Find your X Factor

Whether you love or loathe it, The X Factor has captured New Zealand’s imagination.

This isn’t such a strange phenomenon given we’ve been enthralled by the oxymoronic concept of reality TV ever since the launch of Country Calendar, The Krypton Factor and Telethon. But what’s really interesting about The X Factor is that three of the judges—the real stars of the show—are openly Christian.

And what’s more, Daniel Bedingfield, Ruby Frost and Stan Walker are just the tip of the iceberg of a New Zealand music industry highly skewed towards Christian artists. Dave Dobbyn, Brooke Fraser, Evermore, Kimbra, Avalanche City … and the list goes on.

Is there a conspiracy here? Are Christian organisations hijacking the nation’s airwaves? And is Simon Cowell’s global X Factor franchise specifically targeting Christians these days?

Well, no, on all three counts. The profit-driven media and music corporations suddenly adopting a Christian agenda isn’t likely to happen any time soon. But so long as the music Christians create is good, then the music industry is saying,

‘Yes, we want it—and we don’t care what you believe.’

In fact, the sheer number of Christians in the music industry suggests their beliefs could actually be the magic ingredient, or dare I say it, ‘the x-factor’ that makes their music popular.

This isn’t confined only to music. Cast your eyes over the past 2000 years of art. From medieval literature to renaissance painting, classical composition to today’s popular music, Christ followers have often led the way in the arts. As Mark de Jong, head of Parachute Music, points out: it’s hardly surprising that Christians who spend time with a creator God become increasingly creative—God’s creative energies tend to rub off on those around him.

James 1:17 says, ‘Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights.’  So the Bible is actually saying that the x-factors in our world—those indefinable things that make life good and worth living—come directly from God. When people, nature, music, truth and other experiences are good, that’s a sign God has played a defining role in making these good things happen.

So, if you’re looking for the x-factor in your life, in your vocation, in your art, in your relationships, there’s no better place to go than direct to God, who James describes as ‘the Father of the heavenly lights’ or, in our everyday language, ‘the maker of the stars’.

But how do you go about hanging with God in such a way that his x-factor-ness starts rubbing off? I mean, if we use X Factor as an analogy, you’ve got to make it through a host of auditions and heats just to get alongside Stan Walker for vocal advice. Isn’t it the same with God? Don’t I have to be a certain level of spiritual-ness before the Star Maker passes on his secrets?

Not at all. In fact, it’s the opposite of the The X Factor’s you’ve-got-to-be-good-enough model. Jesus says, ‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest’ (Matthew 11:28). He doesn’t say ‘come to me once you’ve rested and sorted yourself out’, but ‘come to me especially if you’re weary and burdened’ (which we could paraphrase as ‘lacking x-factor’). Come to the Star Maker as you are.

In the next two verses, Jesus goes on to say, ‘Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.’ Again, we could paraphrase this: ‘Come, hang out with me, be part of my mission of creating, let my x-factor rub off on you, for then my kind of creativity—the star-making kind—will come easily to you and you won’t tire of it.’

By Hayden Shearman (abridged from War Cry 15 June 2013, p3)