[This paper was originally written in 2009 as an assignment in a music department class on hymnody at Colorado State University.]
Contemporary worship music (CWM) is a movement with roots in the 1960’s, 1970’s, and 1980’s and coming to full fruition in the 1990’s and 2000’s. With roots in Pentecostal churches and charismatic movements in mainline Protestant and Catholic churches, its influence spans denominations and is found throughout the world. (I will focus on primarily on English-speaking churches, although much of this music is used in translation in Spanish-speaking churches.) In this paper I will track the most popular of this music primarily as defined by the Christian Copyright License, Inc. (CCLI) top 25 lists for the past decade or so. I will also call upon my own experience with this repertoire over the past 30 years. The whole movement can be tracked via just a handful of publishers/movements: Vineyard, Maranatha! Music, Integrity’s Hosanna!, the Passion Conference movement, Hillsong, and Christian Contemporary Music (CCM) artists. A few other groups/influences will be highlighted: Graham Kendrick, Keith Getty/Stuart Townend, Indelible Grace/Reformed University Fellowship (RUF). If I have time, I will also examine the influence of GIA Publications, Inc., with similar though largely orthogonal influences in Roman Catholic churches. I will also discuss recent significant developments with the ease of inexpensive yet professional-level production of recordings and internet-based distribution of new music (Worship Leader Magazine’s Song Discovery service, SongSelect from CCLI. While this paper is primarily intended to be historical, anthological, and typological, I will include some analysis of musicality, theological content, role in worship, comparison with traditional hymnody.
Bibliography
Personal collection of many songbooks from the various publishers mentioned
CCLI web site (www.ccli.com)
Various web sites and Wikipedia articles about the artists and publishers
Woods, Robert and Walrath, Brian, The Message in the Music: Studying Contemporary Praise & Worship (Abingdon Press, Nashville) 2007
Evans, Mark, Open Up the Doors: Music in the Modern Church (Equinox Publishing Ltd., London) 2006
Frame, John, Contemporary Worship Music: A Biblical Defense (P & R Publishing, Phillipsburg, NJ) 1997.
List of Songs
I have compiled a list of 270 songs. These are categorized as follows:
1) The top 74 songs reported on CCLI’s top 25 lists between 1989 and 2005. This is based on the list of 77 songs used in The Message in the Music: Studying Contemporary Praise & Worship by Woods and Walrath (2007). CCLI reports each year in February and August a top list based on songs used by their member churches. Any song that appeared on a top 25 list during that period was included. Interestingly, only 77 different songs were on that list. Two of the songs (Joy to the World and Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus) are “traditional” hymns still under copyright and so commonly reported when used. These are excluded from my list. Also excluded is Brian Wren’s hymn How Can We Name a Love which has newly composed lyrics in the “traditional” hymn style. These songs are labeled in Table 1 as 1989-2005.
2) 9 songs reported on CCLI’s top 25 lists between 2006 and 2009. In the seven reporting periods occurring after 2005 only 10 new songs appeared in the top 25 lists. One of these (How Great Thou Art) is also in the category of “traditional” hymns still under copyright, so it is excluded from the final list. These are labeled in Table 1 as 2006-2009.
3) 50 songs from the February 2009 CCLI top 100 list. In looking over the list generated from categories 1 and 2, I felt that several important songs were missing. This list of 52 additional songs not present in categories 1 and 2 provided many of those songs. One obvious category of songs are new songs that are in use but haven’t become popular enough to appear in the top 25 lists. Half of the songs in this list of 50 were written since 2001. The other category of songs are those never made a top 25 list but may have appeared regularly in the top 30 or top 40. Two songs (Great Is Thy Faithfulness and Victory in Jesus) are in the “traditional” hymn category as noted before. These are labeled in Table 1 as 200902-100.
