The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed by Anjela Paje of Spokane, WA, from the tape, GC 1301-I, titled "Bible Questions and Answers Part 11."  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE.  ©1980. All Rights Reserved.

Question

What is your stand on Contemporary Christian Music?  My main question would be in terms of where do you draw the line between basic rhythmic principles. The separation between “Rock ‘n Roll” and a rhythm that would tend to make you want to tap your foot?

Answer

I like the “Rock of Ages” and “When the Role is Called Up Yonder,” but beyond that (laughter). The best thing I can tell you to do on that is when we were going through Ephesians Chapter 5, went through a section there on “speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord.” This has been some time back. I don’t know if you were here at the time. And, I did a series on that whole thing of music. And, I can’t give you a quick answer, except to say, maybe some basic things. I think that,

1. Music to be what it ought to be must have the proper content. It must properly reflect biblical truth.

2. I think it should be primarily focused on the character of God and His work, rather than on my feelings.

Do you know what I am saying by that? I’d rather sing: “Oh How He Loves You and Me” than “Oh How I Love Jesus.” I mean, I’d rather see a song that focuses on God and His character and His work than one that talks about my experience. And, much of Contemporary Christian Music is just a bunch of, I don’t know what, it’s just a bunch of gooey, schmaltzy--you could stick anything in there. You could stick your girlfriend in there instead of God or Buddha or anybody because it is utterly "contentless." So, I think, first of all, it has to have substantive content in order to have any validity.

3. I also think that the vehicle should be distinctly Christian in some sense. In other words, if we simply mimic the styles of the world in what we do, we have admitted that they have something we want. And, I’m not sure that’s true.

Question (continued)

Well, you know, you could also say that a lot of like Bill and Glory Gaither type music sounds KBIG?

Answer (continued)

Sure it does. Sure it does. And I know that. But, there’s a big difference between what’s played on KBIG and what’s played on whatever other stations play that acid stuff. And I tried to point that out in the series. I think, that the best thing to do is to have you listen to the series. There are physiological problems with a hard driving beat and stopped-anapestic rhythm. I went into all that kind of stuff when you have two longs and a short, and so forth. Literally, they planted flowers and they put that music in there and the flowers will die in a few days because it will destroy the cells of the flowers. It destroys the ears of young people. A lot of people even in our own church who play in the music, in the studio music thing, say that they’re losing their ability to hear tones and so forth over a period of time because it just destroys their inner ear. Anyway, I think, the best thing is to listen to that thing--that series of tapes, if you can, because I tried to give a full range to it.

Now I have another perspective and that is this: people have musical tastes that vary, you know. And, I mean, when I was down in the Lake of the Ozarks, I went to the Ozark Opry. Foot-stompin’, Banjo-pickin’ stuff, and I liked that, but you know I wouldn’t do that here in church. I mean it’s okay to [like] Blue-grass music or whatever, and every once in awhile I might like some kind of Contemporary sound that has a nice sound to it. And some of you would like a certain style and others a [certain style], but, my feeling is that, in the church, the key thing is that you find that which unifies the congregation, not that which segments it. Therefore, what you do is minister to the widest range of people in your music, and you do that by finding the music that touches the widest range possible. I mean, we could say, “Hey, man, we’re going to do, you know, Contemporary Rock stuff to reach the kids. Well, in the first place, I don’t think that’s necessary. I think you can show kids what good music is. But, if you did that, anyway, what you do is alienate other people who are offended by that. And, maybe, rightly so.

So, I feel, that there are a lot of considerations. I feel, that the words are important, that the vehicle is important, that it should sound...Now, you say KBIG---that is distinctly, beautiful music. There is beautiful music. There is music that manifests musicianship.

You know, I had an interesting thing, a guy sang “The Star-Spangled Banner,” I think it was, at the Dodger game last night, and he belongs to the group Sha Na Na. I was listening to it on the radio the Dodger game, and I was driving somewhere, and he sang, I mean, he was horrendous. I mean, the guy couldn’t carry a tune in a wheel barrow. He was awful! Horrible! And, yet, he’s making millions of dollars with his voice, and he can’t sing at all. So, it’s just, you know...there’s a lot of problems with it. I feel like, Amos, chapter 5, really hits it on it, too. Amos 5 says, “If your heart’s not right, I don’t want you to sing any song.” And, I think, if you get people’s heart right and their motives are pure, it will affect the kind of thing they do.

You know, a guy said to me, Sunday, when he heard you guys sing that in the Joyful Sound, he said that, “You know, I could sense, in those young people, the love of Christ coming through them.” First time he’d ever been here. He said, “I could sense that there was no show business. There was no look-at-me. There was a true spirit of love for Christ and worship. And, that comes through, and, if that’s right, I’m not going to worry about the vehicle you’re going to use. Because that will kind of control that. I hope that gives you some idea of how I feel.

I can’t give you absolutes. You can listen to the tapes and get some, but what I’m saying is that the thing that concerns me most is a pure motive and a pure heart of worship, and doing it for the glory of God. And, I think, that becomes in itself the controlling thing. And, I don’t think anything is wrong with rhythm. God gave us that. Right? I mean, we walk with rhythm. That’s why we walk. I mean, everything in our life is rhythm. My heart beats with rhythm. People say, “Well, you shouldn’t have any rhythm.” You know, they sing stuffy, stodgy things. No, I think, rhythm is part of life, and, I think playing a rhythm is a very normal thing. I mean, when you were a baby, your mother rocked you to sleep with rhythm. You know, that constant rocking. That’s rhythm. And, she sang you a lullaby. I mean, there is rhythm. And, rhythm is a good thing. And, there’s nothing wrong with that, but what when you have a hard constant, driving forcing beat which has sexual connotations or whatever, that’s when you get into trouble.


Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur’s Questions and Answers" by:

Tony Capoccia
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