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Pumping Up The Music For Jesus, Hip-Hop Style

Today ChristiansReport.Com posted an article entitled Pumping Up The Music For Jesus, Hip-Hop Style that I read and thought I would comment on.

Some Good Comments

The majority of the article was of little or no interest to me, however toward the end of the article there were a couple of statements that made me go 'Amen Brother!'

Here is the first one:

Says Redeemer's pastor, Kelly Chatman: "Young people are not coming to church to hear classical music like they did when I was young... Hip-hop is simply the vernacular of a culture that the church should be reaching out to."

Amen Brother!

Way to many churches today are hung-up on the past - and refusing to even entertain what the "next generations" need to find comfort and "a place" within the walls of a church. I am convinced that the next 10 years is going to see a massive closer of churches across America - simply because all the old people have died and gone to heave, and the next generation was never ministered too, and thus, are not in church!

As I said in a previous Blog entry I entitled
"Worshiping Outside the Traditional Church Walls":

Change Verses Slow Death

...this is not to say that we should not have elders in our churches! For we MUST have elders in our churches. But what it does say is that in the next 10 years this church will (in all likelihood) be closing it's doors because nobody is left alive to be able to attend it.

The "this church" applies to so-many churches today!

Just this past week I had lunch with a pastor who openly admitted that his church is doing nothing to reach my generation. This is not to say he does not want too, but simply his church was not structured in a way to effectively reach my generation. At one point he simply put his head down and you could see that he was beginning to realize his church will be dead in the next 15 years unless he begins to actively take action. Hopefully he will.

The second quote from the article that caught my attention was one of my favorite quotes in Christendom.

"Martin Luther did theology in taverns, to what extent are we willing to go to reach young people today?"

Right on brother!!

The same pastor I had lunch with this week asked me "So John, what do you think about having only traditional music in our church?"

My answer to this question was quick and to-the-point (probably because I've said it a lot!):

"My Answer":

Pastor, I was raised in the Christian Faith. During my teens I walked away because I found very little in Christianity that had any purpose what so ever for me.

When I finally started listening to the drawing of the Holy Spirit some 10 years later, it was due to the prayers of my family, and a number of Christian CD's someone had given me - mixed in with a bunch of secular CD's.

One of those CD's was from the band "Petra" - and one of those CD's had a song called "Just Reach Out", which spoke about reaching out to Christ and all that HE has to offer.

Petra has rarely been known as a "church band", preferring to take their music in a stadium, rather then behind some pulpit of a church. Presumably because 99% of the churches would never allow their style of music to play in their churches!

Does the fact that a large percentage of my coming back to Christ because of a band that you would never allow into your church, mean I am not saved?

Ok pastor, let me share with you another story.

My step-brother started going to church last year. For the majority of his live he has never paid one-bit of attention to God, so far as I am aware. He has lead an active and good life none-the-less. He was a professional jet skier for a number of year, and has since gone on to be involved in many other professional sports fields.

Last year he meet a 27 year old pastor. This young pastor looked like him, talked like him, did the same things has my step-brother did, and all that kool stuff.

Eventually the young pastor invited my step-brother to church, and he went.

Last I spoke with my step-brother he had committed himself to the church and was even thinking about joining the church "worship team".

Now get this pastor... this "worship team", it isn't exactly what you might call a "worship team" in your pretty and comfortable little church... rather, this 'worship team' is made-up of x-metal and thrasher musicians. Yes, an entire worship team where you aren't going to hear an acoustic band, or even a keyboard and that's it. No-sir, this hear church has got an entire extra power line brought into the church just to power their bass amps, their guitar amps, drum mics, and 30,000 lighting system!

So, pastor, let me ask you...

My step-brother is going to church.

Why?

Because he FOUND a church that was RELEVANT to him and his life-style.

How many people in your church can say that about your church?

How many more people do you think your church would have within it, if you did actually make it relevant to them?

Hmmm, that might be something you want to think about...

And that, is all I have to say on this matter... for now, at least

posted: 01/08/2006 04:19am by abelajohnb View: Backlinks, Permalink Total Views: 6313 ShortURL: http://christianblog.com/fab2 Category: Church Administration	Print This Blog Entry
Blog Tags: church, martin luther, music, petra, relevant church, worship,
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Hi John,

Music was a tough hurdle for me. I stuck close to the contemporary "praise & worship" songs until I worked at a boys home. I had read in "Purpose Driven Life" that music is neither christian or not. It's the message in the lyrics that brings glory to God or not. That said, I now have a wide variety of music which all bring glory to God in their message. The trick with the younger "louder" music is that if the kids aren't listening to the message in the lyrics and only the music, then the song has lost it's purpose. I also believe that whether loud or soft, new or old, the group/person needs to take every opportunity to share the salvation message. I saw Skillet in concert once and was very disappointed that they never stopped and shared the gospel Good News of Christ. My boys from the home said they were the best band, but couldn't remember a single line from a single song. Just that they "rocked". Not a message at all in my book, if the objective is to reach the lost. That's my take on the music end of it.

In Christ,
GreyBear

Posted 01/11/2006 04:55am
Author: greybear

I believe music is an important part of worship and it has to become modernized. Everyone doesnt have the same taste in music so one must not expect a place of worship to step up the tempo without stepping on toes. I am apart of a ministry that is open to new types of music and praise dancing.

God should always be the focus of the praise

Amen

Posted 12/26/2008 04:57pm
Author: kellyuic2009

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