4) 125 songs in use at Immanuel Christian Reformed Church in Fort Collins, CO during that past five years or so. Immanuel Church uses approximately 40% “traditional” hymns in its worship. Of the remaining 60% about half are contemporary songs in categories 1-3 and the other half is what comprises this list. This list represents an unique aspect of contemporary worship music—its local flavor. The songs that are in this list are very new songs that have come to the attention of the church’s worship leaders and then used in congregational worship. Some of these songs will be found in categories 1-3 in the future. Others are from sources unique to the particular congregation: a song-writer or publisher that doesn’t carry broad renown, but is known and liked by one of the worship leaders, popular contemporary Christian music that gets turned into congregational song (but only at this local church), or songs written by local worship leaders or close friends and colleagues of local worship leaders. These are labeled in Table 1 as ICRC.
5) I have include 12 additional songs that I have used in other churches or Christian groups but that are not in categories 1-4. None of these are completely obscure, but for various reasons they do not appear in the previous categories. They are either personal favorites or songs that I remember using from my earliest exposure to this sort of worship music. These are labeled in Table 1 as TMG.
The last two categories include a few songs that are not in the CCLI database. It is worth mentioning at this point that besides CCLI there is a second major collection of newly published songs found in the OneLicense.org database. Publishers such as GIA Publishing, which publishes music written by Roman Catholic songwriters, are more typically found in the OneLicense.org database. Denominationally published songs from mainline Protestant denominations are also found in this collection.
Historical Survey
Contemporary worship music (CWM) is truly a contemporary phenomenon. Since the early 1980’s there has been an explosion in the writing, publishing, and recording of worship music. This music has strong associations with the neo-Pentecostal or charismatic movement from the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. This movement resulted in many independent churches and new denominations or associations of churches. But it also crossed into many traditional mainline denominations and even Roman Catholic fellowships. Groups using this music tended toward a less formal worship style and the use of acoustic and electric guitars, bass guitars, synthesizers and electronic keyboards, and drums rather than the piano and/or organ. Many of these groups abandoned the use of traditional hymnody thinking that new methods were necessary to communicate effectively to contemporary and youth culture.
Recently published hymnology texts barely mention this literature, either because the text was written before the surge of CWM or because the music is in a distinct non-hymn genre and thus outside of consideration. The Paul Westermeyer text for this class Te Deum (1998) discusses contemporary music in the section entitled “From Conflict to Competition” (pp. 314-318). He focuses on the organ to rock band transition in instrumentation, the charismatic/Pentecostal roots of the music, and its association it with the megachurch movement. He particularly mentions Bill Hybels and Willow Creek Community Church in Barrington, Illinois with their stress on structuring church ministry (including worship) after conducting marketing research. Only in broad strokes, and largely missing the story in my opinion, does Westermeyer treat CWM. Interestingly, Willow Creek is not a big player in the story that follows.
Reynolds, Price, Music, & Price’s A Survey of Christian Hymnody (1999), used in the hymnology course in CSU’s liturgical studies program in the section entitled Twentieth-Century Developments” and “The Influence of Folk and Popular Music” (pp. 130-132) mentions some of this history and especially its connection with Contemporary Christian Music (CCM). Their survey of hymnals at the end of the book discusses some contemporary, non-denominational hymnals that I discuss below.
Finally, I want to mention Lawrence C. Roff’s Let Us Sing: Worshiping God with Our Music (1991). It was meant as a hymnology companion to the Trinity Hymnal, Revised (1990) produced jointly by the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and the Presbyterian Church in America (and also briefly discussed below). I used this book in my own initial studies and teaching of hymnology a decade ago. The “early” publication date precludes discussion of much of the current CWM movement, but in his chapter on contemporary hymnody, Roffmentions the earliest appearance of this music (pp. 143-146) and talks about John Peterson, Bill and Gloria Gaither, connections with folk, pop, and rock music, and scripture songs. Roff also mentions the early connections with CCM.
One of my goals is to write the latest chapter of liturgical music that covers this music. I will use the list of 270 songs from Table 1 to tell the story. Since some of that list has my personal experience writ large on it, part of my account will have a certain biographical feel to it. I hope the reader will permit and pardon my indulgence. Since we are in the heyday of this music the story will be incomplete and soon out of date. I hope that it will function well as a snapshot from 2009.
