Scott’ s Testimony

I was born into a home with two parents who loved both me and the Lord Jesus Christ.  We went to Church regularly, and by the age of six the Holy Spirit had convicted me of my need for a Savior.  This was accomplished through His leading me to ask my parents when we left Church why people would go forward after the preaching.  My father explained to me that people went forward to accept Christ, that He died and rose for our sins, and that if I wanted to have eternal life I too must accept Christ.  This I did and have grown in the Lord ever since.  That does not mean that I have not had struggles, sins to deal with, or beliefs to mold and shape.  In fact, I still have many of the same struggles, but Christ is continually molding me more and more into the man that He is calling me to become.

I grew up listening to rock music.  The first album I ever remember hearing was the LP (that is a 33 1/3 vinyl record for those of you who are ridiculously young), The Early Beatles, a compilation of some of the first Capitol recordings the band did in 1963 and 1964.  I loved the album, especially the song “Twist and Shout.”  By the time I was in grade school, I was a fan of Gospel Music (like Southern Gospel), Oldies, and Classic Rock.  In the sixth Grade I recall knowing more about Oldies than anything else, but by that time my tastes were changing.  I had begun listening to music that wasn’t quite as soft or pretty as the Supremes or Johnny Rivers.  I began listening to Led Zeppelin, Bad Company, and others.  By the time I graduated from High School I was a bigger fan of Classic Rock than I was of the Oldies, though I still listen to them often.  Since then I have become a bigger fan of Modern Rock, Alternative, and Industrial by genre, but I still enjoy classic riffs that can easily be traced to the blues most of all.

By now you may be wondering why I care so much about mentioning all of this in my testimony.  It goes back to when I hit seventh grade and joined the youth group at Church.  I was told on not a few occasions that I needed to give up Rock Music.  I even tried at one point when I was sixteen to listen to Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) for a month straight without listening to any “secular rock.”  That was awful.  I missed listening to anything with a beat.  Statements like this could make some of you think that I am nothing more than a fan of Rock music and that I will attempt to defend it at any cost.  This is not the case either.  I was told on many occasions that all secular music was bad, and that I should not fill my mind with it.  The fallacy with this argument is that not all secular music is bad, though some of it is.  Furthermore, not all Christian music is good.  If a song written by a Christian is not doctrinally sound, it is no better than some of the secular music out there.

As I continued to grow in my faith, the struggle concerning what music to listen to and what kind of music to listen to did not become easier before becoming harder.  I was stuck trying to determine what music was glorifying to God.  Questions were raised in my mind about whether a non-Christian could glorify God in his or her music, whether a song that did not mention God could bring Him glory, and whether a song that was poorly written could bring Him glory.  These were questions that took me several years to really sort out.  In college, the two classes that helped to answer this question were Systematic Theology, and Intro to Philosophy.  The theology gave me a deeper grounding in Scripture, and a better understanding of biblical teachings.  Philosophy helped me to see the need to evaluate and reflect on life in a way that I had not before. It taught me that God is interested in all aspects of life, and that He is concerned with human affairs of every nature.  We are His creation and He is interested in us.

With the knowledge and understanding gained from these two subjects I was able to develop a view concerning my beliefs and convictions about music.  The struggle that lasted nearly ten years had finally come to an end. Now that my views have been placed in order, I will spend a lifetime evaluating music and discovering how every facet of this art form is either glorifying to God and/or acceptable for the believer and for the culture, or whether it is not.

My conclusion is simple: all truth belongs to God, and all truth must be embraced.  A song does not have to mention God to glorify Him, but if it does, then let it be used in Worship.  When someone who is not a believer writes a song that accurately paints a picture of our world or that makes it a better place, then let it be played to the glory of God.  When it does not, do not let it fall by the wayside, for someone else will come by and pick it up.  Instead, take a stand.  Show the Christians around you why the song is problematic, and equally as important, show the people in darkness around you that there is something better.  When a song is written well by a Christian, share it with the world; when a song is written that accurately points people to God, shout it out.  Let all your music glorify the Lord, and by doing so--even when the music does not mention God--let it help you live a life that is itself an act of worship for your Creator.  Do not let Christians run from the culture only to imitate it later, let them go out into the culture and effect change of such a nature that individuals actively begin to seek after God.  Do not compromise standards, quality, or value of the arts that you enjoy as a Christian, but let the Christian artists lead the culture in these three attributes.

Today I see my ministry as one that is on the path to actively engage the culture through the art of music, as well as pop culture.  I do not believe that Christians should become assimilated into culture thus losing their voice, but that they should help non-believers see the importance of faith in culture.  I pray that God will use me (through this letter and many other avenues) in years to come to be an agent of change for our society, its morals, the vision of the evangelical people in it, and as a light in a dark world showing the way for those I encounter to see the truth of Christ, in the hope that as they will live their own lives as an act of worship that will be seen as a beautiful and delicate piece of artwork revealing the new creation that God is sculpting them into over time.

I hope this testimony has been an encouragement for you and that it will help seek that to which God is calling you in life.