Mockingbird

One of the few "Christian" bands I've really been a fan of in the past eight years or so was Caedmon's Call. Their folksy sound was energetic and lively, to this day it makes the best road trip music. But what impressed me the most about Caedmon's Call were the theologically thoughtful lyrics so seldom found (at least by me) in Christian pop music. Songs like Lead of Love, Center Aisle, Love is Different stick out in my mind. My senior year of college my roommate Tim and I went to see Derek Webb (singer/songwriter for Caedmon's Call) who came and did a really small acoustic set on our campus. He had recently left Caedmon's Call and was working on some solo stuff. One of the songs he played, "Wedding Dress," blew me away. I'd never heard a Christian artist be so gutsy and honest about the whoreish state of the church. I'd heard plenty of Christian artists vilify the world for not being Christian enough, but nothing like this! Later I was introduced to Keith Green by a good friend Kaz, and I think that Green and Webb are in a similar cast of prophetic and talented musicians.

The first solo album of Derek Webb's that I picked up was 2003's She Must and Shall Go Free where "Wedding Dress" first appears. Now, you can listen to Webb for about 14 seconds and tell that he's a through-and-through Calvinist, but I say "good for him!" Imagine a songwriter who didn't water down their theology to make it "user friendly." So while my Wesleyan eyebrows are raised by songs like "Thankful," "Nobody Loves Me" and "Crooked Deep Down" I am also glad that he's putting it out there instead of producing watered-down crappy music. I respect Webb's music so much that I hear his Uber-Calvin songs as reminders that I need to avoid Pelagianism. On She Must and Shall Go Free the songs "Take to the World" as well as "She Must and Shall Go Free" could be used as mission statement and theology of atonement respectively. I was so impressed by She Must and Shall Go Free and at just how much I resonated with this student of Calvin.

Well yesterday Kara gave me Webb's newest album Mockingbird. It's only been one day but I've got to tell you that I think this his best album yet. The songs "A King and a Kingdom," "My Enemies Are Men Like Me" and "In God We Trust" get very very political demanding that Christians understand being an American and being a Christian are not the same thing and are often in direct opposition. His song "A New Law" examines the short-cut legalism practiced by far too many Christians who would rather be given a new law, or be told how to think rather than doing the hard work of disciplining oneself or learning how to engage the world instead of withdrawing to a bunker. Get your hands on this album as soon as you can, Derek Webb is singing about some things that we Christians need to be thinking about. Beyond being intelligent and insightful this album truly is an act of worship because Webb's honesty and heart for discipleship honors God. Too much of the Christian music today is about spiritual self-gratification rather than honoring God with our talent and our minds. These days Webb is in a class of his own.

Labels: Music