Between Christian rock and a hard place: Christian performers now have to find ways to sell records and sell faith without selling out
By Nick Marino
Times-Union music writer

For decades, Christian musicians played for Christian audiences -- literally preaching to the converted.
Gospel artists didn't much try to reach secular crowds, and secular crowds paid little mind to the self-contained entity that was Godrock.

Writing radio-friendly pop songs, a few Christian artists -- namely singer-songwriter Michael W. Smith and rock band Jars of Clay -- tasted mainstream success in the 1990s. Last year, though, Christian artists got more than just a taste. They got a permanent seat at the table.

While the secular music business suffered, several high-profile releases propelled Christian music into the mainstream. Record sales soared. Tours criss-crossed the country. Powerful FM Christian radio stations spread the word in major markets. The cover of Newsweek announced "Jesus Rocks!"

The one-time niche genre is now a $1 billion industry with access to marketing largesse and high production values.

But this crossover success has brought complications.

With an ever-expanding target audience for their musical ministry, Christian artists now have to find ways to sell records and sell God without selling out.

"We take the tension of art and commerce, and we go one better," said Frank Breedan, president of the Gospel Music Association. "We add religion to it."

Some Christian artists cross over with mainstream audiences; others appeal mostly to existing Christians. The difference is often a matter of semantics. Below, a sampling of choruses from spiritual singles, from the least overt (and most recognizable to mainstream audiences) to the most overt (and least recognizable to mainstream audiences).

I Believe, ZOEgirl
Now I'll shout it from the mountains
That I'm not the same that I used to be
I believe in God, believe in God
I'm not ashamed to talk about it
To a world that slowly slips away
That I believe in God, believe in God
Now at the end of day when nothing seems to go my way
I've got a friend, I've got a love that's never gonna let me go
Since You gave Your life for me
You set me free
Show Me Your Glory, Third Day
Show me Your glory
Send down Your presence
I want to see Your face
Show me Your glory
Majesty shines about You
I can't go on without You, Lord

Alive, P.O.D.
I feel so alive for the very first time
I can't deny You
I feel so alive
I feel so alive for the very first time
And I think I can fly

Higher, Creed
Can you take me higher?
To the place where blind men see
Can you take me higher?
To the place with golden streets
Although I would like our world to change
It helps me to appreciate
Those nights and those dreams
But, my friend, I'd sacrifice all those nights
If I could make the Earth and my dreams the same.

Marketing to the masses
The foremost mission of any Christian artist is to spread the word of their God. But, like any secular musician, Christian bands need to sell records to pay their bills. Deep-pocketed secular crowds make an attractive target audience, but they generally balk at music that overtly sermonizes.

Tony Nasrallah knows this tension well. Nasrallah runs the Murray Hill Theatre, a Jacksonville Christian music hall, and he sees a significant problem with trying to market Christian music to the masses.

"By identifying with Christianity," he said, "and saying, 'We're a Christian band,' I've always thought that, if anything, that's going to limit your audience more than increase it."

Nasrallah and other industry insiders joke about JPMs -- Jesuses Per Minute.

Many Christian fans want overt lyrics with high JPM counts. They want artists unashamedly singing about the life they've found with Christ. But if you're trying to sell as many records as possible, especially to secular audiences, the fewer JPMs the better.

"You have two groups that you're trying to please," said Alisa Girard, a singer in the Christian pop group ZOEgirl. "You've got the Christian audience, and then you've got the audience that you're trying to reach with the message."

That's an important distinction. Mainstream audiences not only represent a lucrative sales market, but, presumably unsaved, they are arguably the group that most needs the message of God.

And thus, the Christian artists' balancing act: They need to sell records to spread God's message, but if they soften their message to boost sales and broaden the ministry, they risk alienating their core Christian audience. They might even end up muting their message to the point where they're no longer considered Christian artists.

Defining the music
Indeed, lately Nasrallah and others are struggling to determine what exactly counts as Christian music.

"The stated purpose of the Murray Hill Theatre was really to provide a forum and a showcase for faith-based bands," he said. "Now, defining that has been tough."

Sometimes, he'll take a chance on an artist with a low JPM count.

