To an outsider to come into a church and here only hymns and other very old fashioned type music, they won't feel comfortable. Music is an important part of us humans. Don't believe me? Read about David and the Psalms again. I can bet they were done in the most modern of musical technology of the time.
My preference is Gospel with a Country or bluegrass twang, but that's just me. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!
Yes. And it all flows from Him! :-)
I think where people get confused is that they confuse personal preferences with the nature of a music style and whether that music is christian or not.
I am all for personal preference. That said, I also believe that not all music styles are christian, regardless if they are self-labeled as such.
Just because some artists call themselves christian artists, that doesn’t automatically make that statement correct.
Does the music glorify God? Can you really look at all music marketed as ‘christian’ and say all of it glorifies God alone? Are the musicians dressed and acting in ways that glorify God, that they appear upright, or do they act and look just like the rest of the worldly musicians and their videos? If you can’t tell the difference there’s a problem.
Do the artists themselves look and act? Can you tell they are godly people by what they are doing, arethey dressed respectfully and modestly, or do they look and act like any other rock musician? If you can’t tell the difference, there’s a problem. Would you feel comfortable with them dressing the way they do in their video or on the CD cover, and doing their stage act in your church providing music for your congregation on Sunday? If you wouldn’t, then there’s a problem.
What about the music itself? You want ‘christian’ thrash playing in your church? You want ‘christian’ punk playing on Sunday in your church service? You want ‘christian’ speed metal or heavy metal playing Sunday morning at your service? Why not? If the message is good, the music doesn’t matter, right. Well, the music does matter. There is not ‘christian punk’ - it’s just punk. Just like there’s no ‘christian porn’.
You look at all these artists claiming to be christian, and line them up against all the other rock bands, and if you can’t tell the difference between the self-identified ‘christians’ and the worldy ones - they look the same, they sound the same, they’re doing the same kinds of things on stage and in their videos - then that is a very, very serious problem.