An extensive review of contemporary Christian music (CCM for simplicity) may seem rather a large endeavor, but I believe it to be important to make one for two reasons: The deal with secular music is that it doesn’t matter: in the end, it’s catchy, some of it has good qualities and some of it doesn’t. There’s no eternal significance to it either way. Taylor Swift isn’t going to be blared over heaven’s speakers. However, when it comes to CCM/Worship music, it’s the soundtrack to the praises of millions of Christians around the world. To say that it doesn’t matter what music we listen to when we worship God would be untrue and foolish. To say that “Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns’N’Roses has the same value for worship as “Oceans” by Hillsong Worship is simply stupid. Now I would, of course, be the first to say that there’s nothing wrong with Christians listening to secular music, that’s not sinful. But it is still important to be weary of the music we ascribe God’s name to. Therefore, I have taken it upon myself to write a detailed critique of not only a single CCM song, but of the whole genre in general, and also the problems I see with the response of many Christians to the current state of CCM.
When I say I “have taken it upon myself to write a detailed critique of not only a single CCM song, but of the whole genre in general,” there is no doubt that I am going to make some generalizations. I’m certainly not saying that every CCM song falls into the pitfalls I’ll list, in fact, the problems I have with the CCM songs themselves, but more with the attitude surrounding them, an attitude that I believe is unhealthy and is hurting the praise of Christians worldwide.
My goal in this article, which will be the first of two, is to simply list out the problems facing CCM as a genre, whether they be coming from inside or outside the genre. But enough of this prefacing, let’s get into it.
Jesus is romanticized by CCM.
Look, the whole “Jesus is my boyfriend” music is cheesy but fine. Songs about needing Jesus and loving Jesus are true enough, but some folks in CCM really take it too far. I mean come now, there are literally singers out there making Jesus into a thirst trap. Is there a more disrespectful way to ignore the words of our Lord? Is this some kind of terrible joke? A friend of mine told me he thought the singer must have been detached enough from the world to make songs like “Touch me All Over” and “Naked Before You” without realizing the sexual nature of those titles. Plain insulting.
CCM Singers Redirect the Energy of Worshippers into Praise for Themselves
Concerning the flashing lights and loud music of contemporary worship services, I think they can be helpful. Regardless of claims of “all those things are meant to do is cause an emotional breakdown,” if you look at the worship services of churches who use those gimmicks, they work. People bouncing up and down with the joy of the Lord gives me a contagious feeling of gratitude, and to say that emotion is of little importance in the Christian life is ridiculous: the virtues of self control, patience, and joy all have to do with controlling emotion and redirecting it towards a healthy place.
However, I will say that some CCM singers tend to enjoy those flashing spotlights a little bit too much; redirecting the joy of the people they are leading in worship from God to themselves. Although the Babylon Bee’s satirical article “Hillsong United Renegotiates Contract, Will Now Split Glory With God Fifty-Fifty” is a humorous example of a joke at its finest, it illustrates a concerning trend with CCM. Is a worship leader who is constantly yelling “Praise God today my friends, there’s praise in this house today!” really looking for those he is leading in worship to praise God, or does he simply enjoy seeing thousands of faces smiling at him and screaming in jubilation? It depends on the worship leader, of course, but it is an easy pitfall to dive into when thousands of folks are screaming out their excitement at you. I’m not saying a worship leader should quench the emotion of everyone in the room by acting dull or unexcited, but inserting better theology into his war-whoops would probably be a good idea.
CCM is Increasingly Focused on You
The purpose of worship music is to worship, obviously. The purpose of worship music and of CCM isn’t to worship yourself. All of us have heard of the prosperity gospel, but what about prosperity worship? A trend I’ve noticed is that most CCM/worship songs are “God you did this for me.” For instance, “Egypt” by Cory Asbury goes like this:
“I won't forget, the wonder of how You brought
Deliverance, the exodus of my heart
'Cause You found me, You freed me
Held back the waters for my release”
I’m sure God has done miracles and great works in the lives of all His children, and it’s certainly healthy to acknowledge that: if you don’t, you’re ungrateful. But CCM tends to ignore our commitment to God. To thank God for his wonderful works is healthy, but to ignore what he has commanded us to do, to never speak of it is another matter.
I Love Electric Guitars, but When the Whole Song is Your Guitar Player Shredding…
Here’s the deal: When it comes to CCM, I love the electric guitars, the drums, etc. The Psalms make it clear that we’re commanded to worship the Lord with every instrument we have available to us. My favorite CCM bands – Jesus Culture, Bethel, Elevation – all use electric guitars, synths, and drums. But the thing is, some CCM songs have a guitar solo taking up half the song. Sounds epic, sure. Unfortunately, though, a two minute guitar solo isn’t focused on Jesus. There’s a difference between music that is made by Christians and Christian music. With a band like Skillet, it’s understandable that guitars will take up a lot of space in the song. With a band that makes songs to help people worship Jesus on Sunday, two minutes of an instrumental medley isn’t really called for. It is, of course, a minor issue, but time is a precious commodity, and even within the context of worship songs, should be used for the best purpose possible.
A Lotta CCM is Plain Stupid
Here’s my largest personal beef with CCM. It’s something that I hate personally about it. Some of it is so dang stupid! “Jesus, Jesus, ooooohhhh Jesus,” no thank you. A lot of CCM isn’t wholesome, it sounds like off brand pop. For Pete’s sake, if you want to listen to pop music, listen to pop music, stop trying to be such a knockoff of culture. Christians get their dorky reputation from music that makes Jesus into just a word meaning boo. In fact, I once heard a CCM song that went “Here’s a hallelujah, you got it coming to you.” Is that seriously what we’re playing on Christian radio now? Honestly it’s really kinda funny how plain stupid some CCM songs are. At least put a little effort into it, don’t just pull the most generic Christian lyrics you can off the top shelf and add a probably-AI-generated tune to it. Stop being lazy, idle hands are the devil's workshop.
Of course, by saying none of this am I trying to be judgmental. In fact, the second part of this post will be criticizing Christians who are too judgmental concerning CCM. There are wonderful people making wonderful music in the CCM genre, and we Christians should be grateful that they have worked to make music that we can use to worship God. But there are a few concerning trends occurring in CCM, although I believe the genre has largely remained true to its purpose.
Ideally, the goal of CCM is to bring out the joy of the Lord in worshippers, to redirect their hearts to him. To bring out glad emotion, whether that emotion be expressed through jumping and shouting or standing and singing while quietly contemplating the Lord’s blessings. Unfortunately, in the modern day, CCM is increasingly being corrupted by the pride of man and the ignorance of blockheads who don’t have their theology right.
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