Here’s a thought. As Christian DJs, we are witnesses to others about our faith in Jesus Christ. This is regardless of what your position on evangelism is. One thing is certain; there are days when we are going to succeed as a witness in this area and other days where we fall flat on our faces as hypocrites. It might seem a bit trite, but the reality is that when we focus on God’s basic commandments and apply them in our lives as guidelines to live by when we’re out at a club as either a patron or a performer, we can limit the degree to which we might fall. It is these Ten Commandments that God gave Moses to help guide his people and even thousands of years later, they still hold true.
Sure, we live by God’s grace, but we are also called to be holy as God is holy. That’s a tough standard to live up to and I know I could use all the help I can get in that regard. Failure sometimes feels like my middle name, but in Christ, or rather because of Christ, I am able to move past my failures and succeed in the long run. So, let’s take a quick look at these commandments from the perspective of a DJ.
This time out, we’ll cover just the first four commandments. These commandments deal specifically with our relationship with God. They aren’t there to scare us into obedience or for us to blindly follow. They are fundamental for keeping your relationship with God in check as a DJ. If you aren’t sure exactly where these commandments can be found, check out Exodus 20.
Commandments 1 & 2: You shall have no other gods before me and you shall not make for yourself an idol
This isn’t simply about you following some other religion. As a Christian, you proclaim Christ to be God. Not just any god, but THE God. The Alpha and Omega. The one and only true God. All others are false. That’s a basic fundamental for us, but how does that relate to DJing?
It relates to you as a DJ in how you treat DJing. The first thing I would ask you to consider is what is more important to you: DJing or God? Is it more important to you that you push forward in your career as a DJ or more important that you push forward in your relationship with God? If you would rather be a DJ than a Christian, then there is a priority problem in your life. You are placing DJing before God and making it an idol for your worship.
This can become evident in the amount of time you spend practicing, gigging and even shopping for music. If you can do all that and still find time daily for prayer, you’re probably alright. If you find time for both pray and read your Bible, then honestly, I think you are a superstar. I can do the prayer myself easily, but reading the Bible daily is hard. The point of this is to keep your focus on God first.
In Matthew 6, Jesus said “… seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” It’s true. When I seek God’s will, He adds to it the other things that I want as well. Not that God is a magical gum ball machine, but that as we seek Him, His will becomes our desire and we seek what is best for God, not what is best for us. In some cases, that is becoming a globetrotting DJ we want to be. In others, we may find that DJing isn’t where we need to be, but when that happens, letting go of it will be something we want to do. Christopher Carl and Doug Theodore are evidence of that right now on this very site.
A great Biblical example of seeking God first was King Solomon who in 1 Kings 3 asked God for wisdom. Because he asked for wisdom rather than wealth or a long life, God granted him both. You’ll never know what God will bless you with until you put Him first in your life. It’s for your own good, not His, but it is what God deserves.
Always remember: the DJ is not God, nor is DJing a god. Don’t put yourself or your art above God. Ever.
Commandment 3: You shall not make wrongful use of the name of your God
This is a hard one for me and just about everyone I know. I never say “Oh my g-d” I simply won’t do it. I can’t even make myself write it out here, but I have slipped a few times and used Jesus’ name at least in my mind out of anger and frustration. Why in the world would we want to take the very person who we claim saved us from our sins and use his name as a gutter curse? It doesn’t make sense. In fact, if you have been working hard on keeping the first two commandments, you can pretty much say you blew them if you broke this one.
My reasoning on this that if you drag God’s name through the gutter, then you are at the same time denying that He is the only God worthy of worship, the only One that is holy, and the only One capable of saving. It also is a slap in the face of someone you say you love. My mother’s name is Kathryn. I would never think about using her name as a curse, so why is it so easy to used God’s?
Beyond that aspect of the commandment, it also flows into the music you play as a DJ. Be careful of what you select to buy and play out. If the track disrespects the name of your Savior and the things He stands for, don’t buy it. It’s that simple. You’ll be better off for it and honestly, I think we all can agree since the advent of digital music, there’s plenty more tracks to pick from that don’t disrespect our Savior.
Commandment 4: Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy
This may be the hardest commandment to keep. One problem with club culture is that it happens mostly on the weekend. Another problem is that it happens late at night so mornings almost have to be optional. Throw in the usual issues of touring and you almost can’t follow this one. So, what do you do?
First, you have to make God the priority in your life. Second, you have to be determined that you will worship Him and keep at least one day of the week set aside for that. I’m not going to get into some legalistic thing about when the Sabbath is. That’s really missing the point. The point is that you dedicate time to spend worshiping God and fellowshipping with other believers. If you can do that on Sunday, that’s great. Just don’t get upset and worried if the only time you can do that is on Wednesday nights when you are back home.
The purpose of keeping the Sabbath with others is really two fold, one to set time aside to give God the honor and respect that He deserves and two to give you real and personal connections with other believers so that you can share each other’s burdens with one another. Galatians 6 says “Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” And it says this in specific regard to guarding yourselves from sin. Through this fellowship with other believers we strengthen one another as we give God praise together, pray together and share with each other what we are struggling with.
Keeping the Sabbath holy will help us in our struggle to be holy as God is.
So, what do you do if you are DJ and you have to spin on a Saturday night or in a strange town? Well, that’s one of the things Tastyfresh.com is here for. You can use this site to find and get to know people from all over the world. When you are heading to a town where another member lives, you should see about attending their church. If that doesn’t work out, see if you can meet with them before the show and at least have some fellowship and maybe worship with him then.
If you are in a city where you don’t know any Christians, head out to a church on your own. Do it in the evening if you got in real late. Watch a service on TV or read your Bible. Some solutions may not be ideal, but spending time with God should be the priority. And like I said earlier, if you simply have to worship God on another day besides Sunday, do it. Don’t let spending time worshipping God fall to the side simply because you are too tired, busy or lazy every day of the week to do it. Keep a day open for God, fellowship with other believers and rest.
One globe-trotting DJ that I know has told me several times that when he’s back home; one of his favorite things to do on Sunday is to start out at a club where one of his buddies is spinning. After the show, the two of them walk down to his buddy’s church and attend sunrise mass there. I can’t think of a better way to start the Sabbath than that and, if the two of them can spend all night in a club and still go to church in the morning, why can’t we?
That’s pretty much it for this now. I’ll cover the other six commandments next time. Remember this though. These four commandments deal with your relationship with God. They aren’t simply something to be blindly obeyed, but they are measures of how you are developing as a Christian and how strong your commitment to God is. Am I where I need to be on this? No and I may never be. I can be a pretty bad friend at times. I get lazy. I get distracted. But the thing is, when I, I come back to God, who is my source and start over again. By following these commandments, we will cling more closely to Him and through Him we will be victorious in whatever He has set before us.
If God is a DJ, be the record. Be the track that God would want you to be. Be the tool that can be pulled out at just the right moment and set the club on fire.