From the 60's to today God is raising up generations who engage with the musical styles of the day. Why? Jon Bellamy explains.

Jonathan Bellamy

'The words "Jesus Freak" were first coined in the late sixties, when hippies became part of a new revival, the Jesus Movement. It was a time when music, poetry, and an open expression for Jesus Christ turned a new generation on to God. It merged rock and roll with the Gospel message, a wave we're still riding today known as contemporary Christian music. It infused the Church with the arts. It shook up conventional worship. And, due to its "in your face" approach, it had a backlash. The rest of the world called these over-zealous young people "Jesus Freaks" as a derogatory term. But decades later a new generation is embracing that same passion for expression.' Kevin Max (DC Talk, 2000) from the book Jesus Freaks.

There are two primary tools that Cross Rhythms uses to engage with today's society and communicate Christian faith, Christian lifestyle and the power and love of God. These are media and contemporary music.

There is much debate over what is called 'Christian Music'. What makes it Christian? Is it the lyrics? Is it the performer? Is it the record label?

At Cross Rhythms our current understanding is that music is music and to put labels on it only works to reinforce a sacred-secular divide, something that is not helpful when trying to 'go into the world' and engage and connect with those outside our church culture.

However, we do believe that music is influenced by the heart, the lifestyle, the spirituality and the worldview of those who use their natural gifting to create music. 'Out of the heart the mouth speaks, life or death'. So the best understanding of what is 'Christian Music' is that which is written by professing Christians who are living an active Christian faith. And this music has the potential to convey Christian spiritual truths ('life').

In a contemporary culture where rock, pop, rap, hip-hop etc are the musical styles of the day, Christians producing music in these styles have a greater ability to engage with people in the culture of the day, and there are now literally thousands and thousands of these 'musicianaries' worldwide.

But where did all today's so called contemporary Christian musicians come from?

Many theologians have documented that the last revival to really impact the western world was the Jesus Movement in the late 60's and 70's. The importance of this move of God was that it impacted a generation. However the church at the time struggled to appreciate the move of God and as John Smith puts it, these young people "were asking the most profound questions about life and all they got from the church was a judgment about the length of their hair and whether or not they had shoes on their feet."

The tension between a new move from God and the old order is profoundly illustrated in the relationship between David and Saul. A powerful king who was out of sorts with his God is challenged by a young pretender who has an intimate relationship with his God and is doing exploits, such as defeating the champion of the Philistines.

The saying is often 'the older persecutes the younger'. This is particularly true of old religion persecuting new moves of God. The challenge is for the new move not to rebel against the old order and this example of noble submission was courageously demonstrated by David.

Dr Elmer Towns says of the Jesus Movement: "The flames of revival once again grew bright as thousands of hippies became 'Jesus Freaks'. This revolution saw lives transformed as people ditched drugs and free sex and sought a new high - walking the Christian lifestyle".

Whilst in his book 'Raised By Wolves', John J Thompson summarises: "Some estimates say that during the Jesus Movement over 800 communal living experiments sprang up in North America. Estimates of changed lives reach three million. Hundreds of ministers took to street ministries, hip churches, musical outreaches or communes. As the 1960's gave way to the 1970's, most Americans respected the movement as a legitimate expression of Christian faith; although a number of preachers, including the television variety, were thrilled to have something to whip up their congregations over, and Jesus Freaks made a good target. Most mainstream evangelical churches now use music in their Sunday services that would have been unacceptable 30 years ago. Even the most conservative worship music these days is more aggressive than the most progressive church music was in the 1960's".

He continues: "A whole industry designed to sell contemporary Christian music sprang from the embers of the Jesus Movement. But to many it was the chemistry of rock and roll, complete with it's dissonance, syncopation and urgency, that most closely resembled their passion for Jesus".

Scott Ross on CBN's The 700 Club in 2002 commented: "Jesus Music became an expression of worship and an anthem for evangelism." And Dr Elmer Towns adds: "I think that impact has touched almost all churches through music more than anything else. This is the key to revival. God says in John 4 that the Father is seeking worshippers to worship him and when you worship him he will come".