Rock the Sound IV coming up on November 15!

It's the Northeast's biggest night of Christian music!

Rock The Sound IV features Newsboys, David Crowder Band, Skillet, Leeland and Nevertheless all in one evening. The fourth edition of RTS will be held on Saturday, November 15, 2008 at 6:00 PM at the Arena at Harbor Yard in Bridgeport, CT.

This year's featured charity is Love 146. Love 146 is an organization dedicated to stop the trafficking of human beings.

For tickets and more details, please visit RockTheSound.com.

Garage bands for Jesus

...but with high production values.

Dressed in a faded black T-shirt, jeans and skateboard sneakers, he bent his shaved head. “God,” he said, “I hope these songs we sing will be much more than the music. I know it’s so difficult at times when we’re thinking about chords and lyrics and when to hit the right effect patch, but would you just help that to become second nature, so that we can truly worship you from our hearts?...”

The house bands that play every weekend in High Desert Church — there are a dozen or so — scavenge some of their musical style from the radio and television. They reflect popular taste, though with lyrics about the power of God, not teenage turmoil.

They are not aiming for commercial success. Church-based Christian rock — often referred to as C.C.M., for contemporary Christian music — does not exist primarily to compete in mainstream culture; it exists first to bring together a community.

“When you start a church,” said Tom Mercer, 52, the senior pastor, “you don’t decide who you’re going to reach and then pick a music style. You pick a music style, and that determines who’s going to come.”

Interesting look at modern worship from the New York Times.