In the beginning, there were the Jesus People.<\/p>\n\n
They had long hair and short memories and they emerged from the 1960s with a unique fusion of evangelical faith and pop culture. They loved fellowship, but didn\u2019t like frumpy churches. They trusted their feelings, not traditions. They loved the Bible, but not those old hymnals.<\/p>\n\n
So they started writing, performing, recording and selling songs. The Contemporary Christian Music industry was born.<\/p>\n\n
And, lo, the counterculture became a corporate culture, one that was increasingly competitive and relentlessly contemporary, constantly striving to photocopy cultural trends. Out in the mega-churches, the definition of \u201cworship\u201d changed and then kept changing \u2014 Sunday after Sunday.<\/p>\n\n
Even though this industry \u201cmakes claims for musical diversity among its ranks, it is primarily a reflection of current folk, pop and rock styles,\u201d noted veteran pop musician Charlie Peacock, speaking at a recent conference on \u201cMusic and the Church\u201d at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. \u201cEven today\u2019s successful modern worship music is composed of these and does not have a distinct style of its own.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
The \u201cbandwidth\u201d of worship music today is actually quite narrow, he said, even if black gospel and \u201curban\u201d music is included. This reality is especially obvious if the industry\u2019s products are contrasted with the dizzying array of church music found around the world and across two millennia of history.<\/p>\n\n
Today, the bottom line is almost always the financial bottom line.<\/p>\n\n
While believers lead the companies that dominate Christian music, secular corporations now own these smaller companies, noted Peacock. Clearly this is shaping the \u201cChristian\u201d music sold in religious bookstores and mainstream malls. But this corporate culture is also affecting worship and the heart of church life.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThe industry cannot be expected to always have the best interests of the church in mind,\u201d Peacock told nearly 500 scholars, musicians, entrepreneurs and clergy. \u201cChristians within the companies may. But the overriding ideology of the system is to serve the shareholder first.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Serving the shareholders means an endless stream of new products, fads and artists \u2014 just like in the secular world. The new always vetoes the old and the saints don\u2019t use credit cards or own stock. Thus, CCM is dominated by pop, rock, urban and new worship music. Classical Christian music is below 1 percent on the charts.<\/p>\n\n
Most worship leaders are trying to blend these radically different musical elements, reported pollster George Barna, describing a survey of Protestant worshippers, pastors and \u201cworship leaders.\u201d Sometimes the easiest solution is to have different services for different audiences \u2014 a strategy the Barna Research Group found in three out of four churches.<\/p>\n\n
Thus, the GI Generation attends a different service than the upbeat Baby Boomers or the mysterious young faithful of generations X and Y. The result looks something like an FM radio dial.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cWhat we know about Americans is that we view ourselves first and foremost as consumers,\u201d said Barna. \u201cEven when we walk in the doors of our churches what we tend to do is to wonder how can I get a good transaction out of this experience. \u2026 So, what we know from our research is that Americans have made worship something that primarily that we do for ourselves. When is it successful? When we feel good.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
And sometimes people feel bad. According to the pastors, only 9 percent of the surveyed churches were experiencing conflict over music. But it\u2019s possible to turn those statistics around and note that 90 percent of all church conflicts reported in this study centered on musical issues.<\/p>\n\n
Is peace possible? Peacock concluded that it will be up to ministers and educators to argue that there is more to worship than the niches on a CCM sales charts.<\/p>\n\n
The industry can play a valid role in shaping the content of Christian music, he said, even in \u201ccontributing to the congregational music of the church. Still, the industry is at the mercy of a consumer with narrow tastes. Until this changes, it can\u2019t possibly function as a definitive caretaker and should not be asked to.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThis means that the stewardship of Christian music from the Psalms, to Ambrose, to Bach, to Wesley, to the Fisk Jubilee Singers and more, belongs to the church and the academy.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the beginning, there were the Jesus People. They had long hair and short memories and they emerged from the 1960s with a unique fusion of evangelical faith and pop culture. They loved fellowship, but didn\u2019t like frumpy churches. They trusted their feelings, not traditions. They loved the Bible, but not those old hymnals. So […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[171,198,220,341,1550],"class_list":["post-1203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ccm","tag-christian-music","tag-church-tradition","tag-evangelicalism","tag-worship"],"yoast_head":"\n