For a pictorial study of West Coast’s contemporary fruit, including video of the contemporary services and music, see the PowerPoint “Lancaster’s Role in the Downgrade” in the Satanic Attack on Sacred Music series at the PowerPoints section of www.wayoflife.org.
Since the 1980s, warnings have been given about the role of contemporary music in the departure of a church from a biblical foundation, but the warnings have been widely ignored.
Victor Sears, editor, Baptist Bible Tribune, 1981 - “[Contemporary music] is THE NEW TROJAN HORSE MOVE OF MODERNISM TO DEADEN OUR CHURCHES TO SPIRITUAL TRUTH” (Baptist Bible Tribune, 1981).
John Ashbrook, 1991 - “As the message declines, so does the music” (New Neutralism II: Exposing the Gray of Compromise).
Ernest Pickering, 1994 - “Perhaps nothing precipitates a slide toward New Evangelicalism more than the introduction of Contemporary Christian Music. This inevitably leads toward a gradual slide in other areas as well until the entire church is infiltrated by ideas and programs alien to the original position of the church” (The Tragedy of Compromise: The Origin and Impact of the New Evangelicalism).”
Gordon Sears, evangelist, 2001 - “When the standard of dress is lowered, then the standard of conduct is also lowered. When the standard of conduct is lowered, then the sense of value in God’s truth is lowered” (Songfest Newsletter, April 2001). When I met Gordon Sears in 2001, he told me that invitations dropped significantly in the late 1990s because so many churches were changing their music standards.
Frank Garlock, BJU chapel, 2001 - “If a church starts using CCM it will eventually lose all other standards.”
David Sorenson, 2014 -“When a church begins to move to the left, one of the first changes is its music. It is symptomatic of a church moving from a fundamentalist to an evangelical stance” (Broad Is the Way: Fundamentalists Merging into the Evangelical Mainstream, 2014).
Contemporary worship music is not just music. Even when its lyrics are biblical and its rock rhythm is toned down, it represents a philosophy of Christianity that is opposed to what fundamentalist churches stand for. Contemporary worship music represents a philosophy of
- Judge not
- Don’t criticize, be tolerant
- Be openminded
- Lighten up, don’t be so strict
- Pursue liberty rather than narrowness
- Don’t draw sharp lines of separation
- Have a big tent of associations
The old hymn writers were not all Baptists, but they never turned a separated Baptist church into something completely different. But this is precisely what contemporary Christian music is doing.
Lancaster Baptist Church of Lancaster, California, is having an increasingly large role in these changes. Lancaster is the home of West Coast Baptist College. Paul Chappell is Senior Pastor. West Coast is the largest fundamental Baptist college and perhaps the largest church. They have a massive influence through their conferences, literature, recorded music, and Paul Chappell’s blogs. Lancaster has been “adapting” contemporary worship music for at least 15 years. We first warned about it in 2011, having seen the fruit in the Philippines and Australia. Lancaster has used a wide variety of contemporary worship songs by Hillsong, Chris Tomlin, Casting Crowns, Graham Kendrick, Rebecca St. James, MercyMe, Getty/Townend, Matt Redman, and others. Lancaster uses a praise team, a darkened building, and big video screens in imitation of the contemporary program.
Lancaster/West Coast’s “do not criticize” philosophy doesn’t allow for church members and students to be properly educated and warned of dangers. Therefore bridges are built from the church and student body to evangelicalism and beyond by contemporary worship music and the use of unsound authors.
If a church is adopting contemporary worship music by toning down the rhythm and not using drums and electric guitars, the members are doubtless listening to the “real thing” in their personal lives and being influenced by the contemporary musicians who are invariably ecumenists.
Lancaster’s associates and graduates are producing a steady stream of contemporary churches. In many cases, the pastors of the contemporary churches are sons of Lancaster’s leaders, staff, and teachers. Any man can have a son or student who goes in a different direction philosophically, but that is not the case here. These contemporary works have not been renounced by the fathers. In fact, they speak highly of the sons.
We have documented this in a PowerPoint presentation dealing with the following churches, which are mere samples:
Coastline Baptist Church, Oceanside, California Rock Hill Church, Fontana, California Grace Gathering, Santa Barbara, California Ambassador Baptist Church, Fresno, California Southridge Church, San Jose, California CityPoint Baptist Church, Tempe, Arizona Emmanuel Baptist Church, Newington, Connecticut City Baptist Church, Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Not all West Coast graduates are planting contemporary churches, but that is the overall direction, and the seeds are being sown at Lancaster itself. I don’t know any graduates who have spoken out against what is happening. As far as I know, Paul Chappell has never denounced the aforementioned churches publicly and plainly.
A discerning pastor commented, “Pastor Chappell has produced this legacy. This is the fruit of his labor to embrace pragmatism and soften the lines of Independent Baptists. I would guess that 75% of WCBC grads end up this way within 10 years of graduating.”
It is very sad to me that these young men (the Matt Chappells, the Mark Rasmussen Jrs, the John Guys, etc.) are on a wrong path, a path that will lead to anywhere within the “broader church.” Only time will tell where they will end up.
They are young, talented, studious, zealous, visionary. They could be starting strong Bible churches that would stand and bear fruit and be a bright light in an evil day. They could be starting churches that are biblically stronger and wiser than any that have existed in my lifetime. They could be testing everything by God’s Word alone and rejecting every tradition that is unscriptural. But this entails going back to the New Testament church described in Scripture, which is a pilgrim separatist church, rather than following the “after their own lusts” pattern of end-time apostasy (2 Timothy 4:3-4).
Sadly, that is not what we are seeing as the fruit of Lancaster Baptist Church and West Coast Baptist College.
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