Pastor Michael G. Coleman has served as a Seventh-day Adventist pastor in New York for three decades.
A convert to the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the 1980’s, Michael was surprised to discover that many SDA youth were captivated by Contemporary Christian Music (CCM), unaware of it’s roots in rock music.
Over the next two decades, Pastor Michael sought to understand contemporary music and its effect on Christians in general and Seventh-day Adventists in particular. In 2019, he wrote a book on the topic of contemporary music in the Church—the culmination of two major papers on the topic and two decades of research and observation. The book (which I have in my library) is titled Reflections on Issues in Music and Worship. It is well worth the read, and is available at Amazon.
Some Points From The Book
Michael correctly states that music can be used for good or evil. This position of objectivity runs throughout the book, as he analyzes the roots of rock & roll music, lyrics, and the fruit of the contemporary music scene. With surgical precision he analyzes the influence of Neo-Pentecostalism on Black Adventism, praising Godly passion, pathos, and response in sacred music, and decrying “synchronized [instrumental] whooping of some our ministers and the frenzied responses” of some of our “mesmerized” church members. These charismatic influences are at work in almost all of our University churches across the spectrum of Adventism.
Coleman draws from many sources, both Seventh-day Adventist and non-Adventist, to explain just how the type of music we use in church worship services affects the quality of our worship experience and our spiritual growth. He shows how merely the use of contemporary music may attract people to attend church, but it doesn't necessarily lead to a true conversion or the intentional discipling of those people.
Pastor Coleman states, "The seeker sensitive model involved a de-emphasis of traditional methods of evangelism and discipleship such as doctrinal preaching, calling for repentance from sin, and committing one's self to give Bible studies. Rather, it focuses on innovation and meeting the wants of people, often dubbed 'felt needs' ...
The seeker sensitive model also caused people to view Christianity as something 'cool' and made them feel comfortable in 'dressing down' to attend church worship service, sometimes in jeans and a T-shirt.
However, it resulted in producing spiritually weak Christians who were pastor-dependent and not committed to making disciples for Christ.
Music ministry leaders and anyone who enjoys music in church will learn to be more discriminating in the choice of music after gaining the insights provided in this book.
"This book has been written for such a time as this. It is scholarly, and is especially meaningful because it is written by a Seventh-day Adventist pastor who has witnessed the adverse effects that the Charismatic Glossolalia Movement has had upon the Church. He traces historically how the culprit of the perilous times depicted in 2 Timothy 3—Rock and all other genres of secular music—has boldly walked into the church and transformed it from a house of prayer into a citadel of revelry and counterfeit worship, with emotionalism and 'much excitement but little repentance from sin!
Finally, the book uses the Bible and writings of Ellen White to show that the praise worship of the Charismatic/Glossolalia Movement undermines the'pure effect of the gospel’”
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Michael G. Coleman pastors the Bethel Seventh-day Adventist church in the Clinton Hill section of Brooklyn, NY.
Dr. Coleman is a graduate of Oakwood College, Lehman College, Andrews University, and Montemorelos University. He has earned a Doctor of Ministry degree, with concentrations in Leadership and Discipleship, from Andrews University. He has also completed a Ph. D degree in Business Administration from Montemorelos University in Mexico.
He is married to the former Rose Marie Waite. She is a nurse practitioner with a M.S. degree in nursing. They are blessed with three lovely teenage daughters: Sarah, Moriah, and Nadine. Michael’s family.
