THE PRISON OF CHRISTIAN MUSIC
from Scott Smith
July 2004

It is, again, my privilege to come to you with another thought provoking article this month. I want to discuss a couple of things that have become very controversial of late among Christians in the music industry. The issues are: what exactly is Christian music, and should it be played on secular radio stations. 

In a previous article I talked about modern Christian music in today's church and the huge differences of opinions of the church members concerning its use versus more traditional music. In that article I stated that there are no "Christian" musical notes, only musical notes. Music is like money, it is neither good nor bad. It is simply something that can be used for either, and its use is entirely dependent upon the one using it. So then, the only  determining factor is the lyrics. The lyrics will determine if the song will edify Christ, His church, His people, or if it will edify the world.  Blurring that line, are songs that may have a positive meaning, but are not necessarily Godly in nature. What ever the case may be, it's  the lyrics that determine the meaning and nature of the music. Any issue with the music, beyond its lyrics, is an issue of preference of the type of style that the listener finds appealing such as Country, Southern Gospel, Contemporary, Pop, Rock, Hard Rock, Instrumental, Folk, Blues, Rap, and the list goes on.

What would you think if a known Christian artist released a song that had no references to God, Christ, His church, or His word? If the song had a positive, or even a neutral meaning, would it still be considered Christian music? 

What if an artist who has made a career in secular music released an album of hymns? Should it be labeled as "Christian"?  

These are not hypothetical questions. There are songs being played  across the country on Christian radio everyday that have no obvious Christian lyrics, as well as old hymnals being performed by Country and Pop artists. 

As with everything else, there are differing opinions on this topic. There are those who believe that a song should be judged entirely on its meaning. If it does not have an obvious Christian meaning (via the lyrics) then it should not be played on Christian radio. Then there are those who believe that the song should be based more on the artist. If the artist is a known and proven Christian, then his/her music should be played on Christian radio even if the lyrics are just "positive" with no Christian references. 

If it was your decision, what would you do? Would you protect the "sanctified"  Christian image (Romans 12:2 / I Peter 1: 15-16/ I Peter 2: 9), or would you have a more liberal view- songs being reviewed on an individual basis according to its meaning?

Some will say that as Christians we should be separate from the world, and therefore not have anything to do with a secular artist or their music (no matter what its meaning). Which leads me to my next question: 

If a Christian artist had the opportunity to have his/her music played on a secular radio station, should they do so?  Again, this is not just a hypothetical question. In the past few months,  Mercy Me has had great success with their song, "I Can Only Imagine" on secular radio. The song has an extremely powerful message and is not "watered down" in any way. There can be no mistaking the song's intended message.  Is it wrong for their music to be on "secular" radio? Before giving your answer, consider this. How many non-Christians do you know that listen to Christian radio? I have no statistical data in front of me, but I would venture to guess that there are not many "non-Christian" people listening to Christian radio. With that in mind, what better way to reach a lost world than through Christian music being played on the world's own radio stations? 

I really can't answer why secular stations are playing Christian  music, but personally I'm glad that they are. Who knows, that may be the very thing that sparks someone's interest in learning more about Christ. As long as a Christian artist does not water down his/her message with the sole intent on being played on secular radio, I don't see the harm in it. Unfortunately, I also see that happening.  I've heard songs with lyrics that are vague in their Christian meaning but are close enough to "fit" on Christian radio and yet vague enough to fit into a secular radio program. Is this because they have a desire to reach the unsaved? Or is it because of greed and the selfish desire for fame?  That's a question that each individual artist much answer for themselves. After all, if we are to share Christ with the world, shouldn't we take that message to the world? 

I find no where in the Bible that commands LOST people to go to church. As a matter of fact, God's commandments are to HIS people and for HIS people. But those commandments instruct us to go into the world and compel others to come to Him (Luke 14:23 ). It is our responsibility to share the wonderful Gospel of Jesus Christ with others and music is a great and powerful way of doing that. I think its time to unlock the prison that holds our wonderful music. It's time to do away with the ideas that say that we have to be so separate from the world that we can't share the life-giving truth of Jesus Christ with them unless they enter the doors of our churches. 

Don't get me wrong, I realize the importance of protecting "the flock", and making sure we keep the wolves from sneaking in and destroying us. But I also realize that it is very easy to "protect the faith" to the extent that we become like the Pharisees in the time of Jesus. They became so possessive of the faith that they would not dare share it with Gentiles. They essentially imprisoned the faith and would not let it out so that it could do its life-
changing work. 

