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TechnoratiI'm not sure why this seems to be an issue in rock music alone. Why can "secular" country musicians with huge fan bases incorporate songs of faith in their albums without anyone thinking twice about it? These people are constantly getting nationwide secular airplay for songs with messages that are straight from the Gospel, while those of us in rock seem satisfied to stay in our own self-created "ghetto," demanding that our artists make music only for us in the church.
The underlying message for them is that the only way to get to the rest of the world is to leave us behind (can you say Evanescence?). Reaching the world is not the same as selling out. I'm pretty sure Jesus would agree with that statement. Could it be that some artists are wired to make music to edify the church (pastors, prophets and teachers) while others are called to make music for the world (apostles and evangelists)? Maybe if we recognized that, we could stop stifling our artists, allowing them to do their part in "prepar(ing) God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ." Wouldn't that be cool?
This article originally appeared on Beliefnet.com.
Dave Weiss is pastor of New Creation Fellowship in Reading, PA. He's been involved in the visual arts for more than 20 years and is passionate about helping creative people use their gifts to serve the Lord. He is the founder of A.M.O.K. Arts Ministry Outreach for the Kingdom and writes lesson plans and articles for the Christian music based youth ministry resource. He does a weekly podcast called the Running A.M.O.K. Podcast that features messages and arts ministry ideas at runningamok.mypodcast.com.
