EVANGELICAL RAPS "CONTEMPORARY CHRISTIAN MUSIC MOVEMENT"

By Dennis Prince

Dr Michael Horton is associate Professor of historical theology at Westminster Theological Seminary, California, president of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, editor of Modern Reformation magazine and noted author of more than a dozen books.

In a recent interview with the "Australian Presbyterian" (May 2002), Dr Horton lamented the state of the evangelical world today. While music was not the primary focus of his interview, he singled out a number of factors, ministries and movements including "the Church growth movement, the contemporary Christian music movement, and a lot of other efforts that seem to say: 'Hey! Salvation really is the work of man; revival is really the result of human effort and growth of the Kingdom really depends on how cleverly human beings can organise evangelistic crusades.'". (Emphasis added)

Now I am sure that the Church growth movement and others mentioned in the article would want to debate some of the issues raised, but, I feel a certain sympathy with him on the contemporary Christian music scene. As we have been saying for some time now, contemporary songs have been skewed in the direction of a focus on self (the ratio is about 2.4 to 1 in fact). It is not that these self-focused songs are all wrong - the Psalms have plenty of similar passages - it's just that there are too few God-focused songs, and too few with a clear message of redemption.

This is not a recent phenomenon. People often point to hymns as the solution to the problem and pine for the days when these were written. We need to remember the great hymns that have survived until today were contemporary with many others whose content was weak and whose theology was questionable.

On several occasions I have flicked through an old hymnbook as I sat Evangelical Raps in the pew of a grand old church and thought to myself, "Man! I wouldn't sing that hymn - and I bet the minister of this church wouldn't either!"

The problem of questionable songs is not a modern one. The solution is the same no matter what year we live in - worship leaders should not base their song choice on personal preferences or subjective influences. They need to go searching for songs on redemption and songs that focus on the wonders of God. These categories should make up the lion's share of the worship time.

In selecting songs for our books we give priority to these important categories, but are limited by the supply. We would like to see more and hope the situation will improve. In the meantime churches should be selective. To help worship leaders we have a Song Selection Tool (click here), where you can punch in themes such as Jesus, the cross, praise, etc. and quickly locate these songs.

For more information on this theme I have produced a teaching session (notes and tape) on the Words of Our Songs (available from our office for $15).

So, work on your song selection. Pastors train your worship leaders. Appoint a song selection committee - on which the pastor or his delegated authority should sit.

Worship leaders should never present a song unless they are fully confident it has the approval of their leadership. If there are differences of opinion between the leadership and the worship team on this issue, don't rest until they are resolved. This area is vital in church ministry - it must have our best efforts.