The Christian Music Thread Genre • Page 25

I haven’t listened to The Beauty Between since it was released, and it finally clicked. This is soo good

 

Don't have time to respond quite yet, but just read this whole post and love your thoughts. Thanks for sharing so much of your heart on this matter. I'll be back in a bit!

 

Took me a few days to write, haha!

 

Intentionality for the win!!

 

Getting genuinely tired of Christian artists just throwing in a “fuck” to their discographies nowadays. (Underoath)

Thrice, don’t you go and do me like this.

 

I think when artists like Underoath have pretty much distanced themselves from faith and have quite a few non-believers in the band it’s to be expected.

When it’s an artist like Kings Kaleidoscope I can feel/see the tension more. It doesn’t matter to me as much as where I grew up everyone swore (I lived in a poor community in the UK). I don’t swear but it doesn’t bother me in Christian music.

 

Levi the Poet has a new album out today. Cataracts. I'm just on my first listen - is anyone else planning to check it out?

 

I was literally just coming here to post this. I've listened twice already. A lot of what he says here actually relates to some of our conversation I feel like. Really, really love this.

Levi has become one of my favorite artists recently. Like, outside of AP and My Epic, I might actually consider him to be the most influential for me.

Still working on my response btw. Haven't had as much uninterrupted time although I admittedly spent a lot of time in the Underoath thread today.

 

I agree, though I also agree I wasn't surprised about Underoath.

On a separate note, Kevin, I just looked at your profile and saw you went (or go) to Southeastern. What for if I may ask? Are you working at a church somewhere?

Sorry to get suddenly personal. Haha.

 

Yes, I have been reading his emails and thinking that this album would be really relevant to where I'm at. I just listened on my walk to work and I'm really impressed. Honestly, I didn't know how he would be able to follow up such an epic project like Correspondence (a fiction) but I'm really liking this. Can't wait to dig further into the lyrics. I nearly cried during the last track though. Keep forgiving. Keep forgiving. A good reminder. He's a humble and articulate guy.

I actually get to see him supporting Listener on their UK tour in a week and a half. I CANNOT WAIT!

Good thoughts about influential artists. I haven't thought about that myself but it's a cool thing to consider.

Also I'm determined to get into AP... I keep trying when I get the chance.

 

I knocked out about 4/5ths of an M.Div. there before just being tired of being in text books, or treating the Bible like a text book, for 7 years.

Long and short of it is that I’ve been a Student Pastor at a church in SWFL for almost 3 years now.

Part of the reasoning behind the cursing bothering me, beyond just a personal level, is that now I have to backtrack to all of my students that I’ve recomended Underoath to, in order to avoid potential backlash from a few of the more conservative parents. This already happened with mewithoutYou, King’s Kalieidoscope, and a couple others.

 

I can understand that. It's hard when you're in a position of responsibility and giving out recommendations to specific audiences. Hopefully they'll give you some grace. What kind of backlash did you get with mewithoutYou & KK? Verbal complaints?

 

It's funny. I was the assistant youth pastor of my church until this year and our youth group was all over the place to where a few kids couldn't even listen to CCM, but others were always bumping Chance the Rapper. I was closer to the Chance the Rapper kids so needless to say music recs weren't a huge issue. Haha.

I hear you though. KK is a very frustrating example for me because very few people in my circles are going to love mwY and Underoath, but so many of them would dig KK. It's not that they wouldn't still, I just feel stupid having to explain why Chad thought it was necessary to drop two F-bombs in a worship song. I can't really explain it.

 

I saw Levi open for Listener back in November! Definitely chat with him if you get the chance. One of the most approachable guys.

This is a weird suggestion, but I'd suggest listening to AP when you're driving around and feeling burdened by the world and really need someone to talk to.

 

Dustin does sort of yell "shit" at the end of Blood On the Sand. Although it's muddled and it fits with the tone of the song. The f-bomb on the new Underoath song just seems gratuitous and out of place. Context matters.

 

All the talk about Audrey Assad resulted in me purchasing her newest release which came out on Friday. It's a wonderful record.

 

Agreed. There’s a few songs I don’t care for, but the highlights more than make up for it. We have been slowly adding a few of these to our worship sets at church and they are going over well.

 

I'll have to take this in chunks. And this will be very disjointed. Hahaha.

It's so important that we're not in a church where the congregation is just copied and pasted from each other. Culturally, doctrinally, racially...we can all love each other and learn from each other because God has taken us all on different journeys. Really fascinating to hear about your church background and where your current church is denominationally. I kind of like that. My church is part of the Southern Baptist Convention so, in that sense, it's Southern Baptist. But we don't adhere to anything and everything the SBC stands for and have actually been mistaken for a Presbyterian church when people read what all that we're about. Marrying ourselves to any one denomination is futile because there are so many flaws in every denomination.

Reconsidering what we believe is crucial. Deconstruction is such a buzz word these days and, even though it's abused, there are elements of it that are absolutely healthy and necessary. It's not deconstruction for the sake of deconstruction, it's just reevaluating our faith and what we're actually putting out faith in. It's startling how often we put faith in doctrine itself or in the respect of spiritual leaders. So all of this to say, even if we wind up on different ground, I think what you're saying is absolutely right and necessary. To know and love Christ is the ultimate goal of all of this anyway.

