Thoughts on Contemporary Christian Music

For many years, I've had concerns about "contemporary" Christian music in churches.  One of my major dislikes about the genre is that everything has to be amplified - instruments and voices and this makes the whole service so loud.  When the music is too loud for comfort, it certainly is not good for my worship experience.  After all, I don't go to church to lose my hearing!

Closer to home, as a pianist that doesn't much care for playing an electric piano, I really can't stand trying to play one.  It seems, as I have recently learned, that if one plays an electric piano with a band, that the best thing the pianist can do is just play along with the chords.  That's boring!

Additionally, the idea of choral harmony seems to be just dying away.  With all this amplification of instruments and solo voices, there's no way to hear nice harmonized singing.

In any event, I went in search of some books to help me understand this kind of music in worship services.
I highly recommend the following two books, both by Dan Lucarini.  Dan was very much a part of the Contemporary Christian Music Movement (CCMM), a former worship leader.  But over time, he was bothered by some of the abuses seen in the CCMM.  These books are fantastic research tools on what real worship entails and whether the "rock star" persona observed from some CCMM stars is really appropriate for our worship services.

If this is an area of modern Christian worship that concerns you, definitely get these books and read them.  You will be very glad you did.




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My 15 Seconds of Fame on TV

Here's the link to the current page on WFAA TV, broadcast on 10-8-2012

http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2012/10/08/a-closer-look-at-compounding-pharmacies/