Christian Pop Music part 1

Pop-Idiom Music in Worship and Evangelism (part 1)


Evangelism must be direct and spiritual

The bible insists that the Gospel is to be conveyed by a clear, intelligent and persuasive presentation of Gospel facts, for it pleases God ‘by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.’ (See 1 Corinthians 1.21-31)

The Lord Himself, and the apostles, proclaimed the Gospel both in public and personal witness using spoken, forthright, factual communication, and Paul left clear instructions that for success in this work, we must strive lawfully (2Tim2.5)

By what authority then, do we turn the Gospel of Redeeming Grace into a matter of entertainment and worldly music? Is it biblically lawful?

Not only are we without biblical authority for such a policy, but it is an absurdly inappropriate method of witness because modern, musical, secular entertainment is a completely unnatural and unsuitable medium for any serious subject. If we miss the ethical principle, even common sense should steer us away from it.

The unsuitability of pop-idiom for serious, factual communication can be seen from the way in which even worldly organizations reject it for the most serious and important issues of life. Can we imagine a senior Cabinet Minister giving a party political broadcast in which, instead of speaking, he sang the substance of his message, adopting the convulsive body and head-tossing movements of a pop vocalist, and backed by a hip-swinging group?

Would his message communicate more effectively on account of such a presentation or would one be sickened and appalled at the utterly trivial and inappropriate nature of what was being done?

Supposing a class of university students entered a lecture theatre to find several members of the faculty crooning their material accompanied by guitars and drums. The idea is ridiculous because no serious communication in any walk of life is carried out by such bizarre and unnatural methods.

To continue these nightmare illustrations-is it conceivable that the world might one day be launched into full-scale nuclear war with the President of the USA appearing on television and gravely singing the news to blues music?

Would a doctor, confronted by an apprehensive patient, break the news that he is suffering from a fatal disorder by adopting the posture of a pop star and singing the diagnosis?

Entertainment is unreal.
Such scenes are unthinkable but they demonstrate the folly of reducing God’s message and God’s warnings to the unreal entertainment methods of this vain world.

We have to present the most serious message of all, the call of God to be saved from everlasting hell and damnation. Surely we have lost our balance and our grasp of the significance of our message to think it can be sung to pop songs?

A few secular pop-stars who are ‘message-orientated’ have enjoyed some success in swaying young people (at a somewhat temporary and sentimental level) to believe that peace is better than war and love is better that hate. General concepts like these can certainly be communicated via entertainment so long as hearers find them congenial, and providing they require no immediate, practical (or painful) response. But serious, urgent and unwelcome demands are never communicated by pop-singing anywhere in the real world. Therefore it is not surprising that the performances of Gospel ‘groups’ make no impact on the conscience of the rising generation.

Entertainment is entertainment and is therefore not taken seriously by the public. If we adopt entertainment-type music and sing the Gospel, it obviously will not make any real moral demand upon the hearers. The message is bound to be cheapened, trivialized and emptied of its importance.

We must always remember that the New Testament requires a pure, clear, forthright, intelligent and persuasive presentation of the character of God, the desperate plight of man, and the amazing grace of the Gospel, for these are the issues of life and death.

Gospel witness must consist of spiritual words directed to the minds of men and blessed to their understanding by the power of the Holy Spirit. Human artistry cannot and must not attempt to take over spiritual work.

Gospel-pop singers will never be humbled and awed by the power and the majesty of God, nor will they feel the convicting burden and weight of God’s holy and righteous demands. They will not sense the breadth and length and depth and height of God’s grace, nor catch even a hint of that mighty love which passes knowledge.

The power of rhythm, the music and movement, the lights and costumes; these are the attractions, and they are incapable of representing the infinite holiness and mercy of God. There is no power here to open the eyes of a lost generation and to make it feel that ‘ancient touch’ of God.

Throughout the Bible the preeminent method of proclaiming spiritual truth is by the spoken word, whether fervently preached or earnestly spoken in personal witness. In their worship the people of God of Bible times frequently burst into song, but in their witness we see the primacy of preaching.

Biblical communication

Did the prophets of old sing or preach their great evangelistic appeals? What did the Saviour do? How did Peter herald the Gospel on the Day of Pentecost? What manner of communication did Paul employ on Mars Hill? Everywhere, always, page after page of Scripture points us to the spoken word, for – it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. (1 Corinthians 1:21)

If we in our evangelistic gatherings create the atmosphere of a concert and offer the thrill and pleasure of entertainment, how can we then preach with the authority of Heaven the holiness of God, the desperate spiritual bankruptcy and rebellion of man, and the melting love and dying agonies of an atoning Saviour?

If we borrow the ‘clothing’ of the world to please the crowd, how can we paint in vivid colors the stark contrast between this carnal, fallen, evil, doomed world-system and the spiritual Kingdom of God?

Today’s pop-idiom contains so much which is sensual, fleshly, and sexually suggestive. It is largely about touch, exposure and body movement, and is therefore utterly out of character with the communicating of a spiritual message.

To use pop-idiom music and all its attendant gimmicks is to place a hidden straightjacket on the full proclamation of the Gospel and the works of the Holy Spirit. In such an atmosphere, no ambassador or messenger of the Cross can ever function freely and powerfully.

The basis of all pop-idiom evangelistic is a lack of faith and trust in the power of the Spirit of God to make effective and powerful the straightforward New Testament pattern of preaching and witness. The flesh wants to add something else (just as some of the preachers of Paul’s day felt that the Gospel needed some worldly wisdom added to it).

We may adapt the apostle’s words in 1 Corinthians 2:4 to read: My speech and my preaching was not with the enticing sounds of man’s current music, but in demonstration of the Spirit and power.’

So it must be if we are to worthily represent the Lord, and be fit instruments for real blessing.


(For what does it profiteth a man if he gain the whole world, and yet loses his own soul? The things that matters in this world are not actually visible...and the things that are visible in this world, dun actually matter frankly. My Father's Kingdom is invisible to the eyes of the world n they just wont believe till they see...Heaven is a place where His children will dwell in eternity with Him.All He ask is that you will receive Him as your Lord and saviour,"For God so loved the world that He giveth His only begotten son that whoever believes in Him will not die but have everlasting life"…instead of eternal condemnation in hell through the sins that the first Adam brought to the whole human race. )