Re: [Worship] Worship :Slightly OT, but interesting

["Fred & joy Chastagner" <chassey1@alaska.net>]

Perhaps he was...It's terrible when people who stand in leadership roles
mis-use their authority..or are hypocritical...I don't quite understand
though what the motivation is in sharing these observations?  Is the man
correct in what he says?

-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Conley <conleycd@muss.cis.McMaster.CA>
To: worship@praise.net <worship@praise.net>
Date: Wednesday, March 31, 1999 9:43 AM
Subject: Re: [Worship] Worship :Slightly OT, but interesting


>I kind of hope this is for real.  I remember from my stage crewish years
>Steve Camp being a very, very difficult person to work with and generally
>made every at his concerts (those who setup) feel bad.
>
>> Here is another article from another list I'm on, by artist Steve Camp.
It is
>> a call to repentence to the Christian Music Industry.
>>
>> Kathryn
>>
>>
>> Forwarded by Patrick Rutherford, President of
>> Praise Broadcasting Network
>> His email address is:pbn@onramp.net
>>
>> A WORD AND AN APPEAL BY RECORDING ARTIST:
>> STEVE CAMP
>>
>>
>> Out of love and zeal for Biblical truth and the desire
>> to bring it to light, I come to you, brethren,
>> burdened and broken over the current state of
>> Christian music. I come not out of a heart of
>> condemnation, but out of convictions immersed in tears
>> one in desperate need daily of our Lord's grace to be
>> conformed to His image. I come being aware of the
>> depravity from which I have been saved and that my
>> heart, apart from the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ
>> is desperately wicked and eternally sick. Early in my
>> own musical journey I wrote songs that neither
>> represented good music or precise theology. My motives
>> were vitiated; my actions were not godly; and my lips
>> were unclean. The thirst for prominence and position
>> made my heart prideful, judgmental and callused. But
>> the Lord, out of His infinite grace and otherworldly
>> love, broke me with His chastening hand to bring true
>>
>> repentance in my own life-and it's that life of
>> repentance which is my greatest desire and my greatest
>> failing. It is out of the crucible of those
>> experiences that I am driven to speak with conviction
>> to these issues.
>>
>>
>> A CALL TO REFORMATION
>>
>> This document is a call to Reformation-a clarion call
>> to recover Biblical Christianity in the arts. Music is
>> a powerful tool from the Lord Jesus to His church
>> intended for worship, praise, encouragement,
>> edification evangelism, teaching, admonishing, and
>> exhorting God's people to holiness-with always our
>> chief aim to glorify God and worship Him forever." But
>> beloved, the serpentine foe of compromise has invaded
>> the camp through years of specious living, skewed
>> doctrine and most recently secular ownership of
>> Christian music ministries. While I assert this, I
>> recognize that there are godly men and women who love
>> the Lord, that work for these companies and record for
>> these companies, but that's not the issue here. The
>> crux of the matter is that the overall nature of our
>> industry has dramatically shifted. The Apostle Paul
>> warns "it takes only a little leaven to leaven the
>> whole lump." (1 Corinthians 5:6) When sin is tolerated
>> ultimately permeates and corrupts the entire church.
>>
>>
>> What is pure today will inevitably be polluted
>> tomorrow if we do not "purge out the old leaven. . . "
>> (Ibid. 5:7) In the past several years, there has been
>> a not-so-subtle drifting away from Christocentric
>> music to an anthropocentric music. Sadly, this has
>> resulted in various visible manifestations of
>> spiritual sedition-where currently, the CCMI finds
>> itself on a slippery slope sliding away at accelerated
>> speeds from the Savior, the Scriptures and the church.
>>
>> Contemporary Christian Music originally began
>> unashamedly declaring Jesus Christ as Lord. Within a
>> few years His name was replaced by several generic
>> titles filtering out the name of God ultimately to the
>> non-specific cognomen, "Love." This led to a multitude
>> of pseudonyms: "The Man Upstairs"; "My Higher Power";
>> "Our Family Values Expert" ad nauseam...ad infinitum.
