Secular music on Christian Radio Station.

[William_Yeager]

Ixnay, here's a sample hour on my station, Grey FM Downtown:

Matthew West - More
Evanescence - Bring Me to Life
Steven Curtis Chapman - Cinderella
The Script - The Man Who Can't Be Moved
Flyleaf - All Around Me
Tal and Acacia - Clearview
Seabird - Don't You Know You're Beautiful
Ryan Cabrera - True
Daniel Bedingfield - If You're Not the One
Hoobastank - The Reason
Lifehouse - First Time
Francesca Battistelli - It's Your Life
Grey Holiday - Let Go
Mat Kearney - Closer to Love
Daughtry - No Surprise

[Funkycat]

This is a fine and simple sample hour (except Jamming Cinderella in between two fairly uptempo rock numbers) but the most important question is why do a Christian format?  It's obvious the music isn't good enough or you would try bringing in the lost with positive "secular" music.  This is not a spiritual criticism, it's a formatic one.  If your a CHRISTIAN CHR, then you must firmly believe in your format, your artists, your imaging, and overall vision.  If you don't like what's offered then just do a CHR format, it will be much more successful, and profitable and you won't have to deal with the overall bagage that a Christian CHR brings. 

For instance, if your waving the Christian Flag and playing a positive Nickelback song, but then I visit Nickelback's website and I see an ad for a concert that is taking place in a local Hooters resturant, is that an issue?  What about if I play a Coldplay song and then I read an article in Rolling Stone about Chris Martin's belief that all religions are essentally the same, what the point of all the Christian Music? 

I may be wrong but will an audience that is brought in to listen to Christian Music, appreciate music from bands that don't share their overall values?  Am I being a good steward by playing artists whose overall worldview may be in direct conflict with a Christian Worldview? 

It's about being honest. If you don't like the music don't format the station that way.   
   

[josh]

Hi William Yeager,

  Who are your morning drive hosts?   

  At our station, we're trying to develop more of a personality driven station with Christian Music.  With internet juke boxes like Pandora offering non-stop jukebox service, it's important to establish  your personalities... in order to distinquish Radio Stations from Pandora-internet jukebox.   

[djlouey]

Why do you need to distinguish the difference?  People already know the difference.  Keep the focus on getting the music mix right.  Too often "personality driven" means "blabbermouth".

[William_Yeager]

This is a fine and simple sample hour (except Jamming Cinderella in between two fairly uptempo rock numbers) but the most important question is why do a Christian format?  It's obvious the music isn't good enough or you would try bringing in the lost with positive "secular" music.  This is not a spiritual criticism, it's a formatic one.  If your a CHRISTIAN CHR, then you must firmly believe in your format, your artists, your imaging, and overall vision.  If you don't like what's offered then just do a CHR format, it will be much more successful, and profitable and you won't have to deal with the overall bagage that a Christian CHR brings.

We're not a Christian CHR.  We're a Hot AC.  But beyond that, Grey FM Downtown isn't a "Christian station" or a "secular station".  It's not a matter of not liking Christian CHR (or AC or ROCK) music, it's a matter of playing everything I (and my listeners) like.  Obviously you have to mix songs with care; there have been quite a few songs I've passed on playing due to isolated uses of language that detract from an overall positive message. Not only does this help in attracting Christian audiences, but it also helps with secular audiences who may want a family-safe/safe-for-work music mix.  You probably also haven't heard the imaging on my station, which accounts for about one minute per hour for VIP listeners, and about two minutes per hour for non-VIP listeners when running a full spot load-because there is absolutely nothing in the imaging to suggest that Grey FM is a Christian station.

For instance, if your waving the Christian Flag and playing a positive Nickelback song, but then I visit Nickelback's website and I see an ad for a concert that is taking place in a local Hooters resturant, is that an issue?  What about if I play a Coldplay song and then I read an article in Rolling Stone about Chris Martin's belief that all religions are essentally the same, what the point of all the Christian Music?

It's a risk I'm willing to take, only because I have to presume some maturity and discretion amongst my audience not to believe everything they hear or read, and that some places might not be beneficial to go to.  I doubt a Christian band would play at a venue like the one you mentioned in the Nickelback example, but I doubt any secular station that has a predominantly female audience would want to promote that either.  Some Christians don't go to concerts at bars, but that doesn't stop some Christian bands from playing there.

I may be wrong but will an audience that is brought in to listen to Christian Music, appreciate music from bands that don't share their overall values?  Am I being a good steward by playing artists whose overall worldview may be in direct conflict with a Christian Worldview?

News Flash: Lots of Christians don't listen to Christian music exclusively.  Several of the songs I play on Grey FM Downtown I've actually been introduced to by my church, because it has been used as pre-service or post-service music for the College/Young-Adult service.

It's about being honest. If you don't like the music don't format the station that way.

