I Will Wait For You There - Phil Wickam

I am singing this song (iTunes) for the memorial service of a baby of a friend that died after it was delivered at 8 months. As a parent of three little ones when I ponder this experience I can scarcely fathom the pain of an experience such as this. May God grant grace to my friends to endure and to all of us in our season of suffering.

After I listened to the song I can see why they selected it.

Here are the lyrics:

I will wait for You there
Down on my knees where I met You
Give You all of my cares
Find a grace to hold onto now
I’m calling for You

I will wait for You there
far from the world and it’s violence
It left broken and bare
I need to hear You in the silence now
I’m calling for You

And with outstretched arms
I will sing out melodies
And my beating heart
Will pour out a symphony
Hallelujah’s in the morning
Hallelujah’s in the night
I will wait for you as long as I have life

I will wait for You there
Down On my knees where I met you
Cause life is a war fought with tears
But You are the strength I hold onto now
I’m calling for you

Fall and Redemption with the Newsboys

Christian music veterans might be interested to read this article about John James, former front man for The Newsboys. Heartbreaking, but honest and redemptive in the end.

(HT: Mark Lee)

Matthew West - Something To Say

Matthew West's new record "Something to Say" was released yesterday. You can find it here on iTunes. Here on Amazon. Here on Amazon Mp3 Download ($8.99!).


You can read some reviews below:

Jesus Freak Hideout

CCM Magazine

Christian Music Today

CCM Patrol

Some of you might be interested in this website: CCMpatrol.com. Where Christian music can actually get a bad review!

For those of your who don't know, Christian music is notoriously known for not being able to give honest and frank reviews when it comes to bad music. Probably in the name of being "loving".

A Christian Worldview for Music

CCM magazine is redefining it's definition of Christian Music. I think this could be a good thing.

Image and CCM

Nichole Nordeman has penned (or should I say typed?) in interesting article called, Skin Deep: Image & Authenticity, dealing with the issue image presentation for women and men in CCM.

Gifted?

16,000 contestants. 8 finalists. 3 judges. 1 winner. GIFTED. On January 26, 2007, on prime-time television, the first season of Gifted is televised to over 49 million households on TBN (95 million total U.S. reach). The 2-hour show hosted by Brian Littrell (formerly of the Backstreet Boys) showcases eight finalists singing some of the most well-known songs in Christian Music in styles ranging from Praise & Worship, Gospel, and CCM. The winner receives a recording contract with EMI Christian Music Group. Anticipation for the show has been enormous as the auditions were held all over the country for the past year in the most influential mega-churches in large markets.

Uh...I know I tend to complain about stuff like this quite a bit, but do we really need another copycat "Christians wanting to be cool like the people on TV" version of something that is working well in secular culture? What is the point? Pagan people must just assume that Christians are not very creative or imaginative. Since they are Christians, notice how they can't have the word "Idol" in the title. What if they called it Christian Idol? That would be awesome.

I'm sorry... I'll try to be more positive in the future...

Christian Music - What's Wrong With It?

Dan Kimball has some things to say about Christian Music. He writes,

For many of the songs, especially praise ones meant for corporate worship, there is also the pattern of the slow build up, climactic and building up repeating chorus which indicates it is the time to raise our hands, then a dramatic drop to quiet - then a big pumping ending.

Also, all the different Christian pop songs seem to basically have the same lyrics over and over and over again. Mostly about Jesus dying on the cross. I fully and absolutely believe the substitutionary atonement is at the heart of the gospel. But the Bible is filled with so many things, not just all verses on the atonement. I wish there were more lyrics in songs that sang about other things about Jesus and the Kingdom and following Him.

I have written about some of these same issues in the following posts:

Timeless Music and CCM

The Sound of Christian Music

The Afters

Here is an interesting interview (part 1) with new (well, sort of new) CCM buzz band, The Afters. I had the chance to meet their frontman, Josh, after a show one time and he seemed very gracious and genuine. I like these guys. Here is an excerpt:

What’s the difference between being a “Christian band” and a band comprised of Christians?

BW: When I hear the term “Christian band,” that means propaganda. Someone has an agenda behind every lyric that they write. In a band comprised of Christians, they write about what they know and about what they believe and what’s important to them; not necessarily every song is going to be a “come to Jesus song.” There is a place for both of those things. Youth groups want their bands to have those (songs), and MTV doesn’t.

