Editorial The Contemporary Music Scene -- By: Mal Couch
Journal: Conservative Theological Journal
Volume: CTJ 08:25 (Dec 2004)
Article: Editorial The Contemporary Music Scene
Author: Mal Couch
CTJ 8:25 (December 2004) p. 298
Editorial The Contemporary Music Scene
President Tyndale Seminary
Besides the issues of dispensationalism and Bible prophecy, another great mountain of division among Evangelicals is coming upon us, and it has to do with contemporary music. The reason this is a problematic issue is that music touches us all on an emotional sliding scale that has to do with the message, the beat, the tempo, and speaks in one way or another to our very soul. Since music is such an emotional issue, no two Christians agree fully on what is evil or what is alright for congregational consumption. Another problem is that no one has yet defined what contemporary music really is. A new song that has just been written may actually be quite traditional, or it may reflect the new tastes in the most extreme ways. The Church is now divided. People are leaving congregations and are either going to churches featuring contemporary music or away from them to assemblies that sing more traditional songs and hymns. Some are so discouraged because they no longer hear the Word of God, that they simply stop attending their church altogether.
The Fall of the Bible Church Movement
What is most disturbing is that Bible churches are racing to the new contemporary formats and rapidly moving away from strong biblical exegesis to hot-rock musical formats, shorter “feel-good” messages, and simple devotionals rather that strong, meaty teaching. Added to such anemic fare is the belief that contemporary music is the savior of our churches.
Dan Lucarini has written a most informative little book entitled Why I Left the Contemporary Christian Music Movement (Evangelical Press, 2004). It is his personal testimony as to how he moved from a young convert who was into rock music, to a musician who became instrumental in bringing that same music into the Church.
Lucarini writes, “For a time after my conversion, I found it
CTJ 8:25 (December 2004) p. 299
difficult to give up ‘my’ rock music, which, with its accompanying lifestyle, had for so many years defined my identity and was the source of much of my self-esteem.” Rock music had a firm grip on his flesh. He admits that he and others had a deep appetite for rock and roll, and as he says, “To put it bluntly, I was having fun!” That would probably be a similar confession of many modern Christian “contemporaries” who try to push the same kind of music in their churches, and also to the young people in those congregations!
Lucarini lays much of the blame to the influence of Rick Warren’s book The Purpose Driven Church. In it Warren describes the music most needed to minister to modern “fe...
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