attention on the Lord. Ephesians 5 states:
18 And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit,
19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord,
20 giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ...
Music is a carrier - it can carry a message of life or death, of truth or fiction. Even a song without words can create a mood. Music can be tool that God will use to help us to grow spiritually and even to help unite a corporate body as we gather to sing praises to His name. I believe we can be encouraged to use whatever resources we have in order to refresh and renew our minds, so that God might be exalted and occupy the first place in our lives.
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God has created and ordained music consistent with His purposes, and it can be used to bring glory to Him. Psalm 96 encourages us:
1 Oh, sing to the Lord a new song! Sing to the Lord, all the earth.
2 Sing to the Lord, bless His name; Proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day.
3 Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples.
4 For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods.
Our goal as Christian believers, even those who are more high-profile, as in Christian teachers, pastors, or musicians - is not to become famous, but to make Him famous. And, where some have experienced fame, His intent and their inspiration should be to bring glory to Him.
I really do think that's Lauren Daigle's heart - I've had the privilege of interviewing her in the past and have heard her comments in the press room at the GMA Dove Awards, and have been very impressed with her humility. As I reported to you recently, her new album, Look Up Child, debuted at #3 in the Billboard Hot 200 album chart. Rolling Stone reported on the phenomenon, referencing recent projects from Paul McCartney and Eminem:
But just under those two, and well ahead of records by Drake, Ariana Grande, Mac Miller, Post Malone, Travis Scott and Nicki Minaj, is a somewhat unexpected record called Look Up Child by 27-year-old Christian singer Lauren Daigle, selling 115,000 units, 103,000 of which are traditional album sales. Granted, the aforementioned musicians’ records are a few weeks old while Daigle’s is brand new.The story continues:
Daigle, whose first album went platinum after its 2015 release, tells Rolling Stone she is “overjoyed” to see the new album debuting high on the charts this week, adding that it’s been her dream to share her music with such a broad audience. “I’m inspired to see music continue to cross-pollinate through genres,” she says. “I’m incredibly grateful for how well people have connected with Look Up Child.”But, the Rolling Stone article actually calls attention to a bigger story:
While rap and R&B have indeed risen to become the leading genre of music consumption, Christian music remains a sizable minority mass. Solid numbers are hard to come by, but at its annual conference in 2015, the Gospel Music Association reported that 68 percent of Americans had listened to Christian or gospel music within the last 30 days.
Christian radio stations — which sprung up soon after Christian rock’s inception in the late Sixties and have proliferated quietly but steadily ever since — dominate the broadcast landscape, matching country music stations and news stations in size. And as Kelefa Sanneh recently noted in the New Yorker, half of the 20 most popular rock songs of 2017 were by “bands whose members have espoused the Christian faith,” even if their music was not overtly marketed as Christian. “Faith no longer seems so alien to popular music — ours is an era where plenty of artists, not just religious ones, aim to send inspirational messages,” Sanneh observes.I went over to read the New Yorker article and found it to be a rather even-handed viewpoint of the history of Christian music, rightly spending some time on the rise of Larry Norman in the late 60's, highlighting the roots of worship music with Maranatha! Music, and even identifying what has been a tension between what is commonly termed Christian rock and the overall church landscape. The article delved into the formative days of the Jesus Movement in the 1970's. Of course, in this article, Christian rock includes MercyMe, and the success of the movie depicting the life story of Bart Millard, I Can Only Imagine, is highlighted. But, be careful if you read the article, there is some graphic language.
