Should You Listen to Christian Radio? [28]

Host: TJ Freeman

Summary: In this episode of Back to Rurality, TJ Freeman, a rural pastor, delves into whether Christians should listen to Christian radio. He shares that we should listen to songs, radio hosts, and radio preaching with discernment. TJ also shares some helpful examples through his own experience with radio. If you feel like this might be a silly question to ask, this episode is for you!

Key Points:

• Avoiding Emotionalism: When TJ started listening to Christian radio, he really enjoyed it and it became a source of encouragement to him. Things started to take a turn when TJ started to rely more on the radio than his time in God’s Word and prayer with the Lord. 
• The Purpose of Songs: We see in Colossians 3:16 that God means to use songs to form us and shape us to be more like his son. It is a good thing when the songs we’re hearing are helping us meditate on things that are true to the Word of God. It is bad when we are listening to songs that are singing untrue things about God. 
• Benefits of Christian Radio: Rural people who may not have access to a grand theological library or a counseling center, can have access to fantastic sermons and other resources from their cars or own living rooms! You can have these resources right when you may need them, especially when you’re having a tough day. Listening to Christian radio also helps us connect us to the broader church. It is good to hear from Christians outside of our little bubbles whether that be missionaries or pastors from different parts of the world. 
• Shallow Theology: Christians should be careful when they listen to Christian Radio because often times the songs or artists can have wrong or just shallow theology. We need to remember that the songs we listen to shape our thoughts and our worship, so be careful and use discernment. 

Listener Takeaways:

• When you are listening to the radio, ask yourself if this is helping you understand what the Bible says? Use discernment when listening to songs or sermons on the radio. Don’t just trust the artists because they’re on the radio!
• Don’t let Christian radio be your only source of encouragement. It should not be a replacement for your relationship with the Lord. Prioritize time in the Word and time in prayer.
• Consider listening to some older hymns every one and awhile for some deep and profound songs. These hymns are often also written by people who we can know were trustworthy Christians. Let some older saints come alongside you in worship!

Connect with Us:

• Website: backtorurality.com
• Social Media: Facebook
• Email: tj@brainerdinstitute.com

Transcript

Do you ever wonder if listening to Christian radio is a good idea or not? Have you ever thought, is this helping me grow spiritually, or could it in some way be not as helpful as I wish it was? Now, if you're like most people, you don't really think about that much. You just take time. Christian radio at face value, because after all it's Christian radio.

It must be better than that Metallica machine they're listening to on the other stations, asking whether or not Christian radio is good for you is actually a good question. And it's one that I'm going to answer on this episode. So stay tuned.

Well, hello, my name is T. J. Freeman, and I am a rural pastor, just like you. I live in the middle of nowhere, something I wasn't too keen on for a while, but now I'm very happy about. It's a joy to be able to glorify God in places that most of the world doesn't even know about. And I understand how, as a Christian living in the middle of nowhere,

sometimes we rely on Christian radio as a source of theological help, something that encourages us in our faith as we're walking with the Lord in a place where there's not that many Christians and not that many healthy churches. I know that Christian radio can be a real help. In fact, I remember a time in my life when I listened to a lot of Christian radio and you know what that time in my life followed?

A time in my life when I listened to no Christian radio because I was raised in a pretty legalistic church. Super helpful church, very thankful for them, but their position on the drums, as I've mentioned before, was, yeah, ain't gonna happen. They weren't big fans of the drums, therefore I was not a big fan of the drums, and I really believe that that was a sinful thing.

Well, lo and behold, the Bible does not teach that. And as I came out of that season of life where I really wasn't listening to Christian radio, I actually found a lot of joy, and comfort, and even some identity in the things I was hearing over the airwaves. When I was listening to Christian music, it was like, hey, these people understand me.

They're thinking the same kind of thoughts that I'm thinking. They're going through the same struggles that I'm going through, and they are pointing me to Christ. They're reminding me of the fact that I belong to Jesus, that I am His, that Jesus is good and He's loving. There's lots of good stuff that I picked up from the Christian radio, but I must confess, I kind of crossed the line a little bit.

That's right, I did. I would start to listen to the Christian radio 

and I would allow it to inform me theologically in a way that probably wasn't that healthy. So you know, you might listen to a song that is a little more emotional. And it can kind of be questioning some things of the Lord, which can make you feel like, Oh, it's okay to kind of question in this way. And of course it's okay to question the Lord.

