Skillet Rendition of O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

Okay, so John Cooper of the band Skillet put out a statement today responding to critics of their rendition of O Come O Come Emmanuel, which was released a few days ago. It's got probably by now a million views.

When I looked the morning yesterday, it was like at half a million already. So it was climbing quick and there was some pushback online for it. In fact, there was an article written by Jesse Jackson, who did an article for churchleaders .com on this controversy.

I saw it emerge within some of my more conservative Christian circles, and so I wanted to weigh in on it and make a separation. I already made an ex post about this, but I just want to make a video about it too.

Sacred Music, Performance, and the Purpose of the Skillet Rendition

I think there's a difference between corporate music, sacred music in church, the norm for Christian music, what is normative, that aspires to the good, the true, and the beautiful, and then what is a particular specific departure from some of those things in order to communicate something that is more bombastic, and raw, and hard, and honestly evil.

The pain associated with death when you lose someone, which I have and many of you have if you live long enough, you will, is very visceral. I know there's times when it feels numb, but especially when it's a surprise, when it's someone you love and they die, it is like your heart's been ripped out of your chest.

What I think was going on with this rendition of O Come, O Come, Emmanuel by Skillet is they were not intending to create a version to be used in the context of the Sunday service or to be used in church at all, or to be sung in a congregational way.

What they were intending to do was to create a performance that channeled that feeling, that grief, that reaction to death that does want to tear things apart, that is angry, that is upset, that just feels a very visceral kind of reaction.

They wanted to take that and they wanted to insert that into the song and juxtapose that with Jesus being the answer to that, being the one who solved that problem, being the one who brought peace in the midst of that kind of turmoil.

When I first saw the music video, because I saw that there was a controversy brewing and some of it coming from my circles, my Christian conservative circles, that was my first initial impression that that's what this was.

Now, I think there is a place for that, and if you watch the entire video, it becomes apparent that for the first few choruses and verses, that's what's going on. It's just a Christian contemporary style version of O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.

At the end, there's this one chorus that just gets hard and everything's being torn up and it's bombastic, and that is not the whole song. I think a lot of people thought that was the whole song because that clip was being passed around so much, but I think that was just meant to be a window into what a heart feels when it goes through death, when it suffers.

I actually thought it was somewhat brilliant, creative at least. There's a scene in the song. They're in a church, and while they're in the church, I think this is significant too, it's the more traditional sounding O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.

Then, all of a sudden, the female singer in the band is in a hospital room where someone has just died. It's an empty bed.

I've been there.

I mean, I could feel the emotions coming back to me from my mother-in-law passing away a few years ago and my grandfather dying last year. I've seen that.

I've been there.

The feeling, that just raw kind of, there's nothing you can do. I mean, what can you do, right? You obviously have to submit to the Lord and say, the judge of all the earth shall do right. In those two cases, I will see them again.

But there is this other feeling there of like, I just wish this wasn't the case, and I would do anything. I'm kind of upset the world is this way. I'd like to just tear down this world where this happens.

I'd like to be in a different world where this doesn't happen. That's the hope that Jesus brings. It's the end of death. That's what Jesus gives us. Death, where is your victory? Where is your sting? Death has been swallowed up in victory.

And that's the beauty of the resurrection. And that's really what we celebrate at Advent is Christ has come. He's penetrated this world. And the curse of sin is death. And Christ got rid of the curse of sin through his own shed blood, his sacrifice on the cross.

And then he conquered death in the resurrection, proving that his promises were true and symbolizing the fact that we who are his, who believe in him, will not suffer death, which is ultimately a separation from God.

There will be a time we reunite with our loved ones who know Christ. And I think, and even those who don't know Christ, we're going to be at a place where every tear is wiped away. Somehow, and I can't understand this, we're going to be okay with the justice of God.

And we will, the judge of all the earth will have done right. And we will recognize that. And that's the world we're heading toward. And O come, O come, Emmanuel is this sort of longing for that, longing for relief, longing for victory, longing to be rid of sin and its impact.

And its impact is most keenly felt when someone dies, especially someone you love. So I think that's what John Cooper and Skillett were attempting to do in a solitary performance, not intended to be used as a norm in church.

And if any church tries to take this rendition, especially that last part where it's very bombastic and say, well, that's what we should be doing. That's how corporately the saints ought to worship. That's really good for your soul.

They would be absolutely wrong. It's not good for your soul to be listening to that constantly. It's, I think, for a very specific occasion and a very narrow one where you're reflecting on really how bad this world is in contrast to how good God is and the world to come is.

That's the intention behind it. I think that the music should draw us up to God in a sacred environment. And this music, I think if anyone's going to accuse Skillett of deconstructing the music, it would be this accusation.

It would be that they are forcing us to focus on earthly realities of pain, sin, and death too much and not with the temperance and self-control that should accompany those things as a Christian, knowing that God's promises are true.

