I Found Heaven on 96.1 FM
I can only imagine what people are thinking about Mercy Me's song.
by Michael Spencer

I can only imagine what it will be like,
When I walk by Your side.
I can only imagine what my eyes will see,
When Your face is before me:
I can only imagine.

Surrounded by Your glory,
What will my heart feel?
Will I dance for you Jesus?
Or in awe of You be still?
Will I stand in Your presence?
Or to my knees will I fall?
Will I sing Hallelujah?
Will I be able to speak at all?
I can only imagine.

I can only imagine when that day comes,
And I find myself standing in the sun.
I can only imagine when all I would do,
Is forever, forever worship You.
I can only imagine.

The day after Christmas, driving across western Kentucky, I found heaven on the radio. Right there on the playlist following No Doubt and just preceding some rapper talking about shaking your tail feather, was the CCM ballad "I Can Only Imagine."

WSTO 96.1 isn't a Christian station. It's a party mix of tunes for the club scene. Lots of nasty lyrics, a little bit of frat rock, lots of b's and f's edited out and innuendo dropped in. "I Can Only Imagine" stands out like your Sunday School teacher Aunt Rose hitting the dance floor at The Bootilicious Lounge.

This wasn't the first time I'd found Mercy Me's catchy tune about what heaven will be like playing on a "secular" radio station. I've been hearing this song for months. Unlike the ambiguous hip-hop of Stacie Orrico and Jackie Velazquez or the brief flashes of DC Talk's "Jesus Freak" or Michael W. Smith's pop ballads that I've caught on secular radio in the past, "I Can Only Imagine" has been a bona fide smash hit. It's been a rotating standard on this particular station for months. (One reader says the single has been released in three different versions.) A little research will verify that Mercy Me's song has gone where no CCM song explicitly mentioning Jesus has ever gone before.

We're not talking "Jesus is Just Alright With Me" or "Spirit in the Sky" here. "I Can Only Imagine" is the kind of ballad that you can do right in the middle of almost any worship service these days and everyone likes it. Most find it a moving worship experience. Unlike most CCM, this song is openly about deeply held beliefs Christians immediately recognize without consulting the dictionary of doublespeak, and Jesus is right in the middle of the song, called by name  It's pious, politically incorrect, and puzzling. At least to me. It even talks about glory. That's pretty big on the churchspeak scale.

In a day when anti-Christian sentiment is clearly on the rise, when Christmas symbols are banned and mentioning anything remotely related to Christianity can get you sent to the university re-education camp, "I Can Only Imagine" has spent most of a year on the secular charts. This isn't Stryper or some song where you could just as well be singing to your boyfriend in the hot tub, it's the kind of Christian music that usually turns non-Christians off faster than you can say "TBN."

Back in the day when I really liked CCM, I tirelessly worked to get our local stations to play artists like Phil Keaggy and Rez Band. The argument then was basically musical. The music sounded like the music on the radio, and was, in my young and expert opinion, just as good. So why not play it? The local radio stations never saw my point. I had no idea how radio worked, of course, and when Amy Grant and other Christian artists started appearing on the radio, I just thought it was an answer to prayer. Some kind of inexplicable miracle.

What was actually happening, of course, was the beginning of secular music companies seeing the commercial potential in CCM. Today, that marriage is rock solid. CCM is money, and the appearance of CCM on secular radio is mostly due to the miracle of the marketplace. Religious stuff sells big in America. Thanks to everyone saying the Prayer of Jabez, I imagine.

This, however, doesn't really explain much of Mercy Me's success. Most of the CCM that has found its way to secular radio play has been ambiguous pop with the overtly Christian elements hidden in the romanticized or obscure lyrics. Artists like Stacie Orrico will not turn anyone's head lyrically. U2's Christianity is a matter of constant debate. But "I Can Only Imagine" is so upfront it should send many listeners checking the radio to see if they are on the right station.

There is one topic, however, where Christian pronouncements are tolerated with little objection, and that is the subject of heaven. It is no accident that the most popular CCM tune of all time is about heaven.

People like the idea that dead people are in heaven. Research shows that most people believe most people are going to heaven, and that almost no one believes he, or any dead people he knows, are in hell. Despite the fact that the New Testament has almost as much to say about hell as about heaven, there are goodly numbers of Christians who don't even believe in hell, including many ministers and noted Bible scholars.