You're assuming that I don't like the music I play; while I may get tired of it faster than my listeners do from time to time, I'm not going to play something I hate.

[double-d-sharp]

This morning in my devotions I was reading about the Apostle Paul in Acts 17.  On Paul's second missionary journey in this chapter, he made a stop at Athens.  It is the only stop that we know of on his missionary journies where he didn't preach about sin or the blood of Christ.  He says that he only briefly mentioned the resurrection.

Why did he water down the message to this crowd?  Maybe it's because of the highly-educated intelligencia that formed the ruling body of Athens at the time.   Maybe it's because of the intense level of idol worship they had at the time.

What was the result?  Only a few believed.  It is the only stop on his journies where only a few became Christians -- everywhere else there were many conversions.

Bottom line... When we choose to water down the message of Jesus Christ so as not to offend the secular crowd, our message becomes ineffective.

[djlouey]

@William Yeager.

Well said.  I agree.  Stations that are doing a Christian format have to decide whether or not they want to reach a Christian audience or if they want to expand into the lives of nominal Christians and non-Christians.  There's nothing wrong with choosing the former but then you must realize who your audience is.  Don't expect to have an impact beyond that.

[MikefromDelaware]

This morning in my devotions I was reading about the Apostle Paul in Acts 17.  On Paul's second missionary journey in this chapter, he made a stop at Athens.  It is the only stop that we know of on his missionary journies where he didn't preach about sin or the blood of Christ.  He says that he only briefly mentioned the resurrection.

Why did he water down the message to this crowd?  Maybe it's because of the highly-educated intelligencia that formed the ruling body of Athens at the time.   Maybe it's because of the intense level of idol worship they had at the time.

What was the result?  Only a few believed.  It is the only stop on his journies where only a few became Christians -- everywhere else there were many conversions.

Bottom line... When we choose to water down the message of Jesus Christ so as not to offend the secular crowd, our message becomes ineffective./color]

I read Acts 17, specifically Acts 17:16-34 (Paul in Athens).  I didn't see Paul watering down the Gospel message to this crowd.  He had an intellectual group of philosophers as his audience.  He, probably through the prompting of the Holy Spirit, adjusted the approach his message took to reach those men.  I've found that it is good to know your audience when sharing the word of God.  Some did come to Christ right then, who knows how many others came later, when Paul's words had a chance to sink in.  Intellectual people ponder things, don't usually make fast rash decisions, etc.  The point is, the Holy Spirit knows what each person needs to hear and will guide each of use when witnessing if we seek his advice and counsel.   

I remember attending a funeral a few years back.  The preacher that did the funeral had been picked by the more fervent fundamentalist child of the deceased.  This was unfortunate as the crowd was Northern, Educated, Urban/Suburban marginally Roman Catholic.  This preacher was Southern, Rural, sounded uneducated, Fundamentalist, Fire and Brim Stone in his approach.  That family today refers to that funeral as the "Hee Haw" funeral, as those folks couldn't relate to him at all and even though he gave a solid Biblical based message that told of salvation through Jesus Christ (so his theology might have been correct), his approach was Fire and Brimstone, Hell and Damnation, nothing of comfort or about the love of Christ, etc, (what a comforting message to give at a funeral) then he and his wife sang a country hee haw type duet that made Hee Haw sound sophisticated.  If this had been a TV show, it would have been very funny.  As it was a real funeral for a real person, who wasn't like this preacher at all, it was an abomination.  This preacher embarrassed those of us, who know Christ as this man didn't love these mourners as Christ would, he simply preached at them.  He saw a bunch of "Catholic heathens he could get saved" (man is that guy going to be in for a surprise when he sees Catholics in heaven).  Those people, sat quietly and were far more polite than this man deserved, but all he did was turn off those people to hearing the Gospel message.  No one took him seriously.  He didn't practice Agape love, it appears that he didn't ask the Holy Spirit for guidance, because the Holy Spirit gets real results and this was a total disaster.

Now, having said all that, I'd tend to agree with you though, that a radio station, needs to decide who its audience is, if it is going to be a Christian station then it needs to play ONLY Christian music.  I listen to all sorts of music, both secular and Christian, but I know people who only listen to Christian music.  Those people would tune out if they hear "worldly" music.  I too would tune out depending on the lyrics of that "worldly music".  So if you are trying to have a "positive music station" then playing both secular and Christian music might work assuming you can get enough nonbelievers to accept the Christian music you choose.  Many nonbelievers don't want to hear any music that mentions God in it unless the word damn follows.  So I'd agree that a format mixing both might not be that successful for either group, nonbelievers or for Christians.

So my advice would be, either be a solid Christian station or be a solid secular station. 

   

[vchimpanzee]

Many nonbelievers don't want to hear any music that mentions God in it unless the word damn follows. 

Or "Oh my" precedes.

[anotherguy]

There's a bumper sticker I saw once: "God's last name is NOT dammit!!!"