Can We Rock the Gospel?: Rock Music's Impact on Worship and Evangelism

by John Blanchard, Dan Lucarini

Can we really combine rock music with the worship of God? Few subjects generate more heat in the Christian church today than the use of music in worship and evangelism. Does God endorse music of eve

Genres: Music, Theology

267 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2006

About the author

Dr. John Blanchard is an internationally known Christian preacher, teacher, apologist and author. He has written 30 books, including two of Britain's most widely used evangelistic presentations, Right With God and the booklet Ultimate Questions. The latter has over fourteen million copies in print in about 60 languages.

Reviews

[Jason Harris · Rating 1 out of 5]

As a conservative who's read widely on the topic, I was grieved by this book. My concerns:

Theologically abstinent
Biblically shallow
Systematically imprecise and invalid logic
Regular use of insinuation instead of direct argumentation
Intellectually simplistic
The authors don't get the gospel (or hide it well if they do)
Dodgy hermeneutics
Disingenuous at times

I feel the book does significant damage to its own cause. The book can't be taken seriously by serious thinkers and theologians.

[Frode · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clear, historical, interpretive, decisive; you won't be left wondering about the authors' positions. The book has a great comment about good music. It is very clear about the music having its own message no matter what the words say. The book moved right along with no dead spots. The authors provided lots of examples and many quotes from rock stars. I think it was a balanced look, but it will surely offend some in the CCM movement today.

[Glyn Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

We all know what goes on in the background of secular rock music, but do we realise what is behind what we call Christian rock music? Is it much different?

This book will open your eyes to the background of the argument and life and thoughts of many of today's popular Christian artists. It asks some very relevant questions and will make you think twice about the use of contemporary Christian music, rock music specifically, within the life of your church.

A must read for anyone involved within the music and worship ministry of the church.

[Neil Fix · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is interesting, but more for the fact that the arguments are so convoluted. It is difficult to tell whether this is deliberate, but that does help to hide the fact that the arguments are not exactly strong.
I have 4 major problems with this book. First, it is based more on emotions than facts. At times, it verges on emotional blackmail (i.e. these people are hurting 'because' of rock, therefore if you say that 'rock' is okay, you are justifying their being hurt). Second, what facts it does have are difficult to follow and not always backed up. It doesn't define 'rock' at all clearly-their definition appears to include folk, country, blues, jazz, rock n' roll, and reggae, and even mentioning dance music in passing.
Third, which is what really irritates me is that it is very badly researched. There are two specific examples which come to mind: one, that in their (very short) list of artists who are 'involved' in the occult, they have Alice Cooper (who is a Christian) and Iron Maiden (which has at least one Christian in it); and two, they talk about the morality of rock, but never even mention the straight edge movement. For those who don't know, 'straight edge' was a movement that started in the 80's, whose followers would reject drugs, alcohol, and casual sex among other things, and is still going strong today. If you are trying to put together an argument that 'rock' inevitably leads to immorality, how do you deal with this?
And, finally, what is probably most important, nowhere is there any positive argument. What I mean by this is to show how 'good' music should be, with examples. They appear to have written off all contemporary music under the guise of 'rock', but not showing what is good to listen to, or why and how it is different.

[Kelly · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am sorry that it seems this was less an exploration than a dogma.

[Eriza · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book exposed the problems with rock music in the context of corporate worship and evangelism (and also rock in general) so clearly, any Christian who's read it should be alarmed. Very informative esp for a secular rock music lover like me. Before reading this book I've made a stand against Christian rock and gospel entertainment; not only are they unbiblical, they contradict true biblical evangelism and worship. But not only did this book reinforce my stand, it made me re-evaluate my love for rock in general.

[Simon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Draws a pretty long bow. Not very good.

[Garaidh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful, little book-only problem I have it, is that it is not KJV only but sometimes we have to compromise. God bless.