I just read a phenomenal post with some great thoughts on Derek Webb and his new album, Stockholm Syndrome. iMonk aptly point out:

I love Webb. I consider him immensely talented. His current work is ground-breaking and I hope millions of young Christians listen to it and identify with it. But I have some thoughts.

I saw Webb live several years ago on the Mockingbird tour. He was genuinely entertaining. Today, even though I’m a fan, I’d think twice or more about whether I wanted to sit through an evening of Stockholm Syndrome. Not for a lack of creativity or artistic talent. Far from it. And not just because I’m not a fan of electronic music.

I’m just not sure I want to be pummeled by the law- and the truth about the church and culture- for an hour or two. And make no mistake about it, on the “law-Gospel” continuum, this is law and prophetic denunciation, delivered with relentless consistency. No one else is saying this stuff and Webb doesn’t miss his punches. His pleasant voice betrays his very unpleasant message. We are a captive church that is now identifying with the values of our cultural captors, and it’s not pretty. Our treatment of the gay community provides a painful example. . . .

…. Webb is an artist, and I respect his freedom to create and I encourage you to get and listen to Stockholm Syndrome. As a Christian, I want to give Webb all the artistic room possible, and my soul needs to be jolted as much as anyone. But I’d like to pray that Webb has a Lutheran turn in the near future, and finds that speaking of law and Gospel, prophetic intensity and Christ’s love are things that can go together in art and must go together in life.

I really have been enjoying Webb’s album, but I along with him I often fall into the Law-end of the spectrum. It’s much easier to point out problems than to effect lasting change by the power of the Gospel and grace-motivation (as opposed to guilt-manipulation). Perhaps our frustration stems in a sign of the times, it seems to be shared my most in my generation – almost an outright hostility towards institutional church. At the same time, is it somewhat warranted?

In a recent comment I wrote:

. . . .few churches spend more on outreach than they do on building costs and salaries. What if churches began in homes until they were big enough to move into a building but could still pay more out to outreach than to administrative issues? For instance, if a pastor makes $25,000/yr and a mortgage for a building (or rent/lease) costs $25,000/yr, then automatically that is $50,000/yr spent sustaining a building and full-time staff. Instead, those desiring to lead churches could work a regular job and pastor from their home until they are able to spend more on outreach than both of these combined. And I know $50,000 a year is actually pretty meager compared to what most spend annually, especially once you factor in things like printing costs, utilities, sound systems, powerpoint projection systems, building and grounds maintenance, etc. Let’s face it, that’s a lot of money that could be spent on things like food pantries, homeless shelters, and other ways of meeting physical needs while presenting the Gospel to people. And people who work at regular jobs could support this and meet in several homes. I mean, people are already paying mortgages, why pay for another one? That’s my issue, the institutional church model is not the best way – nor is it really good stewardship. The problem is that as churches grow, they typically don’t spend a larger percentage of their money on outreach, either. They spend more money, yes, but not a larger percentage. The trend continues, most of the money goes towards a larger staff, better technology, and other comfort-items for pew-sitters. It makes me sick.

Did you know that over one thousand million [1,000,000,000] people in the world do not have clean water. Many more people must travel very far distances to gather clean water each day. Do you know how much money it would cost to supply clean drinking water for a village? About $2,000. That’s the average cost of a well for one town/village. A 2005 New York Times story noted that people all over the world spend sixty four thousand million dollars [$64,000,000,000] on bottles of water each year. Many of the people buying this bottled water already have clean water supplies. But the New York Times story also noted that if these groups had just one point seven thousand million dollars [$1,700,000,000] more each year, all people in the world could have a clean water supply. Americans spend enough on bottled water to supply it for the entire world several times. But churches can’t contribute to such causes because the NIPSCO bill was a little too high this month from running the air-conditioning on Sunday morning. . . .

