Replies

Link to Issues, Etc. talking to Warren Cole Smith.

Worth the half hour. I learned some things (that I will want to verify):

Willow Creek (the definitional suburban seeker soporific big box evangelical Churchmall that everyone emulates and looks to for "leadership") started as an overgrown youth group, and consciously thinks of itself as "youth group for big folks".
Not every group in the Willow Creek Association is Christian.
"Becky". Becky is the notional audience that evangelical Christian radio is aiming at. Becky is 34, drives a minivan, has 2 kids, may or may not be Christian, and wants her radio "safe for the whole family". What Becky listens to now gets sung in worship in a couple-'r-three years.

So, I guess I'll just have to get Smith's book, read it in my "abundant free time", and pass it on to our church leadership (who seems bound and determined to go down that path ('cause this is what they're reading)).

Ping to Alex Murphy (Alex, is it you that runs the Your Bestest, Most Purposeful Life Now list?) and terriergal.

Becky is the notional audience that evangelical Christian radio is aiming at. Becky is 34, drives a minivan, has 2 kids, may or may not be Christian, and wants her radio "safe for the whole family". What Becky listens to now gets sung in worship in a couple-'r-three years.

LONE STARR: Yogurt, what is this place? What is that you do here?
YOGURT: Merchandising!

I'm pretty sure that churches have to pay some kind of licensing fee for the use of those modern "hymns" by Matthew West and the like. What is worth considering is not why the church is buying, but more importantly why the music publishing house is selling. There's a whole industry adjunct to radio that's built around writing (and selling) worship songs to evangelical churches for a profit, which generates record sales which generates demand for worship licenses ad infinitum. I will admit that if the very songs being marketed weren't narcissistic theological fluff, I wouldn't be complaining as loudly.

Alex, is it you that runs the Your Bestest, Most Purposeful Life Now list?

I'm very grateful for the ping (this is exactly the kind of stuff that I go looking for), but it's Gamecock that owns the pinglist!