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Communication - "and language" - Talking to Your Culture
Analyzing, Understanding and Being Heard

"There are ... so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without significance; if I know not the meaning of the voice I shall be to him that speaks a barbarian, and him that speaks a barbarian to me" (1 Cor 14:10-11)

STAYING UP WITH CHANGES

Daniel's band were subjected to change of exponential proportions. Uprooted from their homes, their families and everything they knew, they were marched off into captivity to a totally alien culture. They had to not only learn to adjust to this ruling power once; in hardly more than a generation, they had to do it all over again as another military power conquered their world. Yet they learned so quickly and changed so fast that they were able to triumph for God. Like them, your culture has been conquered by Babylon. Like them, you inherit great change. Like them, you must learn to adapt your approach without compromising your convictions.

YOU ARE A MISSIONARY to your world. That world changes every day. Its interests, fears, loves, hates and heroes keep shifting. Every missionary has a task: to know the natives, culture, customs and language of your chosen field. Every Christian a missionary; every lost man or woman a mission-field. If you just recently became a child of God you already know the culture. Customs. Language. The natives are some of your friends. You know where they hang out. You have a great advantage. What you must know is what to say and when to say it.

HOW TO SPEAK SO PEOPLE LISTEN:

"If you talk to a person in some language he doesn't understand, how will he know what you mean? You might as well be talking to an empty room." 1 Cor 14:9

A famous preacher of another century at first had great difficulty getting through to his congregation. He was a good scholar and sincerely devoted to God but his inability to speak was a source of great grief to him. When he asked the Lord what to do, he was directed to study the public and private witness of the Early Church in the book of Acts. From this he found three common principles. He diligently applied all three to his first morning message. Scores of people responded. He said "I wept all day. I said : Now I know how to preach the Gospel." What did he find? These THREE BASIC ELEMENTS he learned are the most important principles I can give you in all your communication with others. Use them in this order, and see what God does!

(1) Establish COMMON GROUND. When Paul spoke to Jewish people, he spoke as a Jewish Rabbi. When his audience was Roman, he identified with them as a Roman citizen. To the Greek philosophers on Mars Hill in Athens he quoted Greek poets to them, calling on what they already knew and were interested in before he spoke of Jesus and the Resurrection. Find something you and your audience have in common. You may have very little in common with a crowd, but ask God for a key.

True communication is a gift of God's grace. I always pray for:
(a) Communication - ability to make a spiritual connection with people I talk to.
(b) Conviction - that God the Holy Spirit will make them aware of what sins to be dealt with and forgiven or what He wants to say to challenge or encourage them.
(c) Compassion - the sense from God that they are loved enough to die for. Find where they are and go there in Christ. When Jesus wanted to talk to us, He joined up with us. He died as the God-man to win mankind back to God.

(2) TELL THEM WHAT THEY KNOW TO BE TRUE. Notice; tell them what they know to be true. There are many things you know to be true, and you of course want to tell them unknown truth they need to know. But that is not where you start. First tell them what they already know is true. Tell them the same thing as many ways as you can. Make sure what you say is what they know for sure and have no doubt of.

Paul said to Agrippa "I know you are an expert in all customs and questions" ...the King knows of these things of which I speak freely" (Acts 26:3,26) Tell them what they already know is true from every illustration you can find - songs, movies, videos, games, stories, reports, news, magazines. Think what happens when you do this ten, twenty times. They hear you say something they know is true. They think "Well, that's true." They hear you say the next thing. "That's true". The next. "That's true too." And if they know what you say is true each time they hear it, they will be really listening when you tell them the truth about God, Jesus and salvation; truth they have never heard before. Remember: all truth is God's truth, even if it isn't religious truth. God speaks in many ways to people even when they have not heard His Word.

(3) PUT IT ALL IN A GOSPEL CONTEXT. When you have established common ground, and told them many times what they know is true, bring EVERYTHING BACK TO CHRIST AND HIS KINGDOM. Relate what you say to Jesus. Paul said "I continue witnessing to this day ... saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come; that Christ should suffer ... and rise from the dead .... Do you believe the prophets? I know that you believe." (Acts 26:22, 27)

Approach every message, every witness THIS WAY IN THIS ORDER. "Have you ever been lonely? I remember when I first got left ... Did you hear the song that says ... This book said .. this movie shows ... that guy on TV said yesterday ... this woman was so lonely she .. I read this morning that .." And then put the truth back into the CONTEXT OF CHRIST. "There is a way out of loneliness. There is a Friend that sticks closer than a brother. His Name is Jesus. He said "Come to Me and I will give you rest." He said "I will never leave you nor forsake you." King David in the Bible understood when he said "When my mother and father forsake me the Lord will take me up." Common ground. Culturally-known truth. Context set back to Christ.

