Theology That Sticks by Chris Anderson (2022)

Posted on 2023-04-24 by thelittleman

Rating: 5 out of 5.
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The Life-Changing Power of Exceptional Hymns

It may be true that a whole segment of Christian readers will be turned off by this book’s subtitle, but I beg such folks to give this one a chance. This book is all about worshiping God through all kinds of music, where lyrics matter and preferences don’t (as much). I was on a series of planes from Wisconsin to Uganda and finished it even before I landed in Amsterdam, it was that good. I even gave my copy away to a Kenyan Pastor whom I met along the way! This book is absolutely worth a read.

I offered this title up as a possibility for our Siblings’ Book Club this year, and shock-of-all-shockers, the group voted it among the top three picks of the year! So far, I think I’m the only one to have read it, but I’m so glad I did. In the 2 months since I first finished it, it’s changed how I worship God through song—how I sing and listen and enjoy the “sermons” that Christian songs (and particularly hymns) preach. It’s been an eye-opening experience, and the book was also just plain fun to read.

Depending on the church circles in which you find yourself, you might have heard of the author, Chris Anderson, or at least heard some of the songs he’s penned. “For the Sake of His Name,” “His Robes for Mine,” “I Run to Christ,” and “You Are Always Good” are among his more popular titles, and you can find these and many others available for free at his Church Works Media website.

I’m not a musician myself, and although I can hold a tune in a bucket, I’ve led the song worship in our church only once (when everyone else was sick) and haven’t even participated in a choir since high school. I love music, yet I can’t play anything more than the radio. I hate reading poetry, yet I find myself constantly wanting to turn my Bible studies into poems, just so I can recall their fervor of what I’ve learned. I’m a walking contradiction in these things, I suppose, yet I know that music and lyrics have power. This book has clued me in to some of the sources of and reasons for that power.

Anderson breaks his book down into 4 Parts and 13 Chapters (plus Appendices), which I’ll relate here just so you can get a taste of all that he covers:

Part 1: What We Think Matters
Chapter 1: The Sticking Power of Christian Music

Part 2: A Hymn Grid from the New Testament
Chapter 2: Sing Songs That Are Biblical
Chapter 3: Sing Songs That Are Doctrinal
Chapter 4: Sing Songs That Are Christian
Chapter 5: Sing Songs That Are Trinitarian
Chapter 6: Sing Songs That Are Congregational
Chapter 7: Sing Songs That Are Unifying

Part 3: A Hymn Grid from the Psalms
Chapter 8: Sing Songs That Are Inspired
Chapter 9: Sing Songs That Are Diverse
Chapter 10: Sing Songs That Are Emotive
Chapter 11: Sing Songs That Are Experiential
Chapter 12: Sing Songs That Are Beautiful.
Chapter 13: Sing Songs That Are Doxological

Part 4: Additional Resources
Appendix A: Bonus Tracks: Wise Words on the Theme of Each Chapter
Appendix B: Tips for Singing with Understanding
Appendix C: Tips for Aspiring Hymn Writers
Appendix D: Tips for Worship Leaders, Musicians, and A/V Techies
Appendix E: The Hymns and Poems of Chris Anderson
Appendix F: Sample Thematic Service Orders

That’s probably more than enough information to tell whether you’d be interested in reading the book or not, but I’ve also got to share some of the many nuggets I underlined in my first copy (which I had to scramble to record). There’s almost too many to reference, so I’ll just share a handful, loosely categorized into: Styles, Psalms, Theology, and Unity.

On Styles:

“Our enjoyment of worship isn’t primary, but it isn’t irrelevant either. God gave us music for our enjoyment as surely as for his.” (180)

“Most who reject traditional hymns do so because they’ve seen them sung badly.” (200)

“People come to church with excruciating pains, and they sing unrealistically chipper songs.” (124)

On the Psalms:

“Here’s a good rule of thumb: if a criticism of music could be leveled against the Psalms—too much repetition, too much emotion, too much personal references, and so on—it’s not a sound argument. Worship is deeply, inescapably personal. And worship songs need to focus on the Christian experience.” (174)

“Part of the power of the Psalter is its raw honesty. It’s filled with excruciating pain and confusion, but also with exuberant joy and celebration.” (123)

“Consider starting a ‘Psalm Journal’ in which you records various names of God (nouns), attributes of God (adjectives) and acts of God (verbs).” (135)

On Theology:

“Our hymns are our creeds. Which is kind of terrifying, to be honest, depending on what you [sing in church].” (41)

“Our songs must be held to the same standards as our sermons.” (19)

On Christian Unity and Diversity:

“Music doesn’t cause disunity. It reveals it… Music is a symptom, not the main problem. Pride is the main problem. Rivalry is the main problem. Sin is the main problem.” (105)

“I wish Christians would stop wasting spiritual bullets on each other and instead fight the secularism all around us, labor to bring the lost to Christ, and ‘earnestly contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints’ (Jude 3)—not endlessly quarrel over turf.” (104)

“Deference allows differences without letting them become divisions.” (113)

Apologies to Chris Anderson if I’ve quoted too much here, but I feel like if you can just get a taste for the meat that’s in this book, you’ll want to go out and get 3 copies: one for you, one for your pastor, and one for the song leader at your church. I’ve already done this, and I hope that moving forward it greatly impacts the way we approach our time of congregational praise and worship through song. It might even make me sing a bit louder in church!

©2023 E.T.

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