Music: Get Gospel This Year

You hear it, you feel it, and it can make your day. You grab a cup of coffee, swing around the room, and the next minute you know, you grab a broomstick and you're dancing.

If Nokia goes with 'music gets you talking', I'll go with 'music gets you dancing'.

I would like to confidently state that there is probably no one on earth who hates music. If they do - well - I assume that they hate food, too.

But music is like a big ocean teeming with different sea creatures. There are so many different genres that can make you feel happy, sad, angry, pessimistic, optimistic, fiery, hyper, crazy...sentimental... and, oh yeah, suicidal.

What goes in through the ears ends up in the heart so choosing music is no small thing and we had better get it right.

There are generally three factors that a person considers when evaluating music. First of all, there's that catchy tune. No matter how great or bad the lyrics are, of course there has got to be that ever-so-captivating tune. Then, there are the lyrics. So the tune's cool, but what do the words mean? What's the song about? And finally, there's the magnificent singer behind all this. Who is that person or group singing this song? Where do they come from? Who or what inspired them to produce such music?

Now let's apply all this to Christian music. Starting from step one: people hear the tune and they love it - which makes me incredibly proud that the level of gospel music has been raised high enough to catch mainstream attention. Step two: many of them feel uncomfortable with the 'Jesus' lyrics and withdraw. Step three: They never get to reach it.

But- tad a!- God works in amazing ways and sends out his 'secret' messengers like Switchfoot and Relient K out there to help those less-enthusiastic Jesus fans to reach step three.

Although popular mainstream band Switchfoot claim to be "Christian by faith, not by genre," their music contains spiritual content that points to Christianity, without being too direct. Their message is positive - not to mention clean. Fans dig their songs, love their lyrics, now they want to know where it comes from. From there onwards or from then on, God takes them on an extraordinary journey that they could never have imagined.

On the other hand, while there are 'crossovers' like bands Hawk Nelson and MercyMe, there are hardcore worship leaders like Matt Redman and Chris Tomlin who are more upfront about the meaning behind their songs. Thanks to God, Christian album sales have experienced a huge increase in the last year (I won't bore you with statistics), not to mention consistent development throughout the past decade.

Either way, God is raising these musicians in various ways to reach out to different people, just like Apostle Paul approached and raised disciples differently, according to their level:

To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. (1Corinthians 9:20 NIV)

There are 6 billion people on earth so there should be at least 6 billion different songs to reach 6 billion different hearts.

So in what other ways will God use music this year? What will be the next big Christian music genre in 2007? Who will be the new emerging faces?

No need to think too hard. For now, just tune into some Christian music and rock your heart out. It does your spirit good. By the way, Happy New Year.