RESEARCHING A CULTURE:

How do you study your world without being pulled into it? How do you know it without falling prey to it? Here are guidelines to help you build communication with your culture without being hurt by it.

Christian journalist and long-term editor of Decision magazine Sherwood Wirt addressed the need years ago in what he called Renaissance - Reformation Man. These two kinds of people both made their mark in history but are utterly different.

Renaissance Man is the casual, cultured and collected MAN OF THE WORLD. He is acquainted with everything going on around him - the arts, sciences, sports, movies, books, TV, politics, people in the news. Like a talk show host, he seems to know something about everything. He is witty, charming, classy and cool. He dresses right, and knows all the new hip words and happenings. He knows what interests others and how to say it to the widest audience. He is sensitive to the slightest shift in the wind of contemporary mood. He seldom says the wrong thing at the wrong time. Everybody listens to him and though not everybody agrees with him, most everybody likes him. He also has NOTHING OF SUBSTANCE TO SAY. He is a mirror of all men, a reflection of what a culture is at one point in time of no history and no future.

The Reformation Man born around the same time is utterly different. He is a MAN OF GOD; a person of one book, one subject, one Person, one passion. He is direct, forceful, fiery and usually a little bit angry with the world. He upsets people. He does not know how to be politically correct. He could care less what people are into, because he knows what they should be doing. He is a thorn in the flesh to the smirking, easy-going crowd he knows is headed for Hell. He is a man who hears from heaven and who gets his direction from God. He knows the Bible, Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. He is a man of faith, truth, one single love and utter conviction. He knows who he is, why he is here, how he got where he is and where he is going. He has something of utmost importance to say. He also has NOBODY LISTENING to him. He is a voice crying in the wilderness, a man never heard.

The Renaissance man knows his WORLD but he has NOTHING TO SAY to it.
The Reformation man knows his WORD but he has LOST HIS AUDIENCE.

What we most need in our time, said Wirt is the Renaissance-Reformation Man, the man who both knows his world widely and is listened to by it, and who knows God deeply and hears truth from Heaven. Is such a person possible? Every new generation of Christians face this tension. John Stott called it "Between Two Worlds." It is the challenge of the church in our culture. We could put the task in two ways: How do you live in the world without becoming worldly? Can you be holy without living in a hole?
LIVING IN THE WORLD WITHOUT BEING WORLDLY

"I pray not that you should take them out of the world but that You should keep them from the evil." (Jesus praying to the Father for His followers ; John 17:15)

When you become a Christian why don't you just go straight to heaven? It would avoid a lot of pressures and trials. You could get to live right away with people who love you in a place where there is no sin, no sickness, no evil and no death. The simple answer is: you still have something to do. Jesus doesn't want you to go yet. Far from you leaving the world, He is praying instead that you will stay in it. (John 17:15)

If we have to live as men and women of God in a culture that is largely against Him, how do we do it? What does God expect of us? How much can we study the world around us to know how to help it without it hurting us? How do you learn to share with it without it seducing us?

You are a missionary. The difference between being a missionary to a culture like ours and a culture of the past is that this one changes all the time. You want to keep in touch with this mission-field. Is there some way to keep abreast and even ahead of what is going on? The KEY to living in the world without becoming worldly is to keep a clean heart and a pure mind with (most importantly) HEARING EARS. You do not necessarily have to increase your exposure. In fact you must take steps to limit your exposure to the bottom line you need in order to know what you are talking about. What you want to aim at is to INCREASE YOUR SENSITIVITY to what you are already exposed to. There are many things you see and hear each day that are part of your normal life. What you need is to learn to really see, really hear what is being said and shown in the light of God's work in your world.

EXERCISING YOUR SENSES

The Bible speaks about using our senses to discern what is going on around us. (Heb. 5:15) Not all of what we can learn about God's work in the world is given to our spiritual eyes. The word holy in the West means good but usually implies dumb. The same word in the East means wise, but not necessarily good. In the Bible however the word "holy" means both wise and good like God. (Deut. 14:2) When God calls us to be holy, He calls us not only to be pure in heart, but to be wise, perceptive, aware of what is around us. A Christian ought to be the most aware person in a room.

