Contemporary christian worship.

[TheShinje]

[size=1] First of all, I'm going to emulate what semjaza said in his manson thread, If all you're going to do is spew out froth on how Christianity is dying and it's irrelevat, please leave. I wan't to discuss the impact of Contemporary worship, not the existence of God, please, just go to that thread that was originally started about the afterlife to offload those kind of senitments such as it's wrong or that it's Joey from Friends... :p[/size]

What do you think of contemporary worship? I think it's excellet. I am really into some of the club stuff coming out from bands like Sonic Flood, who have taken songs i currently sing with the congregation at church and put phat bass beats and drums behind them.

There is also the country aspect of contemporary worship, whereas the Church seems to be reaching out in a different way, especially when you consider tthat most Churches originally thought of Rock as the "evil devils music" It is a learning curve the Church has taken, no?

We had an interesting allegorie about the new styles of worship, because unfortunately, the Church argues over Traditional worship vs. Contemporary, which is quite sad. Anyway, it was alikened to catching fish, eg, you don't cach whitebait with a trout spear. they said that outreach has to be suited to the person it's trykng to reach.

Finally, do any christian out there know of any good contemporary bands that I could check out? I seem to be growing more distant form the secular music scene every day.

[OlgaTheDwarf]

I myself am not too much in too the worship music scene. I do think that the whole worship music explosion is a bit blown-out of proportion (not to deter you from it if you find that you like it). I do believe that most of the bands out there have the right motives, but when I see that Time-Life has made a "Worship 4 Life" series, it seems to be just there to generate money. When that happens worship music becomes dumb and losses what it's all about, worshipping the Creator of the universe.

As for curches arguing over contemporary vs. traditional, that just plain sucks. Because again it losses what worship music is all about, it becomes a battle between christains, and divides them. Instead christains shouldn't care if it's hymns or a rock and roll song, they should sing their heart out to God (because that's all that is important).

Some good worship bands that you should check out are, Third Day, Delerious?, and Rock 'n Roll Worship Circus. Plus there are many other bands that have done some worship music such as The Newsboys, Michael W. Smith, and Skillet. Also, if you want to check out some worship music that's kind of old but has inspired much of today's worship music, check out some stuff by Rich Mullins.

[Jesus Chicken]

I cant stand any of the christiant rock that I have heard so far. In our city we have the Australiant Gospel Music Festival, which is something I went along to, to see if any good rock could have anything to do with religion. Personaly what I saw there justified my opinion that it doens't work. Songs with distorted guitars, and heavy drums, and then lyrics along the lines of "Jesus is my saviour\he will save us all\ keep us out of trouble\ protect us from a fall" made the experience quite unpleasant. I don't like it at all, but then again, plenty of people (regardless of what may be wrong with them) think its great. Oh well
You said you were looking for some bands? Well some christiant OZ bands are: Antiskeptic (I think), Rhubarb...
and thats all I can remember.

[JCBaggee]

[color=red][size=1][font=arial]Love the new Christian bands and whatnot coming out these days! They've got the great, alternative sound with the same beautiful words.

Oh, I doubt anyone has, but who here listens to Lost And Found?

--Chris[/color][/size][/font]

[Dan L]

[b]*big thumbs up to Shinji Ikari*[/b]

Well, you could start off with...

Tim Hughes and Matt Redman (a few soundbytes can be found at [url]www.worshiptogether.com[/url] - album available from [url]www.soulsurvivor.com[/url] shop)

Gareth Robinson (3 downloadable songs at [url]http://www.churchnext.net/living_creative_sounds_gareth.shtml[/url] - album available from same site)

Heat ( sound clips at [url]http://www.heatonline.org.uk/band/downloads.html[/url] - albums available from [url]www.soulsurvivor.com[/url] shop)

Delirious ( [url]http://www.delirious.co.uk[/url] )

David Gate ( album available at [url]www.SoulSurvivor.com[/url] )

And also, Vineyard USA's latest album, Just like Heaven, is a great one (go to [url]www.vineyardmusic.com[/url] )



w.r.t. contemporary vs. traditional worship,

in my view anyone who sticks to one side and proclaims it "right" is in fact wrong.

