Bishop wants rock God (From Croydon Guardian)

Bishop of Croydon wants rock God

8:44am Wednesday 22nd October 2008 in Search By Peter Truman

The Bishop of Croydon wants to worship to rock songs by the Beatles and U2 after calling the Bible “banal”.

The Right Reverend Nick Baines argues in his new book rock songs are often just as effective in expressing Christian beliefs as traditional hymns.

The book, backed by the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, says using pop and rock tracks could be a way to appeal to a younger audience.

Some of the rock stars mentioned by Bishop Baines in the book include John Lennon, Eric Clapton and Bob Dylan.

Some of the tracks Bishop Baines would like to see in church: • Imagine, by John Lennon - “A stupid, silly song” yet “there is something good among the nonsense.”
• Lord of the Starfields, by Bruce Cockburn - “Cockburn tries to imagine the creative mind of God whose dream cannot be dulled or dismissed.”
• River of Tears, by Eric Clapton - “The searing honesty of this song screams out and resonates.”
• The Times They Are A-Changin’, by Bob Dylan - “Dylan clearly recognises that today is tomorrow’s yesterday – that we create today what will tomorrow be regarded as history.”
• I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For, by U2 - “For many others, this was a moment of liberation as a verbal expression was given to what most Christians know, but don’t always articulate – that being a Christian does not fulfil every aspect of human experience after all.”

The use of guitar-based worship over more traditional hymns has long been used by evangelical churches but the bishop hopes adopting this strategy and applying popular music could appeal to non-churchgoers and increase numbers.

In the book called Finding Faith, which was described by Dr Williams as “profound and challenging”, Bishop Baines describes the impact pop songs have had on his Christian belief.

He said: “I have read the Bible through many times and I have enjoyed art all over the world.

“But it was a simple song from [Bruce] Cockburn’s early period that gave me the words to hang all this together and provide me with a vocabulary for connecting the bigness of the universe with the smallness of men in a language of worship.”

Referring to U2’s song “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”, he added: “What I can’t quite understand is why it took a song by an Irish rock band to make me identify what I actually felt about being a Christian in a complicated world.”

Bishop Baines indicated music could be used to challenge people to ponder some of life’s big questions.

He said: “Songs get more into the soul than simply reading an ancient book.

“I hope that they would be awoken to God and it would lead them to want to read some of the stories in the Bible.”

The bishop added churches should offer “a menu to people from different backgrounds” and should not be afraid of criticism.

• Would rock music in church convince you to attend? Let us know in the comments section below.