WHAT MAKES A SONG, CHRISTIAN?

Radio people, artists and listeners have asked me this question for years.

If I was to ask you, "what is a classic rock sound", the answer would be power guitar chords. "What's a country song" - probably a steel guitar.  "What's a big band sound" - probably a dominating horn section. What's a screamo song? It's a loud song with screaming vocals.

And, "What's a Christian sound?"  Hmmm. There isn't a sound.  Christian music comes in many styles and that's awesome because no matter what style of music you like, there's Christian music for you.

Christian music is the only format defined by the lyrics not the music. If you remove the words from a Christian song, all you have is a classic rock, country or screamo melody.

It's the words that make a song Christian.

Remove the words from Amazing Grace and it's just a good melody.

On Christian radio our purpose is to do ministry and to speak into people's lives through music. If the song doesn't point to God, or reflect Godly values in some direct or in-direct way, then it's not really Christian.

Listeners come to us for ministry. That want to be reminded of God. If they didn't care about that element they probably would listen to a mainstream station but they want to hear that God loves them, he cares, he's the answer, he's the king and that they can make it through the day - with God.

Christian artists say they don't write songs for radio - they just write what's on their heart. And that's how it should be. Write a song about God. Write a song about your shoelaces. Write whatever moves you. But don't expect Christian radio to play "The Shoelace Song" just because you happen to be a Christian because  those lyrics don't fit what we do. It won't minister to people.

When you go to church, you expect the pastor to preach about God. He wouldn't preach about baseball or fishing. If he did you wouldn't feel you were ministered to, right?

And so it is with Christian radio.

Now, there are Christian radio stations that position themselves as "family stations" and "positive stations" so in that case I suppose the fishing song or baseball song or shoelace song would probably fit. They don't claim to be Christian.


According to the CRTC, Christian music is a song that points to a higher power. The CRTC even has a special category, which ties our format to a category that is now required.

Personally, I like, what I call "observation or commentary" songs. These are Christian songs that aren't verses copied from the Bible, but words that reflect the artist - what they think about God, prayer, etc. One of my favourites is "Meant To Live" by Switchfoot. It's Jon Foreman's observation about purpose.


Christian music is the only music defined by lyrics. What are you writing about?  Happy writing.