Such an interest in heaven appears in all kinds of music. It's not new or unheard of. Note, for example, the following common Bluegrass lyric:

On Heaven's bright shore (on Heaven's bright shore)
There's gonna be no more dyin (over there)
Not one little grave (not one little grave)
In all that fair land (that wonderful land)
Not even a tear will dim the eye
And no one up there will say goodbye
Just singing His praise through endless days
On Heaven's bright shore (on Heaven's bright shore)

Such a lyric can be sung anywhere that bluegrass or country music are appreciated, and no one takes exception at all. Heaven, where mama, grandpa and other dear friends are waiting for us all, is going to get applause from everyone in the room, religious or not. It's just a very appealing idea, and everyone likes it except a few cranky atheists.

There is good evidence that post 9-11 America in particular is more tolerant of the Christian idea of heaven than before that national tragedy. While our temporary cultural spiritual spasms of churchgoing have faded into memory, the idea that all good people are in heaven persists, especially as we are confronted with the continuing loss of life in the war on terror, the war in Iraq and other conflicts. Death has become more real to a whole generation of Americans, so--not surprisingly--the idea that heaven is a wonderful place we should all want to go to--and will go to--is a big seller.

While some believe the success of "I Can Only Imagine" is an indication of increasing spiritual hunger and interest in Christ, I tend to think it is an example of grasping onto the comfort of Christian hope without taking hold of the cross and the Gospel. Mercy Me's song is about the assurance of the joys of heaven. Nowhere in the song is there a word about who this Jesus is, what He did to make heaven possible, or why anyone is welcomed into heaven. (Certainly the Christian audience knows all that background.) Sin and Christ's death as our gracious substitute, repentance from sin and faith in Christ--these are nowhere in "I Can Only Imagine," and I suspect this is just as comforting to the WSTO audience as the actual lyrics.

When a song like this is popular, I ask myself what the non-Christian audience is thinking about when they hear it and like it. What do non-Christians relate to in this song? How can they hear it over and over and like it?

Americans are near-universalists at heart. They believe that tunnel of light is heaven for everyone except Bin Laden, Hitler and the people who are really mean to children. Oprah's view of personal spirituality is the dominant view in America. Our specifically Christian--and exclusivist--heritage, which can be overheard in the bluegrass lyrics, will never get in the way of the basic common person's feeling that any good soul who is loved by his mother and is not a criminal will go to heaven.

Tragic times bring this universalism to the surface. Reagan announced that all the Challenger astronauts had touched the face of God. All the 9-11 victims went to heaven. All the soldiers dying in Iraq are "home," according to President Bush. Try challenging that cultural view of heaven with the truth of the Bible. On second thought, be careful when you do that, because it could get ugly. Particularly if sincere believers in other religions are involved.

I believe "I Can Only Imagine" is operating in contemporary culture much the same way a "roots" song on heaven operates in traditional, rural culture. It speaks through religious language and imagery to a deeply held cultural belief that may actually be at wide variance from the specific teachings of that religion or of scripture itself. So we can picture loved ones, soldiers, even ourselves, in heaven and happy to be there. We can think about going to heaven and what a great experience that will be. But we haven't changed our minds about the Gospel. In fact, we really don't think about the Gospel when we are singing along with the song.

It was Martin Luther who suggested that no religion was a superior option when compared to wrong religion, at least from the standpoint of the Gospel.  In that respect, the widespread acceptance of "I Can Only Imagine" may be worse than an outright rejection of  such a song in the venue of popular culture. The popularity of the song probably doesn't indicate hunger for the truth, but a desire for a message that will sooth any anxieties about mortality brought up by these troubled times.

If we rejoice that "I Can Only Imagine" is popular, we should also be concerned that its popularity may indicate that popular culture is ready to appropriate the comfort of the Gospel without embracing the heart of the Gospel: Christ crucified. Christians who assume that the non-Christian audience relates to this song in a "Christian/Biblical" context are probably very mistaken. It is much more likely that we are seeing people embrace the Christian hope of heaven, but without any interest in Christ as the Way to heaven. If he welcomes us when we are there, that's fine. Telling us how to go to heaven, however, isn't any more popular now than ever.

