You raise a good point about music being used to draw young people into Church, ecumenical compromise, bring the world into Church using the worlds music and hope that the world follows, where does that line be drawn? Serving beer in the Church canteen to bring in the drinkers? Giant TV's with the latest sports game on to draw in the sport idolators?
The ecumenical Church I was attending was very much focused on "Christian Rock" (Rock is the Devils Music and always will be) drumbeats, electric baselines and guitars, people would be swaying and legs would be twitching and some would even be bobbing up and down on the spot to the beat. I didn't like this, I felt that the music was affecting people "Physically" they were "feeling" it, more time was spent in so called worship than preaching the real deal, The WORD of God. Sure the lyrics are all about Jesus, but if you look very closely at the lyrics of new "contemporary" hymns most are about what "I" feel I can do for Jesus, How "I" feel about Jesus. When worship becomes based on feelings that is dangerous ground.
Read this extract about the "neutrality" of Music
An intensive series of studies carried out by Dorothy Retallack of Denver, Colorado, demonstrated the effects of different kinds of music on a variety of household plants. The experiments were controlled under strict scientific conditions, and the plants were kept within large closed cabinets on wheels in which light, temperature and air were automatically regulated. Three hours a day of acid rock, played through a loudspeaker at the side of the cabinet, was found to stunt and damage squash plants, philodendrons and corn in under four weeks. Mrs Retallack played the music of the two different Denver radio stations to two groups of petunias. The radio stations were KIMN (a rock station) and KLIR (a semiclassical station). The Denver Post reported:
`The petunias listening to KIMN refused to bloom. Those on KLIR developed six beautiful blooms. By the end of the second week, the KIMN petunias were LEANING AWAY from the radio and showing very erratic growth. The petunia blooms hearing KLIR were all leaning TOWARD THE SOUND. Within a month all plants exposed to rock music DIED.
In another experiment, conducted over three weeks, Dorothy Retallack played the music of Led Zeppelin and Vanilla Fudge to one group of beans, squash (marrow), corn, morning glory and coleus; she also played contemporary avant-garde atonal music to a second group; and, as a control, played nothing to a third group. Within ten days, the plants exposed to Led Zeppelin and Vanilla Fudge were all LEANING AWAY FROM THE SPEAKER. After three weeks they were stunted and DYING. The beans exposed to the 'new music' leaned 15 degrees from the speaker and were found to have middle-sized roots. The plants left in silence had the longest roots and grew the highest. Further, it was discovered that plants to which placid, devotional music was played not only grew two inches taller than plants left in silence, but also leaned TOWARDS THE SPEAKER. (Tame, David The Secret Power of Music, p. 142 - 144)
My advice, from my heart, is simply this,
If you have lyrics of a song in your head more of the day than you have the Word of God in your head take heed!
Christian Music is sung to the LORD, it does not belong in the world, nor should it sound like the world.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts TO THE LORD. Colossians 3:16
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