JH: It’s a question that hasn’t been defined. Because when you go into a store to purchase music you’re going to find a Christian music section, but it doesn’t just encompass praise music (but) … it is categorized by faith. I would hope that music would be no different than anything else for a Christian. You’re going to do it for the glory of God, because it’s important to you just like any other part of your life. We want to make music for everyone, not just Christians. We don’t want our music to be judged by our faith. We don’t want people to give us merit because of our faith or to discount us because of our faith. We want people to look and judge the music on its own.

Square Peg Alliance

For more signs of life in CCM... I guess I should not say CCM since most of these guys would shun the label or have been shuned by the industry, anway...

Check out the artists at The Square Peg Alliance for something different musically than what you would usually hear from Christian musicians on the radio. I think you will dig it.

Here is how they describe themselves:

The Square Peg Alliance is a group of singer/songwriters who really like each other. We have all been doing music on our own but have decided to join forces like the wonder twins - except there are 13 of us instead of 2. There is no guy in a suit putting all of us together. We really just believe in each other's art and want to support it.

We don't write music so we can be the next big thing (or if we do, it hasn't worked for us). We believe that there are folks out there who like music even if it isn't played every three minutes on the radio, even if it isn't on a big label, even if it isn't accompanied by a music video, even if the shows aren't flashy or even if the records don't go platinum (or gold, or silver, or aluminum foil, etc.).

That is why we are the Square Peg Alliance. Thirteen artists who might not fit perfectly into the traditional mold of the music business, but have found a home with each other.

New Releases in CCM that will rock you

Here is a great article from one of the editors of CCM magazine detailing three soon to be released records that he believes have "the wow factor". Based on his writing and what I know of all three artists I am definately excited to hear all three. Check it out.

How to Fix CCM

Here is a great article dealing with some of the issues that I raise on this blog. In it the author says:

"Think of it this way: Would a plumber advertise himself as a "Christian plumber" if he wanted to serve both believers and non-believers? Perhaps, but then, many non-Christians with clogged toilets might not hire him because of that designation. But if he simply presents himself as a "plumber"—still intending to do a great job and prepared to discuss his faith with any interested clients—he's likely to get more business, earn a better living, and interact with more non-believers."

"Imagine what would happen if Christian-oriented labels announced that they would change the way they do business—that for the artists who wanted to reach the mainstream, the labels would stop marketing them as "Christian music," and instead develop and market artists who write songs that reference their faith to fellow believers, as well as to millions of Americans who may not share their faith but like their music."

My prediction - Music as we know it today with stark distinctions between Christian labels and non-Christian ones will probably only be around for another 5-10 years. The model of Christian musicians operating in the mainstream is where we will be headed in the next generation.

Why there is no money in Christian music

Many people I run into don’t understand what a stark difference there is between the revenues generated by the Christian music industry vs. the mainstream. They think that since I work as a player on the road and have a songwriting contract that I must be burning stacks of hundies in the fireplace at night, just because I can.

Through the list below, let me attempt to show how much of a nitch market Christian music actually is compared to other genres. This list attempts to move from the largest number of people and works it’s way down to the actual population of people who buy Christian music. This may partly explain why there is not more diversity of artistic expression in Christian music.

1. Consider all the people in the world
2. Reduce this number to all the Christians in the world
3. Reduce this number to all the Christians in the world who have an appreciation for music
4. Reduce this number to all the Christians in the world who have an appreciation for music and live in a place that has access to radio
5. Reduce this number to all the Christians in the world who have an appreciation for music, live in a place that has access to radio, and has a Christian radio station (most people who buy Christian music get exposed via radio).
6. Reduce this number to all the Christians in the world who have an appreciation for music, live in a place that has access to radio, of which one of those radio stations is a Christian radio station and then be someone who actually listens to the Christian radio station.
7. Reduce this number to all the Christians in the world who have an appreciation for music, live in a place that has access to radio, of which one of those radio stations is a Christian radio station, be a person that actually listens to the Christian radio station, and then be a person who would like this music enough to actually do the work of going to a store or the Internet and buy a Christian music product.

#7 is generally a description of the people who finance the Christian music industry. I’m sure it’s not hard to see why this market pales in comparison to country music or mainstream pop music.

Note: What was not mentioned was the lack of exposure on TV (MTV, VH1, etc) and the assumption is made that you actually live in a part of the world where you have access to the Internet or a retail store to purchase Christian music. This also does not take into account the overall hit that all genres of music have taken in the last ten years as a result of Internet piracy.

