Contemporary Music in the Church

          Music in the church is a multicolored tapestry. You could easily find gospel music with the tonality of every mainstream genre from instrumentals to heavy metal and hardcore rap. In fact, the 1980’s brought an end to the prevalence of disco music which was slated to be a form of gospel to save the souls of those who frequented the dance clubs on Saturday nights. Since then, we’ve had popular music artists who fuse their genres with a gospel rendition. As of late we’ve even had popular gospel artist create collaborative works with artists who are outside the gospel genre, the latter, in attempt to attract many non-church goers to spark interest to the gospel story of salvation. If you follow the history of the church in general but that of the black church in particular, you can see that the music of the church has always evolved to fit the tastes of a youthful generation. From the time of the juke joint and the blues to rhythm and blues, to ballads, and now the influences of pop and hip hop. 

          We’ve gotten so far away from tradition that even our hymns are not the hymns of the Orthodox or Catholic liturgy from which it is all derived. This is because music molds to and takes on the shape of the people and demographic it serves. If anything, we can probably say that music is the predicator of tradition and that sometimes traditions stick because of the refusal of a demographic to give way to new influences and ways to appeal to a new, younger, or different demographic. During the period of enlightenment in American Christianity – known as Protestantism – and the era of tent revivals and services, there were all kinds of tactics that the revivalists used to awe and wow the crowds who looked on. There were those who used acrobatics. Some used theatrics. Others used their influence from professional sports. With each performance they were looking to win souls of the masses to the church and ultimately to salvation through Christ Jesus. 

          In the case of Dream Center Church of Atlanta, we haven’t seen anything that has not been perpetrated since the beginning of Protestantism. We know that there is a call upon us all to make disciples as we preach the kingdom. Christ said in Matthew 9:35-38 that the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. In a time when the youth have access to the social ills of society and its influences and the access to desensitizing images and everyday trappings, do you think that Bishop Murphy was out of line or is he setting an example of what a laborer of Christ truly is to this younger generation? What are some things that we can employ within our local communities to be more appealing to the youth and bring others to faith in Christ?