Directory of Contemporary Worship Musicians - Way of Life Literature

Take the members of Love Song, one of the first and mostinfluential of the Calvary Chapel Christian rock groups. Bandmember Chuck Girard said in 1997:“It was early 1970 when three of my buddies and I walked intoa church called Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa to play somesongs for the pastor at the suggestion of a young hippiepreacher named Lonnie Frisbee. We were hippies who hadturned our lives over to the Lord only days before, yet we had afew songs that we had written before we met the Lord thatwere about God and Jesus. e pastor thought the songs wereof God, invited us to play at one of the weekly Bible studies andwe accepted the invitation. ... We didn’t know much about whatpeople called ‘gospel music,’ we were just writing the same kindof songs we would write if we weren’t Christians but now wehad Jesus to sing about” (Girard, foreword to History of theJesus Movement by David DiSabatino, One-way.org/jesusmusic).Note that the members of Love Song started out by playingsongs they had written even before they were converted,when they were admittedly walking aer the god of thisworld (Ephesians 2:1-2). And when they started writing“Christian” songs, all they did was add “Jesus” to their oldmusic. And they were encouraged to do so by the leadershipof Calvary Chapel even though the Love Song hippies werethe merest babes in Christ (at best). at was unwise andunscriptural and was a sin both against the new professorsand the churches. Even a deacon is to be proven first (1Timothy 3:10).e hippies should have been carefully discipled andbiblically trained before they were allowed to minister to thechurches through music. ey should have been grounded insound doctrine and taught Bible principles of Christianliving, spiritual music, and separation from the world.I am thankful that this is what happened to me when Ijoined a church soon aer I was converted as a hippie in1973. e church members loved me and were patient with30