I talked about that on the last episode, but sometimes that can cross the line into emotionalism and kind of be unhealthy. There was another time where I remember I was trying to make a big decision. And I had prayed, and I had read scripture, but as I was thinking about moving and leaning toward it, there was a popular song on.

Oh, man. It said, I've been packing my bags when I need to stay. I've been chasing every dream that blows my way or comes my way or whatever. And I was like, Oh no, well, I'm packing my bags. Am I supposed to stay? And that's a time that listening to Christian radio actually kind of confused me because I was leaning on it theologically for some things that I shouldn't have been leaning on it for.

And I've also noticed that at times. I hear really good sermons on Christian radio, and at other times I've heard some things that are downright dangerous on Christian radio. The same thing is true with the radio host. Sometimes the radio host is really theologically just boom, spot on, and sometimes they're dropping theological bombs that are not so healthy.

So what I thought we could do today is just kind of walk through some of the practical applications. about Christian radio in the Christian life, and how to navigate having Christian radio. Let me just start off by saying, I think it's a blessing. When I hit the dial on my radio in my Jeep, goes around, I used to say it spins, I don't know what it does, it flashes through.

And sometimes, Whatever radio station is on, it circles through the whole range of frequencies and then it just comes back again and lands on that same radio station because I can only get one at a time. But if I'm careful and I dial in the other station just right, I can get like a Christian radio station here or there.

Sometimes, Almost all the time, I can get a country station. Yee haw. Not great theology there. And that's one of the things, like, you go, man, Christian radio ought to at least be better than that, right? And that's kind of why I want to dive into this today, to just ask that question in earnest, and then look at Scripture.

One of the guiding scriptures you need to have in your mind comes from the book of Colossians. It's a letter written by the Apostle Paul to a church in a place called Colossi, or Colossi, depending on which little pronunciation tool you use on the Googles. But I'm going to say it's the book of Colossians, chapter 3.

Verse 16 that says, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom. So, we're talking about God's word dwelling richly in the Christian. And that is the main thing that you want to make sure is happening. That it's God's word that is dwelling in you.

It will go on to say there that part of the way that the Word of Christ dwells in you richly isn't just through teaching and admonishing with all wisdom. It's also singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. With thankfulness to God in your heart. So there's some way in which God means to you song. Song that's sung from one Christian to another in a way that is formative.

It's meant to shape us. And I think that that can happen to some degree over the radio waves. You can hear other Christians singing these things, declaring what's on their hearts and, and combining it to some degree with theology, which is a good thing. So I think it kind of passes the test, as long as it really is rooted in the Word of God.

So that's the thing that you need to think about. When you hear things like a sermon on the Christian radio station, really dig in and ask yourself, is this really helping me understand what the Bible says? And there's a danger that I think in Christian radio, just like on Christian television, there's a lot of prosperity gospel type stuff.

There's a big market for people to be selling their goods in the form of sermons that pump people up and make them feel good. You've got to use discernment. Some radio stations are great. The first time I heard Alistair Beggs, sweet accent was over the radio. I've listened to guys like John MacArthur and John Piper and others, because I've heard their sermons on the radio. And I've been very encouraged by them. There are also radio stations that pump out straight trash. And those are pretty easy to tell because there's a lot of prosperity stuff.

They might have a lot of make me feel good type of sermons, but not expositional sermons. You really want to watch out for that and you don't just want to automatically trust the person on the radio because they've earned the, ability to have their sermons go out on the radio. There really is some bad stuff out there.

The most dangerous combination is when you have a radio station that pumps out some good stuff and some bad stuff. And you cannot just trust those things. You really need to go back to the Word of God and see if these things are true in context in the pages of scripture. And let me just Put this out there point blank.

You're better off listening to country than bad sermons where the, where the preacher is lying to you about the things of God and leading you down a bad path. So you need to be very discerning and if you're not at a place where you feel like you really have the ability to make those discerning calls, you're better off not listening to those things until you talk to somebody who can help you figure that out and think that through.

Another benefit though is, Because we live in places that we call the middle of nowhere, there are not a lot of good resources here. I can't pop over to the local seminary and sit down in the theological library and study. I can't go to the local biblical counseling center and ask for advice. There's just not a lot going on.

In a lot of communities, there's not even a healthy church. But then coming right in through your radio comes Christian music, and Christian sermons, and Christian commentators, and it really can fill in a nice gap that's very helpful if you live out there. I'm thinking of guys who are in the truck all day, guys who are sitting on the tractor, moms who are hanging out with their kids at home, and you have Christian radio playing.

It does serve a really helpful and encouraging role in pointing you to Christ well, you're engaging in those kinds of responsibilities.

You may also find that there's a song that points you to Christ at a time you really need it. Sometimes we get in the car after a really hard meeting, after a long day, after a blow up with the kids or your spouse, or somebody hurt you, or you're facing crisis, you get in the car and Christian radio is on and in his kindness, I think God often uses that as a means of grace to encourage you.

And I'm glad it's there for that purpose. And I'm glad you're not listening to something about drowning your sorrows in a bottle of beer or whatever else it is on the negative kind of stations.

 A final benefit that I want to mention. is that listening to Christian radio in a small town does help connect you to a broader church. You're hearing from people from outside of your area and many times you'll hear things like news reports from a Christian worldview.

You'll hear little stories and anecdotes about things going on in the global church. They might have a missionary on. Another pastor might be on who you wouldn't otherwise hear. You may hear a testimony. You are getting a connection to Christians just outside of your little bubble, and that's a real benefit. But there are some significant dangers. I've already mentioned some of them. One is that there is a whole market out there run by unbelievers

meant to capitalize on what they would see as easy prey, that is Christianity. And they're going, I can write these songs that are ooey gooey boyfriend kind of songs. Say it's about Jesus and get a whole bunch of Christians to listen to it and make millions. You don't want to go too far down this rabbit hole, but if you Google that, you'll see that there are a number of

corporations that are not Christian, who are running the Christian music industry in a significant way. They have a significant influence in that industry. You just want to be aware of that. There are some artists who are not believers, but they write songs in a way that appeals to believers and their music is clean and they get pumped out as Christian artists.

And you want to watch that kind of influence in your life. I've mentioned that the same thing exists already in terms of speakers. There are some speakers that you should not be listening to who are making a whole lot of money by going on Christian radio and a lot of people are benefiting financially.

They are just robbing God's church of the kind of good teaching that they deserve to be hearing. So you, you want to be aware of that. You want to watch out for that. You want to listen to the, to the music with a discerning ear. And I'm going to give you an example here. I was listening to Christian radio one day, and a song came on.

It's a song called Thy Will Be Done. Which sounds like a really good song, doesn't it? I thought so. It's by Hillary Scott and the Scott family. I assume these are believers. I assume they meant the best when they wrote this song, but I want you to hear this beginning. It says, I'm so confused. I know I heard you loud and clear.

So I followed through and somehow I ended up here. Now let's just process that together a little bit. There's a line that the premise is built on that says, I know I heard you loud and clear. We presume they're talking to God saying, God, I heard you. And so now you're asking, well, how did I hear you loud and clear?

Are you saying you heard God's voice? Are you saying that God spoke through your circumstances? Are you saying that you opened up your Bible and you saw this thing in Scripture? Somehow you've heard God in a way that you're telling us is loud and clear, but we don't clearly understand how you heard it.

And then you say, so I followed through. What does that mean? I took a step of faith, I heard you tell me to do something specific, so I did that specific thing. I saw what your word says, so I acted in obedience. And then, the result isn't what they were thinking, because it says, Somehow I ended up here. So, you hear that, and it's like, God, you told me to do something, and then you left me hanging.

That's really what it sounds like. I don't know if that's what the author meant by that, but that's what it sounds like. And listen, you can identify with that, can't you? There have been times in your life, just like mine, where you end up a little disappointed and you're surprised because you feel like you were being faithful.

So a lot of Christians can identify with this. She goes on to say, I don't want to think. I may never understand that my broken heart is part of your plan. So, I don't want to think my broken heart is part of your plan. I may never understand that my broken heart is part of your plan. When I try to pray, all I've got is hurt, and these four words.

And then that's like the ironic twist, because the four words are, Thy will be done. That's great! I love that part. Yes, thy will be done. We should be able to sing that forever in every circumstance, because it's straight out of the scriptures. But this honest, and I, I think this person is just being honest when they write this, and they say, I'm struggling to understand how my broken heart is part of your plan, Lord.

I get that. And they're saying, I'm struggling to understand why when I pray all I get is hurt. That one I struggle a little bit more with. The Lord, when we turn to Him in prayer, is not harsh with us. He does not push us away. The Bible tells us that when we draw near to the Lord, He draws near to us.