Sight: What do you SEE? When you look at someone's face what can you learn? You can learn the body language of someone who is angry, sad, guilty, resistive or receptive. Watch their hands, the way they hold or fold their arms. Are the open or nervous, uptight or defensive? If someone is lying, they may blink their eyes more often, yawn or partially cover their mouth when they talk to you. There is a whole science of body talk. A great deal of what people really are saying to us is silent.

When you enter someone's' room, what do you notice? How is the furniture arranged? Where do the chairs point? What does it tell you about the focus of their life-style? What kind of decoration or posters are on the wall? How do they wear their clothes? What accessories are they wearing? If you watch a video or a movie, what visual cues are you being given? How is the material presented? What does a TV ad really say? What does a filmmaker want you to think? Use your eyes.

Sound: What do you HEAR? If music is playing in the background, what is it saying? When your culture fills the airwaves with music and words, what are the dominant messages that come through? If you need to, tape it and play it back until you get it. Make it a practice to visit a music store periodically and check out new or hot releases. Read the liner notes or lyrics in tapes or CD's, The poets and artists of a time are often secular prophets to the nation. If people are talking around you in a cafeteria or restaurant, do you sense any needs? What is the tone of voice that people use when they speak to you? Learn to discern the real message under the words.

Smell: Scents and odors can tell you things about places and people. God likes fragrance. (Ex. 30:34-35; 2 Cor. 2:15) Always smell something cautiously first if you are in doubt before you eat or drink it. The nose is much more sensitive than the tongue in picking out something that is off or going bad.. (If you have to drink something that tastes awful, hold your nose!) Some sins show up on the breath and the body like addictions to alcohol, marijuana and tobacco. Decay and death have their own strong signals; ask anyone who has worked in a hospital.

Touch: The way a blind man learns about his world is to push this sense to the max. The surface of a hand when you shake it, the feel of a table-top or wall can all tell you things about a person or a place. The worst thing about death is that you can no longer touch anyone. The most feared disease in Bible times was leprosy, a disease that destroyed your sense of touch.

Taste: There are only a few simple flavors (like salt, sweet, sour and bitter) sensed by the tongue; all tastes are combinations of these with scents and smells. God says: "You are the worlds secret seasoning to make it more palatable; what will happen to the world if you lose your flavor?" (Matt. 5:13 Living Bible) As you clean out your body from toxins and dulling pollutants, your taste buds will become much more sensitive. You will begin again to appreciate the flavor and savor of foods you eat and be more aware of things that are potentially harmful. You may even be able to tell what is in foods by their taste and if water is clean.

"BRAILLING" YOUR CULTURE

If you were blind and you wanted to find out what something was like, how would you do it? You use what senses you have - smell, sound and especially touch. The blind have a language of touch where silent pages speak. The best way to find out what something feels like is to touch it in as many ways as you can. So too, you can keep up with what is going on all around you. "Braille" what goes on wherever you go. "Touch" it in as MANY PLACES as you can. No-one expects you to be an expert in everything; don't try to be. What they do hope is that you are INTERESTED IN EVERYTHING really important to them. Three levels of learning braille a culture:

(1) Spend time with the natives. Hang with those you would like to reach. Take whatever time they will give you just listen. Becky Pippert calls this "Pizza-Parlor Evangelism." If you are going to go fishing for souls, go where the fish are.

(2) Soak yourself in their world. You pick up more than the language when you live with the people; you also pick up the accent. If you speak about their world without ever taking the time to live any part of your life in it, you speak with an accent and they know you don't live where they live. Such sensitivity can't be taught. You catch it, not learn it. You can be forgiven much for not knowing something, but when you don't care enough to know you don't know, you will lose your audience.

(2) Study the movers and the shakers. Who are the leaders of the world you are trying to reach? Learn something about your mission-fields' heroes. Who do they admire? Who do they listen to? Who do they look up to and model their lives after? Make it your business to find out all you can about them. Look at the artists, the stars, leaders they look to as examples. FIND OUT what makes them tick and get a key into that cultures' heart. Sometimes those heroes may even be dead or fantasy figures. Love what you can of what you find. Ask God to show you what is the unmet need in every wrong, the hunger behind the sin that Jesus can touch with His grace.

TV MOVIES & VIDEOS:

You live in a VISUAL WORLD. You are the first modern generation growing up whose primary input comes from screens and not print. You are also the first in history to grow up in a culture with access to total media exposure. Your world communicates its ideas and life-styles largely through pictures.

Television has given us instant access to what is going on around the world. Conflicts and concerts, disaster and triumph, the good, the bad and the ugly all connect us in over 90% of the wired nations of the world. Video can store anything you care to see or record and bring it back at the touch of a key. Movies have become the popular dramatic form of our time, the most entertaining way the culture tells its stories and makes its heroes. Computers link us with vast info-bases and videogames entertain us.

