Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Predicting LifeChurch.tv's Songs for Mixtape 07

Lifechurch.tv one of the most talked about churches in America, namely for it's innovative approaches in technology and use of multi-site campus' is launching a new sermon series beginning Easter weekend entitled Mixtape 07. While other churches will be doing Easter pageants and dramatic sermons about the central moment in Christian faith (the death and resurrection of Jesus), lifechurch.tv will kick off a four week series focusing on how "God can connect with us through his life-changing truth revealed through today's hottest music."

Over the course of four weeks, each weekend will focus on a different hit song during it's weekend church experiences.

These four songs have not been revealed, and so I've decided to create a top 10 of what I believe might show up on lifechurch.tv's mixtape. I've assumed that the songs most be very current, they may spread multiple genres, and will be songs that many people will already know. And of course, must be songs that can be turned to have some spiritual dimension.

Here are my top ten possible songs that could end up on the lifechurch.tv mixtape.

1. Waiting for the World To Change - John Mayer
2. If Everyone Cared - Nickelback
3. You're Beautiful - James Blunt
4. Unwritten- Natasha Bedingfield
5. It's Not Over - Daughtry
6. Don't Matter - Akon
7. Stand - Rascal Flatts
8. Wasted - Carrie Underwood
9. There's Hope - India.Aire
10. What Goes Around Comes Around - Justin Timberlake

Next 10 - Runners up: Better Life, Keith Urban; The Sweet Escape, Gwen Stefani; What If, Coldplay; How To Save A Life, The Frey; Not To Late, Norah Jones; Anyway, Martina McBride; Pain, Three Days Grace; For Yesterday, 30 Seconds to Mars; Bad Day, Daniel Powter; Save Room, John Legend.

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12 comments:

jasdye said...

yuck. relevantism.

but since you asked for my opinion - and keep in mind i don't really listen to the radio anymore - i'll go with these four:

How to Save a Life - the Fray
Trapped in the Closet - R. Kelly
Bringing Sexy Back - Justin Timberlake
This Is Why I'm Hot - MIMS

actually, just about any song can be used for just about any topic if you stretch it far enough.

i may check out this church, though. i'm just afraid that i may also puke my guts out. but i may be pleasantly surprised (kind of like with the Relevant Magazine podcast)

peace

general125 said...

I can't resist to go the other way with this.

What about the following:

Shout at the Devil - Motley Crue
Devil went down to Georgia - Charlie Daniels
Running with the Devil - Van Halen

I'm just sayin'..... :)

Katherine said...

Love your list of top 10! Great choices.

The Pensive Poet said...

Good predictions on the songs. I just heard "Rockstar" by Nickelback on the radio today and thought that a church has probably used that one before.

Anna said...

Hey RC,

I love your blog. Thanks for stopping by mine and commenting. :) My husband and I are on the field here in the UK for two years doing outreach.

BTW, I like the songs you gave as possibilities! I will definitely check out the podcast you talked about! We are all about culturally relevant churches esp since we are church planters! I am looking forward to hearing it.

Take care and have a good week!

Darrell said...

I have to admit, I'm a little perplexed by the idea of something like this as ministry ... but I also have to admit that I enjoy looking for unintentional Christian allegory in pop song lyrics.

I'm surprised to see "You're Beautiful" by James Blunt on your list, though, because the song has the f-word in it!

Some of the songs that I've found "Christian messages" in would include Vertical Horizon's Everything You Want, Collective Soul's Shine, and my favorite (cough, cough!) "song about prayer," The Cure's Love Song. I listed a bunch of songs along these lines here.

Jeff Reed said...

thank God you didn't choose Carrie Underwood "Jesus, Take the Wheel"

Kimberly Ann said...

I think I will really laugh hard if Jasdye is right and we hear a sermon about what God is saying through R. Kelly's "Trapped in the Closet." !!!!!

I think that Keith Urban's "Better Life" has a top 10 chance... he's country/pop...LifeChurch is based out of Oklahoma, so you've gotta figure that a country/pop person would have a good shot, and his song is a little more subtle than Carrie Underwood's Wasted.

jasdye said...

kimberly ann,

don't knock cpt. zorro (that is, unless you can do a great spoof of it, like weird al yankovic, or south park. or, pretty much anybody else).

i do have a line of thinking to go with it, though.

how to save a life may be pretty obvious for anyone familiar with evangelicalism or born again Christians. so that should be self-explanatory.

a lot of people, though, Christians or not, may feel that they are trapped in a closet (in the obvious and not so obvious meanings), watching life go by as they struggle with their addictions and brokenness.

i also believe, whole-heartedly, that Jesus's resurrection allows us to live in a truly free way, which includes our intellect, our spirits, our bodies, our relationships and, yes, our sex.

in a not-so-related way, though, (more of an ice-breaker really, than anything of substance), one could evaluate why we need to be cited as being hot or not - the ways in which we divide ourselves and trap ourselves into believing that (a) i am better than you because ____________ (for example, i'm hot) and (b) i am better than i believe that i am by getting such and such product, etc.

see? i could start my own relevant church.

btw, not that i have any sort of problem with Jesus being relevant, or bringing the Church into the 21st century (pomo and all), but rather with this obsession of selling Jesus like he's the newest, coolest thing.

Lee said...

Why do birds
suddenly appear
everytime
you are near?

Just like me,
they long to be
close to Jesus!

Thanks for visiting!

Out Of Jersey said...

Interesting...
...to be honest I tend to skip easter and christmas services. I figure everyone else is going to them I will do the opposite. :D

Out of all honesty, I'm not sure how I feel about all this multi-media stuff. Are we spending too much time turning church into an entertainment?

jasdye said...

that was great, lee.

cube,

that's a great idea. i do feel a twinge of hogginess (somewhat like the prodigal son's brother) around those times. let the buzzers come during the summer months, i say.