Cooper said that Skillet is partnering with youth leaders because there are many people who say that they love Jesus but hate the church. Cooper told youth leaders that this is “so saddening” to see. “Loving Jesus and hating the church is just not the New Testament way.” Cooper expressed that he wants to provide great music and a platform for these kinds of conversations, because youth leaders are working hard to disciple students.
“Thank you,” Cooper told them. “I just think you guys get all of the work and none of the glory—that’s okay, because it’s not about getting the glory, right?” Cooper encouraged the group by sharing a Charles Spurgeon quote, which expresses that Christians should work so that God gets “every last drop of the glory.”
Cooper Tells ChurchLeaders What He Sees as the Biggest Battle in the Church
Skillet travels all over the world playing concerts and proclaiming Christ, so ChurchLeaders asked Cooper what he would tell Christians they should be praying for today.
“The biggest battle that we have in the church is the battle for the authority of scripture,” Cooper said. “It seems to me that a lot of churches are saying that ‘We need to be relevant [and] reach people where they are at—especially young people—speak things so they can understand them,’ and it seems to me that, in that process, that we’ve kind of made Scripture [not the most important thing]. Seems to me that we have swallowed the pill of feelings over truth and I think that it’s produced some really, really bad fruit.”
Cooper said that we need to encourage young people to “return to uncompromised belief in the Word of God as authoritative and the Word of God as inseparable from God Himself.” Cooper said that because there is what he calls a “pretty big move in popular Christianity today to sorta say, ‘Hey I love Jesus, but I don’t really love the Word of God,’ or ‘I love Jesus but I don’t necessarily believe that the Word of God is authoritative.’ That’s quite popular right now.”
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Cooper believes that this type of Christianity is being exposed for what it is, calling it “a doctrine of demons. I believe it is false Christianity [and] it is leading people away from the true foundation in Jesus Christ. If we teach young people where truth lies I believe we will see a major change in the church and therefore a major change in our nation.”
Skillet Releases New Album ‘Dominion’
Cooper’s ambition in making music hasn’t changed since he first started Skillet back in 1996. “It’s to glorify God—I wanted to create art that would glorify Christ and make his name more famous.” Cooper also shared that he aims to create music that reaches people who don’t know who Jesus in the hope that it would inspire them to ask questions regarding the hope Skillet proclaims in their lyrics.
The title of the new record is “Dominion” and it is a celebration of freedom, Cooper said. “A freedom that is only found in a proper understanding that Jesus Christ is Lord of all. He is Lord of everything. There’s not going to be any nation, or pandemic, or disease, or anything that can stand against His rule and that’s where true freedom is found,” Cooper shared with ChurchLeaders.
Cooper explained that the lyrical theme throughout the new record centers on “fighting the fear that is all around us with this pandemic, fighting those negative forces within your life that so many people have struggled with—depression or alcohol abuse, or whatnot—but when you dig down [into “Dominion”] deeper what we find out is a celebration of freedom that we have in Christ. The Bible says that it was for freedom that Christ has set us free. It’s a celebration of freedom from sin and death which once again is an issue of dominion because we belong to Christ. We are not our own.”
