Question:
What is "Christian"?
I'm a bit confused. When I see this term used here, judging from the kinds of posts and worship settings referred to, it seems to me that the posters mean a certain kind of christian community. That is, perhaps conservative protetestant and not to mean Catholics or protestants like Anglicans.
Here we have, for the most part, the Evangelical Church (protestant) and Catholic (roman catholic). They are all considered christian, so when the term christian is used it is inclusive, whereas in this forum category when the term is used is seems to be more within a more restricted grouping. Is this correct?

Answer:
It's the same here. Christian is any faith or religion that is centered around the teachings of Jesus Christ. There are thousands of denominations under that term here in the U.S. Baptists, Church of Christ, Catholics, Assemblies of God........ I think that most of the posts are from the denominations you are referring to just because there is not alot of sax playing going on in Catholic and Anglican churches that I know of.

Answer:
You have asked a question, that quite frankly, will produce a wide variety of answers. From a traditional and historic perspective, Christian was a general term given to those who followed the teachings of Christ and trusted him for their salvation. Throughout the years, as different denominations have wrestled with the Bible and with the theological understanding of what it means to be saved. They have also followed suit by saying that anyone who has a different definintion of salvation than what they arrived at, are not truly Christians. This is where the controversy comes from. Some think that you are merely a Christian by being a good person and loving your neighbor. The predominant protestant view is that it is a personal relationship with God through confessing your sins and having them forgiven by God through what Jesus did on the Cross. Some protestant groups add on to this litergies and rules that must be followed. The formal Catholic view is that salvation comes through the church and it's ordinances (baptism, eucharist, confession, etc). And of course, these are very general descriptions of which there are thousands of variation both inside and outside of the different camps.
I think, for this forum (and this is only my opinion), you have many different people from different denominations, who may believe somewhat differently, but would claim to be Christians based on their identification with Christ, and their desire to worship him. The intersting thing that will come out though, is that just as churches believe differently from each other, they also worship differently, with varying degrees between informal jam type sessions to very formal litergical services and limited styles of music, if they have music at all. And of course this is all in flux, because things are always changing. We have seen it for years in the general protestant churches, but now we are even seeing it even in the Catholic ones, where some have moved from the priest singing everything in Latin, to having a worship band that leads the congregation in choruses much like their Protestant counterpart.
Sometimes I think this forum can be a little strained because eventually, in any discusson on this subject, beliefs and traditions will surface that conflict, for we wouldn't be discussing it if it wasn't near and dear to our hearts. In spite of our differences though, the majority of denominations do actually pull from the same resources for songs, whether it be hymns or choruses, and we can learn greatly from the way each other worships, and uses their Saxophone in that. The difficulty, is when we start trying to define for each other, exactly what that should look like. I play my sax in a very relaxed, but somewhat traditional setting. We are all very much amateurs just praising God together (and sometimes, making a lot of mistakes). I would be in no position to tell someone who comes from a more professional or litergical setting, where things are done much more formally, that they needed to loosen up. The church that a person comes from defines what is appropriate and expected for that congregation. Much of this is cultural and much of it is theological, but the two together are important to the churches identity, and to the congregation being able to worship without distraction.
I hope this helps. Marshall

Answer:
In my 25 years of being a Chrisitian, we have gone to 3 different Baptist Churches, and several Pentecostal churches. It is interesting to see differences in belief, even within the same denomination. I currently attend a Southern Baptist Church, and play in the worship band, along with electric guitars, electric basses, electric keyboards and drums. The Baptist church that my wife grew up in still considers anything other than a piano, and possibly an organ, to be very radical. For a long time, in her childhood church, drums were considered to be a sin, and they are still not a part of the worship service. However, they are starting to sing some "contemporary" worship songs. I discovered the same things inside various Pentecostal churches. Who is right? Who is wrong? I guess we will not really know until we get to Heaven. Churches that are considering moving from a "traditional" worship format to something more "contemporary", in my experience, do not make the transition quickly, and definetely not without a lot of prayer.
Blessings
Randy

Answer:
WRB - I can relate, and have had the same experiences. The church I grew up in considered drums and guitar to be a sign of rebellion (maybe in the 60's it was ;) ) (and sax's were not far behind) . It just goes to show how much of it is cultural. If the church never changed with the culture in the way it expresses itself, we would all still be doing everything in Gregorian Chant. At the same time, as an adult now, I can understand to a degree why change is slow. With many things, although the form is not bad, it comes about because of not so healthy attitudes in the people who initiated it. It can be a difficult thing for a discerning church that wants to be careful about not propagating an inappropriate attitude to separate it from the form that it is communicated in.
Nefertiti - I think you make a very valid point. If the majority of worship teams are in more evangelical, protestant church, it only stands to reason that the majority of posts would be from that camp.

