Over ten years ago I was working at a Christian music marketing company and was forwarded a phone call by a popular hip hop DJ.  He had recently become a Christian, which to me was exciting because I had jammed out to some of his most popular songs at parties for years.  However as we conversed about what he wanted to do with his talent since he became a Christian, I started to become increasingly worried.

Him: "I want to do a hip hop version of *Insert popular CCM franchise here*"
Me: "But....that's copyrighted. You just can't take that. Why not do something new?"

The more we talked, the more I felt that he was trying to play it safe by changing up his style and trying to force himself into a system that was not going to allow him to be himself musically.  He explained to me that he was discouraged about how since he became a Christian, he was receiving criticism about how his music had become watered down.  If you know anything about hip hop, you know that is exactly the opposite of what a hip hop artist wants to hear. They don't want to hear that since they have decided to be a  follower of Christ that their music is no longer relevant in the streets. However, this story is not uncommon.

I fear that when it comes to creativity that too often believers strive too much to be light at the risk of failing to effectively be salt. Because of this their art suffers.  In reality, we don't have to strive to be salt and light.  It's not something we have to try to be because we already are. The question is not if we are salt but are we effective salt?

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot." - Matthew 5:13

I looked up some things about salt as an ingredient and found some pretty interesting things as it pertains to our lives, particularly as creative people.  By definition salt is "an element that gives liveliness, piquancy or pungency."  It's used to preserve things by drying out bacterial cells that cause spoilage. In other words, it keeps things fresh by making it hard for bacteria to cause things to spoil. It seasons as well as it preserves.  It enhances flavor, it doesn't just simply blend in.

So how does salt lose its saltiness?  By being contaminated by exposure to water and becoming watered down.  I think that can happen to talent.  I think that talent and creativity can be contaminated and watered down by fear and compromise when it comes to Christians. One of the things I would say to an artist who is a new Christian would be this:  Don't water down your talent for the sake of blending in because really you weren't created to.  Don't think that watering down your talent will make it easier for you to be a light because in regards to being salt and light, that's not even how that works.  Light illuminates darkness and much like salt it enhances, it does not blend in. Also, please be clear: watered down talent doesn't always equate to becoming G-rated.  There are plenty of artists that have watered down their talent by going the R-rated route with the delusion of that being the pathway to being a light in the industry.  This is not what Paul meant when he talked about being "all things to all people". Paul walked in freedom as he did this (1 Corinthians 9:19-23). 


Bottom line, as my new favorite YouTube sensation Kid President so plainly states,  if it doesn't make music/art/television/the world better- don't do it. If it's not adding flavor or enhancing things, simply don't do it. Don't kid yourself and think that just because something is "hot" that it has flavor. Something can be hot and bland all at the same time and to put it simply, that is just a hot mess. If you are a new Christian and are having difficulty with what to do with your talent, don't be afraid to be uniquely you for fear that you won't blend into "Christiandom" or "church culture" because frankly, both need a kick in the pants anyway.  We need salt to stay salty! We need to get things livened up!  We need new chords. We need new TV shows. We need new art.  We need new designs. We need new structures. Overall we need new creative things that are making the world better and that can only done by keeping our salt salty and not contaminated by fear or playing it safe.

In regards to "playing it safe"- unfortunately what has happened is that we have too many people becoming Christians and leaving the very industries that need them, to then come over to an industry that does not want to or even know how to accept them as they are supposed to be.  Thus, music has been spoiled with little salt to preserve it.  A really good book that I am reading called The Rock & Roll Rebellion: Why People of Faith Abandoned Rock Music and Why They're Coming Back by Mark Joseph addresses this very thing.  In it he tells the stories of a few artists who battled with where their place was in the industry after becoming Christians.  In his opinion, many have forsaken being effective salt and light in our culture by leaving it completely. He writes "Incredibly, successful artists who experienced life-changing conversions were encouraged to give up their loyal audiences who may have been interested in hearing what their favorite artists had to say and were relegated to the CCM ghetto and urged to make music for fellow believers."  This book is deep and I will most likely be quoting it on this blog from now on.   

If you have to leave the industry for a time to get stronger in your faith because of the depravity and temptations that exist there, by all means do so. But if it is God's will, please do so with the intention of going back.  If you are in hip hop and you have decided to give your life to Christ, you go just as hard as you did before you made that commitment. We need you to. By the guiding of the Holy Spirit and wise counsel, by all means, keep going. Just make sure that whatever you do lines up with the Word of God (Ephesians 5:15-17). Come correct not only lyrically but musically without compromise.  In this day and time, we need your salt to preserve our culture.  What we don't need is for people to leave, water down their talents and try to blend in somewhere else.