The Earliest Days
Donald Hustad argues that CWM began in 1969 with the publication of Scripture in Song by the David and Dale Garratt from New Zealand. These songs are usually simple choruses where the lyrics are the exact words from the Bible. From Table 1 songs like Thou Art Worthy (1963) from Revelation 4:, I Am the Resurrection and the Life (1967) from John 11, Rejoice in the Lord Always (1967) from Philippians 4, This Is the Day (1967) from Psalm 118, The Law of the Lord Is Perfect (1969) from Psalm 19, Clap Your Hands All Ye People (1972) from Psalm 47, and Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God (1972) from Matthew 6. This genre of “scripture song” continues throughout the 1970’s and early 1980’s. Examples include Psalm 5 (1975), The Trees of the Field (1975), He Has Made Me Glad (1976), I Exalt Thee (1977), Behold What Manner of Love (1978), Micah 6:8 (1978), How Majestic Is Your Name (1981).
The very first entry in Table 1 shows that this demarcation cannot be seen as hard and fast. They That Wait Upon the Lord (1953) could easily be seen in this category. However, this song is the refrain to a gospel-type hymn. Thus, there is some continuity between this style of music and what has come before even in this “scripture song” genre.
The “southern gospel” music of Bill and Gloria Gaither and “black gospel” music of Andraé Crouch show that there are additional continuities of CWM with previous religious music. The Gaithers’ There’s Something About That Name (1970) and Because He Lives (1971) are from the “southern gospel” genre. His Name Is Wonderful (1959), Jesus, Name Above All Names (1974), and Oh, How He Loves You and Me (1975) are also in this category. My first exposure to this more contemporary “southern gospel” came from my parents who sang in a quartet/sextet in our small church in rural Indiana. Many of the songs that they sang came from Singspiration’s Country & Western Hymnal, a collection of 100 or so songs published in 1972.
Several of the songs from the late 1960’s and early 1970’s from Table 1 come from Andraé Crouch: The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power (1966), My Tribute (1971), Through It All(1971), and Bless His Holy Name (1973). Crouch is in the “black gospel” or “soul” tradition of Thomas Dorsey and Mahalia Jackson. This is gospel and revival music with more of a jazz and blues flavor.
This early era is punctuated by the publication of Hymns for the Family of God (Brentwood Music, 1976) edited by Fred Bock and Bryan Jeffrey Leech. This nondenominational hymnal included Gaithers’ songs, Andraé Crouch songs, other contemporary hymn writers (Peterson, Carmichael, etc.) and a few of the “scripture songs” mentioned earlier. This was in addition to traditional hymnody used in American evangelical churches.
Finally, it should be noted that all forms of contemporary popular music are influencing the development of CWM. The hippie movement, folk music, protest music, Elvis Presley, Beatlemania, etc. are all huge influences in popular culture at this time. Advocates of CWM almost always promote the use of popular culture musical styles in the church.
Christian Contemporary Music
The rise of Christian Contemporary Music (CCM) in the 1970’s had a major impact on CWM. There is a significant difference between CCM and CWM. CCM is not necessarily meant to be used in worship. It is similar to the pop music market. Songs are written for performance by the performing artist. The performers give concerts, produce albums, and vie for top 40 play time on Christian radio stations. Fans buy albums and go to concerts. Unlike “southern gospel” this music had definite connections with rock music, especially of the soft-rock and pop variety. Larry Norman, Randy Matthews, 2nd Chapter of Acts, Petra, Keith Green all started their musical careers in the late 1960’s to early 1970’s. Amy Grant (starting in the late 1970’s) and Twila Paris and Michael W. Smith (both starting in the early 1980’s) are also familiar names in this category.
