Contemporary Christian music and the spirit of the age.

Previous instalments of this series have looked at the spiritual power of music and its biblical significance, and have argued that popular trends in music always reflect the spirit of the age.

But should this be the case for music used inside the Church? Shouldn’t this be reflecting a different Spirit altogether?

Music at the Centre

Music has always been a strong feature of Judeo-Christian worship and culture. One only has to read the Psalms of Ascent (Ps 120-134) to see how important a role it has played in Jewish communal worship, as pilgrims sang on their way up to Jerusalem for festivals.¹ Since Jesus’ time, generations of Christians have learned of the Lord through song, and rightly so, for biblical songs are vital to the health of the Church (Eph 5:19; 1 Cor 14:26; Col 3:16).

It is good for believers to strengthen their theology through music; it is one of the wonderful gifts the Lord has given to bind the Church together through the ages, encourage her and keep her on a sound footing.
However, there is something different about this current generation. It is perhaps more concerned with musical worship than any previous generation – but it is also less concerned with Scripture.

For modern Christians, our musical intake includes both worship music used in church services and what has become known as ‘Contemporary Christian Music’ (CCM), an umbrella term for songs of any modern style that are intentionally Christian in their lyrics.² As long as songs are biblical, God-glorifying, and written in the right spirit, both of these musical avenues can be great for encouragement and edification.

This current generation is perhaps more concerned with musical worship than any previous generation – but it is also less concerned with Scripture.

But some problems have started to creep in in recent years as songs have become, for many, a substitute for scriptural learning. As biblical knowledge has generally been in decline, the way has been opened for modern Christian music to be permeated not by the Holy Spirit, but by the ‘spirit of the age’.

In this article I will outline four such ways this is occurring, focusing particularly on music popular in evangelical and charismatic circles. What follows is a largely critical remark – but please bear with me as next week’s conclusion to this short series will be much more positively focused on the hallmarks of good, solid, biblical music. For those interested in my own musical background and the position from which I am offering these comments, please see the Author Bio at the end of this page.

Four ways in which modern Christian music can channel the spirit of the age

1. Entertainment

Hillsong meeting in Sydney, Australia. See Photo Credits.According to secular theorists, Western culture has developed an obsession with entertainment. Key features of this culture include preferences of illusion over truth, appearance over reality and distraction over meaningful pursuit.³ When this comes to religion, it also means a preference for an appearance of spirituality without concern to live this out fully (i.e. 2 Tim 3:5).

Christian worship meetings that look and feel more like pop concerts have long been the chagrin of folk who prefer more traditional formats. Whatever your personal taste, there is no doubt that both Christian worship music and CCM have imbibed something of the contemporary spirit of ‘entertain me’: all the buzz of a spectacle and the enjoyment of (usually) an attractive set of faces, and all the sense of participating in something that ‘feels’ spiritual, but with very little personal challenge or follow-through.

The blending of Christian music with the secular world of entertainment – whether we are talking about borrowed styles and genres, or borrowed formats of mass gigs and music festivals - “changes it subtly, for the musical and emotional [is] exploited while the spiritual [is] denied or perverted.”⁴ It is obviously possible for God to work powerfully through such forms and events, but too often it’s equally possible for nominal Christians and unbelievers to partake, enjoy, adulate the performer and leave feeling good, but otherwise unchanged.

The blending of Christian music with the secular world of entertainment is not something to be taken lightly.

Meanwhile, Christian bands and artists face enormous commercial pressure to put out best-selling albums every year and to gig their way around the globe, winning Grammy awards as they go.⁵ Part of this pressure comes from record labels, which these days include secular conglomerates like Sony and EMI, who want songs that sell. This means that trends in music are more likely to be defined by what is popular and award-winning than by theological accuracy.

Edifying, doctrinally-sound songs still ‘make it big’ today. And many Christian artists take very seriously their opportunity to give the Gospel to a mass audience. However, the taking of inspiration from the secular realm is not something that should be done lightly, and has often also popularised a Christianity ‘lite’ based on thin doctrine and transient commitment.

2. Celebrity

Western culture’s obsession with entertainment goes hand-in-hand with a fascination with celebrity which has, sadly, also infiltrated the Church. The Gospel Coalition’s Mike Cosper notes that “Celebrity culture turns pastors and worship leaders into icons. Celebrity culture turns worship gatherings into rock concerts. Celebrity culture confuses flash and hype for substance.”⁶

Gigs, popular charts and social media all naturally draw the eye not to Jesus but to the artists, with more pressure on them to demonstrate charisma than a fear of the Lord. Being in the public eye obviously affords performers great opportunity to point people to Jesus but an obvious risk here, nonetheless, is idolatry and its attendant problems.