"Sure enough," he said, "we'll get people coming to us saying 'Why are you letting these guys play there?' "

Sean Yost, a Ponte Vedra Beach youth minister, once booked a show at Fletcher High School with punk band MXPX, a group that happens to be Christian (as opposed to an overtly Christian band). Yost was hoping to use the concert as an outreach event, an attempt to reach non-believers with a positive spiritual message.

"It was probably one of the worst things we ever did," he said.

Many of the fans who showed up were disinterested in spirituality. A mosh pit broke out, the police sent people home and Yost left the show disappointed.

"I don't know whether any message was ever communicated," he said. "In fact, the message that I thought was communicated was actually the opposite of what we were wanting. And me and the other youth ministers got together and decided, man, we don't want to make that same mistake again."

Despite his bad experience with MXPX, Yost still supports low-JPM artists as long as they walk with integrity and legitimately try to deliver the word of God.

Yost thinks Christian music has room for overt and subtle messages of faith. But he realizes the religious community at large can place enormous pressure on its artists to deliver the right message the right way.

"The ones that do become very successful, there's a whole other pressure on them," Yost said, "because now everyone's judging -- are they just using their faith as a way to make money? Whether they fail or whether they succeed, it's almost like they can't win for losing."

Rejecting the label
Christians have reserved special scrutiny for the members of Florida rock band Creed, a hugely successful crossover act that has sold 10 million copies of its 1999 album, Human Clay.

It's easy to see why Christians might have initially felt drawn to the band. Creed singer Scott Stapp has a giant cross tattooed on his arm, and his two hit singles (Higher and Arms Wide Open) appear to be about heaven and striking a Christ-pose, respectively.

However, Stapp carefully veils his low-JPM lyrics to avoid alienating secular listeners who would be put off by sermonizing.

Creed's are-they-or-aren't-they status as a Christian band has prompted Stapp to address the issue at length on the group's Web site.

" No, we are not a Christian band," he wrote. "A Christian band has an agenda to lead others to believe in their specific religious beliefs. We have no agenda!"

Even successful Christian artists recognize the craft in Creed marketing itself as generally spiritual, as opposed to overtly Christian.

"They're wise to make that distinction, I think," said Tai Anderson, bass player for Third Day, the Gospel Music Association and Dove Awards Artist of the Year who played the Coliseum Friday.

"If Creed didn't fight it so hard and said, 'Hey, we're a Christian band' . . . they're in an industry that has a ceiling of 1 million records. But now they can sell 10 million records every time they go out there."Too overt?

Third Day is one of the relatively few Christian bands that has been able to succeed on a large scale while remaining explicitly spiritual. The band is huge in Christian circles.

Still, you're not apt to hear Third Day on mainstream radio or see them on the cover of Rolling Stone. Creed-style crossover success has eluded them, perhaps because their message is too overt.

"We kind of come right out and say it, and we're pretty specific," Anderson said. "I think for some people it can be more powerful for that reason. But maybe we are showing our cards a little early. We don't have good poker faces."

The band members say they'd like to reach audiences who appreciate their songs just because they're good songs, not because they're good Christian songs.

But singing Christ's praise comes naturally to them, and they don't feel like they need to change their approach to broaden their audience.

"We'd love to have more people buying our records," Anderson said. "Who wouldn't? But we're doing well enough to feel like we don't have to conceal anything. We're not living in our van down by the river. We don't have to do that. I guess we're not that desperate for it."

Third Day is certainly not alone in this sentiment. Plenty of Christian artists are still willing to risk limiting their audience by openly discussing their faith in song.

Plus One singer Nathan Walters, like ZOEgirl's Girard, always wants to put the ministry first. Just as Walters tried to spread the word before he became famous (during the days, in fact, when he was selling shoes), he still gets deep satisfaction from being a musical messenger of faith.

"I get e-mails every day," he said. "No lie, I probably get 100 e-mails a day [from] people just saying, 'Your music's changed my life.' "

Girard feels much the same. When ZOEgirl's music changes lives, she says, that's when the real payoff comes.
Still, after all the e-mails are counted, she and other Christian artists have an old-fashioned music-business gauge for whether their message is getting across.

"Obviously," Girard said, "if we weren't reaching somebody with it, it wouldn't be selling."

Nick Marino can be reached at (904) 359-4367 or at nmarino@jacksonville.com.