Brandon Lake, known by American Idol fans as the contemporary Christian artist who sings the "Hard Fought Hallelujah" with rapper Jelly Roll, is a worship leader at the multi-site Seacoast Church, a megachurch based in Charleston, South Carolina.
He recently told the Bryce Crawford Podcast that a worship service should go light on religious terms and keep "Bubba" in mind, expressing a desire to make the music more accessible and relevant to a broader audience.
"When your first song is like, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty," I think [Bubba's] going, like, 'What does holy mean?'" Lake posed.
Lake's interview, though published in April, went viral on social media this week after a clip reemerged from the popular Christian X account Protestia.
"I'd love to see more worship sets, more churches kind of keep Bubba in mind," Lake said.
He went on to suggest songs like his "Hard Fought Hallelujah" are more approachable than some historical hymns and could bridge the gap and eventually help Bubba-like figures sing songs with more theological depth.
But Dr. Alex McFarland asserts that kind of approach does not reach the lost.
"Watered down, theologically emasculated worship songs – they do not draw people in," he says.
Unlike Lake, McFarland is not too high on modern worship songs.
"Fortunately for the Great Commission, and fortunately for lost souls, most modern American worship songs are going to be forgotten as soon as the skinny-jeans guitarist turns off his effects pedal," he tells AFN.
McFarland says theologically meaty hymns like "At Calvary" can move unbelievers toward a decision for Christ.
Bearing in mind that Lake was formerly a member of Bethel Music and Maverick City Music, commentator Jon Root suggested in a Tuesday X post that the worship leader's attitude is the epitome of the seeker-sensitive movement and Bethel Church.
Likewise, award-winning musician and modern hymnist Keith Getty warned The Christian Post in 2019 that modern worship songs are often too worried about placating the surrounding culture instead of worshiping God, which he said is effectively "de-Christianizing" the church.
