CCM is a lifesaver to which I owe my life and Nashville is the Bethlehem that births Luther students’ greatest comfort

A few years ago the ELCA joined with the Episcopal Church in an agreement outlined by the document commonly referred to as CCM, or Call to Common Mission. This document and everything it stands for royally pisses me off! They have stolen the identity of that brightest jewel in the crown of North American Christendom, that which originally and rightfully bears the title CCM, Christian Contemporary Music. I’ve yet to bring myself to even read the document, figuring that in doing so I will have fully acknowledged its existence and therefore struck a dagger into the heart of my Constant Christian Mate.

We all have hard times and difficult epochs to endure. Where would we be without family friendly music to get us through? I think back to the time I was a young boy enraptured with the love for a sweet smelling Cabbage Patch Kid named Sam. How hollow would my experience have been without the sound of Amy Grant’s “Baby Baby” ringing in my ears? I would whisper in Sam’s ear, “I’m taken with the notion/To love you with the sweetest of devotion,” as we walked to Rainbow Grocery and Meat Market on Rainbow Drive and Garden Ave in spite of the blaring sound of a passing, teen-filled car playing “Pour Some Sugar on Me” by Def Leopard. Were it not for Christ Centered Melodies such as those produced in the mid 80s by Mrs. Vince Gill, I would be left with only such rhymes as “I’m hot/sticky sweet/from my head down to my feet/yeah.” Tell me, what comfort would that have been to Sam?

Many of you may be considering the call to come to Luther to study for an MA or an MDiv, or perhaps begin PhD or DMin work. Take heart that CCM (the first and only one!) is alive and well on campus. The library carries an ever-expanding, full catalog of records from labels as diverse as Frontline and Word. There is even a thriving alternative section filled with avant-garde albums from Tooth and Nail records. Each librarian is also ready to help you discern a band or artist in the CCM world that could replace the sound of a secular band you (used to) enjoy. The reference chart used to do this is also readily accessible on the Luther Seminary library website.

Don’t be discouraged, thinking that the new, usurping CCM is the only one talked about on campus. Not a day goes by that I don’t encounter a peer ipodding-out to Steven Curtis Chapman’s “The Great Adventure,” Audio Adrenaline’s “Some Kind of Zombie,” or Switchfoot’s (pre-pagan-crossover) “The Legend of Chin.”

Long live CCM!