If you are typical you will spend more than NINE YEARS of your life in front of a tube, more than any other activity other than work or school and sleep. Parents are often concerned about what you watch, and rightly so. Rarely do the morals of the moguls who make the movies match the life of the ordinary person. Their own grim or dirty fantasies are held up as normal to remake a culture in their own image. All that is sick or ugly or shocking is called on for the hungry maw of programming in the name of news, information and entertainment. If JESUS sat down with you to watch TV, what could you turn to that would not embarrass you? The "wasteland" T.S. Eliot talked about may sit right there in your living room, and technology constantly updates its ability to give you more and more that says less and less. No wonder people who are not even Christians have written arguments for the elimination of television.

"Then I saw that she was defiled, that she was headed down the same road and that she added to her immorality; for when she saw men portrayed upon the wall, the scarlet dirt images of Babylon .. as soon as she saw them with her eyes, she doted on them." (Ezek. 23:14-16)

Yet the content of television, video and movies does not affect us as much as the medium itself. No generation of teenagers in past centuries ever had to deal with this. Nothing quite like this has ever happened before. The effects of it on people are still being measured. The jury is still out, but this visual media is here to stay. You can of course cut it off completely and many have. The Bible gives us precedent for dealing drastically with things that we cannot control or we do not seem to be able to handle that can destroy our lives. No one in their right mind would sacrifice a hand or a foot or an eye for something insignificant. It would have to be seen as something that threatens your very life. (Matt. 5:30; Mark 8:43-47; Gal. 6:14.)

A man or woman who does not know how to deal with this dominant force will lose their place in the world. A man or woman who surrenders to its power may lose their place in the next. Only you can guard your mind and heart against the dangers of such a strong influence. No one else will ultimately be able to sit with you in all the situations where you could fall into hurtful flights of fantasy and scar places in your mind that will come back later to cripple your life. And remember: Jesus knows you utterly. He knows what you listen to, what you watch, what you think about and why.

Whatever you do with media, know its weaknesses. Visual images are not enough. Transient learning has after-effects. Guard your heart from these consequences:

(1) Sampled experience: A TV picture frame is a scanning dot of light, a still shot changing thirty times or more a second. Your brain has to fill in 99% of that image at any given instant. TV images have no history outside a video recorder or fantasy re-runs of families that never really existed in real life. You touch, you taste, you move on. You learn to pick up what you take as true at a glance, without the chance to think hard or deep about anything. Because of this your generation tests truth not by authority or history but by SAMPLING. It says, "so what if what even the Pope says is Catholic truth? Does what he says match what I already know or feel?" A talk show is rarely a place for intelligent talk; it rarely knows or shows a glimpse of what is really going on. It can give you the idea of learning without your actually knowing or remembering anything. ""This is what the LORD says: "Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, 'We will not walk in it.'" (Jer. 6:16) NIV

(2) Artificial Interest: Visuals sell by showing you something in an odd or unusual way. Real life on the other hand has many unexciting bits in it; long waiting in lines, sitting down doing homework, food that doesn't snap, crackle and pop, cars that don't dance and people that don't fly. Not everything in life is fun. Miss the point and your favorite word will be "boring." It has driven your generations' need to be hyped to the absolute edge; extreme entertainment, games, fights. One thing you'll never learn from multimedia is what you're really like in the stillness. "Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth." (Ps. 46:10)

(3) Short Transit Times: On TV and in the movies everything is solved in an hour or two. All the slow things are edited out to keep you glued to the screen, so won't miss anything. Media is filled with "sound bytes" and "one-liners". You haven't got time to think when forty different images are hurled at you in less than sixty seconds. In a media world, you learn to react, not deliberate. You go for the short-term and the immediate, not the long look. You are made to think there is something wrong with you if you want to wait, to think it through, to carefully choose with a mind towards the future. What will you do with a world filled with leaders whose main concern is the next election, not the next generation? "Let patience have her perfect work that you may be perfect and whole, lacking nothing" (James 1:4).