We do not own God. He owns us. We must share Him with everyone we can. Jesus 
knew exactly how to stay Holy, and at the same time evangelize the world around him. That meant going to them, in the public places and in their homes. We must find a way to do the same, even with our music.

That's my perspective on it. What's yours? Email me or post your opinion on our message boards.

WINNER OR QUITTER?
June 2004

Hello everyone. First let me say thank you for all of the emails in response to last month’s newsletter. Whatever your opinion is, I’m glad that it, at least, made you think.

With that in mind, I hope to make you think once again; only this time, about a different subject. Have you ever heard someone say, “Winners never quit, and quitters never win”? Maybe you have heard it said by your dad, mom, or grandparent. I have said it myself many times as I try to encourage my oldest son when times get tough in sports. Luckily, he has not given up yet. What about you?

Sadly, we live in a world that is all about self-satisfaction. We want our way and we want it now! If at any time we don’t get our way, or if we become bored with the current situation, we just quit. After all, aren’t we supposed to be happy? Don’t we deserve it? I think that’s a great question. Unfortunately, it’s one that is not very popular these days. There aren't many people who like to talk about tough questions like that. In our “feel good” world, I wonder what has happened to commitment and accountability. It seems they are slowly being erased from our modern dictionary. It seems that we are quick to make commitments when we are riding the emotional highs of that particular time. We passionately commit to marriages and positions in our church. And while things go our way we give it our all but what happens when things don’t go our way? What happens when others don’t behave the way we want them to? What happens when people aren’t so quick to give in to our demands or preferences? What happens when we get hurt?

The answers to these questions are not hard to find. Just look into today’s church. Regardless of the denomination, just take a look at the statistics. In the body of Christ today almost half of every marriage has failed. Why? There are many reasons, but the one that is most responsible for the divorce rate in our churches today is captured in this statement, “we just can’t get along anymore”. So many marriages end within the first few years simply because two people could not get along. 

Similarly, our churches are filled to the brim with people attending Sunday morning services. The paradox is that, even with all of these people, the church is in desperate need for people that will serve. Church leaders beg and plead for someone to teach Sunday school, help lead with the children’s choir, or help with Special Needs people. Today we have more “Mega churches” than we have ever had, and yet the church's need isn't being met.

What is the cause of such failure in our churches? Could it be that we have lost sight of the importance of commitment? Could it be that we value our happiness more than we value our word? It seems our level of commitment ebbs and flows with our level of emotional happiness. To justify our decisions, we make statements like, “I don’t know if I ever really loved him/her to start with”, “I guess they were not the one God wanted me to marry”, “Serving God shouldn’t be this hard”, "God hasn't called me to do that anymore", or whatever other statement we can conjure up to justify our poor decisions.

Is it possible that God is more concerned with integrity? Could it be that God cares more about commitment than simple emotional happiness that comes and goes with each passing day? People will never act the way we think they should. The fact that commitment is important to God will never change. He expects us to live up to and fulfill every commitment we make, even when it is not easy. 

Sometimes we hastily get ourselves into things that we wish we would not have, but even the most well thought out, and prayed about, commitments sometimes end up being hard to fulfill. In either case we can show the world what a Christ-like character is. It is in those difficult situations that we can truly be set apart from the ways of those who don’t know Him. And that might very well be the thing they need to finally trust Christ as Lord.

If you are at a point in your life where you are faced with the decision of leaving your spouse, or if you are contemplating backing out of a commitment made to your church, I encourage you to stick with it. Take a moment to read Hebrews 12:1-4. We are encouraged to keep on going. We are encouraged to lay aside our selfishness that weights us down and finish the race. In the previous chapter we are given several examples of those who chose to be faithful even when it was not easy, even when it seemed more profitable to quit. In chapter 12, we are told to look to Jesus as our ultimate example. Aren’t you glad He didn’t give up? Aren’t you glad that He endured the pain and shame of the cross so that salvation might be possible? 

Any time you feel like giving up remember that Jesus never quit. Remember that God is serious about keeping our commitments. Never forget that in marriage or the church, we not only are making a commitment to other people, we are also making a commitment to God, both of which we will be held accountable for.

Sometimes our love for others will not be enough motivation to keep us faithful to our commitments, especially when we don’t see eye to eye. But our love for God should always be enough. We should always choose to hang in there and see things through. Remember that he is always faithful to us, even when we are not faithful to him (II Timothy 2:13). Don’t be a quitter.

