A View from a Cynical Critic
In Pop Goes the Church, I wrote about the power of using secular music in your church services: "The next week, when they hear that song on the radio, they may be instantly pulled back to the service. They may remember again that God has a plan for them, that he can help them start over…" (Page 151).
I experienced that a couple nights ago watching a Foo Fighters concert on TV. As soon as the first few notes of Best of You rang out, I was instantly pulled back to a service we did about two years ago when J Aquila delivered a flawless cover of the same song.
Then a couple days ago I received a letter from a man who lives several hundred miles away and doesn't attend church:
So, I was driving home late the other night and was scanning through the Kansas City radio stations and landed upon a random station playing a familiar song. Now, generally, I only listen to my iPod or NPR, so when this song caught my ear, I wasn't sure where I knew it from. I kept listening until I got to the chorus. The song was Disturbia. I finally pieced it all together, and realized that I knew it from Granger Community Church…
… I realized something as I was listening. I have NO IDEA who the original artist is, but I remember GCC's performance the great female lead, and the tie-in with Romans 7.
All that to say, I'm still not sure I'm fully on board with the methodology of GCC, but I fully recognize it's value and power. After all, I don't attend the church, am fairly skeptical, AND YET have been impacted for the good by it.
All that to say, thanks for your ministry and keep it up. It's reaching and influencing even the cynical critics, such as myself.
People who have always gone to church don't need this type of methodology. They are already "in" — they are convinced. It is the cynics, the skeptics, the "I-don't-need-your-type-of-religion" people in our communities who are often impacted by the unexpected threading of a secular song with a spiritual truth.
I'll close with a great quote I read this morning from the blog of Jim Johnson: "We believe that in the expressions of our culture—music, film, books, TV—we can hear the heart cry of people asking the deep questions of life. When we acknowledge these sentiments and let them be heard in our weekend services, we create connection points with seekers that enable us then to speak God’s words of truth into their lives."
Your turn. What do you think?
Posted by Tim Stevens | 6 comments
J Aquila
Oddly enough, I think I was watching the same Foo Fighters concert and that made me remember “Best of You” from a few years ago. Easily one of my favorite moments of ministry involvement. Wish I could have made it through the whole weekend.
Faye Bryant
What a powerful statement!
corey
I saw that same concert and thought, “Remember when we went to that show together and we almost DIED on the way home?”…..slippery roads.
Randy
The biggest question I have for people using secular music in a “church” service is where does this end? What about having a (at the risk of being crass), a foul mouthed comedian to begin your “worship”? How about bringing in a Las Vegas style show with dancing nude women? Where do you end once you start down that road?
My second question is, doesn’t the Bible already give us direction in reaching out to the pagans? “and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you “(1 Peter 3:15). Its apologetics that clears the way for cynics and skeptics to hear the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, not covering Foo Fighters, Madonna, or AC/DC.
Is it any wonder that in a recent Pravda article about the decline of America the news service referred our American churches as “Sunday circuses”?
Gregg
Randy
That’s a pretty big leap from secular song to nude dancers. Using that framework, most everything becomes a slippery slope.
On the apologetics front, my only question is; how’s that working for you? If it is, bless you. Most of the non-believers I encounter outside and inside the church aren’t looking for a debate. They’re looking for what’s missing, and aren’t quite sure what it is. They aren’t asking questions that apologetics is prepared to answer.
Randy
Gregg,
I really don’t think that is such a big jump. If we look at the history of “Revivalism” from Charles Finney (ca. 1820‘s) to today, we see a logically progression of more and more absurdity. Finney believed in using “New Measures” that would “induce” conversion. In his day, it was ideas like the anxious bench (a precursor to the modern day alter call) and emotional tactics such as fainting and weeping. Each generation since has had to crank it up a notch.
When the church growth/meagachurch movements began 30 years ago nobody would have EVER said, “hey lets open our worship service with AC/DC or Madonna.” At that time, even the church growth leaders were still declaring the sinfulness of worldly music and urging the teens to stay away from it. That’s how the CCM industry was originally propped up. It offered a lot of second rate rock music, but since it was sanitized for young Christian kids, it was OK to listened to and more importantly, purchase.
So here we are today with churches covering secular pop music as part of a worship service and 30 day sex challenges. So I ask again, is it really that far of a jump to someday expect to see nude dancers?
As far as your question concerning apologetics. My point is that we have direction from scripture on how to approach non-believers and it isn’t covering FooFighters, its apologetics. Further it seems pragmatic. Here are two points to consider -
1.) Are we called by scripture to to do things because they work or are we called to be faithful to God’s word? Yes Paul said, “I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.”- 1 Corinthians 9:22, but we also don’t see Paul’s approval of the many pagan practices of his day. When we do see early Christians incorporating pagan rituals into their practices it is always followed by a stern rebuking. I would even ask, is it truly a worship service of the triune God when your worship band is playing secular music? Having a discussion with a non-believer over the lyrics of a secular song as a springboard into apologetics is a great idea. Using it in a worship service…I’m not too sure about that.
2.) To further go down the pragmatic path, maybe the covering of secular music is bringing in people to our churches, is it really making them into Christians? For example, look at Grainger’s results from the Reveal Study. Close to half don’t believe in salvation by grace and a majority believe there are other ways to eternal life. You can not be a Christian and believe in anything other than grace alone. You can not be a Christian and believe there are other ways to eternal life. Scripture clearly teaches otherwise. Even the guy quoted in this original blog post still isn’t a believer, he’s just someone who was moved by a performance at Grainger. So I’ll ask from a purely pragmatic approach, is secular music during a worship service of any benefit?