 There is a sense I understand where sometimes you can feel like your prayers are bouncing off the ceiling, or you can still be sad when you're praying. That line feels a little more like, boy God, you're really letting me down than I'm comfortable with. Anyway, here's my point. That whole paragraph, that first verse, is really open to interpretation, and there are going to be people who hear it, and they're like, yes, me too.

You know, I feel really let down by you, Lord, I heard you, and it may just lend to some confusion. Now, I don't think there's any real issue with the rest of the song. Talks about not feeling that great right now, whatever, but still, despite all of that, saying, Thy will be done. And I'm so for that, and the overall message of the song is good, but I just highlight there's some theological weakness there at the beginning, and leaving things open to interpretation that's probably not healthy.

And here's the other thing you need to realize. We tend to put Christian artists up on this pedestal like, thinking they're theologically sound and deep because they're on the radio and I should listen to what they're saying and be encouraged and find hope. And that's what the, the DJs say.

Come here, find encouragement and hope. But listen, some of those Christian artists have not studied theology very deep. Some of them may not have spent a whole lot of time in their Bibles. We just don't know. And so we're allowing ourselves to be instructed by people who were not real sure what their own walk with the Lord is like.

And I'm not saying we shouldn't do that. I'm saying we need to be careful in discerning and process everything that we're hearing through God's word first, not through our emotions first. And that's the other thing that's a little bit tricky. is because it's music, it tends to hit the emotions in a way that get them a little wrapped up before our theology has a real chance to catch up with that.

And that can be a dangerous thing. You might find yourself identifying so much with that person in that place that it drags you down to a place that you shouldn't go instead of encouraging you and building you up according to God's word. Just something to think about.

Another real challenge is that it's hard to go deep in a short song. We're talking about three or four minutes long of a song here. We're talking about little statements or phrases between songs by a DJ. We're talking about abbreviated sermons and lessons. It's easy to replace depth with convenience

because we're fitting it into the Christian radio time slot. And then you might be tempted to feel like, well, I've connected with the Lord today because I listened to Christian radio on my way home. That may be something that the Lord used to encourage you, but that should not be a replacement for your relationship with the Lord.

You need to actually still pursue the Lord first in Bible study. Meditation on scripture, and prayer, and engagement with Christ's people in the local body of Christ where you know the people and they know you. That is vital. And sometimes we get more Christian radio than we get of any of that other stuff.

And that is not the right priority if you're in that case. Going along those same lines, Sometimes, theology in the songs isn't just , kind of confusing or open ended or whatever. It actually can be shallow. And you can start getting shallow theology into your heart. And that's a danger you want to be really aware of. I'm going to probably step on some toes with this one, but hey, get them piggies out because I'm coming.

There's a song about the overwhelming, never ending, reckless love of God. I'm gonna just confess, I like the tune. I like how that song sounds. When it comes on, I feel something that I like, but when it gets to that word, the reckless love of God, I cringe because I don't like to use a word like reckless that's got a negative connotation and attribute it to God who is only good. The Bible does not use the word reckless in relationship to God. And I just get a feeling that the angel is about faint when the saints sing that God is reckless in some way.

God was very, calculated. He has a plan that he's following, and nothing can throw him off from his plan. The whole Old Testament points to that reality again and again and again. God's plan cannot be stopped by this person, by that person, by this event, by that event. God's plan will be fulfilled. And Paul talks about that in Ephesians 3.

The fact that the Church is flourishing and making Him known is, is God's eternal plan. It's all happening according to it. There's nothing reckless about it. And I, I know you can put the right spin on it. Well, what it really means is, you know, God didn't even care about saving His own life, and He put Himself through suffering, Jesus dying on the cross.

So true. So good. And I'm so thankful. But it wasn't reckless. It was intentional. Jesus died for our sins. He gave his body for us. He shed his blood for us because we are sinners in need of grace and his death was the means through which we could be saved. God chose to do that. It was nothing reckless about it.

So you can get this theology in your heart and start to feel good about how reckless God was with his own well being for you, and it can really elevate you. Instead of elevating the Lord, you know, God was, you're so worthy that God was willing to be reckless for you. Man, you were so unworthy, God owed us nothing.

But God wanted to glorify himself through the salvation of man, and he's included you in that? What a grace. Let's attribute things that the Bible says about God to him. He's holy. He's sovereign. He's good. He's wise. He's powerful. He's loving. He's unfailing. He's just amazing. The psalmist just talks about the splendor of our Lord.

