CCMdar.

(It's guest post Friday! Here's one from Stephen & Shae Pepper. They write a blog for youth, YouthWorkinIt. You can follow them on Twitter @YouthWorkinIt. If you want to write a guest post for SCL, here's how!) 

CCMdar – by Stephen & Shae Pepper

It's the day before the day before Christmas. Chances are you're about to go on a road trip to see some family.

Over the last couple of years, my wife and I have done two road trips from Virginia to California and back again. Not only is this a lot of miles, it's also a lot of music. When you're driving this far you have to change radio stations quite often, as the one you're listening to goes out of range.

Through all this station-changing, we've developed a pretty good CCMdar. What's a CCMdar? It's a radar located where your ear connects to the brain, that helps you tell if it's a Christian radio station while scanning through stations. In fact, we've honed our CCMdar so well that it only takes 2.71 seconds for us to identify if it's a Christian radio station.

Want to know how to refine your own CCMdar skills? Here are some features that give away Christian radio stations:

1. They'll use words like "positive", "family-friendly" and "encouraging."

Maybe they're "positive and encouraging". Or maybe "family-friendly and positive". Perhaps they even "encourage family-friendly positivity" (I better trademark that last phrase before someone writes a book with that title).

You'll hear these words many times. You may find this repetition tiresome, but I've got a theory why they do this. Every time the host mentions those words, an angel gets its wings.

2. You'll hear testimonies.

On CCM radio, you'll often hear callers sharing about how they were struggling, but then they heard a song that lifted them out of the miry clay.

This is unique to CCM stations. It's a shame, as I'd love to hear someone call Kiss 100 and say 'You know what – I was having a really terrible day. Starbucks were out of Espresso, someone had unfollowed me on Twitter, and Facebook did yet another change to their website. But then you played Party Rock, and I thought to myself, "You know what – knowing that everyday someone was shuff-shuffling was just what I needed to hear."'

3. The music has a "quality" about it.

The biggest giveaway though of a CCM radio station is the music they play. It's hard to explain exactly, but there's just this way you can tell if it's a CCM song playing. To try to be a bit less vague, play CCM bingo. Listen to any CCM station for an hour and see if you can hear all of these:

Songs sung so earnestly, each syllable takes 3 seconds to sing

Eagles are mentioned (they're either soaring or we're on their wings – not welcoming us to the

Hotel California)

We're lifting up God

God's lifting us up

We will praise/follow/other suitably spiritual verb you (ironically, that verb never turns out to

be "rock")

High, wide, deep

We'll be your hands and feet (even though we prefer to be the mouth)

You died (not a common song lyric on other stations, unless they're singing about Tupac or

Biggie)

Father (not many people sing songs to their parents, and when they do it's more like "Cats In

The Cradle.")

Question:

What other things could be added to the bingo list?

(For more great stuff from Stephen & Shae Pepper, check out their blog, YouthWorkinIt)