Which brings me to one last observation. The popularity and success of "I Can Only Imagine" indicates the progress of contemporary "Praise and Worship" (P&W) music in general. Millions of people are fans of contemporary P&W as they have heard it in church, on the radio or on recordings. P&W has its own fan base, and it goes far beyond just those who attend churches that use P&W in the context of worship.

As a person who ministers in an environment where contemporary P&W is used in large student worship services, I can personally attest that many people who are not Christians are devoted, emotional fans of the music. I used to puzzle at the emotional and physical reaction of some students to P&W songs when I knew that these students had no interest in Christ at all. I'm no longer puzzled, because I realize that the music--quite apart from Christ or the Gospel--generates fans and emotional responses.

To a certain extent, we have to admit that "fandom" is a category all its own, and certainly isn't the same as calling a person a disciple or even someone modestly interested in following Christ. All we know is that they like the song. This may be a large part of the success of "I Can Only Imagine." Fans of CCM--who are not followers of Christ--are exerting their particular kind of religiosity by asking for the song to be played.

It is distressing to think thousands may be actually taking some false assurance of salvation from their reaction to P&W songs or the experience of contemporary worship. Just as invitationalism obscures faith, the emotionalism of much P&W music tends to obscure faith, and replace it with tears, dancing and singing along with the crowd and the worship team. Certainly all kinds of worship styles run this risk, as does all kinds of music, but contemporary P&W goes directly for the experience, and its defenders cite the emotional outlet and experience as a primary reason they know they are encountering God. It all sets the scene for this tragic conversation.

"But Lord, didn't I like 'I Can Only Imagine' and all those other great praise choruses?"

"I never knew you."

Such is the influence of CCM that it can now produce an explicitly Christian product that non-believers like enough to listen to, even as they send Christ himself to the garbage dump of irrelevancy. In evangelicalism's project to influence the culture, we may have reached the ironic place where being totally acceptable to the culture renders even explicit Christian communication suspect because the context of the whole Gospel isn't present or understood. How much of the gospel does the Holy Spirit need to work? It is the Holy Spirit who is the true evangelist, and He can take any song, any sermon, any experience and sovereignly change a heart. But scripture itself tells us that the Spirit uses the Word preached, and the question that must now be asked is this: What are non-Christians thinking when they hear the message of Jesus and heaven in the context of their own assumptions? Are they understanding the Gospel, or does the communication medium's effort at acceptability make the message in question part of the non-Christian appropriation of cultural religion?

In other words, does a song about heaven, loved by the popular culture, creating tears and good feelings, but existing outside of the proclamation of the whole Gospel, really do that much good?

While I would hope and pray they are thinking of the Gospel, I tend to think that is unwarranted optimism. Thoughts of heaven are not thoughts of the cross, and it is only through the cross that sinful human beings may come to heaven as welcome pilgrims. The fans of heaven are many, but few will ever be there. It is imperative that the world hear the whole Gospel, and hears the gospel in a way that refutes falsehood and error, and gives Christ alone the glory of redemption. (Hence, all that scripture about stumbling blocks of offense and foolishness.) This is why the church has been given the charge to know the truth, teach it, pass it on, preach it and evangelize with it. And this is likely why pop culture relevance should never be a goal we are particularly excited about.

(Some excellent and essential resources on the Gospel:

Albert Martin's tape series "Coming to Christ."
Tell the Truth by Will Metzger
Saving Grace by John Cheeseman
Today's Gospel: Authentic or Synthetic? by Walter Chantry)

Michael Spencer

Discuss this essay at the IM Forum

P.S. Boar's Head Tavern Member Tom Hinkle suggests another verse might be needed:

I can only imagine how hot that fire will be
When some of you go to hell, who are listening to me,
I can only imagine hearing the demons laugh
When you're immersed head-to-toe in that fiery bath,
I can only imagine.

Surrounded by screaming,
How will you then feel,
Will you burst into cursing,
Or emit a loud, wordless squeal,
Will you stand like a lit torch
Or to the slimy floor you'll fall,
When the snakes entwine your body
Will you be able to cry at all?
I can only imagine, I can only imagine.