What is the top song in today’s teenage culture? No one knows. In my generation back in the ‘60s and ‘70s, most teenagers listened to the same type of music, and everyone knew which hits were in the Top 40.
Anybody remember Simon & Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water?" Now the music market is split into rap, heavy metal, classic rock, modern rock, alternative rock, grunge, contemporary Christian, country, Latin, and more types than this old man can keep up with.
There is no one “at the top of the charts” because there are so many charts. There are more than 250 Billboard charts, plus there are other kinds of charts in the world of music.
We might ask metaphorically, “What is the Church’s No. 1 song?” That, however, is also a difficult question because there are so many church denominations, plus lots of churches that refuse to be classified as a denomination. There are Methodist, Baptist, Pentecostal, Roman Catholic, Russian Orthodox, charismatic, non-denominational, and almost numberless splits within those groups. The list of church factions could continue for the rest of this article and not name them all.
St. Paul said, “Now I encourage you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ: Agree with each other and don’t be divided into rival groups. Instead, be restored with the same mind and the same purpose” (I Corinthians 1:10, CEB).
Complete universal organizational harmony is much to be desired, yet we know that even in the early Church there were many divisions. In I Corinthians 1, Paul expressed concern about divisions based on the followers of Christian personalities. There were fan clubs of Apollos, Paul, and Cephas in the Corinthian church, creating divisions, jealousies, and pride based on who was baptized by whom.
St. Paul asked emphatically, “Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you, or were you baptized in Paul’s name?” (I Corinthians 1:13, CEB). St. Paul was saying that the song of the Church is not about the messengers of Paul, Apollos, Cephas, or any other great preacher, but about the person whom the messengers were proclaiming.
The No. 1 song of the Church must always be the song of Jesus Christ. Paul argued, “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are being destroyed. But it is the power of God for those of us who are being saved” (I Corinthians 1:18, CEB). The song of the Church tells us that Jesus was God’s Messiah, and that He was crucified for us that we might be saved, reconciled to God and transformed into the eternal children of God.
In the early Church, it was good that they had different preachers, evangelists, and teachers. All who were orthodox told the same message about Christ, yet from different perspectives. Those varying approaches enriched the understanding of the message of the cross and reached different people in various walks of life, and the Church grew in numbers and in depth of faith.
Today, there is one Church and many different churches. Which churches are valid churches? It is those who sing the song of salvation in and only in Jesus Christ. It is those who lift high the cross. It is those which don’t promote personality cults, but disciple people in the way of Jesus Christ.
All churches who sing that song enrich the understanding of who Jesus is, and they reach various segments of our culture. Praise God for our differences, but let us all sing the same No. 1 song, the song of praise to Jesus Christ our Savior.
Dr. Dan Darby is a retired United Methodist pastor.
