Wednesday, July 28, 2010

This Guy is Everywhere!

The guy is John Mark McMillan, and lately he is popping up in magazines I've been reading, (Relevant, Worship Leader) itunes...it's been funny.

McMillan wrote the song "How He Loves", which has been made pretty popular by others like Kim Walker-Smith and David Crowder.   He wrote the song after one of his best friends had died in a car crash -- the night after this very friend told God he would give his life if it would draw more youth to Christ.  McMillan said,
He was my best friend.  I'd known him since we were children.  We were baptized together.  Really, what it came down to is I was angry with God.  I didn't quite know what to do with those feelings, but through that anger and resentment, I was able to see the heart of God in it all.  God was able to take something terrible and show me something through it.
One of the lyrics from "How He Loves" says "...Heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss," referencing the consummation of the Kingdom of Heaven that God promises his people.  When Crowder recorded the song, he asked McMillan's permission to change the lyrics to "an unforseen kiss" to avoid a misunderstanding with the metaphor.  Crowder took a lot of heat for the change, and McMillan took to his blog to discuss it.  He said, "I applaud David for changing the line to serve his people, and at the same time I boo the machinery that would cause him to have to do so."

"The machinery" -- any thoughts on what he means by that?  It makes me think of the machine that is contemporary Christian music -- the business of selling music to people who love Jesus.  It's got to come in this cleaned-up, vanilla language that doesn't confuse or offend anyone.  But I think there is definitely a need for more originality in Christian music lyrics, where lyrics are honest and fresh.  That's a discussion for another post, I suppose.  McMillan's new album, "Medicine" is on itunes for about $10 and comes with 3 videos -- one which is called "A Love Story" where he talks about writing "How He Loves" and then performs it live.  I have the whole album, but the videos are my favorite parts. :)

Most of this post has been straight out of the article on McMillan from Relevant magazine -- just making sure I put out that disclaimer. 

2 comments:

Unknown said...

have you read charlie peacock's 'at the crossroads' from ages ago? kevin had it at hca and probably at least showed it to you at some point.

Jeannie said...

Yes! I loved his perspective. Still definitely relevant for today...