(4) Moral: Visual media pushes a cultural consensus without a transcendent vision. Truth is whatever you think it is. Good is what the crowd happens to like. Anything is O.K. except perhaps saying that something isn't O.K. Buy into this and you eventually lose all passion. Its victims not only have no real sense of right and wrong. no absolutes: they also have no grand dreams left, no great vision. "Where there is no vision, the people perish; but he that keeps the law, happy is he." (Prov. 29:18)

(5) Emotional: To gain and maintain an audience, much media uses shock marketing. To break through the shell people have to put up to screen themselves from incessant demands on their time, their attention and their money, advertisers and programmers aim at the absolutely outlandish. You see it particularly in the concerts and music. Why is metal so loud? Because perhaps no-one is listening. There is a limit to pain and suffering. If a zombie is someone whose mind is cut off, a frombie is someone whose feelings are cut off. Kids don't say "I love you" anymore. They just "have relationships". "Greater love has no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command." (John 15:13-14)

(6) Physical: TV encourages passivity; just watch, listen and take in without giving out. It can so involve that you become reluctant to leave and resentful of intrusion. It tells you - "Don't go anywhere - the world will come to you". People you never meet sell you products you don't need. What used to be your private place and sanctuary becomes a cultural garbage disposal unit. Things get worse and worse but no-one seems to do anything about it. Such passivity and envy breeds frustration and rage. Once violence used to be a last resort. Now it has become a means of communication. "When the sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out, the hearts of the people are filled with schemes to do wrong." (Eccl 8:11 NIV)

(7) Mental: The artificial world of Babylon's' media is a brain by-pass operation. To move into its world in a permanent way is to live in a world of lost language, pictures without proof, dying imagination and discarded discernment. Like the "Nothing" of the Never-Ending Story, it impassively eats up everything. Solomon understood what happens to a generation that gives everything to life without God. Take heaven out of the picture, live life only under the sun and everything turns into a black hole:

".. All is emptiness. One generation passes away, and another .. all the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full .. the thing that has been is that which shall be; that which is done is that which shall be done; and there is no new thing under the sun. Is there anything of which it can be said "See, this is new?" It has been here already before our time. There is no remembrance of former things; neither will that yet to come be remembered by those who follow them. I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, just chasing the wind." (Ecc. 1:1-14).

VIDEOGAMES & VIRTUAL REALITY

Ever-growing in popularity and sophistication, the video-game is a true twentieth-century phenomenon. A multi-billion dollar a year industry, it is the ongoing result of electronic marriage of visual excitement, vicarious participation and virtual reality programming. Here you can adapt another persona, do ultimate battle with monsters or the more-than-human, play God in another world - and still be safely back home in time for supper.

Your generation is a videogame. All of life seems to move at an ever-increasing and relentless pressure. You put in your change and the battle begins. You gotta go fast and you gotta change often. There's always someone watching. There's always a little kid beside you dying to show you he's better. It helps if you know the cheat codes and the secret moves; you last longer. You still never get out alive, but in the meantime you remember you have a heart, a pulse and adrenaline. At least you can always change characters and bodies when they waste the one you are using. Games have come a long way since Pong, PacMan and Space Invaders. Technology updates display dimension and depth, moving closer all the time to more fluid and real-time virtual reality. The Trek holodeck is coming. What Mortal Kombat did for the video arcade and Doom did for the home computer has opened a world of addictive action.

You need to remember two things about video games.
(1) It's certainly fun, can train your reflexes to a pitch, and may one day earn you a job as a tester for Sega or Nintendo. But don't get hooked. Don't sell your soul. It is God's money and God's time. Don't waste it or blow it endlessly for something that isn't worth it in the light of eternity.
(2) Nothing beats the real thing. It's one thing to take on an imaginary dragon or a Primal Rage dragon of the screen. All you need is fast fingers and an endless supply of tokens. But to take on the Real Dragon -- not the one mapped to pixels in a program but the one who curses worlds -- is battle indeed. If you are mind-hooked, your imagination isn't too big; it's too small. The Real Thing is always the scariest.

In a virtual world, you can get as close to being a hero or a horror as time, technology and supply of tokens allow. When pixel monsters die, they blow up in blood and sound-card screams. It is all very frightening and all very funny. It is a video rehearsal for the one thing few people know about - death. In the Last Starfighter world, Aliens and unspeakable horrors are coming. Only your joystick and keyboard stands between them and the destruction of the world. So what do we really learn from the games?

(1) That YOU ARE THE LAST; the fate of the world depends on your token supply. The more money and time you spend, the more of a Savior, deliverer and hero you become.
(2) If you lose, no-one cries, not even yourself. Tears are for wimps. The TRULY TOUGH NEVER WEEP. Get angry yes; yell, scream or stomp off. Hit the machine, curse the computer. But no tears.
(3) If you die today, TOMORROW IS ANOTHER GAME. Death comes a thousand times in every game-play and winners are those that die less. Death, like a movie star who comes back after the commercial in another program, is never for keeps. You can always come back if you cop another quarter.

