TOPIC: Principles for Selecting Christian Music - Part 1

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GUEST: CHRIS ANDERSON, pastor and author, Theology That Sticks

“Houston, we have a problem.” That’s a slight misquote version of what an Apollo 13 astronaut said to NASA Mission Control in Houston after an explosion harmed their spacecraft back in 1970.

That was a physical, life-threatening problem. But there are even bigger God-dishonoring problems in the Evangelical church today. The preaching of weak or unsound doctrine is one. Another is the message and methodology of music in the church.

While music in sound churches over the centuries was mainly congregational singing of Psalms and hymns with or without musical instruments, that all changed over the past 60 years with the introduction of Christian Contemporary Music (CCM). The worldview driving this believes that the form of rock ’n’ roll, soft rock, and rap glorifies God and attracts people to Christianity by simply swapping secular lyrics for Christian lyrics.

And yet the result has been compromise. Instead of congregations belting out inspired Psalms or sound hymns, shallow, repetitive, mesmerizing, error-filled songs fill nearly every space in Evangelicalism.

The water may have flooded over the dam but our guest this weekend and next will help Christians and churches select “songs, hymns, and spiritual songs” (Ephesians 5) that are sound in theology, honoring to God and edifying for us. His name is Chris Anderson. He’s a former pastor of 25 years and author of several well-known hymns, including “His Robes for Mine”. He is also the author of the new book, Theology That Sticks—The Life-Changing Power of Exceptional Hymns.