The important thing is to worship, not the specific way in which we worship.

Exodus 35:5, Moses told the people "from what you have, take an offering to the Lord". It applies to this situation because, in other words if you prefer traditional worship, fine, do it that way. If you prefer modern, fine. But it's using [i]what we have[/i] (ie. what we can do) rather than the specific style in which we do it, that's important.

As for outreach, I'd completely agree that the new style works far better. But at the same time, worship isn't entirely about outreach. It's also about drawing closer to God. If you do that better with traditional hymns then that's no problem to me.



(I didn't mean to imply that any of you thought that hymns were bad or the traditional way is wrong or anything.. just thought I'd clarify on that)

[EcCenTriC fairy]

[size=1]I'm a little old-fashioned, so I'm not too into contemporary worship services, though I love modern Christian music. Some of my favorites are Relient K, Skillet, Thousand Foot Crutch, and Disciple.[/size]

[Sara]

[size=1]Lost and Found, heh. My youth group goes to their concerts every so often. Can't keep them clear with other groups, but I definitely recognize the name.

My favorite group is The Newsboys.[/size]

[Guest cloricus]

I cannot stand it. For a few of the points Jesus put up and that it just sounds stupid. Like a bunch of try-hard rich kids trying to be "cool", which is what the starters of the gospel music festival are. There is only one Christian band that I have ever liked, and their best song (IMO) is wasted by their shoddy lyrics. Shame.

Though there is only one type that I will get up and change channel for, and that's the sort of rap type, TV evangelist sort of thing. And the advertising for Christian worship songs, it's disgusting.

Eps

[Guest Renegade V2]

[size=1][color=white]Christianity is dying and it's irrelevant...[/color][/size]

Anyway, I'm not much into Christain rock or contemporary or whatever you want to call. I'm not much into religion either though. I do however remember a band I loved a few years back. And I think they liked god, or something like that.

Jesus Freak?

=D I think so...

[TheShinje]

[size=1] Thanks, I'll check out some of the bands that you have mentioned.

I think some of you have a point when it comes to the rock music, it does sound bad sometimes, I can't stand alot of it to be quite honest, but there are those exceptional bands out there.

As to my stand on Contemporary vs. traditional, I agree with Dan that it only divides the church, and there is that passage in Corinthians about not being divided, So I enjoy them both. It really depends on what mood I'm in when the worships on.(when i want to hear from God, i use hymms and slow worship, when I like to just shout his praises out,techno seems more appropriate, or Rock if it doesn't sound bad.
a mixing combination is really good IMO. [/size]

[Guest Renegade V2]

Oh now I remember. Jesus Freak was a song by DC Talk! =P Blah..
*shoots self for commiting a sin*

[Lady Macaiodh]

[color=darkblue]I like traditional worship much better. I've been listening to Vineyard worship since I was pretty young (maybe 14 or so). I've also been getting into Irish worship. Revival in Belfast from Hosanna Music is amazing. They have a whole ensemble of something like 30 Irish instruments, lots of fiddles and flutes, and some things I've never even heard of. The lyrics are pretty modern, though, so it's a good combination.

I don't have a problem with Christian rock per se... it's just not my style. It's only become popular in the past ten years, and I'm just not much into the music from that era. I just don't think the music is very good, and I don't listen to "soft rock" at all anymore.

Reggae is a classic rock style that has a lot of Christian (Rasta) undertones, so I like listening to that.

As for DC Talk... I used to be obsessed.. I think I've seen them perform five or six times, between the ages of 12 to 15 or so. But that was back in my rap/hip-hop days. I had the Jesus Freak album, though. Did they ever make anything after that?

