Avoiding cliches like the…

When accessibility becomes trite

Communicating in a fresh and vivid manner
24th September 2008

One of the challenges in writing lyrics for worship songs is that we are to take the unchanging truths about God and yet find new ways of expressing them. It’s telling the ‘old, old story’ but telling it in a way that feels fresh. Effective communication connects with people where they are but stimulates them to think about things in a fresh and appealing manner.

In his wonderful little book, And now let’s move into a time of nonsense, Nick Page says this about clichés:

“As the old joke goes, I avoid clichés like the plague. Worship songs have an abundance of lambs, armour, panting deer and knees bowing and other such well worn biblical phrases. Our hearts are often on fire. If we want to praise God’s creation, it’s generally the mountains that do it for us, or possibly the trees. Justice always ‘flows’ and it’s always like as ‘river’. We’re rescued from dungeons or chains. Darkness covers the land. God roars like a lion or is solid as a rock. It’s part of the worship song writer’s job to startle and stimulate; to create new picture and new images in our minds. Clichés cannot do this. They are tired; they are lazy. Avoid them like the ________________ (fill in your own new, exciting avoidance based metaphor here).” (Page, p60-61)

You may or may not be a songwriter; but if you choose songs for congregational worship, then I think Nick Page’s advice is still useful. As words like ‘awesome’ get overused, they increasingly lose their meaning. How can we find words and phrases that ‘startle and stimulate’?

There is one word in the Charlie Hall song ‘Mystery’ which I think does just that. When I first heard it, it stood out to me. It's not a word I had ever heard used in a worship song before. It made me think. It forced me to consider what I was singing to God. It’s contained in the first line ‘Sweet Jesus Christ my sanity / Sweet Jesus Christ my clarity’. In what way is Jesus my sanity? Perhaps in the madness and confusion of a world that lives without Christ, that sees itself ‘governed’ by pure chance, that has no sense of ultimate purpose or destiny, perhaps in a world like that the Lord of history (the God who has died, who is risen, and who will come again, as the chorus of this song celebrates) is the only one who can bring a sense of clarity or purpose, of sanity that saves us from despair. It’s certainly a thought-provoking and fresh way of expressing this truth.

And then I had a conversation with someone after the service in which we used this song. This person has been going through some significant difficulties and they confessed to me that the only word they really heard in the song was ‘sanity’. Christ had indeed been their sanity through the midst of their circumstances, preserving them and keeping their mind from free-falling into mindless hopelessness. So when they heard that word, all God's faithfulness to them over the past while came flooding back to them, and they were moved to a profound sense of gratitude to God in the midst of their grief.

One word – vivid and fresh. And yet so meaningful for at least one person as we led that morning. Let’s keep on the lookout for those new ways of communicating the unchanging truth. Let’s seek to serve people well as we aim to ‘startle and stimulate’ in the choosing our songs, prayers and readings.

Alistair Hamill