The Best Music About God You Won't Hear

I am a teen herder. Youth minister. Youth director. Youth guy. Minister to youth. However you want to say it, I do that. The only thing I really do NOT like about working in the church is being stuck in that church "culture" or in the Christian "ghetto" as many are inclined to label it. There it seems music, logos, shirts, shoot almost everything, has to be marketed to Christians. We seem to have lost the ability to think and make rational decisions informed by our belief in Christ and our knowledge of scriptures.

Instead if we could just slap the words "purpose" and "driven" on it or call something post-modern or even make something catchy into a cute little bracelet, effectively proving we have absolutely NO creativity on our part whatsoever, we are going to make millions in the Christian subculture.

Today I take Christian music to task. Christian music, I believe, can be divided into five basic groups:
1. Old people music (Gaithers, MWS, SCC, Amy Grant etc). These are people who have become so associated with Christian music that they can never break out, despite efforts in the early 90's to do so. I lump in DC Talk, tobymac, Mercy Me and any Christian music that I tolerate or semi-enjoy because at least these groups or acts have staying power and I can somewhat enjoy them.
2. Christian Rap - while just ten years ago, C-Rap was exactly that, CRAP, now it has blossomed into an interesting scene. Acts like Lecrae, Tedashii, John Reuben, KJ-52 and even my boy Cedenough are sort of staking out territory I feel that people like Flash and the Five started exploring years ago, becoming sort of a voice of their generation. They are not talking about drugs, hoochies and booty. They are relating their lives, their experiences. I really enjoy this stuff.
3. Christian version of whatever is popular in the general pop market. The Christian subculture word for this is secular. I hate those distinctions. And I hate this music. If I wanted to listen to the Chili Peppers or to Dave Matthews or John Mayer, I would just listen to them and then have a devotional time with God. I don't need both at the same time.
4. Praise and worship music. While there are many artists who do this well (Charlie Hall, Tomlin, Crowder, Redman) sometimes this is the genre people resign themselves to when they realise they need to make money or are passing their creative primes. If another regular old CCM artist relegates him or herself here, singing Charlie Hall's greatest hits in a new, somewhat tired-sounds-too-much-like-the-original way, I will leave the whole genre behind and sing chants.
5. Hymns. Old. Some are amazing. Some are confusing. Most are dull. But these hymns can give us a framework. Not a framework of FAITH, but one that leads us into what we NEED to be doing to reach a lost world dying without Jesus. Utilize music. Don't wander over to the dark side of the CCM industry. Instead, take music to the places where it needs to be. Many of our old hymns are just drinking songs, pub songs, re-written with God-praising lyrics. That is where we should be headed.

If you haven't noticed, in the past two or three years, there have been significant releases of faith. Artists have recorded albums that have outstripped ANYTHING that has come from the world of CCM. The depth of honesty, soul-searching and, YES, faith in Christ has been astonishing, surprising, encouraging and, most importantly, produced great music. Here is a shortlist of the best albums about God released in the past few years:

Honorable mention: Anything by Sufjan Stevens. Sufjan is a Christian folk-singer. Wait, he is a Christian who is also a folk singer. And he is one of the ten most influential musicians performing today. His influence runs deep on most college campuses. His long song titles even touched David Crowder, although most people stuck in the church probably thought those weird titles on Crowder's latest release were due to the fact that he looks like an alien and a corpse had a child and should be as weird as he looks. Sufjan's SEVEN SWANS album is great. Full of faith and you can see how God is working out Sufjan's salvation with fear and trembling.

Ben Harper. Sure, some of the lifestyles lived by people in this section may be a "turn-off" to the Falwell set. But that is a loss I can deal with. Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals play the best soulful R&B today. And there is a consistent string of faith, even leading Harper to try multiple projects with famed gospel group The Blind Boys.

Here are the albums I mentioned earlier. From fourth to first, these are the albums truly leaving an impression of Christ on my life.

4. BAPTISM - Lenny Kravitz - I LOVE listening to Lenny. You can really see on this album how Lenny battles his appetite for sin and the duality he lives every day. He knows there is a battle fighting within himself between his demons and better angels. Probably too much James 3 and 4 for most Christians to really enjoy.

3. HOW TO DISMANTLE AN ATOMIC BOMB - U2 - How can you NOT think about Christ when you listen to U2? This album covers so much territory for Christ. It talks about God's place in society and in the club scene. Bono reveals how he is trying to nudge someone closer to Christ. And it ends with the most dynamic praise song written since U2 wrote 40 almost twenty years ago.

2. COLORBLIND - Robert Randolph and the Family Band - But wait Craig, you holler. They won a DOVE award!!! They are a CCM group! I declare not so. They do things that CCM bands never ever ever ever do or will ever get the chance to do. They perform in seedy bars. A lot. They really enjoy the music. They opened for Clapton and are consistently playing Bonnaroo and Crossroads Guitar Festival. They are even gonna open for Dave Matthews Band in the fall. They still sound like they stepped right out of the church. They are funky, rocky and just plain amazing.

1. TURN AROUND - Jonny Lang - Holy COW! This album is the album that every CCM artist wishes he was deep enough, connected enough to Christ, talented enough and brave enough to record. And they WON'T. Even in the safe confines of the CCM industry, they continue to record the same crapola they always record. Jonny Lang made a conversion a few years ago and this album is just...seriously, you will not believe what Christ is doing and how honestly and openly Lang talks about it. Not to mention the fact that the former blues prodigy is growing nicely into his amazing talents and developing a knack for song-writing. Honestly, this is the best album about Christ I have ever heard. And, probably, the best album about Christ you have never heard.

Change that. Check out these discs ASAP. I bet Dave already has TURN AROUND and will soon be singing the praises of Jonny Lang himself.