My Thoughts on Christian radio

Allow me a moment of introspective vulnerability.  This might get a little uncomfortable, but stick with me.  I have a love-hate relationship with Christian radio and “Contemporary Christian Music”(CCM).  Let me back up a little.

I grew up in a conservative Evangelical family where “Christian rock” was not accessible to us.  We didn’t listen to “that type” of music.  Over the years, we chose to listen to a wider variety of music that began to include CCM.  A childhood friend introduced me to Point of Grace and I kept songs such as, Keep The Candle Burning and Circle Of Friends on replay.  For the next decade or so, I was an ardent fan of all things CCM.  A good Christian girl like me only listened to so-called Christian music.  The boy bands left me feeling empty, but groups like Jars of Clay made me want to fall in love with Jesus and write Him love songs.  I learned the lyrics and collected the paraphernalia.  I’ve sobbed to Arise My Love on more than one occasion, even using it to arrange an Easter youth drama.  I’ve sung the CCM solos in church, danced around my house to Newsboys and NewSong, created heartfelt interpretive movements to Jaci Velasquez and exercised to Avalon. 

Today I heard a classic favorite, Love Song For A Savior on my local Christian radio station.  It took me back to the 14 year old girl who petitioned to fast from her school lunch so she could spend that time praying with a friend.  Much of my spiritual development as a teenager and young adult can be attributed to the ministry of Steven Curtis Chapman, Point of Grace, Ginny Owens, Meredith Andrews, and many others.  My husband and I own almost every WOW album and we excel at “Name That Song.”  I believe there is value in quality music for believers.

I believe there is value in a radio station that plays music about God and for His followers.  In our town, the Christian radio station has a prayer time on air, they host events to honor pastors, they bring good concerts to our area, and they can encourage thousands of people who are driving, working, or at home.  Christian radio is important. 

Christian radio is also not enough.  My husband and I are so passionate about worship that we’ve made it our life’s profession.  It’s vital to us in corporate worship that we are singing songs about God and songs straight from scripture.  Sometimes those songs are first heard at Passion Conferences or on the radio.  Most are not.  We can’t trust “Contemporary Christian Music” to give us “worship music”.  In recent years, too much of what we hear on the radio is inspirational.  It encourages us to grasp onto a higher being, but doesn’t really name who that is.  It encourages us that we have the power to overcome, but doesn’t tell us from where that power comes.  It talks to hurting people and reminds us to smile, but doesn’t teach us to how to respond when all our days are dark and we have to trust that God is in control anyway.  I’m not naming specific songs because I do not know the heart of these artists.  I don’t know their intentions and I won’t say that any one person shouldn’t be on Christian radio or should change their profession.  

What I want us to see and to know is that listening to Christian radio, shopping at Christian bookstores, attending Christian concerts, reading Christian books, hanging with Christian friends, and attending a local church DO NOT make you a Christian.  The Christian life is more than inspiration, it is sacrifice.  It is more than a feeling, it is faithfulness.  It is more than a peppy tune and a singable chorus, more than a drumbeat and a happy ending.  It is more His story than our story, more His victorious ending than our happy day.  It is His glory and we would do well to worship Christ more for who He is, than what He does for us.  Following Christ is life and truth and trust.

The Savior of humanity was born to a virgin and experienced the struggles of man.  Yet He lived without sin.  He died as an innocent lamb, led silently to the slaughter for our iniquities. (Isaiah 53)  He was forsaken by His Father for the countless sins of the world and raised to life gloriously on the third day, defeating the grave.  He calls us to die to self and follow Him.  He commands us to make disciples, even to the ends of the earth, until He returns. 

If the music on our Christian radio stations and Christian radio hosts only make us feel better about ourselves and what we are doing for God, then they are all missing the point.  If the music on Christian radio doesn’t sound any different than the love ballads on soft rock stations, it is not representing our Savior very well.  If you want to hear a song about how strong you are, I’m pretty sure any country station is your fix.  Our music: whether CCM, on the radio, in church, on an old cassette tape, or the latest on iTunes, should point us to Jesus.  If it doesn’t, we may as well drive our cars in silence.  

Copyright March 14, 2014 *thewifeoflee*