Church Voices

This is part 3 of a series. Click here for part 1, and here for part 2.

One of the key differences between the outlaw country of the 60s and 70s and the entrenched, boring music coming out of Nashville was the willingness of outlaw country artists to go into the dirty, messed up places that many of us call home. By the time the late 60s and 70s rolled around Nashville (ie The Man) had turned country music into a formula. And that formula didn’t include lyrics about drugs, drinking, hard working men, and ending up on the wrong side of a set of handcuffs. Now, this may surprise some of you out there, but occasionally, some of the people who listen to country music end up dealing with drugs, drinking, hard working men, and ending up on the wrong end of a set of hand cuffs. As a result when music that dealt with their world came around it was like a breath of fresh air, and once they got a taste of that they didn’t want the stale, artificial world that Nashville based country music offered. After all, you get home from working a blue collar job its tough to relate to a guy making music in a suit that cost as much as you make in a week.

An Outlaw Church will confront and discuss the issues people are actually dealing with. What that means though, is that we have to do away completely with the idea that the church looks anything like a Thomas Kinkadepainting. An Outlaw Church will be dealing with uncomfortable issues like pornography, sex, sin and divorce, you know the kind of issues that real people, both inside and outside the church struggle with.

That means that out goes the image that if you go to church they sprinkle you with Jesus dust and you instantly become some suit wearing Ward Cleaveresque super-Christian. Instead we let everyone know what we already know: that only difference between us and all those busted up, messed up sinners out there is Jesus. A church that does this will be a breath of fresh air compared to the stale, artificial world that many churches pretend they’ve created.

Of course, what that means is that we have to admit that we are failures. That we fall down, and screw up, and are people that don’t look like Jesus a lot of the time. As unpleasant as that might sound, the only alternative is to walk around pretending like we’re perfect, which doesn’t lead to getting rid of our sinful habits, it only covers them up and lets them grow until they’re big enough to crush us and bring down our brothers and sisters with us.

There’s two choices out there, we can be authentic, and let people know how we really are, and what Christianity is all about, or we can pretend like we have it all together. If we’re transparent and honest people who don’t know what Jesus is all about will be able to relate to us because they’ll understand that Jesus, and Jesus’ church isn’t for the righteous, but for sinners. The church is for people who are neck deep in addiction, and for couples that are teetering on the edge of divorce, and for people who are sinners and know it.

If a church can do that it will get the gospel into the ears of the people it was meant for: outlaws that have been running from God.

It’s the same old tune, fiddle and guitar
Where do we take it from here
Rhinestone suits and new shiny cars
We’ve been the same way for years
We need to change

Somebody told me when I got to Nashville
Son you finally got it made
Old Hank made it here, we’re all sure that you will
But I don’t think Hank done it this way
I don’t think Hank done it this way

Ten years down the road, making one night stands
Speeding my young life away
Tell me one more time just so I understand
Are you sure Hank done it this way
Did Ol’ Hank really do it this way?

I’ve seen the world with a five piece band
Looking at the back side of me
Singing my songs and one of his now and then
But I don’t think Hank done ‘em this a’way
No I don’t think Hank done ‘em this a’way

- Waylon Jennings, Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way