Christian Music Superbowl I

Okay. No one I know that reads my blog has voted on the first round of Jake's Christian Music Superbowl I yet. Tonight is your last night. After that it will be too late. Perhaps you think Christian music sucks and have just blown it off. Well most Christian music does suck, but not the artists that have made it into the FIRST EVER Christian Superbowl. Oh no. These guys are good. And if all you know of Christian music is what you hear on your local Christian radio, then you probably know four of the sixty-four artists that have made the first cut.

Jake says, "[Y]ou’ll see bands like Newsboys, Audio Adrenaline, and Third Day in the lineup. Few of my readers consider themselves fans of the more “normal” CCM bands, but since I felt they’ve made a significant mark in the world of Christian Music, I included them. Besides, as much as I respect the major label bands, I thought it’d be fun to see Third Day get crushed by Agents of Future or Newsboys get stomped by Menomena. Sort of a Revenge of the Nerds moment in the making. All in good fun, though."

Maybe you've thought to yourself, "but I don't know the bands." Well, you have a music link right there that is good for seven days. What better way to get acquainted with Christian music that doesn't suck.

Maybe you think to yourself, "I hate the term Christian music." Well so do a lot of people. Jake isn't that fond of it himself either. He has a great series going about whether Christian music best describes this music. Anyway, it's all kinds of fun.

Plus, did I mention that I thought up the idea? Jake's visitor traffic is two or three orders of magnitude bigger than mine. So he can pull something like this off. But he's giving away away mp3s. I could give away mp3s, but it would be me singing into my mp3 recorder, and I'm sure you would all love that.

Please do check out Jake's blog. Round 2 starts up on Friday.

Nominations for Christian Music Superbowl I

Jake is starting up the first-ever Christian music superbowl, where he will pair up different Christian recording artists and have people vote on who beats whom. It should be great fun. Jake is asking for nominations for bands. I am not nearly as knowledgeable about the scene as some others are (especially the kind of cool indie stuff Jake usually writes on), but I thought I'd post my own list of three artists who ought to make the list.

1. Leonard Jones. Leonard is the worship leader at Morning Star Church, pastored by Rick Joyner. He leads the greatest worship team I have ever heard. This is true jam band worship and they rarely have a song that times in at less than eight minutes.

2. Glenn Kaiser. Glenn is the frontman for REZ/the Resurrection band, which was one of the key Jesus People bands. He is also the head of JPUSA (Jesus People USA) which puts on Cornerstone music festival each year.

3. Burlap to Cashmere. I saw these guys play years ago at Summerfest in Milwaukee. They are great instrumentalists and are a lot of fun. The song that first hooked me was "Diggy Dime" from their first album, which is (I think) in 5/8 time. From the same album, "Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth" is probably the coolest Christian song based on a cheesy bumper sticker phrase that I've ever heard.

By the way, don't miss the opportunity to become part of the bucket brigade and get yourself a free Josh Clubb CD. I haven't participated yet, but perhaps soon...

What is Christian Music?

Check out Jake's discussion of what constitutes Christian music. I think it is a hard question to answer, at least if you want to be consistent with other areas of your life. The problem, I suppose has to do with how we categorize art. Does it matter what the faith commitment is of the person who wrote the lyrics? Or the singer? Or the other instrumentalists? Well, to some extent it is going to have an influence on the song. On the other hand, if a Christian sings a song about a kitchen chair, is that a 'Christian' song?

I am not ready to throw out the term Christian music just because it is slippery. There are certainly some songs which are explicitly Christian, as well as others which explicitly are not. As for the gray area in between, I will be interested to see what Jake concludes when this is all done. In the meantime, it is worth checking out Patrick's theology of Indie Rock from last January. I don't agree with everything he has to say, but you will be repaid for the the time it takes to read and think it through.

Contempory Worship

I am a subscriber to Worship Leader magazine, and every so often they will talk about the so-called "worship wars." I have never experienced the worship wars. I grew up in a denominational church where liturgy was the epitome of rote (and meaningless) prayer. I thought to myself in high school, if people here really meant what they are saying, wouldn't they say it differently? ...wouldn't they live differently? When I became a Christian and was first looking for a church in college, my only requirement was that they had to have contemporary music because I believed anything else would be inauthentic worship. God placed me in a church that had (and has) a very similar philosophy.

Since then, I have actually come to appreciate the old hymns. When I visit my parents' church or sing in hymns at a Trinity chapel service (which is never this semester, unfortunately) it would be unnatural for me to not lift my hands and sing with all my might. I have learned to worship because of the words but in spite of the form.

In the 19th century, missionaries tended to confuse Christianity with Western culture - the buildings were European architecture, clothing was European, and missionaries looked down upon the indigenous "tribal" cultures. And of course, they all sang Western hymns. Since then, we have figured out that Christianity must be properly contextualized within each society. Churches should be as authentically native to the culture as possible, and music especially should use culturally appropriate forms, not an imported and foreign culture.

With increasing globalization, the line between what counts as missions and what doesn't has become blurred or perhaps even non-existent. We must view our churches from a missional perspective. Does our worship adequately reflect the forms of the surrounding culture? In general, hymns represent an alien musical form to people in today's society. (And honestly, most of what passes as 'contemporary worship' is really only half-way there. But that is a topic for a different post.)

Let me be clear: this is NOT about evangelism. I argued earlier that worship services are not for unbelievers. This is about meaningful worship. It is about breaking the unbiblical distinction between 'sacred' and 'secular.' Worship is us coming honestly before God, not putting on some religious show.

A Cover Song

I found a great cover of U2's Sunday Bloody Sunday by an up-and-coming solo artist.

Disturbing Psalms

I have been listening to the band Sons of Korah for the past few weeks. Stuart Briscoe got me listening to them. Well, okay, I don't actually know Stuart. But he started promoting them to his church, and that's why the guy in their church bookstore recommended them to me. But I would like to say that Stuart did actually stop by and say hi to the bookstore salesman while he was showing me the Sons of Korah CD, so I think that counts for something.

Each of their songs are taken from a psalm or portion of a psalm set to music. I really enjoy it, especially being able to appreciate some of the psalms in a new way.

So of course I start thinking about the "difficult" psalms. I bet Psalm 137 is not high on their list of psalms to set to music, I think. Verse 9 says, "How blessed is the man who takes your babies and dashes them against the rocks!" I'm sure this will be at the end of their list and it will be interesting to hear how they pull that one off.

So imagine my surprise when I bring home their Songs of Redemption CD from the Elmbrook library, only to find that Track 1 is Psalm 137! TRACK 1! Not only did they manage to pull it off, it actually became the anchor song for the entire album, setting up our need for redemption with a heart-cry from the Jewish exiles in Babylon. What really makes is come alive is the answer to this psalm in the final track (10), based on Psalm 126, about how the Lord did bring them back from captivity. That, of course, is the substance of redemption, when God redeems His people from captivity.

Nevertheless, I must comment on the fact that they did use a looser translation of verse 9. Instead of "dash[ing] their babies against the rocks," it is "destroy[ing] your progeny." So it gives a meaning sort of like, "You destroyed all that we have done and built, so someone will one day destroy all that you have done and built." A bit of a cop-out? Perhaps. I'm still amazed at how they took one of the most disturbing psalms in the Psalter and used it to really minister to me.