The Sound of Christian Music

Have you ever noticed that Christian music has a very definable sound of its own? Just spend the day in your car clicking through all the different radio stations in your town and without listening to the lyrics and I would be willing to bet that if you are at all familiar with genres of music you would be able to identify which ones were the Christian stations. It literally has a “sound” of it’s own. Maybe it’s all the “U2, Edge-like” guitar parts (where would Christian music be without The Edge?), or maybe it’s the vocal that is mixed super-hot, or maybe it’s the lower quality of reception since the Christian stations are usually at the lower end of the dial. For whatever reason, generally speaking, Christian music has a “sound”.

How and why has this happened? I’m not sure, but for some reason it really bugs me. It’s probably because it makes me feel like Christian musicians can’t “hang” in the mainstream world of music. Should we care about this? Maybe not. Being accepted by “the world” is for sure not a Biblical motive for creating art, but seen from a different perspective, if one is offering art that is honest and inspiring one would think that it would be embraced no matter what worldview you subscribe to.

I think it also makes me feel like we have acquired a fortress mentality when it comes to our music. Now I know that the market perhaps demands this type of structure since if it was all one huge mass of music to choose from sales would greatly be reduced due to lack of organization. But if we had more bands like Switchfoot penetrating the mainstream I think it could provide more unique avenues for the gospel.

Like many issues, my hunch is that since CCM is a business, the bottom line of making money and trends of Christian consumers has a lot to do with it. Could it be that the reason why Christian music sounds that way it does it due to the fact that this is what most Christian people are buying? Certainly that has a lot to do with it. Depending on your perspective, that reality could make you very excited about the majority of Christian culture, or very depressed. I would certainly say that I am not depressed, but I bet you can glean where I lean. We will press on in hope…

More on CCM

Here are a couple articles that might be of interest in light of some of my ramblings as of late...

Derek Webb

Mute Math

Signs of life in CCM

Today I sat next to Matthew West on the airplane headed to Philly. Our conversation turned to some of the things that I have been writing about on this blog concerning the Christian music industry. He told me that recently he has been reading the classic book by Jim Cymbala “Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire”. He pointed me to this quote that he felt really struck to who he is now as an artist and writer in the industry and how he feels like it has awakened him to reevaluate his ministry for the future. Here is the quote:

To every preacher and every singer God will someday ask, “Did you bring the people to where the action could be found…at the throne of grace? If you just entertained them, if you just tickled their ears and gave them a warm, fuzzy moment, woe unto you. At the throne of grace I could have changed their lives. Jim Cymbala, did you dazzle them with your cleverness or did you make them hungry to come to me?”

Jim’s pointed words speak well to all who are Christians and especially those in the Christian music industry.

Thinking of Jim’s book also brought another thought to my mind. For all my analysis and critique on this blog about the shortcomings of the Christian music industry, how much time to I spend in prayer concerning those shortcomings? Probably not as much as I would like to admit. There is a certain pride in being able to identify weaknesses. It can make you feel fairly self-righteous and intelligent. Conversely, prayer crushes pride, communicates neediness, and points to finite knowledge as we call out to the one who is omniscient.

Father, awaken more Christian artists to give people a passion for the glory of your name and your cross in their music and in all things!

Can Christian Radio Challenge Us?

Back to my angry and ungrateful critique of the industry that helps to feed my family! I’ll probably go down in flames one of these days, but if you are reading this right now then that makes you one of about 5 so I should be in good shape for a bit.

In all seriousness I don’t want to sound angry and ungrateful. I am very honored to work in the areas that I do and I know that there are literally hundreds of guys in Nashville that would die to have the opportunities that I have been given. I don’t view this lightly. I think more than anything I want to document some of the thoughts that are rolling around in my head as I think about our faith and how it is presented in the business of Christianity. On with the negativity!!!



Generally speaking, Christian radio does not challenge. To me this renders it at best a means for encouragement, but at worst just a warm and fuzzy, superficial kind of listening.

One of the main slogans that you frequently hear from one of the Christian radio stations here in Nashville is, “Safe for the whole family”. I understand what they mean when they say that and I totally value the guarding of my ears and ears of my kids from profanity and sexual messages, but maybe we just shouldn’t use the word “safe” when it comes to Christianity. I have to ask, what is safe about the gospel? Would the martyrs listed in the book of Hebrews say it was safe? Would Paul say that the gospel is safe? It certainly wasn’t safe for Jesus. World missions is not safe. The crushing of my pride is not safe. Taking radical risks of faith for the sake of your calling is not safe.

