Sometimes you never know where God will lead you in your daily journey to obey him and the Holy Spirit’s prompting. Never in my wildest nightmares would I have envisioned that a simple conversation with a youth at our church one Wednesday evening would cause so much pain, stress, and months of work. Two simple words “Skillet & Rebirthing” sent up red flags and prompted me to investigate Youth Winter Jam 2008. “Skillet” just sounded like another ridiculous music group. However, somewhere in all my experience, the word “rebirthing” was a catch phrase for something wrong. What – I did not remember? Nevertheless, with those two words I could easily check out my concern.

In February of 2008, I became aware that the youth of my church were going to Birmingham for Youth Winter Jam 2008. My children do not participate with the youth in activities like that. (I could write pages about why but that is for a later date.) We have watched the youth growing up and I have expressed concern about their activities before. Another youth told me that one of the bands was “Skillet” and that was the youth leader’s favorite band. The youth also said the only song he knew that they played was “Rebirthing”.

That simple conversation led to months of research, prayer, letters, emails, a huge PowerPoint and ultimately to this Berean Wife website.

SKILLET skillet.com
http://www.jamtour.com/artist_skillet.php (link doesn’t work anymore)

“It’s a new era for both Atlantic and Skillet,” exclaims Andy Karp, head of A&R for Atlantic Records. “It’s the first record where we’ve really been one on one with the band, and it’s the latest step in our unique journey together. I’ve been at the label seventeen years and we’re known for having so many great rock n’ roll bands: Led Zeppelin, Genesis, Yes, Bad Company. There really aren’t a lot of labels that have that kind of pedigree for rock acts, and Skillet is yet another in a long line of great bands.”

http://www.jamtour.com/artist_skillet.php (link doesn’t work anymore)

“It allows us to reach out to people who’ve maybe been turned off by what they think is ‘Christian music,’ which may get them out to a concert to hear even more of our message. I’m very passionate about evangelism, but love begets evangelism and we want people to know we care about their needs in a practical way.” 

Skillet Album – Comatose Song – Rebirthing http://www.christianrocklyrics.com/skillet.php

After a couple of days of researching “Skillet” and “rebirthing” I gave the information I had gathered to several people, including parents and staff members. Most of them had no clue what all of it meant but they did not have time for it. A few parents expressed interest but since their youth were not going to participating that was as far as it went. What really surprised me were those who I expected to understand the significance of the problem – they said it was just fine. “If only one is saved it is worth it all.” Having heard this phrase used for everything from Halloween parties to Santa Claus in the church, I tried to reconcile that to my Bible. The implication was that I did not care about the lost youth and if a “Christian Rock Concert” is what it took for salvation then why am I against it?

I have learned that practically no one will read anymore, especially if it isn’t fiction. That is why this is in PowerPoint, short little “sound bites”, just the gist of the ideas and not anything really to wade through, although it is very long.

The amount of prayer and anguish that has been spent on this will never be understood. I much prefer to be a wife and a momma, which is what I am called to be. However, since it seems no one else will take a stand, God had additional plans for me and would not let me rest until I did something about the false teaching going on in the disguise of reaching the lost. In researching this, I have seen things and heard things that I would much rather be innocent about. You can never erase the things you see or hear – they are forever written in your brain. The problem was most of it was on “Christian” websites.

The original PowerPoint contained video clips and audio clips but it was too large to upload. My son helped me get it in a format that can be viewed online. I tried to document all information but I’m sure I made errors and left things out. (I was public schooled!) The information shared in this pdf does not scratch the surface of the problems with Contemporary “Christian” Music, specifically Rock. I left out so much information and did not cover many facets of CCM.

Information left out included some of the following:

• Too embarrassing and explicit in nature to discuss,

• Such that I couldn’t explain well – differences in tempo and meter of music,

• Nothing was said about the “Emerging Church” movement, (BIG RED FLAG)

• The roots of Rock music,

• There was no way for me to cover even a portion of the CCM bands,

• I did not cover where to draw the line for acceptable music.

I did not pick fringe bands or atypical bands. The bands chosen were all related by the DOVE award nominations or performing at the DOVE Awards Ceremony. They are supposed to represent the top CCM artists for each year. Some artists fall in multiple categories such as Amy Grant in both POP and Rock, etc.

I hope to make each one of you mad. You can get mad at me for picking on your music and not using it to evangelize, that is your prerogative, but then you had better be willing to back it up with scriptures, not just opinion, and show me I am wrong. Some may not even care because “it doesn’t affect me” but I contend that it does and it will even more. However, the intended response is righteous indignation that God and Jesus can be so blasphemed by people who say they love them and that they are “Christians”. The church has invited the enemy into the camp, no wonder we are being defeated.

Be a Berean and check everything with the scriptures.

Click here for Berean Wife’s Contemporary Christian Music PDF

Acts 17:11
“Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” NIV