Answer:
I read recently that a new wave of discussion is appearing in the Roman Catholic church regarding liturgy, music, etc etc. Finally, I thought. Currently - Roman Catholic church, at least here in Europe, shifted towards a context in music (for some decades now) into a vibe which seems to center around the youth, so that the youth can easily relate to, so that they can easily play it, etc, etc. No more Gregorian choirs, etc etc.
A similar thing is liturgy in Latin. Those who saw the mass of John Paul II I think witnessed the magic which somehow gets released when the mass is in Latin. I know a bit of Latin (studied it for a year in high school), even though I am quite young. But that's off topic.
This approach - the easier music, the content of the liturgy - has been lately questioned (much to my own personal joy), possibly due to the fact that we have a new pope (I am not very religious, btw)
I do not know if you folks have heard East Orthodox music. This music is great. Part of it is due to the fact that East Orthodox church (who are Christian) is hermetic and resistant to change. I heard it in Kiev in one of their cathedrals in the commie times. Ordinary village people, in Russia, Ukraine, are capable of singing old songs in thirds, etc, etc. Naturally. Normal folks, who don't have any musical training.
To me this is much more what I consider Christian music, as well as the old masterpieces historically bound to Christianity (masses composed by famous classical composers) than what gets to be played in churches in my country.
Just my 0.02.

Answer:
I have visited both Catholic & Epicopalian churches. As a visitor, I was not sure what was happening, or going to happen, but I am sure first time visitors to the churches I have attended regularly held the same trepidations, especially in the Pentecostal churches!
Every time I left the Catholic or Episcopalian worship services, I was overwhelmed (in a positive way) with the beauty of a form of worship that is hundreds of years old (even older than I am!)
In Corinthians 1, the apostle Paul was qouted as saying: I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.
I think this is part of the beauty of our prsonal relationship with Christ. What is good for one local body may or may not be the right thing at another.
Blessings
Randy

Answer:
Let just add my two cents.
I am Catholic and for the last 11 years have belong to two communities which I refer to as "Christian."
The first community is the parish community and the principal form of worship is the "holy mass". In terms of music, it's mostly traditional church hymns and instruments are kept to the minimum: organ and guitars. There are no written rules saying we can't use other instruments but most of the choirs (and there are many since we're a very busy parish with nine masses on Sundays each with a choir) observe this. From time to time someone or other in one choir would bring in a flute or clarinet but this doesn't happen often and when it does it doesn't last long. I don't really know why but It's probably because the congregation are more use to organ and guitars which are very compatible traditional church songs.
The second community is a Catholic charismatic community where the worship is kinda similar to evangelical with lots of singing, clapping, subdued dancing, praying in tongues, etc. Here the music is a mix of traditional and modern Integrity-type () and we use more instruments (keyboard, guitars, electric guitar, bass guitar, sax, clarinet).
Going back to the question, I guess there's really no strict defintion of what "Christian" is when it comes to music and worship. It depends on the needs and characteristics of each community. As long as it helps them worship God.
Thanks and God bless!

Answer:
A very good question!
"Christian" as in reference to a noun or a verb?
"Christian" as in following Christ? or "Christian" as in holding to the teachings of Christ? Or "Christian" as a communal entity? Or "Christian" as being sacred? This last thought greatly disturbs me as most popular Christian Worship and Praise music I've heard strikes me as being, well, popular. Popular Christian music is good and noble (I'm not sure if all of it is) but that seems to be a antithesis of "sacred" or "set aside" which is what the word "sacred" really means.
Does this make sense?
Much of the Worship and Praise stuff makes people feel good (it sure enough makes my Bride feel good) but just "feeling good" isn't "sacred" if "sacred" means setting something aside, not for the person or congregation but for God.
Again, I'm not criticizing Worship and Praise, but if all the "new" music is Worship and Praise, where is the "new" sacred music? Or has it gone out of style and Worship and Praise is "in style?" If what is "sacred" is to be the whim if fashion and popularity, then I think we're talking about something that is emphatically NOT Christ-like since Christ wasn't about fashion OR popularity---or am I missing something?
FWIW the songs that strike a cord with me as being important recollections of what is Christian for today's society is the raw in-your-face music of Stan Fortuna who isn't a sax man but his music I think could be easily adapted to the sax.
Also Chant, both Gregorian and Mezzarabic srike me as being very profound forms of sacred music which is appropriate since it was that very genre that prompted the "singing is praying twice" quote attributed to Augutine (or was it Benedict?) With the scarcity of choirs adept at Chant, I wonder why no one has yet tried to adapt a sax quartet's "voice" to replicate the schola?
Maybe they have, I don't know.
My 2-cents of course---ymmv!

Answer:
Depends who's asking
I hear evangelicals who use it mostly to mean those like themselves (the "born again"). They're not shy about using it to describe themselves as individuals, either.
In more traditional denominations calling yourself "a Christian" would be considered "church-proud." You hear references to Christian charity, love, faith. Not so much to define a group of the faithful vs. the not-faithful. (Not these days anyway.)
Jews sometimes use it as shorthand for "non-Jew."

Answer:
Originally Posted by paulwl I hear evangelicals who use it mostly to mean those like themselves (the "born again"). They're not shy about using it to describe themselves as individuals, either. That's kind'a why I was asking. It gets a little confusing.

Answer:
Originally Posted by paulwl Jews sometimes use it as shorthand for "non-Jew."
We usually say "Goyim" for non-Jews. It's not a derogatory expression. Not as bad as a "Shikse" (or a "Shikka" to be fair).