Featured Is Contemporary Christian Music/Christian Rock wordly and sinful?

I think the reformed Christian rap is a burgeoning field that has better theology than most of your modern praise songs and even some older hymns. It is lyrical, poetic theology set to a beat. It is awesome! Shai Linne is one of my favs.

BTW... Lecrae is not blending the message of Jesus w/ the message of hip hop music b/c that music doesn't have a message. Artists have messages. He is blending sounds. But the message he is rapping is far different than most thug rappers. So there is no blend. You're question is flawed.

 

Ok, here goes. I suppose music is neutral until culture gets involved. But it always gets involved. There are beats or musical phrases (like the va va voom most associate with strippers) that because of cultural baggage should not be used in church. That will vary by cultural setting.

And then there is "who are you trying to reach" thing. If your aim is pulling people OUT of the honky tonky scene, don't do my beloved country gospel, please. You make it very hard for your brothers and sisters in Christ to make a clean break.

The same might be said if you are trying to bring people out of the rock and roll clubs and party scene. I've known of folks recently immigrated from Africa that are more rabid than any southern bigot at wanting "devil music" out of the church. It absolutely returns them to the paganism they have come out of, and they abhor it. It might not hurt the lily white suburban kid at the local mega full of lily white suburbanites.

Here are some things to consider: no matter the musical genre, it can be used manipulatively. Don't. No matter the genre, excessive dim lights and repeat the same few words dozens of times can become quite the mantra opening folks to suggestion. Don't. And no matter the genre, make sure the words accurately reflect your theology.

My personal bias? I hate any song of any genre that sounds like you could substitute the name of your girlfriend or boyfriend and sell it as a love song. And I'm connected enough to the industry to know it may have been written as a secular love song, didn't sell, and with that minor rewrite of adding "Lord" sold as "Christian" music. Gag, ack.

 

If music appeals to the flesh, I believe it is not good.

Here is a song I really like, and I used to play this song in a Christian band, but I had to put that stuff away.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjJjf6KkyI4

This song rocks. I love it. That is why it is NOT good.

Anybody who says this doesn't appeal to the flesh knows absolutely nothing about music.

 

My basic mentality: Why let Satan have all the good music?
Some of the music used for our beloved hymns were originally played in bars.

Personally, there are hymns I like, but I tend to find CCM more relatable. Even when I was against CCM, as I was raised to be, on occasions when I was in a setting playing CCM I found myself able to worship to it.
LeCrae isn't my style, but from what I've seen of his work his message is sound.

Is music evil simply because it's been used for evil at one point or another? I don't think so. Plus, some rock music, including metal, is actually based off parts of classical compsitions, or is influenced by them.
And I don't have time to dig up specific examples right now, but the instruments mentioned in the Psalms have their modern equivalents in the instruments used for rock music. Tambourines: relative of drum sets. Stringed instruments: guitars.

I normally avoid these threads here because I can get a little too argumentative, but I'll try not to argue.

 

All I heard was noise!

 

If you eat too much it is wrong, and you can destroy your health being overweight.

Now, sleeping with your wife is one of those wonderful gifts God gives us, and it is not wrong, although if you want sex constantly it could become a problem. You have to be considerate of your spouse, not everybody wants sex every day. It can also work the other way, you don't want to withhold from your spouse if they have reasonable needs.

There are different kinds of Christian music, some is beautiful and mellow, and that can be alright. But the kind of song I showed is nothing but Rock and Roll disguised as Christian music. In my heart I knew it wasn't right, it was not glorifying the Lord, but self.

But I will be the first to say I loved it, it rocked. I grew up playing Rock, and it is difficult for me to stay away from it.

 

Eating in the worship service is wrong unless you are a very young child!

 

You're kidding, right? What, exactly, makes a sound "holy"? Does the pastor have to pray over it, do you call down the Holy Spirit and ask Him to bless it before it "comes out"? How exactly is a sound "holy"? That's absurd.

Sounds, words, music, art, poems, prose, whatever -- in and of themselves are nothing but noise or sight or writing. It is the attitude of the creator of those things that makes them what they are, and that includes the reverence and spirituality intended when they are created.

Your question is based on a personal prejudice of supposition regarding intent, which isn't your purview in determining why someone else created something.

Should we use our computers to send messages of hope, beauty, Christ, the Gospel out over the Internet when the same wires, cables and fiber optics have also been used to promote evil, sin, degradation and debauchery?

Really?

If possible, this is more absurd than Jordan's blathering.

 

Oh yeah? Ever play in a band?

 

Not since high school, and we were horrible, but could occasionally convince some poor unsuspecting group of kids holding a special event of some kind we could make music.

Given that, I don't have to have been in a band, ever, to know that there is nothing about the music, particularly by a Christian group as solidly biblical as Casting Crowns, that is ungodly or a temptation. Those factors come from within, not from the music.

It isn't the nature of the music. It is the nature of person who hears the music. That's not an indictment. It is simply a statement of fact. If the music was the problem, Casting Crowns would all have "fallen away" by now.

 

You don't know what you are talking about. You don't have a clue.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JL9fimhemjY

 

And ... ? Do you know the lyrics to that song?

The words are the words. How they are received is a matter no different than how the gospel is received by one who doesn't want to hear it. This song can be edifying to one open to the message. The words of the Casting Crown song are edifying. The fact the beat of these songs drives you where you don't want to go is relevant only to you. Others may feel the same, but they, also, are finding it difficult to listen for reasons relevant only to them. It isn't a church-body decision.

There are those who will hear Stryper's music and begin to seek the truth. There are those who will read the words of Paul and cast the Bible as far from them as they can throw it.

These are matters for which the individual determines his/her own choice. It isn't right or wrong. It just is.