And of course, this is all crap. Fun, but crap no less. People who can no longer distinguish between games and real life are called either stupid or crazy. You are not alone when you face the world. Of course you are not the only one who never bowed the knee to Baal. Truly tough men do know how to weep. And if you die today - really die - you probably won't be back at all. All the money and time in the world won't flip you back to this side once you cross out to the Realm of the Dead. Only One Person cheated death by choice and came back to tell you how to beat it. (Eph 1:18-2:10; I Pet. 3:18-4:1)

Enjoy your games. If you have a problem, not only pray over it, play around with it. If necessity is the mother of invention, play is a close relative. Great minds need great games - ever wonder what God had in His heart and mind when He made a giraffe's neck, a dog like a Chihuahua or an orangutan? People who have no time for games have no time to really live. But remember; a game is a game is a game. Don't take it - or yourself - too seriously. And don't waste too much of God's time and money in anything long-term that will hurt your mind, heart or spirit.


THE POWER OF MUSIC

Ever listened to a group and wondered why they hit big when you can think of twenty other groups or artists who can sing and play in your opinion ten times better? Music executives today don't care supremely about skill or talent today; there are thousands of people who have it and go nowhere. Producers are after something else even more than music. Groups can make it today even with a minimum of talent if they have the power to project conviction to an audience, whatever that conviction is. Music is secondary; quality is not always necessary. A steady diet of mass-marketed music rarely trains us to recognize what is classic and lasting. A blind bunny bumped into a blind snake in a forest. Both rebounded in fright. The snake hesitatingly reached out to touch the rabbit and said "Oh. You're warm and furry and you have such long ears! Why - you must be a rabbit." The bunny reached out to touch the snake. "Oh. You're cold and slimy and you have no ears at all. Why - you must be a record producer."

GROUPS, BANDS & STAGE STARS

What is there about a band, a singer or an artist that can so capture a kid that their whole life revolves around their art? Al Menconi suggests three things about today's prominent artist that may make a teenager prefer his tapes and CD's to his parents:

(1) Rick Rocker is THERE ALL THE TIME. He can speak to you anytime you feel like listening. He is at your beck and call 24 hours a day. He never complains if you want him to sing it all over again (unless it is in a concert and he's sick of it.) Parents don't do that. They tell you once and expect you to get it. Too often they are too busy to sit down with you when you feel lonely or confused or are going through a big battle. With your CD or your tape player, you can get Ricky's attention anytime you want to.

(2) Rick tells you STUFF OTHER PEOPLE DON'T TALK ABOUT. He seems to thrive on the kind of things nobody mentions in polite society. He talks about sex, pain, demons, drugs, dismemberment, death, horror, violence, disillusionment and despair. He rubs in your face what others avoid. He makes a living doing it. Parents don't know sometimes either what to say about this or how to say it. They hope you won't ask. Nobody wants to start talking about stuff they find either uncomfortable or embarrassing, especially at the wrong time. Ricky doesn't care. He doesn't know you and he doesn't have to take care of you. He has nothing to lose except a record sale.

(3) Rick NEVER PUTS YOU DOWN. He doesn't care if you are fat or ugly or failing school or blowing it with a girlfriend or a boyfriend. He has absolutely no interest in your morals or your manners; the only thing that concerns him is his music and maybe a bit of your money. Parents however, care about all those sorts of things. Because they know what can happen to you, or because it already happened to them when they were young, they can seem to pick on you and criticize you just when you least need to hear it. Go to Ricky night and day and he'll always be exactly the same.

Ricky may seem like God sometimes, but in real life, believe me, he isn't. WATCH WHAT HAPPENS to Ricky and his friends when they keep doing the things they tell you to do. If he is around long enough to tell the whole story, he'll learn what maybe even your parents suspected all along: that what God says is always true in any time.

JUDGING MUSIC

Music is an almost infinite variety of creative sound arrangements that consists of melody, harmony, rhythm, form and texture, in different octaves and tones. It varies in timbre, tone, attack, volume, highness/lowness, and in many other ways. Styles define what is taken out or put in. Variation not only comes from different instruments and styles, but also within the instruments themselves! Electronics have made it possible for us to compose with instruments that do not exist in nature and cannot be duplicated live anywhere. We can even re-create classic songs in a music video with singers of the past and match them up live with a modern performer. There are as many varieties and flavors of music as there are people-groups in the world. Much music comes down to personal opinion and taste. If you don't like it, don't listen. But here are the simplest categories we can look at. We'll call them BAD, NEUTRAL and GOOD. Before putting old ideas and philosophies to rest trying to define "good" music, can we define truly bad or evil music?

