Recently, one of the most popular songs in Christian music has been the song “God’s Great Dance Floor” by Christ Tomlin. This song was recorded live at Passion Conference in one of their Worship times. This song is wildly catchy… like really really catchy. I can definitely see how it would be fun to use this in a live setting. You can’t help but tap your foot. Also, the spanish trumpet solo in the bridge is pretty fun.
I don’t use this song for worship… I actually face-palm every time I hear of someone using it for worship. Here are two reasons why: the lyrics don’t really make sense, and the lyrics combined with the style of music paint an inaccurate picture of God and our purpose as mankind.
First, in the song the verses say:
I’m coming back to the start, where you found me.
I’m coming back to Your heart, now I surrender.
These lyrics are not that bad… there isn’t much substance there, but they are not terrible.
Chorus:
You’ll never stop loving us, no matter how far we run
You’ll never give up on us, all of Heaven shouts let the future begin.
The first 3 statements in the chorus are nice. They talk about how God will never give up on us. This reminds me of the story of the Prodigal Son.
However, the lyric ‘All of Heaven shouts, let the future begin’ doesn’t make sense. Rationally, talking about God’s great Love for us should lead to a statement like “We don’t deserve this Love” or “Praise God for His unfailing Love” or “I offer my life in response to this love” not “Let the future begin.”
Why follow up a clearly Biblical theme (God’s unfailing love) with an unclear statement like ‘Let the future begin’? Is it even a Biblical concept? Do the angels and saints in Heaven ever shout ‘Let the future begin’? If they do, I haven’t read that verse yet. I do know that the angels and saints in Heaven are singing “Holy, Holy, Holy”. They also sing “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain…” But as far as I know they never shout “Let the future begin.”
The second reason that I don’t use this song in Worship is because of the picture that it paints of God.
The bridge lyrics are:
I feel alive, I feel alive, I feel alive on God’s great dance floor.
In my mind, what this lyric is communicating is two-fold. First, it is communicating the idea that how we feel is central; doing this by repeating the line ‘I feel alive’ three times. Im not saying that feeling alive is bad or even inappropriate in worship. However, I do not think that it should be a central theme in our worship. The reality is that we are made alive through Christ’s death and resurrection, even if we don’t feel like it. And that should be a central theme in worship, because that is the Gospel. I would ask the question, do the individuals singing and dancing to this song feel alive because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, or do they feel alive because the music is catchy, the club dance groove is stimulating, and this style of music is manufactured to give the impression of energy and excitement?
The second thing that this lyric communicates (with the help of the catchy club groove) is the idea that God is some sort of cosmic DJ and he is playing music for us to dance to. God is not a DJ, God is not making music for us to dance to. God does not have a dance floor (He probably doesn’t even want one). The Heavens are not his stage, and the earth is not his dance floor. The Heavens are His throne and the earth is His footstool. God is a Sovereign King, not a entertainer of His creation.
To be a bit controversial (whats a good blog post with out some controversy), this song “God’s Great Dance Floor” is a wonderful example of what’s wrong with much of the popular worship music in contemporary Christianity. The music is written to manipulate emotions and give the impression of excitement and energy and the lyrics communicate something about God that is not true. People are deceived into thinking they are worshiping the Triune God when in reality they are being manipulated into an emotional response by the style of music that in the secular world is associated with and specifically manufactured for partying and having a good time.
What is most confusing to me about this song is the fact that on the same album Chris Tomlin sings a song called “Whom Shall I Fear”. The lyrics in the bridge say:
Nothing formed against me shall stand, You hold the whole world in Your hands
Im holding on to your promises, You are faithful, You are faithful
Riddle me this: how can an individual write a song with these great lyrics clearly proclaiming God’s sovereignty and faithfulness, and on the same album record a song that communicates the idea that God loves us and therefore just wants us to have fun?
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