High-profile Christian musicians also wield huge influence, especially over young people. This can be a force for good, but it can also be used to promote heresy. Consider the following examples:

Pro-LGBT

Example: song-writer and worship leader Vicky Beeching, who came out as a lesbian in 2014 and now works to further the LGBT agenda in the British Church.

Universalism/Multi-faith

With universalism and multi-faith agendas gaining currency in mainstream evangelical and charismatic circles as well as in the ‘emerging church’, several Christian musicians are endorsing this, directly or indirectly. Examples include:

• Well-known Christian artists contributing to the soundtrack of the universalist film The Shack.
  
• Hillsong’s worship pastor Carl Lentz downplaying Jesus as the only way to God when interviewed by Oprah.⁷
  

Edifying, doctrinally-sound songs still ‘make it big’ today – but so do songs promoting a Christianity ‘lite’ based on thin doctrine and transient commitment.

Contemplative Prayer

Various Christian song-writers are allying themselves with the contemplative prayer movement, which utilises prayer methods advocated by the so-called ‘desert fathers’. This movement is drawing extensive criticism for often amounting to a new age counterfeit of the true Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Examples: David Crowder, Michael W Smith, Michael Card.⁸

Dominionism

One of the main ways in which the highly influential ‘New Apostolic Reformation’ group of teachers and ministries in the USA has managed to export and mainstream Latter Rain/dominionist teachings⁹ worldwide is through music.

Example: Bethel Church in Redding has an extensive music scene, producing songs that promote its own brand of theology and exporting them worldwide via groups such as Jesus Culture and Bethel Music. These songs are being given further credence by endorsements from big names such as Chris Tomlin and Michael W Smith, and from major conferences such as Passion in the USA (click here for a critical review).

3. Emotionalism

An important feature of postmodern Western culture is the triumph of heart over head. These days, reason and hard facts matter less than feelings. This also means an over-emphasis on experience (or, in Christian jargon, ‘encounter’).

Such a culture within the Church developed initially as a reaction against lifeless Christianity, and arguably has encouraged an honesty in music about lived, felt aspects of the Christian walk. However, it has often gone too far, with doctrine giving way to emotion. The way has therefore been opened for other spirits to counterfeit the work of the Holy Spirit, while true faith is side-lined.

Two extreme but nonetheless influential examples in Christian worship and CCM are hyper-charismatic music associated with the NAR group in America, and music used in the contemplative prayer movement (both mentioned previously). Both of these rely on repetitive rhythms and phrases, atmospheric mood music (referred to as music for ‘soaking’ or ‘meditation’, respectively) and intentionally vague lyrics.

High-profile Christian musicians wield huge influence, which can be a force for good, but can also be used to promote heresy.

The net result, in both camps, is music which draws the listener to switch off their mind to prepare the way for a spiritual encounter,¹⁰ rather than biblical music which should involve our minds as well as our spirits (1 Cor 14:15).

A brief excursion into the Bethel Music website provides some example lyrics:

• “Face to face, falling in / I surrender all again / I fall back into Your arms / I feel Your heart beating against me / Face to face, there’s no space between us”¹¹
  
• “I’m standing on the edge again / I feel Your breath coming on the wind… / It only gets stronger / It only goes deeper / My head’s underwater / but somehow I can finally breathe… / My heart is on fire / and this love is setting me free”¹²
  
• “It all starts with breathing You in / breathing You in / deeply / I’ve been drowning under my skin / no one but You can save me”¹³
  
• “Let the Holy Ghost come so close our hearts explode with your love / Let healing power come like fire and burn in the marrow of my bones… / Open the sky / Come and ride on the songs we sing…”¹⁴
  
• “The waves of your affection keep washing over me… / All those angels / they are swimming in this ocean and they still can find no shore / Day and night / night and day / They keep seeing new sides of your face”¹⁵
  

These are potted examples from one (albeit influential) source, but they show how songs utilising experiential, emotive language and lacking in clear doctrine could (at a push!) be interpreted in the light of Scripture, but could also be interpreted in all sorts of other ways.¹⁶

4. Self

The previous three points are united by a recurring focus on self. While time spent worshipping God undoubtedly leads to great personal blessing, there is a danger that this becomes imbalanced and fleshly, such that times of worship are approached primarily because of what I might receive from God. Contemporary worship music and CCM have, sadly, both imbibed this inward-looking focus on personal blessing and gratification.