I really wonder if institutional ministry really is the best way to do things. Everyone agrees that real ministry and discipleship occurs in small groups, so why not invest in that rather than the Sunday morning financial drain? Then again, maybe I’m being too harsh. Then again Jesus said some pretty harsh things to church people. . . .

Be sure to read all of iMonk’s post, it’s very good.

I just pre-ordered Derek Webb’s new album, Stockholm Syndrome, last night. Along with the pre-order came the ability to download all of the original album immediately, so I’ve been listening to it ever since. There was quite a bit of contention surrounding the album. Here’s a blurb from an email I got:

Because of controversy with Derek’s record label, there will be two versions of the album released (a ‘clean’ and an ‘explicit’ version), hitting physical and digital shelves on September 1st, 2009. But directly from Derek will be the only way to get Stockholm Syndrome in its entirety and original sequence, including the controversial song ‘What Matters More’.

And why wait until September? All pre-orders come with an IMMEDIATE full digital download of Stockholm Syndrome.

Choose from SIX different pre-order options, including ‘digital-only’ packages with lots of digital extras, 3 different quality resolutions (including HD) of ‘Paradise Is A Parking Lot’ (the hour-long documentary film about Stockholm Syndrome), full multi-track stems of the entire album (in WAV format) for remixing, limited edition Stockholm Syndrome t-shirts and much more.

Pre-Order Now

I’ve really been enjoying the album, I love how Webb “pushes the envelope” when it comes to Christian music. In the past, his songs “Wedding Dress” and “I Repent” have blown me away with their authenticity and bluntness (sorry I couldn’t find “I Repent” on YouTube).

But back to the controversy. It centers around the song “What Matters More,” in which Webb uses the words “shit” and “damn” and talks about how he wants Christians to stop picking on gays. His label, INO Records, thought the song was too sketchy to be included in the album. This actually happens quite a bit in the Christian music industry, but Derek Webb did something most artists don’t: he made it public knowledge to his fans. I got an email about a month ago from Webb stating:

. . . . it seems i’ve finally found the line beyond which my label can support me, and apparently i’ve crossed it. . . . the majority of the controversy is surrounding one song, which i consider to be among the most important songs on the record. so we’ve decided it’s an appropriate time to break the rules.

but because of various legal/publishing issues we’re having to be rather careful with how we do what we’re going to do next. that’s really all i can say for now and i’ve probably said too much.

we have a plan and we’re moving ahead, but we’re not sure what kind of trouble we might be getting into. we’ll let you know as soon as we know our next move-
derek

Jeff Wright over at Pursuing Truth offers a great response I’d like to share:

Webb is basically saying that Christians ought to have bigger concerns than spending an inordinate amount of time condemning homosexuals. It’s not necessary to read into what Webb is saying and conclude that he’s implying that homosexuality is not a sin or that the issue is not important. I don’t know what his convictions are on those points. What he says is “If I can tell what’s in your heart by what comes out of your mouth, Then it sure looks to me like being straight is all it’s about.” Maybe you can say he’s exaggerating a bit to get his point across but its difficult to argue him on this.

The amount of time and energy spent confronting the issue of homosexuality is certainly greater than the time and energy that could be spent on matters that are equally important or more so. Webb speaks of the 50,000 people who are dyin’ today which appears to be reference to world poverty (MakePovertyHistory claims “50,000 people die every day from poverty-related causes”). Is it controversial to assert that Christians ought to focus on the hungry, poor and sick as much or more than we do the issues related to the growing acceptance of homosexuality? Its hard to believe that a damn record label would ban an album over such shit. Sounds like the issue has more to do with colloquial sensitivities than moral philosophy.

I leave us with the words of great apostle Paul who penned these inspired words of Scripture:

“But indeed I also consider everything to be loss on account of the surpassing knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, on account of whom I forfeited all things; and I consider them shit so that I may gain Christ.” Philippians 3:8

Well said, Jeff – or should I credit the Apostle Paul?

With no further ado, here is the song “What Matters More” by Derek Webb: