I saw Petra during my college years, but they may have set a template for what I mean by youth group-friendly rock: kind of hefty not too heavy, with lyrics that may not be spiritually milk, but with what meaty concepts that may be conveyed in ways lacking poetic nuance or subtlety. And, ideally, ,melodic hooks for days,. My only time seeing Petra was with Greg X. Volz as their vocalist but arguably, they really came into their own as youth group-friendly under their later tenure with John Schlitt--formerly of the band Head East before his Christian conversion--singing lead. And 1991's "Beyond Belief" (1991) may epitomize their youth group-friendliness. Did you know that "petra" is Greek for "rock"?

(Clean-shaven Eddie) Degarmo & (bearded Dana) Key started out in the late 1970's as somewhat artsy Southern rockers who, if what a friend of mine who saw them in concert in the early '80's told me--and I'm recalling rightly--is true, were somewhat aloof in their stage personas. By the late '80's however the duo were becoming lyrically more reductionist and antithetic, qualities befitting youth group-friendliness. That approach may be at Degarmo & Key's peak with "God Good/Devil Bad" (1993), based on the tattoos on a man Eddie and Dana (the latter of whom is distant relation to "Star-Spangled Banner" writer Francis Scott Key) met on the road. Whatever your belief, do you agree with me and D & K that the God of the Holy Bible is good and the devil is bad?

It could be argued that Petra and Degarmo & Key eased into youth group-friendliness. Audio Adrenaline, however, were practically formed--or groomed--with that attribute in mind. Their independently-released debut cassette single includes one tune that could be mistaken for an especially raucous, if sanctified, Beastie Boys hip-hop/heavy metal workout. But soon as they signed to a major contempo' Christian record company? Whatever rough edges they had were pretty well smoothed down. But that could result in some pretty catchy ditties, with "Big House" (1993) probably foremost among them. The song, which likens heaven to the Lord's mansion and big back yard ('where we can play football/ with a big, big table/with lots and lots of food..."), is gently bouncy enough to have put it in recurrent rotation on many Christian music radio stations in multiple formats for years. Though heaven is a place of perfection, do you think it may be fun, too?

I don't have firsthand memories of Bash'n The Code, but the group, who predate Audio A's debut by several years, shortly before I started writing about contempo' Chrisdtian music; but any band that reinvents the hoarry kiddie chorus "The B-I-B-L-E" (1987) into aural Velveeta, which reminds me sonically of Kenny Loggins' "Danger Zone," have their church youth group-friendliness sewn up by my estimation. Regardless their occasional lyrical and more frequent sartorial goofiness, the act's name is a succinct commentary on how Christianity "bashes" the legalistic code of the Judaism that preceded it. Do you appreciate it when musicians that seem to be all about fun have an underlying seriousness about them?

Go figure that a pop punk band named for a misspelled Plymouth car would be both youth-group friendly and so genuine within their niche to make the jump from the Christian market to the wider world. I've seen Relient K both on the Winter Jam multi-act tour hosted by Newsong (the Christian band best known by many for their holiday hit tearjerker, "The Christmas Shoes") and as the middle band on a bill headlined by alt rockers Paramore (back when lead singer Hayley Williams identified more with Christianity than she appears to now). Relient K's lone brush with pop radio top 40 chart stardom, "Who I Am Hates Who I've Been" (2004) is a genuine banger with spiritual depth. If being a group of guys who like punk rock and happen to be Christian doesn't earn their youth group friendliness, the book the band authored, The Complex Infrastructure Known as the Female Mind (it's full of dating tips for boys and advice on how to be a godly girl) cinches it, I'd contend. To my mind, Relient K typify singer-songwriter T Bone Burnett's maxim about how Christian musicians can either write songs about the Light (God) or what they see in the Light. Relient K's facility in the latter without compromising their faith to music lovers who like solid pop punk make them an underrated band. by my estimation Can you think of any other musical acts whose underlying beliefs are expressed in songs that aren't dogmatic?