Skillet’s Lead Singer Gives Christians A Reality Check After Faith Influencers Publicly Abandon The

[PeteS in CA]

This topic doesn't really fit any TBR forum particularly well, so if a Mod thinks there's a better forum for it, please move it.

Skillet’s Lead Singer Gives Christians A Reality Check After Faith Influencers Publicly Abandon The Faith

A rash of Christian youth leaders has publicly announced that they’re losing their faith via social media outlets. For those who follow them closely, and/or came to God through them, this is potentially a hard blow to their faith as well.

I was seeing reports about these faltering leaders and even I felt downhearted. While my personal faith wasn’t shaken, we live in a time where God is quickly becoming something of a secondary thought in our society, and it shows. People are miserable and directionless. They lack purpose and their lives feel shallow.

With these Christian youth leaders walking away from the faith, this problem can only deepen.

Enter John Cooper of the Christian rock band “Skillet.”
...
Cooper noted that making internet influencers and celebrities the most relevant people in Christianity has to stop and that relying on modern songs to teach the Gospel instead of the Gospel itself is a mistake that can potentially lead people astray. He even includes himself for good measure:

My conclusion for the church(all of us Christians): We must STOP making worship leaders and thought leaders or influencers or cool people or “relevant” people the most influential people in Christendom. (And yes that includes people like me!) I’ve been saying for 20 years(and seemed probably quite judgmental to some of my peers) that we are in a dangerous place when the church is looking to 20 year old worship singers as our source of truth. We now have a church culture that learns who God is from singing modern praise songs rather than from the teachings of the Word. I’m not being rude to my worship leader friends (many who would agree with me) in saying that singers and musicians are good at communicating emotion and feeling. We create a moment and a vehicle for God to speak. However, singers are not always the best people to write solid bible truth and doctrine. Sometimes we are too young, too ignorant of scripture, too unaware, or too unconcerned about the purity of scripture and the holiness of the God we are singing to. Have you ever considered the disrespect of singing songs to God that are untrue of His character?

Skillet has been around for about 23 years, not as long as Petra or Phil Keaggy, but still long enough to get a grasp on what they are and are not. I've enjoyed "Contemporary Christian Music" since the early 70s, but it's been dismaying to see fellow believers fall into the trap of over-emphasizing - if not following - "celebrities". IMO, Hillsong United has produced some wonderful worship (I use that term very carefully, BTW) music, and the teachings of Josh Harris' Dad Gregg Harris were very helpful to my family, but they are still ordinary human beings, not infallible, and not Jesus.

[TomSea]

Some of these can go into Sports, Entertainment.

I know of this group, they played at a Christian Music Festival in Wisconsin in fact a few years ago.

[mountaineer]

Sounds like we appreciate the same music, Pete (I currently have 2CA playing). Good article.

[Mod1]

I'm going to put this in General Discussion. We probably don't have quite the right category, you're correct, @PeteS in CA , as it is the owner's desire that we not become enmeshed in religious debate. As long as it doesn't go down that path, we'll keep it in General for now. Thank you for your understanding.

[rustynail]

Very interesting.  Thanks.

[InHeavenThereIsNoBeer]

Shut up and sing.

Oh, wait...

[mountaineer]

We now have a church culture that learns who God is from singing modern praise songs rather than from the teachings of the Word. ... However, singers are not always the best people to write solid bible truth and doctrine.

That may be true in some instances. I suspect that people who are familiar solely with the worship leaders/so-called 7-Eleven music motif are not aware that old-style worship hasn't disappeared completely, though!

 Further, some of today's "worship songs" still have doctrinal integrity, even though many do not. Our own church has a contemporary service with a praise band (no actual worship leader). They do three songs, words projected on the wall, and from what I've seen seem to stick to pretty solid, doctrinal lyrics. It's up to the pastor to ensure that worship songs are not the only source of teaching, of course.

 CCM of the early years (Keaggy, 2CofA, Keith Green, Petra, etc.) was very formative for me, but I still greatly appreciate the traditional service, use of hymnbooks, etc.

[mountaineer]

Just was reminded that Keith Green wrote on a related topic here.

[PeteS in CA]

I'm going to put this in General Discussion. We probably don't have quite the right category, you're correct, @PeteS in CA , as it is the owner's desire that we not become enmeshed in religious debate. As long as it doesn't go down that path, we'll keep it in General for now. Thank you for your understanding.

Thanks. I've seen Religion forums elsewhere, and they tend to devolve into, putting it mildly, unpleasantry. So I concur with the owner's decision (not that I think my concurrence necessary).

[PeteS in CA]

I was raised in a theologically conservative Lutheran church. Our hymnal, at the time, did not have a hymn written in the 20th Century, and probably not a lot (if any) written in the latter part of the 19th Century. So I have an appreciation for that music, and believe that the person(s) whose chose which hymns to include chose with care.

While in high school I got involved with Young Life, an broader Evangelical ministry, and in college (~800 miles from home) started moving in charismatic circles. Obviously the music was quite different, and I've mostly been in less traditional Evangelical - charismatic and non-charismatic - churches.

[bigheadfred]

Interesting. A coworker is going to see Skillet in Salt Lake City in a couple of weeks. He told me all about them today. I had never heard of them. And now here you are posting an article about them. Synchronicity.

[PeteS in CA]

These articles give some context for the OP article and another situation I mentioned:

Hillsong worship leader clarifies he hasn't renounced faith, but it's on 'incredibly shaky ground'

Marty Sampson, the worship music writer who recently revealed he is “genuinely losing” his faith, clarified that while he hasn’t “renounced” his Christianity, it’s nevertheless on “incredibly shaky ground.”

Sampson, known for penning lyrics for Hillsong Worship, Hillsong United, Delirious and Young & Free, responded to a Christian Post op-ed titled “Reaching out to a Hillsong leader who is renouncing his faith." In it, columnist Michael Brown said he prays Sampson “would have the integrity of heart to seek the truth earnestly, with humility and passion, and that all others with questions will put those questions on the table.”

After emphasizing he truly wants answers to his questions, Sampson admitted he’s “struggling with many parts of the belief system that seem so incoherent with common human morality.”

“If most of humankind had a choice, would we not rid the world of the scourge of cancer? Or sickness and disease? Why doesn’t God do such a thing? Of course there is an answer to this question, but the majority of a typical Christian’s life is not spent considering these things,” he wrote. “Questions such as these remain in the too hard basket.”

One hero who does not fail

From kissing goodbye to not dating to eating LGBT “rainbow donuts,” Josh Harris is full of surprises these days.

Surprises and, for believers, news of great sadness.

And more than feeling sadness, some believers have been shaken by Harris’s defection from the faith and decision to divorce his wife. Understandably so. His ministry has been national and his books widely-read.

Harris is not the only Christian leader who, in recent years, has either abandoned his faith or been shown to be walking in hypocrisy. James McDonald, Ted Haggard, and Bill Hybels are but three memorable examples.

Should the failings of some leaders shake our own confidence in Christ?

I could be wrong, but Sampson's comments suggest to me that he was so busy in ministry - giving out - that he wasn't taking in what he needed to be grounded in his faith.