As a child of the 90s and periodic artist who often found Christian culture hostile to any art that was not Christian or even sufficiently theologically accurate (I once had an argument with a pastor over whether it was ok, much less good, to read *Lewis*), this is a fantastic piece. Souls and societies thrive when they order themselves rightly. Make art and artists the be all and end all—the source of gnostic wisdom—and we suffer. Paint art and artists as fools and pitfalls to be avoided—dangers and temptations to sin and worldliness—and we suffer. We need art and beauty; we need things to help teach our hearts to love good things, and art is wonderful at training our hearts. But, if we forget the artist is also human and fallen, we risk dropping our guard and allowing our hearts to be taught to love the wrong things. I definitely have fallen into the liberal side of that fine line before. This is a great reminder to work to keep things in their proper places.
This problem compounds when you factor in the overlap of Christian artists as worship leaders.
The Great Worship Market Consolidation of the 2010s mostly flattened out the CCM industry to where separating the artist from the purpose and destination of their art (or the context where they performed it!) wasn’t a meaningful distinction anymore. Most of what you heard on Christian radio were songs you’d never hear sung during a Sunday service; now most of the songs you hear are songs intentionally meant for corporate worship. Worship artists were a subset of the industry, now they’re easily the majority of it.
I’m thankful to know a great group of leaders at my church who resist this dynamic, but for artists with a “priest complex” serving in a priest-adjacent ministry position within the church, there is an entire industry of inspiration and peers passively reinforcing the distinction that they’re different, elevated, special from other believers.
The rise of the Worship Industrial Complex came on the heels of the CCM boom of the late 90's/early 00's where we thought it was a good idea to pack groups of talented 24 year olds into vans and send them criss-crossing the country for months at a time, and then got angry when they couldn't make an adequate altar call every night. In line with Alan's point, just because you had a record deal with Tooth & Nail didn't mean you were qualified for the pressure of teenage strangers looking to you as a spiritual authority or guidepost.
You're spot on with how flat current Christian broadcast music is. There is a lot within the metal genre of Christian music that has great depth. It's just hard to find.
Something amusing to me had been how lame it is listening to the material in the broadcast world, but when it is sung in a true context of worship it really finds what it should be. Radio entertainifies God's (potential) word. But with the fellowship of other believers, it can be magnified.
So, yes, we should be deeply critical of the Christian Music Machine. But even God can redeem parts of it.
Very true, but even then, Christian metal has shrunk significantly compared to how large the scene was a decade ago. Only a handful of bands are still active and there are fewer new ones replacing the ones who stopped making music.
Thank you Alan. The dialogue below on Christian music is solid, I have know the reality of flat worship (maybe my own flatness/apathy) and some of the songs we sing on Sunday just don't resonate. My wonder with this "priesthood of artists" is if they intentionally/unintentionally were elevated into the gap left by so many bad leaders/priests/pastors in this past generation (thinking... scandals, issues with authority, church debacles...etc..)? Maybe they are easier to "sit under" than someone who God ordains to lead the flock? It keeps our options open a bit more... we like lots of options
Sincerely, thank you for this article. You’ve opened my eyes to a trap I wasn’t even aware I had fallen into. I’m going to be thinking on this for a bit
As a child of the 90s and periodic artist who often found Christian culture hostile to any art that was not Christian or even sufficiently theologically accurate (I once had an argument with a pastor over whether it was ok, much less good, to read *Lewis*), this is a fantastic piece. Souls and societies thrive when they order themselves rightly. Make art and artists the be all and end all—the source of gnostic wisdom—and we suffer. Paint art and artists as fools and pitfalls to be avoided—dangers and temptations to sin and worldliness—and we suffer. We need art and beauty; we need things to help teach our hearts to love good things, and art is wonderful at training our hearts. But, if we forget the artist is also human and fallen, we risk dropping our guard and allowing our hearts to be taught to love the wrong things. I definitely have fallen into the liberal side of that fine line before. This is a great reminder to work to keep things in their proper places.
This problem compounds when you factor in the overlap of Christian artists as worship leaders.
The Great Worship Market Consolidation of the 2010s mostly flattened out the CCM industry to where separating the artist from the purpose and destination of their art (or the context where they performed it!) wasn’t a meaningful distinction anymore. Most of what you heard on Christian radio were songs you’d never hear sung during a Sunday service; now most of the songs you hear are songs intentionally meant for corporate worship. Worship artists were a subset of the industry, now they’re easily the majority of it.
I’m thankful to know a great group of leaders at my church who resist this dynamic, but for artists with a “priest complex” serving in a priest-adjacent ministry position within the church, there is an entire industry of inspiration and peers passively reinforcing the distinction that they’re different, elevated, special from other believers.
The rise of the Worship Industrial Complex came on the heels of the CCM boom of the late 90's/early 00's where we thought it was a good idea to pack groups of talented 24 year olds into vans and send them criss-crossing the country for months at a time, and then got angry when they couldn't make an adequate altar call every night. In line with Alan's point, just because you had a record deal with Tooth & Nail didn't mean you were qualified for the pressure of teenage strangers looking to you as a spiritual authority or guidepost.
You're spot on with how flat current Christian broadcast music is. There is a lot within the metal genre of Christian music that has great depth. It's just hard to find.
Something amusing to me had been how lame it is listening to the material in the broadcast world, but when it is sung in a true context of worship it really finds what it should be. Radio entertainifies God's (potential) word. But with the fellowship of other believers, it can be magnified.
So, yes, we should be deeply critical of the Christian Music Machine. But even God can redeem parts of it.
Very true, but even then, Christian metal has shrunk significantly compared to how large the scene was a decade ago. Only a handful of bands are still active and there are fewer new ones replacing the ones who stopped making music.
Thank you Alan. The dialogue below on Christian music is solid, I have know the reality of flat worship (maybe my own flatness/apathy) and some of the songs we sing on Sunday just don't resonate. My wonder with this "priesthood of artists" is if they intentionally/unintentionally were elevated into the gap left by so many bad leaders/priests/pastors in this past generation (thinking... scandals, issues with authority, church debacles...etc..)? Maybe they are easier to "sit under" than someone who God ordains to lead the flock? It keeps our options open a bit more... we like lots of options
Sincerely, thank you for this article. You’ve opened my eyes to a trap I wasn’t even aware I had fallen into. I’m going to be thinking on this for a bit