Some of these artists’ music were comparable in style to some of the new worship music. 2nd Chapter of Act’s Easter Song (1974) was in Hymns for the Family of God. Keith Green’s Create in Me a Clean Heart (1980), Oh Lord, You’re Beautiful (1980), There Is A Redeemer (1982), and his scripture song medley were easily used in contemporary worship services. Amy Grant’s recording of Michael Card’s El Shaddai (1981) and Thy Word (1984), written with Michael W. Smith, are now part of the CWM repertoire. From Michael W. Smith there is How Majestic Is Your Name (1981), Great Is the Lord (1982), Emmanuel (1983) (also recorded by Amy Grant). More recently from Smith that is part of CWM is Agnus Dei (1990), Shine on Us (1996), and Healing Rain (2004). Songs by Twila Paris that part of the early days of CWM are We Will Glorify (1982), We Bow Down (1984), He Is Exalted (1985), and Lamb of God (1985).
The crossover into CWM from CCM continues to be an important source of worship songs. Sometimes these CCM songs are embraced by the larger evangelical community, and at other times CCM songs are picked up by local congregations. For example, in our church we sing In the Light (1991) recorded by dcTalk, Consuming Fire (1996) recorded by Third Day, and Cornerstone (2003) recorded by Days of Fire. Other CCM songs that probably were not originally recorded as CWM but now used in worship are Awesome God (1988), God of Wonders (2000), Grace Like Rain (2003), Who Am I? (2003), My Savior, My God (2005).
One development since the explosion of CWM has been the production of “worship albums” by CCM artists. Sometimes these worship albums contain original songs, but the majority of them are the CCM “star” singing songs written by others originally for worship. Some of these CWM songs turn into CCM hits. Petra’s Petra Praise: The Rock Cries Out (1989), Michael W. Smith’s Worship (2001) and Worship Again (2002), Newsboys’ Adoration (2003) and He Reigns: The Worship Collection (2005), Rebecca St. James’ Worship God (2002) and Live Worship: Blessed Be Your Name (2004), Third Day’s Offerings: A Worship Album (2000) and Offerings II: All I Have to Give (2003), and Philips, Craig, and Dean’s Let My Words Be Few (2001), Let Your Glory Fall (2003), Let the Worshipers Arise (2004), and The Worship Collection: Favorite Songs of All (2005). Three original worship songs from the Newsboys’ albums appear in Table 1: It Is You (2002), He Reigns (2003), and Strong Tower (2004). Also, three original worship songs from Third Day’s albums appear in Table 1: Your Love, Oh Lord (1999), King of Glory (2000), and Offering (2003).
Having these worship songs recorded by CCM artists receiving airtime on Christian radio aids congregations using them in worship. For members who hear these songs on Christian radio, they are already familiar songs when they are used in a worship service..
Maranatha! Music
In 1965 Chuck Smith became pastor of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa. Originally, it was part of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, a denomination originating in the Pentecostal movement of the early 1900’s. Calvary Chapel split off from the Foursquare denomination in 1968 and became the founding church of the Calvary Chapel fellowship of churches. While Calvary Chapels are open to traditional Pentecostal practices, they are not distinctive elements of the movement. Rather, expository, verse-by-verse teaching of scripture and a more contemporary and informal worship style have become their hallmark.
Smith’s Calvary Chapel became home to the “Jesus movement”, a Christianized version of the west coast hippie movement. This outreach to the hippie culture resulted in hippie music from the late 1960’s and early 1970’s being brought into the worship of Calvary Chapel. Many of early founders of CCM were associated with the Calvary Chapel movement. Maranatha! Music was founded in 1971, originally as a non-profit outreach, to publish and to promote the folk-rock style new worship music.
Maranatha! Music distributed worship music through a series of Praise recordings. The Praise Album, the first in the series was originally published in 1974. These albums were re-recorded starting in 1999 as Praise 1 through Praise 20. Songbooks for this music were published in the series Praise Chorus Book (Beige (1983), Purple (1990), Red (1993), Green (1997)). Many of the songs listed in Table 1 from the 1970’s and 1980’s were published by Maranatha! Music. The column marked “Maranatha” in Table 1 denotes in which Praise Chorus songbook the song appears.
