Just to put this into context, recently I have been having quite a few conversations to do with music, regarding either how it can have a bad effect on your life if you listen to secular music, how it has a great impact on your life if you listen to worship music, and also how there is not enough good christian music out there to listen to. So after a while of meditating, prayer and talking I decided to write a blog post about it and share my opinions on these topics, and also see what responses I get from you guys, so please express your opinion via a comment below, or a message or however you like :)
Firstly I want to start with the idea that listening to secular music has a bad effect on your spirit. Now there is a problem with this rule from the very start and that is that you are calling everyone who isn’t saved or who’s music is aimed at the masses sends out a bad message, or is a Satanist or how ever you want to put it. The fact is people who don’t know god can be good people, because the fact is wether we are saved or not we are made in gods image and that means we share some of gods characteristics, we all have the ability to love, to have apathy, to care for others, god placed these gifts in every single human being from the start. The only reason people turn bad is because their life becomes twisted by sin, however this twisting doesn’t happen to everyone who doesn’t know god, because as I said you start with good in you, and that good can be cultivated by good people. Obviously there are secular musicians out there who speak down and sing about all sorts of bad things like drugs, casual sex, anarchy the list could go on, but this christian outlook that all secular music is like that and should be treated as a sin and that people who listen to secular music are sinners is wrong. The fact is secular music talks about life experience and allot of things that christian music wouldn’t dare to touch. If we leave the whole secular world behind under that basis that it is unholy and bad for us, which we easily could, we would disconnect ourselves as the church from the world and the good news would be completely lost. We need to recognise the significance of the outside secular world and realise that allot of what they do is more creative, more dynamic, more strategic, more productive, and to be honest we should look at that, take inspiration from it and apply it to our christian world. Why should we only listen to worship songs while we pray? a friend of mine confessed to me, as if it was a sin, that he listens to burial when praying because he finds that future garage stirs his spirit. Why should that be frowned upon? why should he feel condemned for that? there is nothing in his songs that speak down, they are all instrumental, the fact is in that situation he is doing nothing more that worshiping god for that music that he is hearing! God made music, he facilitates it so that we can enjoy it, praise him with it and praise him by it, when we listen to music that stirs us up and it makes us think of god is it any worse than a worship song? I don’t think it is. Don’t think that when I talk about secular music I am telling you its fine to listen to music that includes swearing, foul language and other stuff similar to that because I’m not, I’m saying that we should stop considering all secular music as that and stop feeling condemned for listening to it. The fact is the reason there isn’t a massive underground christian music scene that makes generic music, or dance music, or electronic music, or what ever genre that you fancy is because the church has a mentality that all music that isn’t primarily worship music is bad, this then discourages the christians who are into that type of music from listening to it and they move on from it, or listen to it secretly as a guilty pleasure, or even worse listen to it blatantly as a rebellion against the rules. Its “rules” like this which are making the church less and less accessible to young people, young people of this generation are calling out for god, but don’t want to be confined and squeezed into rules and regulations and are being pushed away from the place their heart is crying out for. This is why these modern super churches are exploding. its because there is an atmosphere in there that no matter who you are your accepted, its a culture of evolvement and inclusion that makes people welcome, rather than regulations and rules that cross your name off the list of desirables. The fact is if god had a list like that we would all be crossed off the list, but he gave his son up so we could be free of it. In the same way we need to accept everyone no matter what they have done, or what their tastes are, and rather than accepting them, but asking them to change their tastes, we need to welcome them for who they are, because the fact is god designed them that way, if someone is lively and energetic and enjoys that sort of music, don’t tell them to stop jumping in worship or give them dirty looks, thats who god made them to be! God created our inmost being, he knitted us together in our mothers womb! He designed us all just the way he wanted! so we need to accept that in ourselves, and in others.
snowghoul
germansingergirl
tangentwithtanner
titsay
pixelskylines
gracieabrams
theartofmadeline