"I try and learn as much as possible in a humble way, being open to change, but standing firm on the truth of God’s grace & love."

That's a terrific place to be, brother!

I know this whole section was in response to Chase, but I've never actually thought about this specific question. The best answer I can think of is also the most cliche: pride. Kind of going back to the G.K. Chesterton quote, I think pride can show itself in my life on both spectrums. On the reckless, progressive side, pride causes me to want to indulge in whatever I want to the point where (if taking these things to the extreme) I'd make a change in my church constitution to fit my own lusts and perceptions of self. It's very anti-Gospel. On the legalistic, conservative side, pride makes me want to believe that everything I ever grew up believing is absolutely true and flawless. Even the extra-biblical things. I don't like uncertainty so it'd be easy to halt necessary change in my church to fit what I find comfortable. Ultimately, that desire for comfort fuels both extremes.

I don't know if that answers your question, and I'm answering it mostly as it relates to me and the Church.

I do think in the case of Dustin Kensrue as opposed to, say, Spencer Chamberlain, there's a deeper trust that's been established between the listener and him because he's released a lot of solid stuff before. That doesn't mean you're more critical, I think it's just naturally more disappointing at first. For instance, I'm still reeling from Derek Webb because he's the songwriter who got me into music and the space between where he was and where he is now is SO wide. That destruction of expectation is a good thing for me as a listener and for him as a songwriter, but I won't pretend where he's at right now doesn't really hurt (and even then, I hurt for him, not me).

As far as judging tweets, specific people do share more than others to where you can evaluate them a little better. We'll never fully know a person, but some people have just given us deeper access into themselves that can provide for some critique (so long as we're not completely judging their hearts).

I am in TOTAL agreement with your first paragraph! My pastor/cousin is a Greek scholar and he regularly says from the pulpit something to the extent of, "The Greek actually says (this), so (that) would be a better translation." There's no delusion that modern translations don't water down certain parts of the texts. I've always define inerrancy in a purely faith-based, supernatural sense in that I believe God in His providence has protected His Word up to this point in human history so we can be secure that what we're reading is actually His perfect, unchanging Word. But that certainly doesn't mean there aren't inconsistencies between translations or iffy translations.

I'm admittedly not a historian so I don't know enough about church history to make claims in that area, but in all of my studies of Scripture, I haven't found it to be inconsistent with itself at any point (as far as I could claim it). So my claim that the Bible is unchanging stems from what I see in front of me, not necessarily a grand knowledge of the past. Again, it's where the childlike faith comes in. After all, it has to come in somewhere right?

I don't know if that makes sense.

Amen to all of this (especially where you say you love my points)! :) Hahaha. Those small, inconsequential things drive me crazy...I'm having to learn how to bear even with those people who put so much stock in them. I've seen the damage people cause over stupid things and it can make me just want to tell those people to go away. But I need to wash the feet of people with even the most petty disagreements. I don't need to cater to the pettiness, but maybe loving those people will help them put those petty things into perspective.

Again, terrific thoughts. It's funny how we all tend to word things as if we're bracing ourselves for opposition. What is wrong with this world that we always have to be on guard for offense, even in our own circles?

Anyway, it is hard to find the middle ground. I can idolize the middle ground if I'm not careful, because I know there's elements of each extreme that are true. Or is that what makes up the middle ground? I don't know. I'm starting to make less sense so I should cut this paragraph off while I'm ahead.

I'm sorry to hear about YOUR mom and your grandpa. I lost my last grandparent when I was 16 and he was 93. Most of my relatives are a lot older, but also close to me, so I've dealt with death pretty consistently in my life. I think of something Levi the Poet says in Cataracts: "Where is the lullaby our doctrines sang?" All those little details in our doctrines give no comfort in these moments. I was up all night with my mom in ICU last night and I'm operating on 3 hours of sleep right now and it's hard to keep up with my own mind. In these moments, it really is a simple as saying, "Jesus, I just need YOU."

Ugh. I'm listening to Cataracts as I type this and it's so, so good. So much of what he says is relevant to this conversation. Another line that's been sticking out to me:

"Maybe I don't have all the answers I thought I had but, God, damn them, I still have You."

And on the subject of music, I'm so with you when it comes to artists that occupy that middle ground. mewithoutYou, Julien Baker, and Sufjan Stevens are all Top 10 artists for me cause I love their music, but I also love the way they interact with those heavier aspects of life. Sprained Ankle isn't a masterpiece as a work of theological understanding, but it's a masterpiece as a work of faith in the middle of unbelievable pain. I resonate with it far more than a lot of Beautiful Eulogy's stuff for the most part, even though I'm hand in hand with those guys from a doctrinal standpoint.

 

just remembered this came out last week and gave it a (couple) listen(s). Big Business was an aggressive first single for this, but it really set the tone for what to expect. i’m in on this one.

 

Not sure where to post about this, but new Run River North single is wild and not what I expected at all

 

Good stuff. Ties into a lot of what we've talked about lately. Indeed, God help us.

 

Did anybody else realize Tyson Motsenbocker released two EPs last year??? What the heck? I can't believe I just found out about this. I loved his Letters to Lost Loves album.

 

They good.

 

That death and love spoken word song was interesting.

 

I love it, but I'm such a sucker for spoken word at this point in my life.