CCM-Contemporary Compromise Music

One of the things I've noticed that frequently happens when Christians gather together for fellowship or food or whatever, is that they are a musical bunch of people. Just pull out a guitar and start playing around on it, and soon, you'll find 4 out of 10 people in that group play or are learning to play a guitar.

Why is that?

From my casual observation, it's probably because the guitar is a portable instrument, and it's easy to learn how to play because of all the tutorials on the internet, and because it's a great aid for worship. Anyone who calls them self a Christian will acknowledge (if they are truthful) that there is always a desire to connect with God in corporate settings because God seems to like to reveal Himself to folks in those kinds of settings in various ways. People will testify to this. It's not my imagination.

So anyone can whip out a guitar and sings songs about God or to God and, given their abilities and God's presence in that certain situation, people can connect with God. That's what families do. They connect with mom and dad. God the Father and the Holy Spirit will show up given the right ingredients. There is a mix to worship and encounters with God but no one REALLY  knows the formula. They just know it happens. 

There are many scriptures that point out man's failing to connect with God in corporate settings and many that talk about ways man does connect with God in corporate settings.

Most of the time God is not showing up is because of sin in people's lives. Jesus (Yeshua) tells us that the Father (God) seeks worshipers who worship in Spirit and Truth. .The "ruah" of God, His breath, is necessary for the flesh to die and the Truth (the word, written or taught) is necessary for the flesh to die. Notice I repeated myself, because God also tells us in His word that no flesh will glory in His presence.

The point being that there ARE standards for true worship and a lot of people today in what is called "contemporary Christian music" are crossing lines and committing outright apostasy in the name of feeling good, and "reaching out".

Prefacing this link I will share with you, is my own feelings about rock music and other forms of modern music. I happen to like classic rock and I like drums. There are many that feel that drums in a song sound like African voodoo music. I do not agree with this, and may differ from brothers and sisters on this notion. I do not, however, listen to secular music intentionally. I work in an environment where I hear it all the time, so I am familiar with most mainstream music and a lot of it is quite good and some of it is so terrible. Since I work in a children's department of a large store, I'm conscious that children are listening to these lyrics and am very disturbed by what they are hearing.

The link I'm sharing with you is quite long and very detailed but he makes a good point. I took my kids to all kinds of Christian concerts in the early days and the tone of those concerts were more worshipful then than they are now, but I wouldn't call them "worship" services. It saddens me that the Christian music industry has changed so much for the worse. I remember a young girl from work telling me that she danced in a  church "mosh pit" with  bunch of other teens and how she was quite proud of it.

The point this blogger makes (the link) is: "Are we winning people to Jesus or winning people to Christian music"? Christian music won't save people. It's a wake up call. I'm hearing it and am becoming very wary of so called Christians who are in the music industry now. I guess the shocker for me was when Jennifer Knapp came out on her web site and told all her fans that she was gay...and that's another topic. But for now, here's the link:http://basicsofguitar.blogspot.com/2012/02/just-thought-i-would-like-to-share-this.html. You will see the link at the bottom of the first blog from this worship musician and web guitar instructor, Daniel Choo. (who, by the way, has awesome guitar instruction for beginner and intermediate guitar players who worship God with their music). I couldn't get the link to work from the actual website.