We must be mindful of secular music entering the church

Lately, contemporary Christian music (CCM) has become mainstream church music. Moreover, songs that are theologically questionable are being classified as CCM and sung indiscreetly. What had initially been attaching religious lyrics to a secular tune has changed, and as a result, not only the tune but also the lyrics are becoming unclear. In this day and age, church leaders need to be more mindful.

The impact music has on people is amazing. For example, when a person sings a song, he or she becomes influenced by it. That’s why we encourage teenagers to refrain from singing worldly songs, even if it’s only to kill time. We must humbly admit to the fact that no matter how many hours we devote to singing and listening to hymns, merely a minute of singing and listening to worldly music can have a bigger impact on us. It would be foolish for us to expect good results from attaching Christian lyrics to a secular tune. The fact that both the lyrics and the tune of a song have equal influence over us is something we should not take lightly.

One of the most important motives for the use of CCM in the church was to attract young nonbelievers to church. In order to approach young people who were accustomed to secular music, believers added lyrics the church wanted to convey, to melodies that they were familiar with and comfortable singing along to. Essentially, the plan was to make young people become influenced by CCM and eventually lead them to church. It’s true that this method had a considerable effect on physically bringing young people to church. However, the effort to drag our youth into church resulted in the hymn being driven out of the church and CCM taking its place. To sum up, CCM, which was made for the purpose of mission work, became a tool used in the educational field where the nurturing of new Christians should be done. That is what’s causing this big problem. If the influence of the lyrics of CCM is what led many unbelievers to church, do you believe there will be no negative consequences when the influence of the worldly melodies of CCM is used on Christian children who are in the midst of being nurtured? We must always bear in mind that CCM can have a subtle yet definite influence on young believers and lead them to the unbelieving world.

The gradual disappearance of traditional hymns from the church caused by the entrance of CCM is becoming a huge problem as well. This is not to insist on singing only traditional hymns. However, because we are not familiar with hymns, we grow up without a chance to encounter the realm of spiritual music in which the Holy Spirit has been continuously working for several decades or even several hundreds of years. As a result, we become adults without developing the ability to distinguish between spiritual music and secular music. Therefore, an individual who grew up listening to traditional church music can tell the difference between spiritual and secular and have the ability to turn away from a questionable song, while an individual who grew up only listening to CCM cannot.

Even though we like music, we should not sing it as we like without any discretion. This is because the power of music has the ability to captivate an individual. Music is not something we can enjoy at our own disposal then set aside once we grow tired of it. It is wrong to allow any song to be sung in church merely by looking at the lyrics. Of course, not all CCM songs are bad. There are many CCM songs now that are praiseworthy and pleases the Lord. But the problem is that we’re singing only CCM in a state of complete ignorance about hymns. The church should take on the responsibility to teach young believers to listen to and sing traditional hymns before anything else. It is important to remember that the children of believing parents are the target of child-rearing before they are the target of mission work.