BAD MUSIC

Some music is just poorly written or performed. It has poor structure, no melody, no theme, is perhaps just badly played or has badly written lyrics. Not all bad music is necessarily evil; it may be just awful. A would-be musician gave a Christian singer friend of ours some songs to listen to that he had written. He said: "The Lord gave them to me." The Christian artist said "So I listened. I found out why the Lord gave them to him. He probably didn't want them." Even Christian music written with the best of motives and best of intentions can be bad music. An untrained ear, unskilled hands and unimaginative treatment of even great themes can make music bad.

Because music is the single greatest and most powerful force affecting teenagers today, it is often shamelessly marketed with the lowest common denominators in order to make the big bucks. Advertisers tell you that what you watch or listen to doesn't affect you, but they spend millions assuming it will do just that. Excuse me?

How much do you know about what makes music technically or aesthetically good? What did you grow up with, what are you familiar with and what training did you have? Your own standards for good music determine your likes and dislikes. If you have no preference in music you listen to, you might never call any music "bad." If you only grew up used to one kind of music, practically anything else might sound bad to you. What you may like, others may have real problems with.

BIBLE PRINCIPLES ON CULTURAL CHOICES

(1) "To the pure all things are pure; but to them that are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; even their mind and conscience are defiled." (Titus 1:15). God made everything beautiful in His time. (Eccl. 3:11) If you have a clean heart and really love God more than everything else in the world, you will see God's hand in everything. If you don't, almost anything can cripple you and make you more dirty. (Rev. 22:11)

(2) "Let not then your good be evil spoken of... Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things with which we can build each other up. .. all things indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man who eats with offense." (Rom. 14:19-20) What is fine and allowable for you may cause someone else to criticize you or Christ. If you are strong enough to deliberately not celebrate God's goodness in a way that you enjoy but that may offend someone who is watching you, make that choice.

(3) "Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Happy is he that does not condemn himself in that thing which he allows. ... Whatsoever is not of faith is sin." How do you know if something is personally wrong for you even if others may think it is O.K.? If you DOUBT THE LEGITIMACY of something, don't do it. Even if it turns out later to be right, for you at that time it will be wrong. Don't hurt your conscience if your spirit is still weak. If you can't honestly and freely do something as to the Lord, DON'T DO IT AT ALL. Something done in doubt is always wrong. (Rom. 14:3)

(4) "We that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please ourselves. Let every one of us please his neighbor for his good to edification." (Rom. 15:1) So you like something and have no problem with it. You are not a person who is moved by public opinion. You believe what you are doing is acceptable to God and you know you have a RIGHT to do what you are doing. You can SURRENDER that right for the Lord's sake. He will not demand it of you, because it is not just a simple matter of right or wrong. If you can and will, you can put aside your own preferences and choose to encourage someone else who cannot think and act with the same light you have. Your pleasure is secondary to caring for people you can affect.

EVIL MUSIC

We have talked about bad music that is simply poorly done music. You know there are matters of taste in style and preference and culture. There exists however truly evil music. What determines that is not certain lyrics (although they can have something to do with it). It is not a certain style, or sound, or arrangement of notes or beats. It is the heart motive in which the music was created, and the intention of the heart within the listener (which is the most important). Music cannot create evil, but it can create an atmosphere in which evil can flourish or flow out of an evil atmosphere.

Say you hear a certain piece of music, a song that initially you like very much. It is very appealing musically; it may even bring you great pleasure. But let's say this piece is created by an occult band. Perhaps you personally have no idea what the song was written about. You might consider it a neutral song. You might even feel drawn closer to God when this song is played. There are records of people being converted listening to songs or music where the writer or singer had no intention of anything of the kind. He makes even the wrath of man to praise Him. (Ps. 76:10)

But if someone else listens to that same song with a heart of rebellion, selfishness, hate, lust, or any other sinful reason, the song for him is not the same. His or her listening is out of a wrong heart motive, and therefore we must deem it evil. The listener knowing something is wrong both continues to listen for pleasure (not analysis) and goes against the check of the Holy Spirit to his conscience. They choose to allow that evil to burn into their mind, whether in the conscious or sub-conscious.

Much has been said of what can technically be done with music to increase its power to suggest and subliminally reinforce ugly or immoral themes; the structure of the song, the kind of mix of notes or rhythm it is cast in, the backward masking of lyrics. But however true or false these discussions, the true evil of a song lies ultimately not in a hidden message, but in HIDDEN MOTIVES. There is no song ever written than cannot be used in some idolatrous way if our hearts are set on sin. The kid who criticizes the blood-spewing rock star may make their own idol of a Christian singer. The critic who searches for hidden evil lyrics inserted backward in an occult song may miss the obvious forward ones in a religious song that blatantly also promotes a life-style of selfishness, pleasure-centerdness and greed.

"Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever thing is of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." (Phil. 4:8) If your heart is really clean before the Lord, don't despise the witness of a clean conscience. The early Christians didn't live just by sets of rules. They also listened to the still small voice of the Holy Spirit. He can show you what is right and what is wrong even when you don't yet know all the details. God can speak to you and help you decide when you are unsure. The first Church made some of their choices with "It seemed good to us and to the Holy Spirit." (Acts 15:28; 24:16; Rom 9:1; 2:15)

Just remember: your heart motive and the Holy Spirit.

NEUTRAL MUSIC

NEUTRAL music is classically like the "Happy Birthday" song. No-one says such songs are evil because they don't directly mention God or bring glory to God. Much music celebrating common truths of life can be used by anyone; religious or devotional commitment is not required.

With that principle established, let's talk about what is all right to listen to. Simply put, that music which is neither evil nor good comes down to PERSONAL OPINION. Either a Satanist or a Christian might listen on neutral ground to some music without it adversely affecting their faith. (Rom. 14:22; I Cor. 6:12)

GOOD/CHRISTIAN MUSIC

Having already discussed evil and neutral music, good music is easier to define. Good music is that which is both pleasing to the ear and heart and which reflects the truth. Good music expresses themes that match the nature and character and will of God in creation. Good music not only never blasphemes Christ, but brings glory to Him; and of course that which worthily and directly praises and honors Him, is good/Christian music. However, not even the loveliest and truest material can produce good IN ITSELF. Even that which others might deem "Godly music" can be your downfall if you listen out of a wrong heart motive.

Your music has power to help make you or break you. I cannot stress the importance of this enough. Please THINK ABOUT what you listen to.

WHAT MAKES MUSIC CHRISTIAN?

Apart from motive, can we establish any other criteria for Christian music? We may talk about the effects of certain kinds of sound and lyrics, the power of a presentation. Yet none of these can make music Christian. The noun 'Christian' just means one who professes to believe and follow the Person and teachings of Jesus Christ. The adjective 'Christian', means of or relating to Christianity. In the Bible the word is related to identifying or even suffering with Christ. (Acts 11:26; 26:28; I Pet 4:16).

Today we label things Christian, using the word to describe something external to a person that conforms to a certain religious standard. Although God gave specific instructions to people on how to build and shape things, there is no "Christian" art in the Bible. An artist who writes a song writes about his/her life, thoughts, struggles, defeats, etc. They tell what they see or feel from their own point of view. Christians (who see the world through God's viewpoint in Scripture) of course want to write songs approved by God. Whatever we create, do or practice will reflect our own inner vision and commitment. Some of our work may come out in a religious form.

But some of the best-loved stories of Jesus are not religious at all. The parables of the Soils, the Prodigal Son, the Lost Sheep, the Unjust Judge (like most of the stories of Jesus) don't even have the word "God" in them! Songs, art, poetry or writing born of God's Spirit may not necessarily be religious, or even 'Christian'! They will certainly be true about life the way God sees it and shows it. They will hold up what is good and real and stand against what is evil and false. Whatever we do, we are to do all for the glory of God. He looks on our hearts. He looks at the reasons things are done, and the reality or truth of them. And if your heart is set to please Him in your creation, He doesn't care if you write a "Christian" song or not! (Eccl. 2:3; 7:16)


SUMMARY

Someone spiritually altered by God has a wholly different perspective on the world, life, and God. Others may not understand it at all. There is a difference between songs, books, art and other creations with Christian themes, and songs, books, drama, dance etc. written or performed by committed Christians.

In the myriad forms of music or other arts some for you can be your chosen avenue to share your devotion for and to the Lord. Not all will like or prefer what you do. You should not expect even Christians to always agree on what is right. While you may have true freedom in Christ not to feel locked in to any one kind of expression of worship or artistic declaration, you can and ought to be considerate of others. They may either have a battle in areas you do not share, or may be hurt by things that do not bother you at all. "All things are lawful to me but all things are not expedient; All things are lawful to me, but I will not be brought under the power of any." (I Cor. 6:12) Stick with what God is after in your life: "The end of the commandment is love out of a pure heart, a good conscience and of faith without pretense." (I Tim. 1:1:5)