The men’s ministry Promise Keepers (founded in 1990) included a significant worship component at its conferences. Albums from these events were published by Maranatha! Music. Tommy Walker, a songwriter/worship leader from Christian Assembly, a Foursquare Gospel church in Los Angeles who also participates in Promise Keeper events, records under the Maranatha! Music label. Tommy Walker songs from Table I are He Knows My Name (1996) and That’s Why We Praise Him (1999).
Maranatha! Music joined with Word Music, Inc. which is now a part of the Warner Music Group.
Vineyard
The first Vineyard churches began in the mid-1970’s and involved CCM artists Larry Norman, Chuck Girard, and Keith Green. The most prominent leader, John Wimber, joined the Vineyard Movement in 1982. Wimber was associated with the Calvary Chapel movement, but leaned toward a more charismatic/Pentecostal direction. The Vineyard Movement is now commonly associated with the “signs and wonders” movement. A worship style that stresses an intimate encounter with God is also a hallmark of Vineyard worship.
Vineyard Music/Mercy Records was founded in 1986 to publish Vineyard worship recordings and songbooks. Worship leader/songwriters Brenton Brown, Brian Doerksen, Andy Park, David Ruis, Kathryn Scott, Carl Tuttle, Scott Underwood all hail from Vineyard churches. Twenty or more songs on the list in Table I are from Vineyard songwriters. The songs Breathe(1995) and Draw Me Close (1994) particularly illustrate the intimacy valued in Vineyard music.
ThankYou Music / Make Way Music / Kingsway Music
ThankYou Music is the publisher for many British and Irish contemporary worship musicians. Most notable of these during the 1980’s and early 1990’s is Graham Kendrick. (Kendrick also publishes under the Make Way Music label.) Kendrick was a worship leader in the London charismatic church Ichthys Christian Fellowship. Songs by Kendrick in Table I include The Servant King (1983), Meekness and Majesty (1986), Shine, Jesus, Shine (1987), Amazing Love (1989), Knowing You (1993). These songs all appear in one or more editions of the Maranatha! Music Praise Chorus Book.
Kendrick’s music has a contemporary feel to it and in recordings uses contemporary instrumentation often with a gospel choir backup. However, the structure of his songs is very similar to gospel hymnody with multiple verses often with some narrative development and then a refrain that summarizes the key theme of the song. Stuart Townend and Keith Getty are song/hymn writers from the late 1990’s to the present following Kendrick’s lead.
Matt Redman, Paul Oakley, Tim Hughes, Robin Mark and others also publish under the ThankYou Music label. Redman and Hughes are now associated with the Passion Worship movement and will be discussed later. Robin Mark’s music has been distributed by Integrity’s Hosanna Music and will also be discussed later.
Kingsway Music has published four volumes of a songbook/hymnal under the title of Songs of Fellowship (Volume 1 (1991), Volume 2 (1998), Volume 3 (2003), Volume 4 (2008)). Each volume contains around 600 contemporary worship songs and traditional hymns. Most publishers of CWM are represented in these collections.
Integrity Music
Integrity’s Hosanna Music began in 1987 as a music club selling tapes and CD’s of worship music with accompanying song sheets, overhead projector masters, and songbooks. Originally, each recording was of live worship in a church led by a prominent worship leader/singer/songwriter using contemporary songs from various publishers of CWM. Eventually, Integrity’s Hosanna Music obtained the rights to some of this music, so even though the company didn’t exist when the song was originally published it now owns the copyright.. From the late 1980’s until the present Integrity has been an equal to Maranatha! Music in the CWM business.
After six or seven live worship albums is released a songbook containing all of the songs on those albums, numbering around 100 songs, is also released. Volume 21 is the current volume, so there are over 2000 songs available via this collection.
The earliest of these collections are simple choruses, scripture songs, and praise songs similar to the music that had been published already for a over a decade by Maranatha! Praise. The style and instrumentation with particular combinations of songs into medleys influenced the development of CWM for the next decade. Over 30 songs from Table 1 are published by Integrity’s Hosanna Music and a large number of them appear on Integrity’s recordings and in their songbook.
