When I became a new Christian not so long ago, one of the issues I was faced with was my musical tastes. My musical tastes before being a Christian unsurprisingly included virtually no overtly Christian songs or bands, being a mix of indie music, classic rock, and 80's to early 90's alternative rock. While most of the bands are religion neutral, they are by no means spiritual either.
The problem is that outside of church events I rarely listen to Christian music, alternating instead between the sweet happy sounds of the New Pornographers or the loud, plaintive sounds of Nirvana for example. At the moment, I have no plans of getting rid of my secular music, I enjoy it and on its own I do not feel it is distracting me from God. However, I do feel like I need to be listening to more christian music, both to somewhat counteract the secular stuff and to help with building my relationship with God.
The major problem is that I find it hard to find Christian music I like. During worship at church i usually have no problems with most songs but alone I find many of the songs to have earnest if not somewhat facile lyrics and to be boring musically. That said there is some good stuff out there but I honestly have not looked that hard to find more and I certainly have not bought any Christian stuff, which is a problem because most of my musically listening is done through my Ipod.
I guess I wonder if I am making a fuss over nothing or whether there is an issue here that I need to address. I do not want to give up my secular music but can it co-exist peacefully in my mind with Christian music? I will need to pray about this and discuss this issue further with others to come to a conclusion.
I hear you. I remember in college many people having this same discussion. What is appropriate to listen to? My personal conclusion is if the lyrics are against who God is I have no business listening to it. Beyond that, I can listen to what I choose. I am no musical genius, and not a big rock and roll fan. But maybe try Switchfoot? They are a Christian band, but their lyrics are not so in your face. And I think they are considered rock...good luck on your journey. p.s. back from 20sb.
ReplyDeleteI saw your post and commented on 20SB but I will on here too :) I listen to both. I work at a radio station and have country, top 40, and oldies on around me all day. There are no swear words in the music we play, so that's a plus. I am a dancer, so I've had to be aware of lots of kinds of music for different pieces I've done. Some of my fave Christian bands/artists that you should check out are Third Day, Out of Hiding, Mercy Me, Jeremy Camp. i also like a lot of the mix CD's you can buy of popular current Christian songs that have a lot of the praise songs you'd hear at more contemporary churches. Songs like "Lord I life you name on High", "shout to the lord", "I can only imagine", etc. etc. Hope this helps! ;)
ReplyDelete@Laura
ReplyDeleteI agree as long as it is not against God it is probably acceptable, although probably any lyrics that are explicitly unmoral are probably not acceptable either. In any case I will have to think and pray on the issue some.
@Jill
ReplyDeleteThanks for the music suggestions, I will check them out for sure!