Stanley Porter Blog

Gospel Music or Contemporary Christian

January 25th, 2010

Music has changed.   Wait..music is constantly changing.  You know what?  Church is changing too and this impacts the music we hear in worship.  It’s easy to feel lost in all of the transitions, new chords, and convergence of musical styles in Christian and Gospel music today.  There is hope for the real worshipper, trying to find his or her footing in this new musical landscape: God Never Changes.  If we can find Him in the music, “I’ve got a feelin’ that everything’s gonna be alright”.

We must deal with the tensions that we feel.  For some of us the more traditional songs bring us to a place of communion with God.  For others, who are more contemporary, we’ll take God in a worship chock full of rock, hip hop, jazz, and even classical music!  It is sometimes easy for one group to frown upon the worship experiences and tastes of another.  I love traditional gospel because that is what I grew up on.  Though I can appreciate contemporary Christian music, there are others for whom it is the vehicle by which they came to know the Lord.  For these people, there is a different connection with and through this genre.  So we must understand this: God is not limited to one form of Christian musical expression.  Musical expression reflects the culture we are in at the moment.  However God has NEVER let cultural boundaries limit his ability to move and reveal himself!

 A quick sidebar: No matter what music you identify with, never confuse musicality with the anointing.  Beautiful singing, lovely keyboard playing, and heavenly organ sounds are not automatically representative of the anointing!  Be careful!  Perhaps in a later blog I will break this down. 

For now keep praising him!  If you’re singing “How Great Is Our God” He’s worthy!  Even if your dancing to “What A Might God We Serve”…He’s still worthy!  And he hears all of our praises.

This blog was written by Stanley Porter, President of 4:12 Productions and award nominated writer/composer of three urban gospel albums.  To find out more on Stanley Porter visit www.stanleyporter.net

Entry Filed under: Ministry, Music