What is Adult Alternative Christian Rock?
In the time of which we live; most know that we are well into this year of 2025- so I do not need to introduce any of us to the new year, but what is adult alternative Christian rock? Yes! It’s 2025! Has Christian rock gotten better or worse? It is absolutely so much better than when I was in my teens.
Being that it is already Christian means that it is a given that it is alternative. I grew up with one Christian radio station where I lived in a small town and every time I was picked up to go to our youth group at my church (on Wednesday nights; everyone with me? I mean who didn’t have Youth Group on Wednesday nights while the parents were at Bible Study with the Pastor and five or twelve other grownups in their small town)?
Wow, I’m already dovetailing to other topics.
As I was saying- I’d get picked up by, let’s call her, ‘Maria.’ Maria would pick me up in her starter vehicle, a Ford station-wagon hatchback with Christian “Rap,” blaring from her open passenger window. It was November but her passenger window was permanently stuck halfway down in the open position.
I’d look at her and ask, glaring- “Can I turn it to KISS108, Maria?”
“Why? You don’t like Christian Rap?!” she’d roll her eyes and retort.
“This ISN’T Rap. And I don’t think it’s Christian. They glorify themselves more than they glorify the Lord” said a passionate Ryan Donald Downs.
Now- I am not going to mention the name of this group, as I don’t enjoy ill-feelings hurled toward me in the form of an email in our modern era. I LOVE this group now. And our small town’s KISS108? Nowhere to be seen or heard in this digital age. And the station that I asked Maria to turn is thriving! Biblical truth regarding Isaiah 55:11. What does Isaiah 55:11 say? From the New King James...
“So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”
I was a prodigal after moving out of the house at twenty-one and literally proclaimed, “THANK GOD I DON’T HAVE TO GO TO CHURCH AGAIN.” Twenty years of living as a prodigal son, thinking that I knew everything at the age of 21. Now, recently turning 49, I realise that I know absolutely nothing about life.
What do I know? That God is in control. Not me. It’s so hard for me, thinking that I’m self-sufficient my entire life and that I was in complete control of my life. While God has never punished me, He HAS allowed me to go through experiences that have brought me back to Him. It has taken many years, but I am finally listening to God, learning how to submit and to surrender my life to Him, and I’m even learning that it is okay to pray Bible verses to my Lord and Saviour, Jesus the Christ. I love God. I fail Him every day and He loves me. I don’t know how He could possibly love me with all the trouble I’ve caused Him and the heartbreak I know that I’ve caused the Holy Spirit, but I do know, that when I repent, that I hear that, “still, small voice,” say- ‘I love you, Ryan,’ and it always brings me to tears. Which also reminds me that the Holy Spirit resides in me. That it doesn’t matter how alone I feel in life, that my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ is with me.
Praise the Lord!
So, what is Adult Alternative Christian Rock? It is a myriad of music, encompassing genres that surpass time itself. Groups such as Starflyer 59 and the Electrics embody Adult Alternative Christian Rock. Music that has a melancholy feel to it, but with HOPE. God’s hope.
In other news, I recently discovered there is Christian EDM. What? Christian EDM?! NO WAY! I’ve been listening to EDM my entire 20 year jaunt as a prodigal. And now that I am walking with and working with God at my favourite radio station, I will never turn back to the regular, old EDM again.
More from me next week. God bless you all!
