{"id":44726,"date":"2025-06-09T18:34:41","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T22:34:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=44726"},"modified":"2026-02-26T12:56:47","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T17:56:47","slug":"brandon-lake-doesnt-want-to-be-christianese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2025\/06\/brandon-lake-doesnt-want-to-be-christianese.html","title":{"rendered":"Brandon Lake Doesn\u2019t Want to Be \u201cChristianese\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Gage Skidmore \/ Flickr<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A clip from an interview<\/a> of Brandon Lake on \u201cThe Bryce Crawford Podcast\u201d in April has gone viral after he appeared to be criticizing songs that are too Christian. He cited the hypothetical situation of \u201cBubba,\u201d who has been dragged to church unwillingly. \u201cLast thing I\u2019ll say is, I\u2019d love to see more worship sets, more churches kind of keep Bubba in mind. We call him Bubba: the guy who\u2019s in the back of the room and he got dragged there by his wife. And I just don\u2019t know if, when your opening song or the most of your songs have so much Christianese language, I think he has a hard time going like, \u2018Can I sing that? Like, I\u2019m not there yet,\u2019\u201d said Lake.<\/p>\n

He said lyrics like \u201cHoly, Holy, Holy\u201d can be off putting to a person like Bubba. \u201cI think [Bubba] hears a \u2018Hard Fought Hallelujah\u2019 \u2014 and I\u2019m not saying \u2018Hard Fought\u2019 is the answer \u2014 but I love when your first song is like, \u2018Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty,\u2019 I think he\u2019s going like, \u2018What does \u2018holy\u2019 mean? Like, holy crap? What?\u2019 I don\u2019t know.\u201d Despite his concerns about how such language might be inaccessible to Bubba, Lake said he does want someone like Bubba to get more comfortable with the overtly Christian worship songs.<\/p>\n

The resurfaced comments set off a flurry of debate on social media. Jon Root criticized the comments, claiming the comments were the fruits of the \u201cseek-friendly\u201d movement. \u201cThis is the fruit of Bethel church & the seeker-sensitive movement – watering down the Gospel to make it more \u2018digestible\u2019 for unbelievers Brandon Lake would rather entertain & compromise, than disciple & present theologically rich, Jesus-focused music,\u201d he wrote<\/a>. Another user, however, pushed back. \u201cThat\u2019s a very dishonest characterization of what he said,\u201d said the user<\/a>. \u201cHe is saying he wants to start a service with songs that appeal to potential unsaved audiences, and progress to more theologically rich songs\u2026 I don\u2019t think there\u2019s anything wrong with using a less theologically deep song with lyrics that engage the everyday person as a way to lead them into a worship service. That seems very uncontroversial to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an op-ed for Clear Truth<\/em><\/a> , Mike Edwards argued that \u201cBubba ain\u2019t as dumb as you think.\u201d \u201cImagine inviting someone over who’s never seen The Lord of the Rings trilogy but only showing them the trailer because \u201cthey aren\u2019t ready for the whole movie.\u201d After all, the movie has strange languages and names and lots of backstories to learn to make sense of what you\u2019re seeing.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what we\u2019re doing to Bubba,\u201d he wrote. Edwards argued that such \u201cdumbing down\u201d of Christianity was hurting people like Bubba. Let\u2019s be clear: nobody ever walked into church for the first time expecting it to sound like a Coldplay concert. Even if the church tried to larp (and many sadly do) like Bubba\u2019s favorite band, the truth is that Bubba doesn\u2019t need catchy choruses to change; He needs Christ,\u201d he added. He said the truth of the Gospel should be presented as it is, not watered down. The understanding has to be left up to God. \u201cThe church\u2019s job isn\u2019t to sound more like the culture. It\u2019s to sound more like heaven\u2014and trust the Spirit to do the translating.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A clip from an interview of Brandon Lake on \u201cThe Bryce Crawford Podcast\u201d in April has gone viral after he appeared to be criticizing songs that are too Christian. He cited the hypothetical situation of \u201cBubba,\u201d who has been dragged to church unwillingly. \u201cLast thing I\u2019ll say is, I\u2019d love to see more worship sets,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":49459,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-television"],"yoast_head":"\nBrandon Lake Doesn\u2019t Want to Be \u201cChristianese\u201d<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Brandon Lake\u2019s comments about making worship songs less \u201cChristianese\u201d spark debate: should churches cater to newcomers or theologically deep?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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