And lyrical content is actually a cornerstone element of the article, which is consistent with the desire for lyrical integrity that so many artists seek. The piece states:
The focus on lyrics exacted a cost, because it encouraged listeners and musicians alike to view music as a meaningless delivery system for meaningful words. (“It is the words that make a song sacred,” declared the megachurch pastor Rick Warren. “There are no spiritual tunes.”) One result was the rise of Christian soundalike songs, which sanctified the latest secular styles by adding righteous lyrics. “Jesus Freak,” for example, was a big hit in 1995 for a singing-and-rapping trio called DC Talk...About "Jesus Freak," the article states:
It bore a striking resemblance to Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” except for the lyrics. (“People say I’m strange, does it make me a stranger / That my best friend was born in a manger?”) In an interview from that time, one of the members, TobyMac, explained the group’s strategy. “Nirvana had a big influence on this generation musically, but lyrically it definitely rubs me the wrong way,” he said. “I think people are ready for something that’s a little more hopeful.”The article referenced a Newsweek cover story from 2001, and discusses a trend that seems to be continuing until this day:
In a new book called “Rock Gets Religion,” the journalist and producer Mark Joseph writes that, by the time Newsweek published that cover story, “Christian rock was giving way to Christians in rock.” In the aughts, the airwaves were full of bands led by Christians: Creed, P.O.D., Evanescence, Daughtry, the Fray, Lifehouse, Skillet, Chevelle, and plenty more. But many of them declined to be labelled “Christian rock.” One of the best examples was Switchfoot, from San Diego, which found success with a song whose refrain had as much, or as little, theological content as listeners wished to hear: “We were meant to live for so much more.” Joseph sees this as a heartening development.In closing out, the writer states:
And yet, even now, Christian rock is all around us. On Billboard’s list of the twenty most popular rock songs of 2017, fully half of them were by bands whose members have espoused the Christian faith. This has something to do with a phenomenon that would have been hard to imagine in 1969: two of the country’s top rock acts, the Killers and Imagine Dragons, are led by Mormons. It also has something to do with the fact that faith no longer seems so alien to popular music—ours is an era when plenty of artists, not just religious ones, aim to send inspirational messages.
So, he is broadening the "Christian" universe to include Mormons, but nevertheless these two bands can typlify some of the spiritual communication that is present within today's pop music. Whatever the meaning, the top rock song of 2017, Believer by Imagine Dragons, includes these lyrics:
You made me a, you made me a believer, believer
(Pain, pain)
You break me down, you build me up, believer, believer
(Pain)
Oh let the bullets fly, oh let them rain
My life, my love, my drive, it came from
(Pain)
You made me a, you made me a believer, believer
And this top 20 rock songs list includes Paramore, a band called Judah and the Lion, as well as Zach Williams' song, Old Church Choir.
Plenty of points to consider here. I do think it's interesting how you have bands and artists who are integrating their spiritual background or bent into their music. I think in some cases, musicians express their search for truth in the songs they write and perform. And, in a world where moral decline is so commonplace, perhaps there artists are indicating that spiritual truth can hold some answers - of course, for the Christian, we believe that the answers that can address the dilemmas and hopelessness in the world today are found in God's Word and in a relationship with Jesus Christ.
This article brought back some wonderful memories for me - to read about the early days of what is known as contemporary Christian music, to see the progression and the acceptance, it's very gratifying. To see names like Phil Keaggy, who was one of the first artists I heard on Christian radio, or Eddie DeGarmo, who has recently penned a memoir, and even the pioneering Larry Norman - it reminds us of the rich history of what God has done through Christian music. And, we can be inspired to reflect on what God has done in our lives - if you are a devoted Christian, as you look back at how far God has brought you, it can be a cause for rejoicing and a catalyst for trusting in God's faithfulness.
Finally, we can think about how music affects us - good music that communicates a message that is consistent with Biblical truth can inspire and even challenge us. Songs that call attention to the presence and goodness of God can create what I like to call an "atmosphere of worship" in which we can abide. We can surround ourselves with music that can help to build us up.
Plenty of points to consider here. I do think it's interesting how you have bands and artists who are integrating their spiritual background or bent into their music. I think in some cases, musicians express their search for truth in the songs they write and perform. And, in a world where moral decline is so commonplace, perhaps there artists are indicating that spiritual truth can hold some answers - of course, for the Christian, we believe that the answers that can address the dilemmas and hopelessness in the world today are found in God's Word and in a relationship with Jesus Christ.
This article brought back some wonderful memories for me - to read about the early days of what is known as contemporary Christian music, to see the progression and the acceptance, it's very gratifying. To see names like Phil Keaggy, who was one of the first artists I heard on Christian radio, or Eddie DeGarmo, who has recently penned a memoir, and even the pioneering Larry Norman - it reminds us of the rich history of what God has done through Christian music. And, we can be inspired to reflect on what God has done in our lives - if you are a devoted Christian, as you look back at how far God has brought you, it can be a cause for rejoicing and a catalyst for trusting in God's faithfulness.
Finally, we can think about how music affects us - good music that communicates a message that is consistent with Biblical truth can inspire and even challenge us. Songs that call attention to the presence and goodness of God can create what I like to call an "atmosphere of worship" in which we can abide. We can surround ourselves with music that can help to build us up.
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