With all it’s good intentions I fear that the underlying message of the “safe for the whole family” may be doing harm than good. I know that I cherish my safety and comfort. It’s the cultural air we breathe in the USA. In one sense I am very thankful for this, but it is also dangerous to my soul because I believe the God’s ultimate aim for his people is far from being “safe”. For the sake of the gospel I think we need less “safety” or cherishing of this ideal and more risk-taking crazy faith-filled endeavors.

Where is the challenge? As Christians don’t we need strong messages to wake us from our slumber and continue to fight for faith in our daily lives? There are some songs that do this and are extremely powerful. Ginny Owen’s “If you want me to” or Casting Crowns (though I’m not a big fan of the music) “If we are the body” are great examples of songs that are allowed to be played on Christian radio that challenge us to live different. (There are probably hosts of others that I am not thinking of) I am very thankful that these messages have gotten through on Christian airwaves. Unfortunately it’s not the norm.

Over the years I have been greatly encouraged by the ministry of John Piper. I know that for the sake of getting people’s attention he often times says things in such a way as to awaken people to say “huh?” This year at Passion06 here in Nashville I know that he had some people thinking that he was straight nuts, but I know this for sure, he got peoples attention and they were talking about it and thinking about it after the conference. This happens all the time in Biblical preaching. Why can’t it happen in Christian music and more specifically on Christian radio? It’s probably because Christian radio is dominated for the most part by money and God-glorifying preaching doesn’t have money as it’s bottom line. I know that music will probably never take the place of strong preaching, but I think that more strong preaching needs to take place in the music that we listen to as Christians.

Where are the messages in music on Christian radio that awaken us and rattle us? I think I fear that Christian radio at times sinks into the “what itching ears want to hear” category. I fear that radio stations are feeling like they have to give us Christians the warm and fuzzy messages that we need to help us “be positive” throughout the day and then the money will keep coming in and it all goes around again. At the end of the day though, I think this renders it potentially meaningless. Unfortunately, growth usually never happens when we are comfortable.

I few months back I turned in a song to my publisher that had the line “Sitting Sunday’s in the front and everyone they know them well, but do they know that their marriage is hell?” I was told that you can’t use the word “hell” in a Christian song. Why not? I could understand it a bit better if you just tell me that it’s not a well crafted line in my song, but please don’t tell me you can’t use very Biblical word “hell” in a song.

Solutions? – Writers need to be able to say things that challenge. Publishers need to take the risk of challenging those who will purchase Christian music. Jointly, writers and publishers need to know that they will have an outlet for this challenge. Radio station owners need to have the courage to give our people maybe a message that is a bit uncomfortable for the sake of growth, and since it’s a business there has to be money given to support it.

Music Monday - Jason Morant - "Open"

For the most part, worship music (meaning music to be sung together in church) has basically become a genre with certain defining distinctions. To me at times the melodic, and musical side of it is a bit tired, predictable, boring, dare I say, nauseating? Jason Morant's new record is not.

Jason Morant is an amazing new talent on the CCM scene. He just released his sophomore project entitled "Open". This super talented twentysomething has seemingly endless creativity and it shows on this record. I don't think many of these songs would be used in corporate worship, but for sure it is a worship record that doesn't sound like a worship record. What is sad is that usually in the Christian market, super talented guys like Jason sell about 5 records. (Taylor Sorenson would be a great example of this, what? you haven't heard of him either? that's my point.) The reason for this is that the Christian market is pretty small compared to the mainstream and the number of Christian's out there who would appreciate what Jason is doing here is relatively small.

This is a record you will want to sit down and actually listen to, not just have some happy praise music in the background to give you a nice bounce in your step while you go about your day. I think you will really enjoy it if you give it a chance to sink in. He is really on to something here. Support great art!

You can buy it here (Christianbook.com).

Or buy it here (iTunes)

Read another review here.