>> This Biblical illiteracy I've coined as theological
>> ebonics-Biblical language diminished to cultural
>> unintelligible chatter affirmed as profound,
>> acceptable spiritual truth. Os Guinness is "spot on"
>> when saying, "[we have seen a change] from an emphasis
>> on 'serving God', to an emphasis on 'serving the self'
>> in serving God." The object of faith is no longer
>> Christ, but our self-esteem; the goal of faith is no
>> longer holiness, but our happiness; and the source of
>> faith is no longer the Scriptures, but our experience.
>> Christian music currently reflects this. We are
>> producing a generation of people that "feel" their
>> God, but do not know their God.
>>
>> THE WORD OF GOD IS THE MOST HOLY THING . . .
>>
>> We have been given a solemn and sacred duty to
>> communicate through music the fathomless riches of
>> God's eternal Word. The Word of God is the most holy
>> thing we will ever hold in our hands in this lifetime.
>> As Dr. John MacArthur says, "This book contains: the
>> mind of God, the state of man, the way of salvation,
>>
>> the doom of sinners, and the happiness of believers.
>> Read it to be wise, believe it to be saved and
>> practice it to be holy...."
>>
>> THE FATHOMLESS RICHES OF GOD'S WORD . . .
>>
>> We have been given a solemn and sacred duty to
>> communicate through music the fathomless riches of
>> God's eternal Word. The Word of God is the most holy
>> thing we will ever hold in our hands in this lifetime.
>> As Dr. John MacArthur says, "His book contains: the
>> mind of God, the state of man, the way of salvation,
>> the doom of sinners, and the happiness of believers.
>> Read it to be wise, believe it to be saved and
>> practice it to be holy"
>>
>> Lamentably, the music of heaven has been sold to the
>> world-to the ones who had the deepest pockets and made
>> the sweetest promises. In a very real sense, "Simon
>> the Sorcerer" has succeeded in purchasing the work of
>> God from the "apostles" of our industry. (Acts 8:
>> 14-25) What has been the result of this partnering
>> with the world? Gospel music today has become music
>> for the moment, but not for eternity. Transitory,
>> temporal, trivial messages that devalue Deity and
>> raise "felt need" affairs above eternal "real need"
>> concerns produce disposable, consumer driven,
>> cotton-candy music. This is playing marbles with
>> diamonds.
>>
>> We are unequally yoked with an unbelieving world, sin
>> goes undisciplined, is even tolerated for some artists
>> because of their visibility and sales power and the
>> truth and authority of Scripture is ail but abrogated.
>> Biblical illiteracy is pandemic. Accountability to the
>> local church has all but been abandoned. Moral
>> pluralism and erroneous forms of ecumenism are the
>> dyslexic doctrines of today. A politically correct,
>> reductionist gospel that appeals only to the flesh and
>> a syncretistic methodology in communication through
>> the arts have sought to replace the true "Gospel
>> According To Jesus" evidenced in the fruit of an
>> obedient life fully surrendered to the Holy Spirit and
>> His truth.
>>
>> IS IT THE LOVE OF MONEY?
>>
>> Could it be that the love of money is at the root of
>> it all? Or could it be that ignorance has revealed the
>> unschooled in matters of faith and doctrine?
>> Unquestionably both. For many, money has been and
>> continues to be the prerequisite for "ministry" and
>> Biblical truth is no longer vital but vicarious!
>>
>> Departure from the Word of God is now clearly
>> evidenced in our music, lyrics, business practices and
>> Alliances. Beloved, if we do not repent of our sins,
>> God's judgment will surely be upon us.
