“Seems to me American Idol sort of takes the opposite approach to appealing to the masses compared to shows like SNL or South Park. Those shows seem to actively seek to offend as many demographics as possible, but American Idol tries to appeal to as many as possible. Maybe the “Christian market” is just one of those demographics.”

I have been thinking about this a lot lately. And here is what has gotten me to the point where I am sad about Christian awards.

To share (is that allowed? does it really matter? can you tell I’m full of angst?)….

About a year ago, we lost our music pastor of 15 years. He is like a brother to me. And I mean that literally. I relate to him and care for him and smack him upside the head much like I do my own two sibling brothers.

The rest of my church has also experienced more change in the past year than it had in the previous ten years combined.

My coping mechanism for this has been to pretend (even to myself) that I don’t care. It is much easier to not care than to be sad, angry, or insecure.

Tonight I was at a “vision meeting” to create a rubric or set of standards to match our candidates’ gifts with what we need. Of course there’s musical excellence (“For musicians, there is a kind of currency, of legitimacy, that comes from what you can do with your instrument.”-Mike Lee).

Beyond that, I desperately crave someone who is not about him (or her) SELF. Desperately. I want someone who will sing the same way if no one else were to show up for church. I want someone I can worship WITH.

Now, it has occurred to me that my pastor-brother has won a few awards of his own, and is now in Nashville getting his groove on. And I will cheer him on. So I’m not sure how that fits in. My hypothesis, though, is that at best the “in-house” trophies could do nothing to enhance the Holy Spirit’s work (Christians congratulating and/or resenting each other after singing for The Lord), and what is more likely is that they will get in the way. In a subtle, dangerous, sad way.

Mike, this sounds like a music and ethics conversation. Do you know any people who have those?…

images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=Phyllis+Tickle&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2

Also of note: one of our sunday school kids came up to me this morning and asked if we were going to sing the American Idol song.

By the way, I didn’t mean that I don’t struggle, I just meant that I don’t get paid for ministry.

And you can all make fun of me now for the absurd number of comments. But now I’ll sleep better, with the hope that I didn’t sound arrogant. :)

I missed this the first time. Wow, you are a good listener!

Although now I want to “run to the mountains” all the more!

One of the key things there was “It’s the End Times!!!” Withdrawing from the world was key. We were in the business of saving souls, and keeping them unblemished by the big-bad-naughty world. The “Warehouse” syndrome, I’ve heard it called.

So… what did we do? We created our own little subculture that mirrors the outside culture. They had Def Leppard, we had Petra. They had George Michael, we had Michael W. Smith. They had Harry Potter, we had Left Behind.

This is not new info… I realize… we’ve been over this topic on this blog before, and smarter people have documented this phenomenon.

Come the early 90s major corporations started snarfing up these CCM shadow companies, because the numbers were looking pretty good. CCM was the fastest growing sub-genre in music at one point, surpassing Jazz and Country, getting its own little bin at the local big-box store.

This was the golden era of CCM, if you’ll remember. Jesus Freak… Jars of Clay… big budgets, big tours, big crowds, platinum records. EMI owns Sparrow, Zomba owns Word, etc etc etc.

Then the music biz starts to wind down, but at the same time, the worship movements cranks up. Chris Tomlin and Darlene Zcheckinikes are now the big stars, and Steven Curtis is back to playing churches gigs instead of Universal Amphitheater.

I cannot tell you with words how personally toxic it has been for me to have to mix spiritual health with financial health. It’s taken me about 9 months now (post my resignation from Professional Christianity) to even begin to understand the ways this has been effing with my head.

The Dailies is not a CCM band. We are not interested in going back to Egypt.

This is poetry. I don’t envy you this struggle, Brother.

“McDonaldization of faith”

I try to wrap my brain around when and how this happened. I don’t frequent the Christian book store, but when I do, it nauseates me to see the “Jesus Loves You” (made in China) trinkets. Think, people, THINK!

I’ll back away from the computer now. ‘Don’t want to be a Blog Hog. :)

Corey, if we ever meet, I may have to take you up on this offer. :)

Isn’t it counterintuitive to use a praise song in any competition? (I am including the Dove awards in my thoughts - Grammys, American Idol, whatever… although I don’t think A.I was competing that night…) The whole point of a praise song is to give praise to God. It is the singer saying, “I’ve got this voice, and I could go the mainstream route and sing about a girl’s curves or tell my guy what I’m going to do to him, but instead I will use it to glorify God and what he has done in my life.” To say, “Thank you for this award” right afterward doesn’t really fit. It misses the whole point of praise directed toward God instead of self.

To me it would be like Mother Teresa accepting an award that would “boost her career” in helping orphans and using the profits to live in a nice house. The opposite it what makes her Mother Teresa in the first place.

Disclaimers:
-this is all stream of conscience, first draft
-my point is really not to offend anyone, just to dialogue, and if you’ve won something, I am happy for you.

It’s poetry. And I couldn’t agree more. The comments on youtube are all, like, “praise Him, the Most High One! OMG LOLBBQ **** :)”. And I just can’t get excited about what you call the “point for our team” mentality.

Warning: No humorous attempts in this comment.

I’ve been there. We have a friend who graduated high school last year and committed to live with Christian monks for four years. Knowing his thoughtful and deep spiritual nature, this was actually not shocking. There is a part of me that “gets that” (often several times in one day) and wants to join him.

It is funny to think most Christians were probably excited to see this song on “Idol” - and I have nothing against it - but many of us are thinking “What is this crap, and what does it have to do with Jesus and and his grace?” I’m guessing some were even more excited about Thursday night when “they actually said ‘Jesus’!” - we got a point for our team!!! The world likes us - they really, really like us!

The older I get, the less I would miss pop culture if I could go to a mountain side with just a Bible and some other Christians. No “worship sets”. Maybe a hymnal in the backpack. That is the Christianity that attracts me.

Unless it gets hung up in the paperwork.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6G0U8Vg6nY