The Issue Of Contemporary Christian Music In Worship

One of the largest repertories of Christian music developed in recent years is the genre known as Contemporary Christian Music (CCM). This music unites texts that express aspects of the Christian faith with a variety of popular musical styles, including rock. This article describes some philosophical perspectives relating to this genre and its use in worship. Jesus Music, Gospel, and CCM as Terms: Style vs. Genre To attempt to categorize or describe the musical phenomenon in the church over the last half century or so by applying the term Contemporary Christian Music to it is imprecise at best, and also, as is often the case, misleading and oversimplified. The history of music in general, and sacred music in particular, is best viewed through the image of a long river: At times it moves slow and the current is fairly uniform; in other places the movement is swifter and marked by swirling, overlapping, and even crossing currents. The debate over the "content" of one kind of music v…