>>
>> When Martin Luther stood at Wittenberg's Door he
>> called for reformation from the
>> recalcitrant Roman Church.  Now it is our turn, almost five
>> centuries later, to sound the alarm in our generation. This time,
>> to call the Christian Music Industry to reformation back to the
>> supremacy, sufficiency and Lordship of Jesus Christ. Genuine
>> revival-a fresh return to obedience in Christ is surely needed
>> today, but that would be almost impossible given the current
>> environment of our industry.
>>
>> Why? True revival is marked by repentance; true repentance brings
>> restitution; true restitution demands that Christian music be
>>
>> owned and operated only by believers whose aim is the glory of
>> God consistent with Biblical truth. This means that the current
>> CCMI labels must return all the money they have received to their
>> respective secular counterparts that purchased them and divorce
>> alliances with them. The CCMI has gone too far down the wide road
>> of worldliness and there is not the tenacity of character and the
>> Biblical courage of heart and mind to do the right thing no
>> matter what the cost.
>>
>> These are serious times, brethren, that call for real answers.
>> This is not a time for duplicitous people, proclaiming a diluted
>> message, from disingenuous ministries.  It is a time for those
>> whose lives are tempered with the steel of righteousness, girded
>> with the belt of truth, standing firm in the gospel of peace,
>> raising high their shield of faith, guarded with the helmet of
>> salvation, to wield the sword of the Spirit with a surgeon's
>> exactitude, praying always with all prayer and supplication, with
>> all perseverance for all the saints in the Spirit. (Ephesians
>> 6:10-20)
>>
>>
>> FAITH ALONG, GRACE ALONE, SCRIPTURE ALONE . . .
>>
>> Will we champion again the manifesto of the Reformers: Sola Fide
>> (by faith alone); Sola Gratia (by grace alone); Sola Scriptura
>> (on the Word alone); Solus Christus (because of Christ alone);
>> and Soli Deo Gloria (to the glory of God alone)?  Do we have the
>> conviction of heart and courage of mind to do what's just?   Do
>> we have the boldness to shout above the roar of the marketplace
>> that the Emperor has no clothes?  Will we leave our careers, our
>> contracts, our carefully cultivated plans and press releases, our
>> unequally yoked record companies to serve the Lord again with all
>> our heart, soul, mind and strength?  There is no gray in
>> this-it's a matter of obedience.
>>
>> Oh brethren, "we have a name to be alive, but we are dead."
>>
>> (Revelation 3:1)  There is no greater love song to proclaim than
>> the once for all sacrifice of Jesus Christ our Lord at Calvary,
>> but yet others feel content to sing about the chaff of this
>> world.  What the New Testament church wrestled with the least is
>> what our industry craves the most money.  How dare we think we
>> can play politics with God, with His truth and with His church.
>> We can't negotiate with sin no matter what kind of capital is at
>> stake-and that really is the issue here.
>>
>> Let us "press on, that [we] may lay hold of that for which Christ
>> Jesus has also laid hold of [us]. (Philippians 3:12)   Let us
>> "lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily ensnares us
>> and let us run with endurance the rave that is set before us."
>> (Hebrew 12:1)  Let us fall on our faces before our Holy Lord,
>> repent of our sin and return to our First Love.   With lives
>> bathed in His grace, let us provoke one another to love and good
>> works.   With undivided hearts may we leave the prodigal's pigpen
>> and come back to the Father's house.  Let us commit to prayer and
>> fasting seeking the Lord's will with a broken, contrite and
>> obedient heart.  Let us return to our churches and to the
>> faithful pastors/elders that shepherd us - submitting ourselves
>> to their godly leadership.   May we be students of His Word
>> filled daily with His Spirit.
>>
>> Pray on this.  Pounding on "Wittenberg's Door", let us come
>> together to make history to make Contemporary Christian
>> Music...Christian again.
>>
>> Yours for the Master's use,
>>
>> Steven John Camp
>>
>> 2 Corinthians 4:5
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>
>Chris Conley
>conleycd@mcmaster.ca
>
>
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