Theological Song Review: More Like Jesus
Church worship trends in one of two directions. Either it progresses towards higher, God-pleasing, more exclusive worship practice and proclamation, or it moves towards more generalized, ecumenical, and man-pleasing practice. The God of the Bible and his gospel are exclusive, and the more specific the identity, works, and majesty of the Lord, the higher and more God-honoring the worship. While we may experience good feelings and should be edified by our participation, bringing a sacrifice of praise that glorifies the true God for who He truly is must be the main priority of our worship gathering. The material brought into the worship gathering is a prime indicator of the standards, seriousness, and direction of a church’s worship, and (as we’ve discussed before) the visible church’s worship practice continues to suffer from a stage-3, man-focused cancer.
The song More Like Jesus was featured on the 2018 Passion album Whole Heart and was written by Passion City Church pastor Kristian Stanfill, along with Hillsong mainstays Brooke and Scott Ligertwood and fellow Passion leader Brett Younker. Before we start, it should be noted that, logically, there are two ways worshipers seek to be more like Jesus. One is to conform ourselves to Christ. The other is to attempt to conform Christ to us. Sadly, the latter makes an appearance in this song.
Note: For a full explanation of the rubric and a primer on our scoring methodology, click here.
Doctrinal Fidelity and Clarity: The song opens with the line, “You came to the world you created, trading your crown for a cross” – an immediate Christological error. Jesus did not lose his crown of glory or any part of his divine kingship as part of the incarnation (John 10:30, Hebrews 2:9). This kind of reduction of the worshipped Christ to primarily man is a typical fixture of modern worship music, as a dragging down of Christ to the level of the worshiper opens the door for a self-focused, self-validated lyrical framework and encourages a more emotional, romantic, experience-seeking worship experience. The same mischaracterization is seen in the phrase, “counting your status as nothing” (an apparent reference to Philippians 2:6-7), which implies a loss of deity status rather than Christ setting aside his heavenly privileges as part of his sovereign purpose in the incarnation.
While much of the song is technically correct in terms of doctrine, nearly every lyric requires additional context and explanation to be identifiably Christian. The lyric “this world is dying to know who You are” is biblically incorrect, as “dying” for something is a phrase implying a desire for that thing, and scripture teaches that apart from conversion, the world does not desire Jesus (Romans 3:11). Additionally, there is a salvific difference between knowing who Jesus is (Romans 1:19-20) and truly knowing Jesus (John 10:27). 15/25.
Doctrinal Specificity: While the lyrics allude to some scriptural truth (Jesus as a servant, can’t live without Jesus), most of the song bears the typical generic emotionality of wide-appealing worship music. The sin of man and salvation are predictably characterized as Jesus putting the icing on the cake of the believer’s life rather than saving it from judgment and destruction. “Your innocent life paid the cost” gets close to the specific gospel message, although what the cost is remains unidentified. “Change me like only you can” and “You’ve shown us the way to your heart” are similarly vague, leaving worshipers the option of seeing these as referring to salvation, sanctification, or some mishmash of the two. 10/20.
Focus: The focus of the song starts on Christ (although not a faithful description of Him), but quickly shifts to a focus on and elevation of the general, emotionally-framed needs and acts of the worshiper (“covering me with your love,” “my heart in your hands”). The song seems to focus on sanctification more than salvation (“make me more like Jesus”), but makes no attempt to identify specific scriptural components of sanctification (repentance, obedience, knowing God more through knowledge) and instead employs emotional generalities (“take everything,” “you’ve shown us the way to Your heart”). 10/20.
Association: Passion Conferences have been around since 1997, and it’s safe to say the organization is the progenitor of the modern praise and worship conference scene. The movement was started by Louie Giglio of Passion City Church in Atlanta, a church that has played host to a who’s who parade of false teachers including Francis Chan, Christine Caine, Carl Lentz, and Judah Smith. Giglio’s preaching downplays the eternal consequences of sin and repentance and has long been soft on the biblical teaching on homosexuality and gender. He has partnered with nearly every big name in ecumenical big-market “Christianity,” including Brian Houston, Andy Stanley (his childhood friend), and Steven Furtick (who similarly teaches Giglio’s little gods heresy). The 2022 Passion Conference featured Gateway Church prosperity praise leaders Cody Carnes and Kari Jobe, Christine Caine, Levi Lusko, and wokester David Platt.
Most worshipers likely won’t know about these associations even as the bad doctrine floating around such a hive of scum and villainy seems to have made its way into the song’s doctrine. 10/20.
Musical Value: The slow 6/8 is a good choice for an acoustic guitar-led ballad. The instrumentation and arrangement are formulaic but easy to sing even as the first verse and chorus are an octave down from the rest of the song in order to build energy. These guys are great songwriters in the modern praise-and-worship genre. 15/15.
Total Score: 60/100. The song barely makes it into the PG, Pastoral Guidance Suggested category, and narrowly avoids automatic disqualification in the doctrinal and associational areas. The associational danger is not quite at the same level as Elevation tunes (although churches would be justified in avoiding it on this basis), yet the doctrinal vagueness necessitates strong surrounding context in the worship service (teaching, announcing) to provide clarity. In other words, the song cannot stand on its own. There are better choices out there, of course.
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Thanks, David. It’s great that you’re able to process this after all you’ve been through.
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There’s one general comment I’d make about Christian music, both that of the classics of 18th century and that which is found in churches today. As far as content and lyrics go, Christian music is for the most part the reflection of what is preached in pulpits. If superficial, man-fearing theology is preached in pulpits, this will INEVITABLY appear in Christian music. On the other hand, if solid, balanced Gospel is preached in pulpits, this will INEVITABLY appear in Christian music. And yes, there can be exceptions here and there to this rule….
There’s one general comment I’d make about Christian music, both that of the classics of 18th or 19th centuries and that which is found in churches today. As far as content and lyrics go, Christian music is for the most part the reflection of what is preached in pulpits. If superficial, man-fearing theology is preached in pulpits, this will INEVITABLY appear in Christian music. On the other hand, if solid, balanced Gospel is preached in pulpits, this will INEVITABLY find it’s way into Christian music. And yes, there can be exceptions here and there to this rule….