The Tomlin Effect (SOJR part 1)

So, since I last posted, there have been many big changes around these parts. One is that I am now the creative arts pastor (soon to be honor pastor) at First Baptist Church Coppell It's a long story that only God could have written, but that's another post some time. The main purpose of this post is to tell you about the thing that is consuming ALL of my time right now.
It's this thing.

The School of Jesus Rock

This concept addresses a few issues for our church that were not sustainable. Over the next few days, I'll break these down for you.
1) The Tomlin Effect
Now, feel free to disagree with me, but the days of the choir as a driving force in music ministry are fading if not already gone. When I was growing up, the children's choir fed into the youth choir which fed into the adult choir. Each group had their own musicals and tours and such. It was a lot of fun. I enjoyed it like crazy. But then Chris Tomlin happened. Well, actually, Todd Proctor, Joel Engle, & David Parker happened, but the idea is this. Teens would go to camp and see a live band playing loud music and the choir became something they "had" to do, rather than something they wanted to do. Why would I sing the latest Wayne Watson tune arranged for SAB (there are no tenors in youth choir, i'm certain) when I could sing "forever" with a band? Thus the Tomlin Effect. This could also be known as the "Delirious Situation" or "Trading my Sorrows Syndrome". So as bands become more prominent and choirs less so, it is our responsibility to train up artistic leaders in the church to influence rather than poorly copy the artistic culture at large.
Since the Scopes Monkey Trial in 1925, The American Church has generally isolated themselves from worldly artistic influence. This is why DC Talk had a career. They looked at whatever was popular outside of Christendom & put Jesus in there. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was rebranded "Jesus Freak" and my generation was able to rock out...well...maybe soft rock out, but still.
Music within the church has been generally behind culture for the last 70 years or so. While Elvis and the Beatles came on the scene, rather than influence the artistic community as the church had historically done since Constantine, the church stuck to their guns and sang with organs and choirs galore. It's only now that the church has started to influence artistic culture again. Musically, some of our best popular artists follow Jesus without conforming to the Christian subculture that is so often a facade of true Christianity anyways. What the last 20 years in church music have done is reintroduce creativity to the church. No longer are we completely dependent on church history for our musical style. Our church history informs and inspires us, but does not limit us as musicians any longer.
Now it is our responsibility to train artists in the church in this way. At the school of Jesus Rock, we will train artists & musicians to worship Jesus and influence culture. We will push the students to be the best musicians they can be because Jesus is worthy of more than our best and most creative. This means choirs have a place, but not THE place. One day, this style will fade out and be replaced with something else. I can only hope in Jesus that He will allow me to see it when it happens and I won't cling to this style when the change must take place.