It's somewhat childish in a way. It's just instinctual and you're operating based on your hormones. And that ought not to be the way that people of God operate in their lives. They ought to have some measuredness and some recognition of what the truth is.

I think what this rendition of O Come, O Come, Emmanuel does is for one second, it takes you out of that. It gives you a glimpse into your own heart and how we all know this tendency to feel like all is lost, that we are depressed, that there is no hope and it doesn't feel like there will be any hope because we've just lost something so valuable.

It gives you a window into that. And that is how the unconverted person is. The person without hope in Christ, that is their state. There's no guarantee. There's no assurance. And so I think that's the intention, to get you to focus on that for a second and then to realize the remedy for that is within the song, is in Jesus Christ.

So that's my take on it. I think that separation must be made. There is room for that in art at times, but not the elevation of the bombastic, of the lack of self-control, of the let's tear everything down and have a revolution.

I don't think the song, even Skillet's rendition, glorifies that. That's not the point. That's not what they're trying to do. If anything, they're portraying that in the negative. They're saying that's not a good thing.

That's a bad thing. When we feel that, it feels bad and we want to get away from it. And that's what Jesus helps us do. So they're using this hard rock, punk rock, whatever it is, to communicate something negative and for a limited context.

They're not using it to deconstruct the song so that churches will now do it this way to attract the kids, so that you will now forever think of the song in a different way and perform it in this manner instead of the traditional manner.

They're not intending to do any of that, I don't think. And John Cooper actually weighed in on this. He said, I do wish that the critics could hear the stories of how God has used our music to bring the light and hope of the gospel into broken lives.

And it is because of the call of the Lord that I easily ignore the critics. They don't slow me down. They ramp me up. And before that, he's talking about how he understands his more of a fundamentalist background and just even the concerns over leaving traditional forms of music and that kind of thing.

And he accommodates that. But then he says what I just read. And I think what I wanted to gather from that is this. John Cooper and Skillet go into the world. They tour all over the place. And I've even asked him this before.

You're a Christian band, right? And he kind of hesitates on that, yes and no. Skillet is a Christian band in the sense that they're Christians. They want to get the message of Christ out there. At the same time, he's touring with rock bands.

He's going to places where sometimes they're the only Christian band. And he's sharing the gospel with people who are probably not going to hear it in other places. They're not darkening the doors of churches to hear it.

And I think he sees that as his role. The Christian music industry is not really where his bread and butter are in the whole band. It's playing in these other forms and trying to be a light in those arenas.

And this is the kind of thing that is going to help them connect with an audience that lacks hope, that does feel this way. And then they're able to present the message of Christ as a solution for this problem.

I think that's the intention behind it. That's where they're playing it. And I respect that. So I know I'm like a huge traditional church guy. I even did a whole talk at the Music and Masculinity Conference in defense of tradition.

You can find it at TruthScript. And I am very against deconstructing church music. I do think that is happening. I do think our sacred music needs to be revived. I do think there's a place for performances like this in trying to reach the world, in casting these negative emotions in negative ways.

So you are viewing the world as it really is, not creating a fake world. And then in so doing, platforming the message of Christ as the answer and the remedy for this rage that does exist. And this confusion and chaos that emerges when a tragedy strikes.

So that's the difference. Those are the two things. If you're trying to go into the church and make the church more secular and to embrace the chaos, you're doing it wrong. That's not what he's doing.

If you're trying to go into the world that's already in chaos and present Christ, that's the big separation in my mind between the two things. And I think a lot of the critics think what's happening is this is like, and you've got to admit that there's been a trend this way.

And you have to understand that this concern makes sense. That these secular things, these, or pagan, even ways of dressing and ways of singing and so forth, that these are now coming into the church and compromising the church.

I went through this when I was 14 or 15, somewhere in there. We had something like this at a youth group in the church, right? A youth group, sort of like an evangelistic effort, I suppose you could say, but it was within the church.

And that was key, where there was a guy who really wanted to do like a punk music show and put in Christian music and stuff. And I remember one of the controversies, this is just a local controversy over the worship wars.

But it was, if you're going to do that, why don't you go into the world and do it? Why don't you go where those people are and try to reach them? Don't come into the church and try to bring in this stuff.

And certainly don't normalize this kind of thing, this kind of style within the boundaries of what should be a worship service. The church is set apart for a reason. And there's no reason to reinvent the church here and make it so that it mirrors what the world's doing.

And I think that's why people are sensitive to this. And I totally get that. I just don't think that's what John Cooper or Skilletter are intending to do. And I don't think the way that they're even doing this is a glorification of any of that.

If anything, it presents all of that in the negative. And then Christ is the solution. So that's my two cents. I hope that helps. Some of you navigate this as you think through it. God bless.