Singer/songwriter/worship leaders Don Moen, Paul Baloche, Lincoln Brewster publish under Integrity’s Hosanna Music. In addition, Integrity has published albums by Brian Doerkson and Kathryn Scott, both associated with the Vineyard Movement, Darlene Zschech and Hillsong Church, Bob Kauflin with Sovereign Grace Worship, Robin Mark of Belfast and many others. One of the most popular CWM songs of all time Shout to the Lord (1993) was originally distributed to American evangelicals on Integrity’s Shout to the Lord (1996) recording and in the Volume 11 songbook (1997). It appeared again in the Shout to the Lord 2000 (2000) recording and in the Volume 14 songbook (2000). There will be more discussion of Sovereign Grace Worship and Hillsong later.
Another Punctuation
I think that it is possible to see another notable mark in the history of Contemporary Worship Music by the end of the 1980’s and the early 1990’s. This can be illustrated in part by looking at the top 25 list from CCLI from August 1997 (the earliest list still accessible from the CCLI website).
Table 2. CCLI Top 25 List from August 1997
1 Lord I Lift Your Name On High Rick Founds 1989
2 Give Thanks Henry Smith 1978
3 I Love You Lord Laurie Klein 1978
4 Majesty Jack Hayford 1981
5 He Has Made Me Glad Leona Von Brethorst 1976
6 As The Deer Martin J. Nystrom 1984
7 We Bring The Sacrifice Of Praise Kirk Dearman 1984
8 All Hail King Jesus Dave Moody 1981
9 He Is Exalted Twila Paris 1985
10 Awesome God Rich Mullins 1988
11 I Exalt Thee Pete Sanchez, Jr. 1977
12 Glorify Thy Name Donna Adkins 1976
13 Jesus Name Above All Names Naida Hearn 1974
14 More Precious Than Silver Lynn Deshazo 1982
15 Open Our Eyes Lord Bob Cull 1976
16 I Will Call Upon The Lord Micahel O’Shields 1981
17 Emmanuel Bob McGee 1976
18 How Majestic Is Your Name Michael W. Smith 1981
19 Change My Heart Oh God Eddie Espinosa 1982
20 Shine, Jesus, Shine Graham Kendrick 1987
21 Holy Ground Geron Davis 1983
22 Praise The Name Of Jesus Roy Hicks, Jr. 1976
23 This Is The Day Les Garrett 1967
24 Great Is The Lord Michael W. & Deborah E. Smith 1982
25 Because He Lives William J. & Gloria Gaither 1971
Note that almost all of these songs are more than a decade older than the date of the top 25 list. Note also that most of these songs are in the category of “scripture song” or praise chorus with a simple chorus or verse plus chorus. Because He Lives (1971), Glorify Thy Name (1976), As the Deer (1984), and Shine, Jesus, Shine (1987) are the exceptions with each having multiple verses and a refrain, similar to traditional gospel hymnody. With the exception of Lord I Lift Your Name on High (1989) none of these songs appears on the current top 25 list (February 2009). This reflects the state of CWM as seen in the three major sources at this time (Maranatha! Praise, Integrity’s Hosanna, and Vineyard Music). This collection represents what would come to mind when you say “Praise and Worship” music for friend and foe alike.
This marking point also saw the publication of a hymnal and a collection of praise songs as did Hymns for the Family of God in the 1970’s. Word Music, Inc. published the non-denominational hymnal The Hymnal for Worship & Celebration in 1986 and Songs for Praise and Worship in 1992. The Hymnal include over 600 songs including traditional hymns and just over 100 CWM songs many from the list in Table 1. Songs for Praise and Worship contains about 250 songs. In Table 1 the column marked SP&W show songs from the list that are in this volume marked with a “0”. (Word Music, Inc. has continued the series with More Songs for Praise and Worship to update this collection; those are marked with 1, 2, 3 or 4 to indicate the supplement volume.) Of the 117 songs in the list of Table 1 through 1990 73 are in this 1992 collection.
I am familiar with two separate denominational hymnal projects that occurred during the late-1980’s and early 1990’s. The 1987 Psalter Hymnal of the Christian Reformed Church had 641 songs in total. Following previous denominational Psalter Hymnals metrical versions of all 150 Psalms were included drawing heavily in this edition from Geneva Psalter tunes but sometimes with newly written lyrics. There were also traditional hymns, newly composed hymns by denominational songwriters, some “world” worship music, and around 30 songs in the CWM category. Many of these CWM were in the Bible songs section of the hymnal and were from the “scripture song” category discussed above.
The Orthodox Presbyterian Church and Presbyterian Church in America published the Trinity Hymnal, Revised in 1990. Originally, the editorial committee for this hymnal was going to include some contemporary “praise and worship” type songs. In the end out of 742 songs only a few were included: El-Shaddai (1981), Father, Father of All Things (1979), Praise the Lord Our God (1973) to the tune KUM BA YA, The Law of the Lord Is Perfect (1969), The King of Glory Comes (1966), Morning Sun (1975), Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me (1984) to the tune NEW CITY FELLOWSHIP, My Tribute (1971). The only thing these songs appear to have in common, with the exception of My Tribute, is that each of these songs looked like a traditional hymn with multiple verses a maybe a chorus. A separate volume of CWM was originally planned. An initial report from the editorial committee with recommended songs for a hymnal supplement was prepared, but the project was eventually abandoned due to the perceived short lifespan of CWM songs and to the growing ready availability of CWM from other sources.
Passion Worship Conferences / worshiptogether.com / sixsteps Music
One of the dominant forces in CWM from the late 1990’s to the present arose out of the Passion Conference movement (the 268 Generation). This movement was started by Louie Giglio in 1997 arising out of Giglio’s student ministry at Baylor University. Passion holds annual conferences and is targeted at university students. Singer/songwriter/worship leaders Chris Tomlin, David Crowder, Matt Redman, Charlie Hall, Tim Hughes, Martin Smith (of the Christian band Delerious?), and the combo team Passion Worship Team are associated with this movement. Their music is associated with the label worshiptogether.com/sixsteps Music. Twenty-two songs on the list in Table 1 are from worshiptgether.com all since 1997. Matt Redman songs distributed on Passion recordings bring an additional five songs. Conference worship recordings are distributed each year, and each of the individuals listed above has several solo or band recordings. Nine volumes of songbooks containing 70-80 songs each from several recordings have also been distributed.
A feature of CWM being written out of this movement is that in style and in form it is almost completely in step with current secular pop/rock music. The pop/rock ballad with several verses, a chorus, a bridge is the form of many of these songs. Earlier CWM had been the simple scripture song or praise chorus and stylistically were not in step with contemporary secular pop music. These newer songs allowed for more lyrical development due to there being multiple verses (similar to hymns) and more interesting musical variation within the song due to there being three distinct musical sections (verse, chorus, bridge).
An examination of the current top 25 list from CCLI (Table 3) shows that this newer style of CWM has almost completely displaced those top songs that were there just over a decade earlier.
