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

This is part II in a series, the introductory piece is found here. What you’ll notice is missing from the introduction is tying together what we find in scripture with the general principles I outlined in the first section.

First, I’m not undermining the sovereignty of God or the role that God played in the formation and success of the early church, but, at the same time the wisdom and effort that Paul and other early movers and shakers put into the early church is often overlooked. Prayer is essential to the success of any church, but so is getting up off your butt, firing up the old neurons and getting to work. Understanding the way the world operates and acting in a way that will get the best possible results is the functional definition of wisdom, and that’s something that applies to secular efforts as well as to Christian ones. As a result when we see a successful movement in the secular world, there are probably underlying principles that are Biblical which the church (or a church) can imitate to find similar success.

Recently I was listening to a radio interview with a guy who compiled information about how best to avoid a ticket after being pulled over. The first thing he said is don’t deny it because the cop won’t hear denials, instead he’ll hear you calling him either a liar or an incompetent and will definitely give you a ticket. Instead admit that you were speeding and apologize.

A little bit after this interview I’m wandering through scripture and find this in Proverbs 6:3:

“ then do this, my son, to free yourself,
since you have fallen into your neighbor’s hands:
Go and humble yourself;
press your plea with your neighbor!

That is the Biblical principle behind the advice on how to get out of a ticket. And there’s others out there we can learn from.

But, why should we bother with finding secular practices with Biblical principles when we can just open up the scriptures and find the Biblical principles without having to go to the effort of finding the secular practice? Good question. The answer is found in a conversation I had with a guy that runs a bunch of computers that do nothing more than store all the data for a major bank. In other words if this facility goes down it could be really bad news. I asked him what he thought about Vista, assuming that he had given it a shot what with being in IT, and he told me they don’t even look at new software until its been out for at least six months, because they’d rather be behind in technology than start using something that hasn’t been tried out in a lot of situations by a lot of different people. In other words, they want other people to take all the risks of new software, and to pay the price for those risks, and then, later, he can avoid any problems they had, or take advantage of techniques and training that those people developed without costing them the same in time, and failure.

The Biblical principle to this is found in Paul’s admonition in 1 Corinthians 4:14-16:

15Even though you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. 16Therefore I urge you to imitate me.

In other words, its easier to imitate Paul than to trail blaze your own spiritual path to God.

By taking a look at what works today, and the underlying Biblical principles we can allow other groups to take all the risks. Adopting their techniques, and imitating what they did will reduce our own costs and risk of failure, and that friends, is Biblical, and part of the reason why the early church managed to survive and grow.

I had heard the term “outlaw music” a couple of times. All I really knew about it was that Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson were usually associated it. I always kind of figured that Jennings’ drug habit had gotten so out of control that he’d been exiled from Nashville (ala Johnny Cash) but his fans were insistent that he get back into the business of recording music.

Turns out I was completely wrong.

Turns out outlaw music is more about the creative expression of artists than it is about any kind of informal blackballing. In the early 60s country musicians were heavily shackled by their record producers. Everything from what kind of music could be produced to the lyrics to what the musicians looked like on tour and in promotional appearances was controlled by record executives.

By the time the early 70s rolled around Waylon Jennings had fallen on hard times. His career was on life support, he had a drug habit, and his debts had piled up. Willie Nelson came to him and told him they’d re-negotiate his recording contracts for more favorable terms. While this was going on Jennings found out that rock stars had very few restrictions on their music. They wrote what they wanted how they wanted without a recording executive looking over their sheet music. This became the model for Jennings’ contracts (along with a bigger share of the cash). While all this was going on in 1972 his record company released “Ladies Love Outlaws” which became a huge hit, gave the country outlaw movement its name, and also its face.

See, Nashville (ie the establishment, or alternatively The Man) was opposed to anything that was genre crossing. It had to be pure country or nothing at all, and it had to be sung by clean cut suit wearing musicians. Ladies Love Outlaws was seen as defining Outlaw Music both in subject matter and in style. It had a dash of rock n roll, in addition to having edgier subject matter. Hilariously enough Jennings never wanted this released, RCA released it and in doing so helped to define and popularize outlaw music. So suck on that Nashville.

Anyway, to break it down for you real quick-like, Outlaw Music was defined by two things: unconventional boundary crossing and gritty subject matter. People were sick of the same old crap. They were sick of the same bland sounding music they had always heard and they were sick of that same old bland sounding music being used to blow sunshine up their skirts. And so when a fresh wind came blowing through it just took off.

When Waylon Jennings had the shackles removed his career took off. In 1973 he released “Orn’ry and Mean” and then followed it up with “Honky Tonk Heroes” and both were huge commercial and critical success. Jennings and Nelson are the two most recognizable faces of the Outlaw Movement but there were quite a few others like Kenny Rogers and Steve Earle that were known because of it. Just the fact that Outlaw Country is still being written and talked about today is an indication of not just the success it had, but also the way it influenced musical history.

Now here’s a question for you: Is there a new wind blowing through our churches and ministries that will blow away the same bland crap we’re used to, with the same safe topics, the way that outlaw music did to Nashville? I’d like to think so. Take, for example, XXX Church, which focuses on the generally taboo topic of porn. They’ve done things like go to porn conventions and set up a table to talk to porn producers, performers, and consumers, even giving out Bibles. Apparently they’ve been fairly successful as they’re continuing to expand their ministry, and have numerous success stories in terms of pulling performers out of the business and helping those within the church to fight this sin.

If the parallels between Outlaw country, and the church hold true the biggest question might be, how do we develop Outlaw churches? This might be a more important question than we imagine. Because I didn’t finish the story of Outlaw country. Nashville dug in its heels even after Jennings and Nelson started producing hits again using the Outlaw formula. As a result, though Nashville is still a force in country music it is no longer the only force. Many of the Outlaw country performers took off for Texas. One of the more famous venues for live performances, Billy Bob’s, is now there, instead of Nashville. The “New Outlaw Movement” that has recently started making noise is made up almost entirely of Texas musicians, and that style of music has started to be classified as “Texas Country”. In other words: Nashville ain’t the only game in town.

So here’s a question for you. If Outlaw churches and ministries don’t develop, where will people who desperately need the gospel go?