A Hellion's View Of The Christian Music World. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

It never ceases to amaze me how Jesus constantly warned about how the church would be filled with legitimate believers and false believers; those who claim the name of Christ but don't act in accord with their profession. I was involved in the CCM scene in the late 80's through the early 2000's and remember back when things were VERY different. I'm thankful for the enduring Christian connections i made during that era, and am thankful for a pastor who gave me realistic expectations for what sort of people to expect to find anywhere people claim the name of Christ.

25 yrs in Christian music. Thanks for sharing your truth. I searched Highway 96. Cool. Truth is, in 2024, The real broken remnant is scattered all out here. 😎

I’ve been a Christian all my life, and this is accurate. There are wonderful, amazing people in the church and people I wouldn’t trust to take out my trash. But this is true of any group, organization, club, or gathering of people. The church is unfortunately not exempt from human nature. I appreciate that you cover both the good and the bad, rather than overemphasizing one or the other.

I’m a Pastor and on one end there are levels of accountability and consequences for our actions depending on what platform you have. On the other end there should be forgiveness, grace, mercy, and restoration because we all sin.

You're the kind of guy that I wish more churches were full of! Real and raw. 👍

I’m a missionary who had an entirely different church experience overseas, but coming back to the US church world I see a lot of disturbing things.

I did a little ccm before it was called ccm in Nashville in the 90’s. I noticed that it was fraught with the same problems that the rest of Nashville had. Money b money and Folks b folks I reckon. But I do give thanks to God EVERYDAY for my Sunday morning gig. Great church, great people, great gig.

Thank you for taking the time and effort to share your experiences within the Christian music world. I appreciate your directness and honesty.

I love your honesty and I look forward to all your videos. YOU are one of my favorite people. Thanks for your time and just being so dang nice and easy to listen to. Have a great week.

As a life long christian and very willing to open up about it, I've made a conscious choice to not be involved with the christian music. When you take serving the lord and make a job out of it it changes things. I just want a relationship with Jesus. I stopped touring because I didn't like the person I was and didn't feel I was following Gods plan for my life. God closed that door and moved me somewhere else.

Thx Nicky, ya I use to work with a friend doing Word records and southern gospel as well. One time was working with Jimmy Buffets manager and he would say you christian record people always want everything and never want to pay for it. He was mostly right , but It was tough at times having to get enough money from record label to finish a project. Sadly now, so much less money going around for those same mid grade records.

Thanks for the insight! Love the channel, it's going to be huge.

Your perceptions are spot on. If you're ever in Eastern PA, you are very welcomed to have a beer with this Christian and her husband. We'll play music in the back yard.

Some people are followers of Christ, some just wear a label. Thanks for seeing and speaking about the nature of the true Christian. So many times all the world hears is bad. Thanks again.

Way to make me all sappy this morning, Hines. We sure do love you and the fresh approach you bring to SOGO music. You are the best thing Steve ever did. Love you big!

This is great content Nicky!

I remember being a Christian in a rock band. The church needed us to be a Christian Rock Band. To play only church sanctioned events and crap like that. I always thought “Jesus was a carpenter, not a Christian Carpenter”. Did the church tell Jesus what, when, and how to build when he was a carpenter? There were so many examples of Jesus doing things with people the church didn’t approve of. I caught a lot of shit from the church for not submitting my extra curricular activities to their whims. I heard years later the head pastor secretly told everyone to not come see us perform. Because we were playing at the Local TexMex Bar n’ Grill. Everyone needs to learn that organizations and people will let them down. Schools, teachers, the government, the DMV, churches, and Christians. We are all made of the same stuff.

I’m so glad of your experience/relationship with the Highway 96 crew. Fantastic people ❤️

I auditioned for a successful Christian band in the early 90's. I had gotten saved and decided to leave the rock scene in Nashville (Yes Nashville had a rock scene even then! And there were some amazing bands back then, story for another time). I did not get the gig due to politics. I left the music industry altogether and stayed away for at least six years or more. I got tired of just the douchieness in and around the church music scene. I wasn't even that deeply involved in it, and it even I could see what was going on, and it was NOT Christ like, then you would think the church could. This and many other issues pushed me out of the church. I really do want to be a part of a church. I KNOW I loved Christ, but the hypocrisy is too much. I feel like to praise and worship section of the church has gotten out of control. I am there to hear the word of God, not to see a show and ego.

I once attended a church where the pastor had been in radio. When he converted, he was really excited to get out of all the backbiting politics of his secular radio station to work at a Christian station where he thought it would be all love and grace and forgiveness. Instead, it was much worse. The reason was that everyone was expecting everyone ELSE to be loving and forgiving to THEM rather than expecting themselves to act that ways to others. At the secular station it was restrained a little by a sense of professionalism. So it was really toxic. The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill podcast shows how churches can go really haywire when there's size and numbers and money and celebrity in the mix.