high quality, What’s Ogg?)
• download chord sheet in pdf

Lyrics:

It’s You

by Nathan R. Hale

something about you  keeps me awake
when I try to sleep
something about you  helps me make
some kind of sense of this world

You are what I need to be
more than me
You are what I need to be
more than you see

something inside me hears you breathe
like the sweetest melody
something inside me will ever chase
your perfect, unique embrace

You are what I need to be
more than me
You are what I need to be
more than you see

it’s you
it’s you