More artists from my youth... The Supertones, MxPx, Point of Grace... Amy Grant, Carman... [/color]

[Justin]

Eh...I also tend to be a traditional person myself. However, as Dan said, any worship is still worship. So, I'll honestly listen to any of it.

My favorite contemporary Christian would be stuff like Officer Negative, Shorthanded, Jesse and the Rockers...but only because they're punk. *shrug*

-Justin

[Jinzouningen17]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Shinji Ikari [/i]
[B][size=1]Finally, do any christian out there know of any good contemporary bands that I could check out? I seem to be growing more distant form the secular music scene every day.[/size][/B][/QUOTE]
I know a good bit of bands for ya to check out. Bands who you wouldnt even know are Christian bands. Here is a list of my personal favorites(mainly metal bands, but still)....

38th Parallel
Blindside
12 Stones(yep, they're a Christian band. Didnt know that did ya? ^_^)
Klank
Big Dismal
Living Sacrifice
Pax217
Pillar
Project 86
Stavesacre
The7Method
These 5 Down
Thousand Foot Krutch
Spoken

Theres a good bit of others. You just gotta search for em, since you'll rarely hear it em on the radio or anything else. A lot of the Christian bands have been gettin some play on MTV lately such as 12 Stones(who I didnt even know was a Christian band until a few weeks ago), Blindside, POD, and others. But like bands such as Klank, 38th Parallel, and such, you just gotta search for em. Go to [url]http://newsongonline.org/nshome.htm[/url] and go to "CCM Comparisons" and then you can find some more bands there that are as good as the secular bands. Like say you like...(I'm on the Hard-Rock/Metal page right now)...Rage Against the Machine or 311. Well, Christian bands thats like them(has their same style)are Crossface, Channel Surfers, Jacob's Dream, and Spoken. Or say you like Deftones and Incubus. Then you'll love Blindside, POD, and The7Method. Just gotta search for that stuff, ya know what I'm sayin.

Me personally, I love Christian music. Not that old school hymn mess, but the new age stuff like I just mentioned. Whether it be metal, hip hop, and all that other good stuff. If theres a secular band I like, I find a Christian group that somewhat mimiks them(their style), listen to it and the majority of stuff I hear is hot. So yeah, you just gotta search for hot Christian tracks. The stuff you hear on the radio is usually garbage. Just search for some Christian music(mainly on that page), and then I guarantee that you'll find a new appreciation for Christian music. I would talk about more, but I gotta go to work. I'll talk more about it later when I get home. ^_^

[Guest Imsirion]

I listened to a lot of DC Talk and Newsboys but I have some new faves. Skillet, Toby Mac and some not as well know bands like The Rock and Roll Worship Circus (I know them, nice people) Redline, Stutterfly, Fat Cat Deluxe and some others I can't think of right now.

But, I still love the old/traditional church music, and the stuff that came from the Brownsville revival, amazing.

[Dan L]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Lady Macaiodh [/i]
[B][color=darkblue]I like traditional worship much better. I've been listening to Vineyard worship since I was pretty young (maybe 14 or so). I've also been getting into Irish worship. Revival in Belfast from Hosanna Music is amazing. They have a whole ensemble of something like 30 Irish instruments, lots of fiddles and flutes, and some things I've never even heard of. The lyrics are pretty modern, though, so it's a good combination. [/color] [/B][/QUOTE]

Vineyard is considered traditional?.. then I guess I'm a traditional kind of person then.. heh.

Mind you, maybe the vineyard style has changed a fair bit, since I've only just got into it




edit:

I think I see the idea now.

I'm in an Anglican church (though I'm not a fussy denominational type- the "anglican" bit is just a technicality), so to me, "traditional" stuff is anything that involves an organ, and "contemporory" is anything that doesn't ;)

so yeah

[Subversive]

Hey its an outlet to reach people, I give it a big thumbs up. I personally am not into it, but if it works for you, it works.