"I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some." (1 Cor 9.22 NRSV)

Two trajectories for crossing over

How is it that some notably "Christian" music artists successfully make the leap, crossing over into mainstream secular popularity? I'm talking about artists such as U2, POD - Payable On Death, Jars of Clay, and Sixpence None The Richer.

I see two trajectories for Christian crossover music; one we can celebrate and the other we mourn. They represent as well two approaches our churches are using to connect with the secular world around us.

Both are crossovers from an exclusively "Christian" audience to a "mainstream" world. But one is creatively employing faith and the other is losing faith.

One crossover trajectory is "successful" (in only the popularity sense) because the artist is dilluting or skirting around a faith-affirming message, focus and intent. That these artists' music is now acceptable is more due to its loss of Christian goals and adoption of the values of its non-Christian audience. They become no different than their new secular counterpart artists.

The other crossover trajectory works because the artist is employing creative analogies, words, and imageries that are not instantly rejected by that secular public audience. The artist has an intentional focus to evoke an interest in Jesus Christ and faith from a secular, mainstream audience. The composition is attractive to the audience by tapping into their perhaps unspoken and unrealized hungers for the satisfaction that only Christ can offer.

These artists are speaking the gospel in the vernacular. They are making the gospel make sense in wonderfully contextualized ways. In other words, they are doing what missionaries do - contextualizing the gospel in order to reach the lost.

Giving up the ghost or ministering with the Spirit? Imaginatively connecting or selling out for popularity? Which trajectory is your church on?

-- Dave Hackett