The Gospel Coalition just put up a post of mine reflecting on “surrender” language in worship songs. The heartbeat of this post is to encourage a pastoral sensitivity to not only what we say and sing in our worship services but the way things are actually heard. I’m arguing that, though the idea of “surrender” could be biblical, it is prone to being heard and expressed in ways that actually undermine the gospel. I deal with topics that have lately been on my mind and heart–triumphalism and incurvatus in se. 

Here’s an excerpt:

“Surrender” is one of those interesting English words that has a double-meaning, and contained in these two meanings are two very different understandings of how our relationship with God works. If I can put it this bluntly, one reading ultimately ends in death and the other in life.

And here’s my ultimate conclusion:

In light of this, and in light of the fact that most of our worship songs pump the glories of active surrender, evangelicalism probably needs to be weaned off surrender language. I would discourage abundant use of the metaphor in our worship and only wise, selective, discriminant placement of such expression (if we must) well after strong, bold declarations of the finished work of Christ.

Go check out the post!