The ultimate sign of quality CCM: Every band’s goal was to have teenagers stop their grooving mid-song and exclaim, like a soda commercial actress who’s just realized she’s been drinking diet, “Wait, this is Christian?”

Such a broad brush! I’m not sure many people besides the OP author would consider DC Talk as representative of the entire CCM movement or industry over the last 50 years.

Representative/unrepresentative. Tsk, tsk, tsk. Always drawing lines. :O

DC Talk’s last studio album was 1998. I mean, if you’re going to warn about the dangers that you see in the syncretism of rock and Christian music, at least pick an example from the current millennium. You could even pick on tobyMac, who was an original member of DC Talk and would still be considered culturally relevant.

pick an example from the current millennium

The author was using an example from when she was a youth. That’s why she wrote

By far the coolest CCM band when I was a teen was DC Talk

Also, I didn’t gather that the author was trying to warn the church about music as much as she was chastising it for its consumerism. Her last paragraph says

The gospel became just another product someone was trying to sell me, and a paltry one at that because the church isn’t Viacom: it doesn’t have a Department of Brand Strategy and Planning. Staying relevant in late consumer capitalism requires highly sophisticated resources and the willingness to tailor your values to whatever your audience wants. In trying to compete in this market, the church has forfeited the one advantage it had in the game to attract disillusioned youth: authenticity. When it comes to intransigent values, the profit-driven world has zilch to offer. If Christian leaders weren’t so ashamed of those unvarnished values, they might have something more attractive than anything on today’s bleak moral market. In the meantime, they’ve lost one more kid to the competition.

don’t you, that the author walked away from her faith? She’s not attacking rock as a Fundamentalist. It’s a personal story of growing up in a religious culture built on feigned relevance rather than the eternal verities. Read the comments that follow her article as well. She’s not alone.

You do understand…

don’t you, that the author walked away from her faith?

Yes, I understand that.

probably the best thing I have read on SI. The girl actually understands Cobain’s anthem. That alone makes her one in a million. But its her precise and clear vision of her generation that is stunning. It is too bad she has drifted away. Awana, Patch the Pirate, Memory Work, a MBBC education, a great youth group… none of that would have kept her. All that stuff can be as hollow as a well meaning CCM rap group. Without a real, healing touch from Jesus Christ, we are all adrift.

Very interesting.

I think that there are good lessons to be learned from this girl’s testimony. But, I wouldn’t regard it much more than an anecdotal story.

Probably without much difficulty, we could come up with stories of people who were introduced to Christ and radically transformed because of “CCM”. How could these stories be reconciled?

I agree with Jeffrey, there are deeper issues here.

If you’re asking me

No, Brenda, I wasn’t asking you. I was responding to earlier posts. Sorry for the confusion. My bad.

I agree with Jeffrey, there are deeper issues here.
.

I don’t think it’s CCM either. It’s inauthentic Christianity, marketing, an obsession with trends and cultural relevance. What the author saw in Cobain was something authentic…seeing through the hype, which she associates with her church experience. Yes, she was not born again, and the world appealed to her flesh. But it’s a thoughtful piece about the church. She found a glimmer of authenticity in the world. What she found in church could not compare with that. makes me think about all that we do in ministry. And while we are not trendy…what are we? How does it look to our young people?

I grew up submersed in evangelical youth culture: reading Brio magazine, doing devotions in my Youth Walk Bible, eagerly awaiting the next installment of the Left Behind series, and developing a taste in music that ran the gamut from Christian rap to Christian pop to Christian rock.

A steady diet of Chicken McNuggets is not going to produce a healthy Christian.

The logic was that the more these bands fit in with what was playing on the radio, the more someone like me would feel comfortable passing their album on to my non-Christian friends (supposing I’d had any), giving them a chance to hear the gospel.

Since when did God choose the ‘foolishness of music’ to save them that believe? (1Cor. 1:21) Why give kids a ‘sneaky’ way to witness, when one of the signs of ‘being with Jesus’ is boldness? (Acts 4:13)

Staying relevant in late consumer capitalism requires highly sophisticated resources and the willingness to tailor your values to whatever your audience wants. In trying to compete in this market, the church has forfeited the one advantage it had in the game to attract disillusioned youth: authenticity. When it comes to intransigent values, the profit-driven world has zilch to offer. If Christian leaders weren’t so ashamed of those unvarnished values, they might have something more attractive than anything on today’s bleak moral market. In the meantime, they’ve lost one more kid to the competition.

She nails it there IMO.

[Susan R] Since when did God choose the ‘foolishness of music’ to save them that believe? (1Cor. 1:21) Why give kids a ‘sneaky’ way to witness, when one of the signs of ‘being with Jesus’ is boldness? (Acts 4:13)

Preaching is merely the verbal proclamation of the Gospel. Whether that proclamation comes from a guy in a suit and tie standing behind a slab of wood on a Sunday morning, or from a guy in jeans and sandals with a guitar around his neck in front of a microphone, they’re both proclaiming the Gospel. They’re both “prophesying.” The biggest difference between talking and singing is how the pitch and rhythm are arranged. Don’t underestimate music as a medium of the Gospel.

Since when did God choose the ‘foolishness of music’ to save them that believe? (1Cor. 1:21)

Just a quick comment: The “foolishness of music” vs. the “foolishness of preaching” is missing the point of 1 Cor 1:21, IMO. Paul’s words there are not about the method of communication (preaching vs. music), but about the message that is preached (Christ crucified vs. anything else). It is the message preached that is foolish in the context of 1 Cor 1.

So whatever we might say about music in evangelism, I think it misguided to use 1 Cor 1:21 to do it with.

If one were inclined to make the point about the methodology (music vs. talking), 1 Cor 2 is a better text because there Paul is actually talking about methodology (simple words, not persuasive words of man’s wisdom so that the power might be of God). Even so, though, I think music per se (vs. talking) is going to be a bit of a stretch to work in there.

Overall an interesting article with some thought provoking insights.

Bro. Mount- does the Bible separate the terms and functions of music and preaching? IOW, is the primary purpose of music the communication of the Gospel to those that are in unbelief? Or is it a pleasant side effect? Do we have any examples of the Gospel being ‘preached’ through music? That’s my concern - that music is being used as a substitute for preaching for those who are too lazy or cowardly to convey the Gospel in an unashamed, unambiguous fashion. Hope that clarifies my disquiet a bit better.

[Susan R] Bro. Mount- does the Bible separate the terms and functions of music and preaching? IOW, is the primary purpose of music the communication of the Gospel to those that are in unbelief? Or is it a pleasant side effect? Do we have any examples of the Gospel being ‘preached’ through music? That’s my concern - that music is being used as a substitute for preaching for those who are too lazy or cowardly to convey the Gospel in an unashamed, unambiguous fashion. Hope that clarifies my disquiet a bit better.

Two things notably missing in the greatest Gospel explosion of history, recorded throughout the Book of Acts, where the world, politically and spiritually, was “turned…upside down….”:
1) Music as a medium for the message of the Gospel, or in accompaniment with the Gospel message
2) Any mention or association with the concept of love at any time

Just sayin’