Communion by Maverick City Music (ft. Steffany Gretzinger & Brandon Lake)
Song Review
Produced By: Jonathan Jay & Anthony Brown (Jubilee Worship)
Written By: Tony Brown (Housefires), Jonathan Jay, Dante Bowe, Brandon Lake & Steffany Gretzinger
Release Date: November 1, 2019
Up front impression is that I believe this is a poor song for corporate worship purposes. Without devoting anything to the band or performance and looking solely at lyrics, this is just a weak song for the following reasons.
References to the Trinity:
There is no distinguishing remark about God, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit. Based on the live performance, the only reference to them is when they break into "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" during the live performance where my lyrics come from. Otherwise, if a believer does not know anything about the deep roots of communion, they have no reference to the nature of God.
Gospel Message:
The implication that they believe is that the outcome of the gospel is a return to the garden which would result in a deeper friendship with Jesus or God. However, I think there is a faulty view that we expect the Garden of Eden to be restored. Why would we expect to start from scratch when Christ has redeemed mankind and sanctified those who would delight in His will to begin anew? They point to Rev 22:1-3 as proof, but I would note that in those verses, there is a city and the tree of life's position is to state that we, as humans, will regain access to what was lost by the first Adam.
The rest of the song implies that the greatness of the gospel is that we are friends of Christ. Depending on your view, it denies the Lordship quality of Jesus. Additionally, it focuses only on the personal relationship and not determining the three-fold Christ has, being Prophet, Priest, and King. Jesus as a friend is aligned with the love of Christ but is only truly represented when combined with the sacrifice and purpose of Christ, which "What a Friend" does. This song's view of Jesus, if we assume it is talking about Jesus, is a low view.
Finally, there is no explicit mention of how one would gain this relation or expounds on why one would want to. They make mention of feeling dead, but a dead man doesn't know they are dead. A casual listener will not understand it and a weak believer will gain no further knowledge or understanding.
Also, the line "This is where I'm meant to be Me in You, and You in me” which I believe is meant to be a reference to John 17:23. But it doesn’t make sense out of the context. First, the song doesn’t tell me where I am meant to be. If we believe in God’s sovereignty, we are always where we are meant to be. I cannot find a verse that says that we have exchanged souls with Christ. I don’t see where we indwell in Jesus. Rather, the I and You in John refers to the Son and Father.
Overall:
This song is not good. It is not heretical, but it says nothing. It is the equivalent of singing Barbie Girl and finding life's meaning. But if we judge the authors, we should avoid them because of Bethel. This is not a worship song because it does not worship anything other than the performance. It is not about what impression those outside of the church gain of God from this song, but I would believe that they do not gain anything listening to it because there is nothing firm in what it is trying to say. Listen to this song on your own, but I do not believe it belongs behind the pulpit.