A New Jersey megachurch's latest effort to better engage with culture by embracing some of pop culture's most popular songs reignites the debate over whether churches should utilize secular music to be relevant.
While Liquid Church is using songs like Adele's "Rolling in the Deep" and Bruno Mars' "Grenade" as part of its "Pop God" sermon series this month, some point to the danger that lies in "using cultural mediums to transfer sacred messages."
Dr. John Hardin, a writer for 9Marks, a Washington, D.C. organization that helps "church leaders define success as faithfulness to God," cautioned in an email to The Christian Post that "the methods and the messages carry with them the DNA of the culture from which they were taken."
By embracing the methods of the world, pastors end up embracing the values and the meanings of the world. Hardin, a former college pastor, said that ultimately they may surrender the sacredness of their church, and "the sacred ceases to be that which is set apart, when it is framed in that which is perhaps all too near."
Liquid Church kicked off its "Pop God" series this past Sunday with the worship team leading the congregation in singing "Rolling in the Deep."
Rich Birch, spokesperson for Liquid, told CP this week that the Christian subculture is fairly disconnected to the broader world, so Liquid Church is trying "to redeem the culture through those four songs" (the other two are songs by the Foo-Fighters and Cee Lo Green). Keep reading
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