April 2004
WORSHIP- GOD’S MUSIC

 I am writing this on Monday, the day after Easter. What a wonderful day we had at church! It was a day filled with great music from our praise team, followed by powerful preaching from our pastor. 

 After church I overheard different groups of people commenting on the day’s services. Not surprisingly, most of the comments were directed toward the music. Some comments were very complimentary, while the majority of them were critical. Most of the critical comments were coming from people who prefer the old hymns over the praise music of today’s modern church. I guess that is the case in most churches today. We live in a time of transition between what has always been the tradition and what is the “up and coming”. With a greater emphasis being put on the music these days, more and more churches are incorporating bands into their worship. The traditional hymns of our fathers and grandfathers are taking a back seat to the praise and worship songs of the day. With this transition comes the silent murmurings (well, sometimes they’re not so silent) of those being left behind with their traditions. Is this the climate God would have in his church? 

 I wonder if God is pleased with only some of His people truly worshiping. I wonder if God is pleased with the great importance we now place on music. I wonder if He is happy that the different styles of music used to lead worship has created a division among His people? Is it really such a big issue that some would criticize those who lead our churches, and even leave a church because of it? So many questions come with this matter. Many fingers are pointed at the older people in our churches with their traditions, or maybe at the younger generation with their “new” music. Which side is God on anyway? I wonder what God’s music is?

 I won't attempt to convince you that I know the mind of God. But I will say that it is possible that He is on neither side. I think all of us are guilty of holding on too tightly to our traditions. So tightly, in fact, that we are not open to different methods and styles that would be very effective in reaching both the lost and saved of our community. On the other hand, we must not think that just because we are in a new millennium that it is time to “move forward”, as if to say that there is something wrong with hymns and traditional music.

 The way that some talk, you would think that the church is in need of molting its old skin so that the newer, improved version can come to the forefront. What a calloused and cold people we can be when we try to make our preferences “the gospel”, pushing our likes and dislikes on others as though they were the standard! This is definitely not the church Jesus had in mind when he was on earth, and I am certain His intentions for the church have not changed to fit the modern view of what church should be.

 Isn’t it amazing that there are no musical notes in the Bible? There is no mention of God disapproving of true worship on the basis of tempo or the instruments used. As a matter of fact, one of the clearest pictures we find of Jesus’ view of worship can be found in John 4:23-24, “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit; and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth”. No music, no styles, no preferences, just honest and true worship. That’s God’s music.

 Today, don’t become so hardened toward traditions or angry with new approaches to worship, that you allow it to create a division in the church body.  We are all ONE body, with ONE purpose.  We can use all things to reach all people.

March 2004
BE ALL YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE

Take just a moment to consider your life to this point. Do you think that you have reached your potential? In your job? In your marriage? In school? Financially?

While all of these are very important aspects of our lives (and the ones we spend most of our time pursuing), I wonder if we ever stop to consider our spiritual potential. Have you ever had a time that you just stopped everything and really did some soul searching? A time when you evaluated where you were with God, and how you were investing your time in His service? It is so easy for us to loose sight of what is most important in life. It’s like a huge pit that is always before us, and if we fall into it we are duped into spending precious time in pursuit of things that are temporary. 

The Bible urges us to focus on the things in life that will last, things that are eternal (II Corinthians 4:18 ). We are told that one day in Heaven we will stand before Jesus and have all of our works tried by fire (I Corinthians 3:11 -15). Everything we have spent our lives pursuing will be set ablaze. The things that we invested time in that were spiritual, or eternal, will stand the test of fire. The Bible says that we will even receive a reward for those good works. But the things that we foolishly wasted our time on (money, fame, status, etc.) will all go up in smoke, just as if they were nothing more than firewood. Nothing will be left but regret for time wasted. 
Don’t waste your life on things that won’t last. Don’t fall into the trap of having a life devoted to what the world says is important. Instead, focus your entire life on the things that our Redeemer has commanded you to do.

 In Paul’s letter to the Philippian church, he urges them to press on. Press on to what? 
Press on to, “…take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me” (Philippians 3:12 ). This is our challenge even today. We are to take hold of, or become, the person that Jesus died for us to be.
In other words, each of us has great potential as a child of God. Jesus died so that we could become all that we could be through Him, and for Him. One of the greatest ways we can do this is by being determined to live our lives for God; lives that are spent investing in eternal pursuits. It is in these things that we will find true fulfillment, both now and in eternity to come.