Titus 2 Men And Women

What Has Happened To Church Music?
by Dan Sweatt

Several months ago I received a letter from a lady in a situation that is all too common these days among fundamental Baptists. She was bemoaning the fact that she felt terribly out of place in her own church. The services resembled stage shows with music that seemed more appropriate in a bar than in the church auditorium. She had attended that church for more than twenty years. She had served as a Sunday School teacher there, and her husband had been a deacon. Both were actively involved in every aspect of church ministry.

What happened to the music? A new music director convinced the pastor that in order to reach the younger generation, the music needed to be more "consumer oriented." So the church lowered its music standards to accommodate the tastes of a generation who prefer rock-and-roll. While the new music pleased some people in the church, it deeply offended many others. Reasoning with the pastor was futile. His direction was set; to turn back now would be to admit lack of judgment. So the church rocked on.

A friend of mine slipped into a youth meeting at a local independent Baptist church. He described it as a "nightclub without the cigarette smoke." The music was so loud that it was impossible to converse. The lights had been dimmed except for a single spotlight on the singer.

What turned the youth department into a discotheque? Today's teens are bored with preaching. They want to have their own type of service, one more suited to their generation. Incidentally, in the church my friend visited, adults were told to stay out of the youth department unless they had been invited. Why do you suppose parents were not welcome to see what their own children were doing in church?

USA Today described a "Jesus Festival" at the Orlando Fairgrounds as "15,000 cheering, dancing fans" and quoted the screams of Glenn Kaiser, lead singer for the band Resurrection, as he wailed, "I used to worship knowledge/ thought it would set me free/ I found Jesus' love/ is quite enough for me..."

Christian groups are demanding and receiving $20,000 in concert fees. A contemporary Christian album is described as "at its rocking best...simmers down to smooth funk and cools off in quiet praise...an ultra-conservative Black Sabbath." A book titled Rock and Roll: Proceed with Caution compares Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) performers to popular rock-and-roll groups to let Christian young people know which contemporary Christian musicians and music fit their current secular tastes.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, a CCM performer who has since crossed over to the secular market, says "I love to dance, but there are people who listen to my music who are uncomfortable with dancing. I have to think of them. I am not going to say too often that I like cold beer while watching a football game. That might bother some of my fans, too."

Do you suppose that fundamental Baptists are paying $15 to $20 a ticket to watch these Christian superstars? Are they buying their tapes? Do Christian teens emulate their heroes in their dress and style of performance? YES!

What has happened to Christian music? The transformation has been a quiet revolution. To put it into perspective, if the music that is now standard fare in many of our churches had been attempted just twenty years ago, the pastor, as well as the performers, would have been run out of town. Who could have imagined that the things I have described would not only be tolerated but also be encouraged by fundamental Baptists? What forces have driven us so far off the course of propriety?

Church Music Has Become Big Business

Twenty-five years ago sacred music was hard to find, Christian recordings were limited, and printed music for choirs was scarce. That has all changed dramatically.

In 1984 alone, Christian records from major labels topped $76 million in sales. Christian radio is the fastest-growing segment of the market. Christian music publishing companies such as Word, Inc. have been bought out by entertainment companies such as ABC-Paramount.

The fact that big money is to be made has drastically changed Christian publishing. For many people the question has changed from "Is it appropriate?" to "Will it sell?" Publishing is definitely a consumer-driven business. Many Christians have followed the publishing/record companies down the road of current tastes.

If It Works, Why Not Use It?

The second driving force in this revolution has been a thoughtless pragmatism among Christian leaders. They have reasoned, "If it is apparently working in other churches, why not use it in mine?" or, to use a Biblical allusion, "If the Philistines can haul the ark around on an oxcart, why do I have to use poles?" Prepared by our own excesses, many reasoned that if people are being saved, the method must be appropriate. Almost without realizing it, we found ourselves adopting the old Jesuit philosophy that "The end justifies the means."

While some believers accommodate popular new methodology, they forget that before we can minister effectively to sinful men, we must please a holy God. To obey has forever been better than sacrifice.

Music Is a Neutral Vehicle

The whole premise of using secular music as a vehicle to carry a sacred text is based on the erroneous assumption that music itself is neutral. The only people in the history of music that have promoted that idea are twentieth-century Christian apologists for CCM. No secular musician or music historian of any age has ever believed that music is neutral. Every generation except this one has realized the power and influence of music without or apart from the words.

Now where did we get this strange idea of the neutrality of music? We got it from Christian apologists who somehow had to remove the stigma of a profane vehicle from their chosen media of expression. It is interesting to observe that it is the second- and third-generation Christians who are so enamored with the world's music, not those who were saved out of it. 

Lines of Separation Erased

The last, but perhaps the most significant answer to the question, "What has happened to Christian music?" is that lines of separation between the world and the church have largely been erased by this generation. As society has drifted farther and farther from a Biblical standard, the pressure has increased for the church to become more accommodating. The gap between what is acceptable to the world ad what is acceptable to the church has narrowed considerably.

We must clearly teach the doctrine of separation in order to protect God's people from the snare of the world. When God's people were captive in Babylon, they became thoroughly heathen. They adopted heathen ways, heathen morality and heathen religion. God sent His prophet Ezekiel to cry out against their sin and to instruct the priests concerning the failure of their ministry that would allow such paganism among God's people. In chapter 22, verse 26, God says, "Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean...."

It is confusing enough to discern what is clean and unclean under the best of circumstances. But when the pastors have ceased to teach the difference between the holy and the profane and the clean and the unclean, and when everyone is left to his own ideas, the problem is compounded. In this day we have gone one step farther. We have gone into the world and taken the profane (secular music), wedded it to a Christian message, brought it into our churches, and called it holy. No wonder our people are confused.

Dan Sweatt is the pastor of Berean Baptist Church outside Atlanta. He is also a trained musician and popular conference speaker.

This page has been displayed 3 times this month, 458 times since January 2, 2005.