Can you categorize the defining moments in your life? Music undoubtedly provides the backdrop for many significant life landmarks: personally, I can link almost every major milestone in my relatively short life to a song, chorus or album. I first fell in love with music during second grade by way of an Amy Grant’s Heart in Motion cassette tape—I played it until the tape came off the spool. My first night at junior-high youth group was spent playing musical chairs to Newsboys’ “Not Ashamed” and those few, brief stops-and-starts of the song inspired me to share my faith with someone at school the next week. The list goes on and on.
I think we underestimate the impact music has not only on us, but on the hearts and lives of our youth. Not convinced? Name the hymn that plays during a Billy Graham altar call; the refrain we all croon in unison during a birthday party; the nostalgic tune that is recited each year at New Year’s — music is a powerful, universal language; and it arguably has the ability to shape the very lives of our young people.
In our instant-download, on-demand, media-saturated world, it’s not a question of whether or not kids are going to consume music; it is simply a question of whether or not the music will be of the positive or negative nature, which is why it’s critical to provide teens with an affirmative alternative to the sex-filled thong songs and explicit rock/rap/pop amalgams pervading today’s airwaves. Are your junior highers in love with pop/punk ala Fall Out Boy or The Click Five? Try Stellar Kart or Hawk Nelson. Are your kids gobbling up the latest rap/hip hop albums from T-Pain and Kanye? Turn them onto tobyMac or Group 1 Crew. Do your guys and girls alike go for female singer-songwriters like Sara Bareilles and K.T. Tunstall? Have them check out Francesca Battistelli or Krystal Meyers. Do the older kids love Euro-rock from Coldplay and Keane? Turn them onto Leeland or Remedy Drive. These days, the options are endless for mainstream substitutes that are equipped with conscientious messages that don’t compromise quality.
The fact is we’ll never truly know the impact the background music you flip on during a seemingly insignificant game of musical chairs might have on one of your seventh graders. The addition of a new worship song to the weekly set might stir one young person’s passion to join the mission field. The song you play after preaching a message of salvation could be the refrain that changes the course of one sophomore’s life. The power of song in a young person’s life is irreplaceable and must be diligently guarded and cultivated.
Not only is music one of the only elements that we are told will be present in heaven (“Without stopping day or night they were singing, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, who is, and who is coming,’” (
