What is Christian music?

I want to put something out there for the Christians in this forum, and for the non-Christian, or atheists.I am a worship leader in my local church. We have started a new service on Saturday nights that is supposed to be geared towards people in the 20-30 year old range. I am 39. We are to come up with a new kind of music for worship.Trance was suggested to me, but I had to do some soul searching to see how it could work for worship. That led me to a point of asking myself a couple of questions. I would like all of your opinions.1: What defines worship music?2: What kind of music would atheists like to hear, that might help them come to Christ?3: Is today’s contemporary (and other types as well) Christian music, really Christian music at all?4: Should it be used for worship, where do we draw the line, if at all?Check out these links:
Streaming Christian hard rock
Streaming Christian RockThere is plenty of streaming Christian radio out there.Also read this link, and the rant this guy is making.
rant I have many ideas already, but would like the input of all who care to comment. We have even done secular music; The Reason by Hoopastank is one of them.

Thread moved here from the Proposed New Topics forum.

Isn't that a pretty stupid question? Atheists are atheists because they don't believe God exists. It's gonna take more than music to change their mind about that.

Is there any evidence that anyone has found Christ as a result of a pop song?Most "contemporary Christian" pop music essentially poorly mimics successful secular pop acts, in a way basically rewriting love songs from "I love you sweetheart" to "I love you Jesus".I enjoy some Gospel/Soul music, like Mahalia Jackson - but the modern stuff is quite weak. I don't know any non-Christians that listen to the contemporary stuff. It seem the few modern Christian bands that are actually interesting or edgey are usually disavowed by Christian groups, well, because they are interesting or edgey.Trying to draw people to Christ with pop music is kind of like insuring attendance at a business meeting by offering free doughnuts - borderline bribery, and the extra people that come just for the doughnuts don't really care or pay attention in the meeting anyway.

A joyful sound. For infants, Barney works great. As folk grow, they will hopefully move up to Mr. Rogers. Bach might help. A great pipe organ with 52 foot pipes is always a plus. Good accoustics are needed as well. At the other end, Ledbelly, Blind Lemon Jefferson and Lady Day are a good choice. More to the point, is it music? If you mean music in general, "Why not?" Music has always been a component of worship. If you mean popular "Christian Music", hell no. It is as far from worship as you can get.

---

Aslan is not a Tame Lion

RiverRat - I'm on on business untill the end of the week - but I've come across a few christian channels - let me get you some links when I get back.Maybe we can work out what is successful for them?

I don't think trying to mimmick secular music to draw in non-believers is a good idea. If I were an Atheist and I seen a church playing Christian Rap or Christian Death Metal I would question the motive of the church the same way I would question a piece of cheese on a mouse trap if I were a mouse.I would issue a challenging decree on signs posted outside my church that were geared towards getting an atheist's attention. Something that would question the roots of their belief in no grand design. Then I would hold a conservative service and dive in to the message after some contemporary but conservative Christian favorites performed live with a few guitars, singers and maybe drums.If the message is good enough to hold them past the challenge, then that's all you need. If the best part of the service is the music, you end up with a bunch of pumped up but disenfranchised metalheads.

Hrm, somehow I doubt that "the bacterial flagellum has too much specified information to be the product of natural selection!" would be a compelling message on a sign; sadly, that seems to be the best argument the design folks have.I've never seen a compelling creationist or theist argument that didn't involve paragraphs of logical obfuscation. There's not much, I suspect, that you're going to be able to boil down to a compelling slogan.

Thats not what I asked you. I said help them.
I don't care if you are an atheist for purpose of this discussion, I still want your valued input.

Thanks for the input.
What kind of music do you listen too?*edit*
I got baptized by the Holy Spirit at a church that was playing contemporary Christian. It probably had more to do with who was singing it, and how driven by the Spirit of God he was, than the actual song, but the song had something to do with it, because I could relate to it, not like hymns.
Warren Barfield, You Inspire Me, was the song.This message has been edited by riVeRraT, 10-24-2004 11:51 PM

Thanks jar Can you explain why you feel that way?
I realize its hard to lump it all into one basket, becaseu there is an incredible amount of it out there now, but give an example of a particular song and explain why it shouldn't be used for worship, if you don't mind.

Tell me what kind of music you like, so maybe I could point you in the direction of some bands that I feel are good. Then we could examine those, thanks Charles!

Question, is there such a thing as Christian music? or is there only Christian lyrics?How old are you if you don't mind. I am trying to find the mind set of people based on their age.

The Christian music I've heard have all of the depth and spirituality of the 700 Club, they are the Wally World or World's Greatest Home Videos or religion. They have all the sincerity of Tammy Faye Bakker.Now that is not to say that there cannot be good religious music. As I mentioned, there is Bach and Mahler. The sound of shape note singers, the simplicity of Chapter 6 are a couple examples.But they are the exception. The vast majority of Christian music, like the vast majority of music out there of any kind, is simply plastic, designed for the lowest common denominator.

---

Aslan is not a Tame Lion

I have the A3 cd "Exile on Coldharbor Lane" (If I recall the title correctly - Been quite a while since I listened to it). It is the home of the "Sopranos" theme, "Work Up This Morning". Also has a nice version of John Prine's "Speed of the Sound of Lonelyness".They bill their music as "County Acid House", but the cd also has a considerable gospel overtone. In an odd way, valuable Christian music - It makes you think.They have at least one other cd out. Alas, my budget is so tight I dare not go near a cd store.Moose