Our worship team knew I'd be preaching on spiritual warfare from Ephesians 6:10-24 yesterday and they picked an ideal song as part of our praise time. The classic "A Mighty Fortress is Our God" was written by the great reformer Martin Luther. And in just a couple lines, it captures what I hoped to convey yesterday.
"The prince of darkness grim, We tremble not for him - His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure: One little word shall fell him."
What is that one little word? Or as the song says in an earlier verse - "Dost ask who that may be?" Luther has told us - "Christ Jesus it is He".
God's given us all we need to be victorious in our battles - all we need to do is to run to our mighty fortress and suit up in the Armor of God.
Here's the version of the song we sang Sunday. It follows the traditional pace and time for a bit and then switches to a more upbeat rhythm and alternate chorus. There are no lyrics but I think I've highlighted them enough above.
At one point I intended to include some more Christian Music comps as I did a couple weeks ago, but alas, I lost my list. Instead here is something that was shared by a friend on Facebook. Turns out it was exactly what my soul needed this morning.
Here's commentary provided by the artist for some context:
"I never met Rich Mullins in person. He died on the day of my twelfth
birthday, the year I got my first guitar. My parents took me out to eat
that evening and I'm certain we talked
about his death because we always listened to Christian radio in the car
and they would have certainly been talking about it. I didn't
"discover" him until years later. I didn't know you were allowed to
write songs about faith that weren't cheap, derivative and sterilized
versions of main stream songs, but he did. I heard (and still hear) an
emotional truth that was transgressive to the brand of christianity
whose songs are cheap, derivative and sterile. His voice was imperfect,
his language was non-religious and there was a yearning that no matter
how polished the recordings were, could not be suppressed. The songs
were records of spiritual conflict and unsettledness that spoke more
often of need than of resolve. But the need had a direction and an
object. As a singer/songwriter I hope to do with my need what he did, at
least in a few songs, with his."
Twenty years ago, during the era when CD's were popular, Disc-man's were prevalent, and large stereo systems were the norm for any young adult's bedroom, the Christian music industry sought to capitalize on the Christian culture's desire to grow by mirroring the larger culture's trends. This took many forms, including 'CD Clubs' with names like 'Power + Glory' which promoted various Christian artists by often comparing them to their more popular secular counterparts. "If you like ___________, then check out ______________" the marketing stated. Offering alternatives certainly had it's benefits, but when those alternatives were little more than poor imitations, it gave the CCM industry a reputation for mediocrity that it had a hard time shaking. In memory of that strange and unusual time, I offer this Music Monday of some randomly selected Christian bands and their secular comparison. I decided to avoid individuals for the sake of length.
And next week, we'll look at the flip side - some CCM trailblazers who proved to be ahead of their time and larger cultural trailblazers as far as musical styles are concerned. So here is a list of Christian bands and the secular groups they owed a large part of their popularity too.
Let me just mention that these particular songs are only meant to reflect the style of each band and not be a straight one-to-one comparison to the other song.
Bleach - Weezer
This one was obvious even at the time. Bleach was putting out really good music in their own right and like Weezer, they were only a niche band even at their peak.
Plus One - NSync, Backstreet Boys
Of all the ways CCM tried to mirror pop music, this may be the most cringe-worthy. Did we really try to make a go of the whole Boy Band thing? Yes we did, and I'm sure someone made some money...but man...smh.
Polarboy - Red Hot Chili Peppers, Counting Crows
I fell in love with Polarboy at apparently the end of their run which happened to coincide with the release of Californication by the Chili Peppers. So while I was listening to the Back from Nowhere album, my hallmates my freshman year of college were blasting RHCP and at one point, I couldn't tell them apart very well.
The Waiting - REM
Two bands, both acoustically driven and both led by baldish-roundheaded-kind-of-short singers with memorable but unspectacular voices - one a gigantic Hall-of-Fame cultural icon while the other was a band that struggled to get even a couple hits on Christian radio. The Waiting still stands up though.
OC Supertones - Mighty Mighty Bosstones
The late 90's and early 2000's featured some interesting fads. One of the most remarkable was the popularity of Ska music. Instruments typically showcased in marching bands were suddenly adopted into rock bands that often featured a raspy-voiced lead vocalist.
I grew to personally loathe this whole movement as my best friend and freshman year of college roommate used this as his alarm clock song that played through his stereo. Given I'm not a morning person and he commonly got up before I did, it wasn't long before I couldn't stand to hear even a note of any of it.
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This is no way is meant to demean theses artists as if they were all frauds. While it would be easy to be cynical about these artists, really that would be misplaced criticism. First of all, some of those Christian options were legitimately good and presented Christian truth in a relevant package.
But looking back at that period overall, it is easy to cringe at much of it. But isn't it our own fault as a Christian culture that we accepted this 'milk' when we should have been clamoring for more 'solid food'? Shouldn't we have been more demanding of original styles and voices and creativity from the CCM industry?