Let me illustrate this briefly. The annual worship compilation albums ‘WOW’ collect together each year’s most popular contemporary Christian music. On their 2017 album of 39 tracks, just 7 songs mention the name of Jesus, 5 mention the cross and only 4 mention sin. This same pattern is repeated historically - in fact, the WOW 2015 album, also 39 songs long, boasts just 4 songs that include the name of Jesus, 5 that mention the cross and only one that includes the word ‘sin’.

While time spent worshipping God undoubtedly leads to great personal blessing, there is a danger that this becomes imbalanced and ‘me-orientated’.

Of course, not every Christian song needs to mention the name of Jesus in order to be acceptable (the original lyrics of ‘Amazing Grace’ do not mention any of the above three words either!). But there’s a broader point here: the majority of contemporary Christian music, with its positive messages of personal victory, blessing, revival and overcoming, is in danger of obscuring vital parts of the Gospel. One could easily ingest the majority of modern Christian tunes and conclude that the Good News is simply a matter of accepting that God loves you.

Christian music should rightly make space for songs about the personal and individual. But great discernment is needed to stop this going too far – especially when Western culture is infamous for its inward focus on ‘me, myself and I’.

Conclusion

In writing this study, I have not wanted to ride roughshod over the many good, solid worship songs that are being written today, nor toss away the very idea of CCM. Personally, I think there’s a place for both – and next week I hope to unpack features of good quality Christian music.

But sadly, we live in a culture that is resorting to spectacle in order to distract itself from its own deep spiritual crisis – a culture that has turned inwards to personal feelings and experiences in order to avoid confronting the One True God. Is CCM and even Christian worship music unwittingly aligning itself with this?

I am left with a number of questions, which I will list here as prompts for further discussion:

1. Has the Christian worship and CCM industry imbibed too much of the ‘spirit of the age’ to be redeemable? Should we be looking to other sources of musical inspiration for our worship (e.g. Messianic congregations in Israel)?
   
2. Is there a place for the public testing of Christian songs and/or the public holding of the Christian music industry to account? How might this look?
   
3. How can we be wise with our own consumption of contemporary Christian music, personally and corporately?
   

Next Week: We will finish up the series by looking at what makes for good, biblical Christian music.

Author Bio

Frances is 28 years old and was introduced to both piano and clarinet from early ages. She was classically trained but has dabbled in (and loves) jazz, and sings folk and gospel music regularly with friends. She teaches music privately and has been leading worship in her home church for the past eight years, having played in worship bands since the age of 10. She has a love of music of many different genres and a passion to see the church of God led well in worship.

References

1 See also comments on the biblical role of music made in the first part of this series.

2 These genres overlap, but both stand relatively distinct from the liturgical music of established denominations. The CCM industry grew out of the Jesus Movement in the late 1960s/1970s and has since become a highly commercialised, near-billion-dollar industry that in the USA has outstripped the classical and jazz market combined. It has moved to overlap with ‘worship’ music (i.e. used in church services) much more since the millennium, after suffering something of a decline. Read a brief history here.

3 Read more here.

4 Wilson-Dickson, A, 1992. The Story of Christian Music. Oxford: Lion, p203.

5 Grammys for Best Contemporary Christian Music Song and Album were introduced in 2012.

6 Kill Your (Celebrity Culture) Worship. The Gospel Coalition, 29 January 2016.

7 See coverage here.

8 See here.

9 For more information, please see our ‘Blessing the Church?’ series.

10 I will not go into detail here, but there is considerable research elsewhere about how these two streams represent a deviation into the occult rather than biblical worship. One resource is the Lighthouse Trails Research website.

11 First Love by Jonathan David Helser, 2016.

12 It Only Gets Stronger by Jeremy Riddle and Ran Jackson, 2017.

13 Save Me by Steffany Gretzinger, Amanda Cook and John David Gravitt, 2017.

14 Wrecking Ball by Jonathan David Helser, 2010.

15 Endless Ocean by Jonathan David Helser, 2009.

16 Bethel’s Brian Johnson has gone on record saying that “I honestly think that people freak out too much about whether [worship music] is biblical or not.” Do you agree?