I was totally blown away-the words were so Biblical and reflected a heartfelt and very well thought-out theology.īut perhaps no other modern Christian artist has touched me any more than Keith Green. But he was insistent that I listen to at least one song-“Worship God”, which I did. I remember one of my students telling me about him–and I quickly gave the disclaimer that I’m not really into rap or hip hop, whether secular or otherwise. A great case in point is Shai Linne-a Christian rapper. With these different performers and groups, while I haven’t always enjoyed the musical package itself, I’ve been able to embrace much of it because the lyrics are so directly Biblical. Since that time, I’ve been on a bit of a journey of discovery, finding out about many different artists of Christian music I never would have known about. It was here that I realized that for most of my students, the traditional hymns I loved-“A mighty fortress is our God”, “Holy, holy, holy”, “O God our help in ages past”, were as unfamiliar to them as the CCM canon had been to me. The real shift for me wouldn’t occur until decades later in fact, once I was in my mid-thirties and began working in campus ministry full-time. But for whatever reason, I still didn’t feel the genre of more contemporary Christian worship and praise music really spoke to me. As a teenager in the 90’s I became more and more of a music fan ,and I remember certain Christian groups like DC Talk and Audio Adrenaline being popular with other kids in my youth group. Growing up, I preferred very traditional worship music straight out of the Southern Baptist hymnal, preferably with organ accompaniment. And while I’ve always prided myself on listening to a fairly wide genre of music, but I’ll have to admit that with Contemporary Christian Music I was a little late to the party. I love my vinyl collection, and take great interest in reading about the lives and work of some of my favorite artists-across the musical spectrum from Bach to the Beatles. As readers of this blog will know, I’m a big music fan.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |