During one my meditations, I experienced a rush of thoughts coming to mind regarding the condition of the Church today.  My mind centered on Christian music in today’s world of technology, mainly in part due to the easy access through modern media. You know, the world of, “there is an app for that!”.  I started replaying many of the popular songs over and over in my head, paying keener attention to the lyrics and meaning of each line. One thing for sure, all of the songs were inspirational. And all of the words made me feel good. These are songs that I had been singing to for a while and felt quite connected to. But maybe that in itself is an underlying issue. They make me feel good!

Is today’s Contemporary Christian music robbing us of quality time with the Lord? Has our love for this modern contemporary Christian music caused us to reduce or replace our devotional time with God?  My concern is that too many of us are so drunk on this type of music, that we don’t realize how much our fellowship with God has changed course. It worries me that for many believers, contemporary Christian music has become the sum total of our worship and devotional time with the Lord. In other words, it has replaced the heartfelt sacrifice of praise and worship with a self-induced gratification of our love for these specific genre of music.  In other words, we have more passion for the style or type of music more than our passion for God and His decrees. 

There are clear indications that we are hooked on these songs in such a way that is only quenching our thirst for soft rock, easy rock, hip-hop, pop, and other categories of music associated with the mainstream secular society.  Let me make this clear, I am personally captivated with these genres of music, and I am not attacking the use of these songs as a means of worshipping of our Lord. The ability to make good music and write inspirational lyrics are certainly a gift from God, and we ought to use them to exalt Him.  My concern is not stemming from a place of attack on this genre of music, for truth be told, I am actually in love with them.  My preference of fellowship with God through music is not limited to the hymns-only, heavy-organ, light-piano, frozen-chosen style of worship. However, like so many other areas of life, misuse and overindulgence of the things we love can become idolatrous.  I hope to make myself clear on that. Here are some of my observations and my concerns.

1) We listen to the music more that we fellowship with God.

I am afraid these worship songs are turning us into junkies.  Junkies for these type songs, junkies for the artists with their cool public personas, and junkies hanging with the cool Christian fan base,  in place of building in us a zeal for the substance of the Lord. In other words, we gravitate to become worshipers of the worship songs and worshipers of worship leaders, so much so, that churches will seek out worship leaders who fit into a particular persona that gives this aura. I have seen Christian concert with fans (not worshipers) in such a frenzy, you could not differentiate their antics from that of a secular concert. Just think of the Grammys and how some of the artists electrify the crowds by infusing a worship song into their otherwise secular performances. Christians become so tickled silly by it, one would think they’re watching a bunch of toddlers in their first school performance.  It would seem like those caught up in the moment depend on the experience to settle their souls and assuage the guilt of watching the rest of the other stuff!

2) Many Christians rely on this music as a complete devotional tool to the Lord.

The music appears to have replaces our prayer life and replaces the time used to study the Scriptures.  This is one of the easier of the traps to fall into.  We live very busy, fast-paced lives and juggle a multiplicity of responsibilities. Oftentimes, we seek out ways to satisfy an obligation without having to put in the time and energy. As a result, many people find it more expedient to build their faith on these songs alone.  Additionally, for many of our younger generations of believers, the experience that the songs bring is a good, clean, fun way of being a Christian without  much of the other boring, monotonous type of services that their parents forced them to be a part of in their earlier years.  This shifting of our standards of worship reminds me of happened to a generation of us during the heydays of the televangelists rise to prominence.  Many Christians of our parents’ generation experienced this kind  phenomenon, but it was with another medium, not music. The televangelist era saw many substituting the king-size bed and the living room sofa for the church pews.  We are witnesses of how God exposed the flaws of televangelism in a very painful and public way.

3) The ease of access of the music draws us in and captivates us.

The fact is that this wonderful technological world we now live in has enabled us to garner very easy access to these music offerings anytime and anywhere, which has caused great increase in the amount of time, place, and space that we can listen and enjoy…well…worship.  This, I am afraid, may be causing Christians to fall into a false sense of security, thinking that they are living a life of holiness and fellowship with God through the music.  After all, we are listening to praise songs when we wake up in the mornings, while we are getting ready for the day, and when we are driving to work. Some of us can even listen when we are working and listen again when heading home.  I mean, we can’t get any holier living than that…can we! Yet many are lacking in knowledge and substance of God’s Holy Word due to the lack of actual time spent reading, studying, or even listening to the Bible (notice listen…yes, it now easy to listen to the Bible; there is an app for that also).  These songs have permeated our hearts and saturated our minds in powerful ways. They have replaced what really belongs there, the infallible Word and decrees of God. Music has shifted from being the conduit to being the substance. The Holy Spirit actually speaks to us about the importance of knowing the Scriptures. First He says:

“This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.” Hebrews 10:15‭-‬16.

Could this type of cultural shift, the marrying of the Christian life with pop culture, be a contributor of why so many Christians accept and even openly lead sinful lifestyles? Add this to the fact that many of our Churches aren’t preaching much from the Bible anymore.  Much of what churches are doing now are motivational sermons and seminars, right after they finished serenading us with these same songs.  I once read an article that compared our approach to these songs to King Saul’s reliance on David playing his Harp to soothe his troubled soul after God removed His anointing and gave it to David. This really opened my eyes…and ears!

The question then is: are we relying on these types of music as a replacement to true worship?  To honestly answer this question, we would have to ask ourselves these questions:  

• Does listening to this genre of music serve as our devotion to God the majority of the times?
• Are we more die-hard fanatics of the singers and writers of the songs than the content of the message?
• Do we truly participate in praise and worship during church services, or are we spectators being soothed by our love for this genre of music?
• When we go searching for a church home, do we make our choices base on the church’s choice of music?

While there is nothing sinful with any of the above, we must remain diligent and mindful of our attitude towards such things as they can lead to other more dangerous tangents such as idolatry, which can render our worship useless in the presence of our Lord. The Scriptures are clear:

“Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and His worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”  John 4:23-24

We need to make every effort to not become so complacent in our love for music that we lose the purpose of the song.  We cannot allow ourselves to become satisfied with just the continuous repetition of hearing these as a replacement of our devotion to our Lord.  A song cannot replace coming before God in repentance, praise and worship, and the studying of His word and decrees.  Taking the easy way out is a heart issues, the issue of priority when it comes to our relationship with our Lord.  Very importantly, don’t be discouraged in your desire to use music as a form of worship, adoration, and glory to God. He is worthy and deserving of our praise in all forms! Continue to play and listen to these praise and worship songs that we are blessed with through a mere touch and swipe of our fingers or voice command. And let’s use the opportunity of social media and other technological venues to choose contemporary Christian music to spread the good news of the Gospel and the saving grace of Jesus Christ when they come to the foot of the cross. Just remember, while they are an aid and guide for worship, they are no substitute for a penitent heart in true worship, dedicated to the studying of the Word, surrendering to the sacraments, along with undefiled devotion to the Lord.  

Fr. Jerome Tracey