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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!

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.

"Church" is an industry, complete with "free-if-you-in-the-field" trade rags.

"Church Executive"

"Church Production Magazine"

"Church Solutions"

"Technologies for Worship "

Doubtless there are more. That's just for churchs, and that's just from a couple pages of Google search. There's probably more if you're into the "Christian retailing" side. And don't forget the Den of Thieves Retail Show. And there are a vast number of websites that will get you all set up if what you want is a prewritten sermon, complete with "powerpoints" and video clips and bulletin inserts.

Jesus wept. (Actually, I think a better biblical allusion would be "Jesus, 'making a whip of cords'....".)

Gamecock

who hasn't posted since April. :-(.