Contemporary Christian Music and the Youth (A Study on Theology of Music)

Music is an important element of Christian worship. It is one of the ways of expressing love and reverence to God. Though it appears in different forms, music basically contains the experiences of believers and communicates what they believe. In fact, it is one of the expressions of faith affirmation. Apart from glorifying God, Christian music strengthens the believers in times of crisis and spiritually edifies them in their faith journey. However, no fixed style or genre will please God. This book discusses the issue of the style of music, particularly contemporary Christian music and its theological significance in the worship and missional life of the church.

We live in a world where youngsters have a variety of exposures. The orientation of the previous generation may not satisfy the needs and priorities of the present generation. The youngsters influenced by the trends of the present world look for new ways of experiencing and expressing their faith. They feel that faith communities are still spinning around traditions, including music. They are not satisfied with traditional forms of worship. They maintain a negative attitude towards traditional Christian music and tend to stay away from church. In this context, the author engages with the youth and brings into light the importance of contemporary Christian music in their lives, and challenges the church to interact with them.

This book is a research undertaken by the author, aims to help younger generations to be Disciples of Christ and to avoid the pitfall of the devil. It also examined and addressed some of the controversies orbiting contemporary Christian music. I have tried to offer some theological perspective on the problems, answer some of the major objections and proof that there is nothing intrinsically wrong with contemporary Christian music as a style of music. But it would be presumptuous to assume that this book provides the definitive answer to a hotly debated issue on contemporary Christian music. The best I can hope for is to vitalize a constructive dialogue and do empirical research among youth, church musicians, church elders, and administrators.

Although many scholars have written extensively about contemporary Christian music, the role of contemporary Christian music among the youth in Ukhrul has been neglected in previous research by scholars. The crescendo of this research has led to a greater understanding of how Christianity is evolving and how contemporary Christian music has played a gigantic role in its growth. It has also directed to a better comprehension of how the Christian community that uses contemporary Christian music as part of daily life understands its purpose in their Christian faith and identity especially, to the younger generations.

**Contents and Sample Pages**