Great songs of CCM

I have been feeling a bit convicted lately about my postings concerning my profession in the Christian Music Industry. I would definitely stand by what I say, but I just don't want to seem like a constant complainer or always having a critique but offering no solution. In light of that I want write today about what I think can be one of the great things about CMI: the songs. I think there can be a great potential for ministry when a person can go to a show and buy a CD and take it home with them and meditate on the words and melodies over and over again. To be sure, there are many songs that don't warrant you doing this, but I would like offer a few songs that over the years have had a great ministry impact on my life. (The links are for iTunes users.)

1. Rich Mullins - "Hold Me Jesus"
2. Chris Rice - "Naive", "Belong", "Untitled Hymn (Come to Jesus)"
3. Steven Curtis Chapman - "Be Still and Know"
4. Amy Grant - "Lead Me On"
5. Mute Math - "Control"
6. Switchfoot - "Dare you to move"

The list could be longer for sure, but I'll leave at that for now. I would love to hear what songs have had a deep impact on you.

Reflections from “J-Fest”

Yesterday we played “J-fest”. These are some brief thoughts:

1. What’s really interesting about the Evangelical worship scene is that is can have an adverse affect on artists during the summer festivals. Take for the example the song “Blessed Be The Name” by Matt Redman. This song has been a hit by the band Tree 63 and sung in probably almost every evangelical church across the nation. An artist that played before us today at “J-Fest” used this song. Many artists in CMI (Christian Music Industry) are using commonplace worship songs in their set to help people engage in their shows with a song that they know. What is funny about this is that you can hear this song in the morning worship set by the latest worship rock star, then have another artist use it during the afternoon set and then finally if Matt Redman is the headline artist of the night he is going to do it. Or should he? It seems kind of weird to me that you would hear this song three different times during the day at a festival an then the guy who actually wrote it would have to face a dilemma on whether to play it or not for fear of seeming redundant. There is always a place for a good cover song, but I think we have crossed the line with our endless "covering" of worship songs by CMI artists.

2. The guys in the band told me a story today about a guitar player named Ryan Truso who once just to make a point between songs at a Christian festival, just yelled out two full sentences of complete gibberish that was utterly incoherent, but at the end tacked on a big “JESUS”!! People went wild. This was just to prove the point that most “Christian” crowds will go nuts simply at the name of Jesus without any context. Not that the name of Jesus is not something to get excited about but it was meant to show that most people are not really listening for content, but simply looking for the next “Jesus buzz” or a means to do some “Jesus freebasing”. This leads me to what I saw today and see at almost every show that we do. In our set we have a song called “More”. It’s a song that has been Matthew’s biggest hit. It was number one for nine weeks straight in the summer of 2004. The chorus is written as God talking to us as his children and He says, “I love you more than the sun, and the stars that I taught how to shine, you are mine and you shine for me too. I love yesterday and today and tomorrow I’ll say it again and again, I love you more” This is NOT a worship song, but people will throw their hands up and close their eyes almost every time we play this song. Has “hands up and eyes closed” just turned into a posture that signifies an emotive experience that is taking place? Probably in some circles, but on the other hand I just don’t think the people are really listening.

3. There’s always something that strikes me as weird about a huge line of people who want the artist’s autograph after the show. The whole idea of a Christian celebrity seems a bit backwards, but probably unavoidable for those who are, thus it's no fault of their own. To be sure, Jesus was seens as a celebrity of sorts but usually for the wrong reasons and at the end he was left utterly alone to die as a hated criminal. Most artists would say that their desire would be to have the people leave with feeling pointed to God in some real way. I know there is not anything really inherently wrong with wanting someone’s autograph, but I fear that the long autograph line is somehow a testimony to what ultimately the Christian Music Industry is about: Christians being entertained. To quote Jerry Seinfeld, “Not that there’s anything wrong with that”. But if we are going to try and make Jesus the main centerpiece shouldn’t all that we do as an artist really try and point to that? If we are going to entertain and we know that up front, why not just leave Jesus out? Should Jesus be our means to entertainment? Or better yet, instead of having our nice Christian commune at the summer festivals, why not have all the Christians forget the Christians entertainment and get entertained at the secular festivals and seek to be salt and light there? Maybe I’ve gone too far here and I think I am leading myself down a dark road that ultimately says that Christian music, generally speaking, has no real significant place whatsoever in terms of a lasting kingdom impact. Do I really feel that way? Probably not, but that is beyond the scope of this post. I could be off here, but for sure much of it could go away and I don’t think it would really be that big of a deal. I probably shouldn’t bite the hand that is feeding, but these are just things I am thinking about as I encounter them as a member of the Christian Music Industry.