-Vocal Coach Ken

-Vocal Coach Ken

The music of the Crowder Band is an attempt to respond to God with the sound He has given them and their community. They are a worship band, not a ministry band. In worship we are focused, as best we fallen souls can be, only on God, not others. Their music is never about appealing to the masses (have you heard Sunsets & Sushi? I mean I like it, but the is no mass appeal there). What they do is reflect the musical taste of the people they worship with AKA Waco, not to minister to them or anyone else. They make music so they can facilitate corporate worship with these people, and luckily us too. And they chose this particular kind to help eliminate any posturing much as possible, so we may be as authentic as possible before God. I don’t sing in church (or along with DC*B on my iPod) to minister to people. I sing because when I do God will listen!

The music of the Crowder Band is an attempt to respond to God with the sound He has given them and their community. They are a worship band, not a ministry band. In worship we are focused, as best we fallen souls can be, only on God, not others. Their music is never about appealing to the masses (have you heard Sunsets & Sushi? I mean I like it, but the is no mass appeal there). What they do is reflect the musical taste of the people they worship with AKA Waco, not to minister to them or anyone else. They make music so they can facilitate corporate worship with these people, and luckily us too. And they chose this particular kind to help eliminate any posturing much as possible, so we may be as authentic as possible before God. I don’t sing in church (or along with DC*B on my iPod) to minister to people. I sing because when I do God will listen!

See, this is, in my opinion, the fundamental problem with so many current Christian artists. Too many of them are so concerned with being “relevant” and with “relating to” the world that they miss several important Biblical injunctions: the call to be in the world, but not of the world; the command to come OUT from the world and “be ye separate”; and the necessity of obvious distinction when comparing worship music with secular song.

I’ll be the first to tell you – I’m no strict separatist. I’m an enormous proponent of Christian contemporary music, and I love the work that the DC*B has done in recent years. However, when Christian artists are so desperate to create an attractive product that they seek to appease the secular world and its critics, I feel that the line of clear distinction has become blurred. It isn’t our job as Christians to figure out what “best” works in drawing the crowds… We find within the pages of Scripture that the message of the Gospel itself is strong enough to accomplish this on its own. There comes a point in time when an artist has to form a definition of “success” for himself, and from this interview, I think it’s no stretch to infer that Brother David may be a little too concerned with the attractive image of his product and not enough with offering an alternative to the world’s destructive lifestyle.

I’m a huge fan of the hymns, and I think that Crowder is as well. He’s redone and remastered many of them. However, I take some offense at the thought that doing things the “old way” equates to being “cloistered and oblivious.” I challenge him to find Scriptural support for the notion that in order to be effective in ministry, one has to be “relevant” and “with the times.”

See, this is, in my opinion, the fundamental problem with so many current Christian artists. Too many of them are so concerned with being “relevant” and with “relating to” the world that they miss several important Biblical injunctions: the call to be in the world, but not of the world; the command to come OUT from the world and “be ye separate”; and the necessity of obvious distinction when comparing worship music with secular song.

I’ll be the first to tell you – I’m no strict separatist. I’m an enormous proponent of Christian contemporary music, and I love the work that the DC*B has done in recent years. However, when Christian artists are so desperate to create an attractive product that they seek to appease the secular world and its critics, I feel that the line of clear distinction has become blurred. It isn’t our job as Christians to figure out what “best” works in drawing the crowds… We find within the pages of Scripture that the message of the Gospel itself is strong enough to accomplish this on its own. There comes a point in time when an artist has to form a definition of “success” for himself, and from this interview, I think it’s no stretch to infer that Brother David may be a little too concerned with the attractive image of his product and not enough with offering an alternative to the world’s destructive lifestyle.

I’m a huge fan of the hymns, and I think that Crowder is as well. He’s redone and remastered many of them. However, I take some offense at the thought that doing things the “old way” equates to being “cloistered and oblivious.” I challenge him to find Scriptural support for the notion that in order to be effective in ministry, one has to be “relevant” and “with the times.”