Let's sing about those things. That's deeper theology. Another thing these Christian songs on the radio can do is

they can have almost like a junk food effect on us. Man, I really like junk food. I love chips. I had chips with my lunch, even though I started a diet today. And they were delicious. And I don't feel bad about one single one of them. Well, junk food, like those chips, is not gonna make me healthy. It's going to make healthy food less appealing to me, which is why I didn't get a crunchy lettuce salad instead of the crunchy barbecued potato chips made by Middlesworth.

If you've never had them, come to Pennsylvania and eat them. They're delish. Well, sometimes when we listen to music on the radio, it's, you know, it's written to be appealing to you so that you don't want to turn the station. So it draws you in, it gets your little dopamine receptors firing All hymns have that ability.

Hymns are not written for your enjoyment. They're written to allow you to declare what's true from scripture about the Lord, about yourself in a way that is hopefully memorable and encouraging. And sometimes, you know, the emotions of the music follows the emotions of the lyrics. And that's good. We like that, but let's take a hymn like a mighty fortress is our God.

That was not written to appeal to your flesh. That was written to appeal to the sovereign rule of God, despite Satan's greatest threats. And it does declare the good result of that on us, which is a blessing. But that hymn, by many, is now considered boring, because it doesn't sound like the songs on the radio anymore.

It makes it feel old and musty and out of date, and it is old, but it certainly ain't musty, and it's not out of date. It is rich, theologically. So, we gotta be careful that we don't bring in something that's a substitute, an easy substitute for something that's actually really good and healthy for us.

Last thing, most of the songs you hear on Christian Radio and most of the DJs who are talking are from bigger areas than where you're from. It's cool. We like urban people. We like the cities. Well, some of us do. But they're not going to be able to identify with some of the unique things that you're struggling with like the other Christians in your region can.

So you just want to bear in mind the fact that you're clinging to something or hearing something that's out of context for your life and you need to also stay rooted in the rural life that you're living and connect with other Christians around you who really understand contextually what it's like to try to be a Christian where you're trying to be a Christian.

To that end, remember, Be praying for a church in your community if there's not one there. Be praying that your church in your rural community will get healthier and healthier. And you be a part of that by being a healthy Christian living in that community. Get together and pray with other Christians.

Read the Bible with other Christians. Encourage other Christians. Stir them up to love and good works. Share the gospel so that God, in his kindness, saves more people and fills your community with more Christians. Well, You know what I've been doing? I've been talking for a long time, which means it's probably time to wind it on down.

Let me just give a little review here. We've been talking about Christian radio and whether it's a good idea or a bad idea, and what we've concluded is it's kind of both. You can get the most out of it though by being discerning. By having some balance in your life and not just turning the majority of your Christianity over to the input you get from the radio.

You should be seeking depth and thinking about things like. the depth of lyrics you might hear in an old hymn compared to something maybe a little more simple that you'd be hearing on the radio. And just be aware of who's influencing you. You want to be influenced by Christians in your context as much or more than Christians outside of your context.

Hope that's helpful. I'd love to talk about this more if you're interested. Remember, you can always email me, tj at brainerdinstitute. com. This Episode, like all episodes of Back to Rurality, has been a ministry of the Brainerd Institute for Rural Ministry. Want to hear a quick story? Because I got one. I went to the most amazing place today.

There's a little island just outside of Sunbury, Pennsylvania, where David Brainerd came and he shared the gospel with Native Americans who were living on that island, and he wrote about his time there, and when he stayed on that island, he wrote that it was one of the darkest nights of his life, spiritually, because there's a lot of drunkenness and kind of like a satanic hold on that place that he could really sense while he was there.

So I went with my church staff today, we do what's called a blue sky day once a quarter. We just get out of the office together and go do something fun. And so today we visited another church and then we went over to this David Brainerd site and got to pray, standing there praying for that community like Brainerd did a a couple hundred years ago, praying from that same place.

It was just really encouraging. So if you want to check that out, you can just go to brainerdinstitute.com, where you can learn more about what we're doing. This podcast is part of what we're doing. We want to see healthy churches in every rural community. You're a part of that. Thanks for being a part of that.

Go and share Christ with others. And if sharing this episode is helpful, I would hope that you do that as well. And I haven't said this in a while, but if you could leave us a review and a rating on whatever app you're listening to this podcast from, that would really encourage me and it would help us get the word out about this podcast a little more.

Thanks for everything you're doing. Really thankful that God has you there in the middle of nowhere, like he has me here. For now though, let's get back to life. Back to rurality.