Table 3. CCLI Top 25 List from February 2009
1 How Great Is Our God, Chris Tomlin, Jesse Reeves & Ed Cash (2004) [2V/C/B]
2 Blessed Be Your Name, Beth & Matt Redman (2002) [4V/C/B]
3 Here I Am To Worship, Tim Hughes (2000) [2V/C/B]
4 Mighty To Save, Ben Fielding & Reuben Morgan (2006) [2V/C/B]
5 Open The Eyes Of My Heart, Paul Baloche (1997) [V/C/B]
6 Everlasting God, Brenton Brown & Ken Riley (2005) [V/C/B]
7 Shout To The Lord, Darlene Zschech (1993) [2V/C]
8 Holy Is The Lord, Chris Tomlin & Louie Giglio (2003) [V/C/B]
9 Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone), Chris Tomlin et al (2006) [4V/C]
10 Forever, Chris Tomlin (2001) [3V/C]
11 Come Now Is The Time To Worship, Brian Doerksen (1998) [V/C]
12 Lord I Lift Your Name On High, Rick Founds (1989) [V/C]
13 Your Grace Is Enough, Matt Maher (2003) [2V/C]
14 You Are My King, Billy Foote (1997) [V/C/B]
15 God Of Wonders, Marc Byrd & Steve Hindalong (2000) [2V/C/B]
16 The Heart Of Worship, Matt Redman (1997) [2V/C]
17 Beautiful One, Tim Hughes (2002) [2V/C/B]
18 We Fall Down , Chris Tomlin (1998) [V/C]
19 Trading My Sorrows, Darrell Evans (1998) [2V/C/B]
20 You Are My All In All, Dennis Jernigan (1990) [2V/C]
21 In Christ Alone, Stuart Townend & Keith Getty (2001) [4V]
22 Breathe, Marie Barnett (1995) [2V/C]
23 Days Of Elijah, Robin Mark (1996) [2V/C/B]
24 How Great Thou Art, Stuart Hine & Wesley Keene (1949) [4V/C]
25 You’re Worthy Of My Praise, David Ruis (1986) [2V/C]
There are several things to notice about this list. About half of the songs were published in the same decade as the date of the list. All but three of these songs have multiple verses (V) or an additional bridge (B) section in addition to a chorus (C) (as noted by the symbols in the square brackets). Over half of the songs in this list are from a Passion Conference project.
Hillsong
Sixteen of the songs on the list in Table 1 (and two from the current top 25 list) are from Hillsong Church. Hillsong Church is a Pentecostal church in Sydney, Australia founded in 1983 and associated with the Australian Christian Churches, the Australian branch of the Assemblies of God denomination. Hillsong and their worship music has become a very powerful force in CWM in the past decade. A book-length discussion of contemporary worship music that centers on the history and influence and worship philosophy of Hillsong is found in Open Up the Doors: Music in the Modern Church (2006) by Mark Evans.
Hillsong’s worship ministry was headed by Geoff Bullock in the early days and by Darlene Zschech since 1995. Worship leaders and songwriters include Bullock, Darlene Zschech, Reuben Morgan, Marty Sampson, Steve McPherson, Tanya Riches, Joel Houston, and Brooke Fraser. Songs in Table I by these artists are The Power of Your Love (1992), Jesus, Lover of My Soul (1992), Shout to the Lord (1994), Jesus, What a Beautiful Name (1995), I Will Never Be the Same (1995), I Give You My Heart (1995), Blessing, Honor and Glory (1997), The Potter’s Hand (1997), My Redeemer Lives (1998), From the Inside Out (2005), None But Jesus (2005), Lead Me to the Cross (2006), Hosanna (2006), Mighty to Save (2006), and Stronger (2007).
Hillsong has produced and promoted an album of newly written CWM every year since 1992 usually in association with their annual worship conference. They have sold over 2 million albums altogether. Hillsong sees itself as having a special anointing from God in songwriting and promoting a powerful worship experience. While there is a huge marketing machine associated with all of this, it is short-sighted to see Hillsong as being primarily motivated by economic success. (This can also be said of the rest of the CWM industry.) Some of the underlying spiritual motivations of the HIllsong can be seen in the prayer that Darlene Zschech uses in their ministry:
Father, let them quickly get their eyes off of us. We just want to point them to you, God, because you are the Author of truth. You are the only One who is to be praised.
Also Worth Mentioning
Three additional influences are worth mentioning partly because of rising influence and uniqueness and partly because of more extensive use in our local congregation at Immanuel.
Sovereign Grace Worship (formerly known as People of Destiny International). Sovereign Grace Ministries is a loose association of churches founded in 1982 and originally under the leadership of C. J. Mahaney, pastor of Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The ministry had roots in the Catholic charismatic movement and with charismatic movement leader Larry Tomczak. What is notable about Sovereign Grace Ministries is its Calvinistic theology, which is somewhat unusual for charismatics in general and for the charismatic influenced CWM in particular. This focus tends to make the lyrics from these songwriters theologically more dense. Compared to other groups with Reformed or Calvinistic leanings, Sovereign Grace Ministries is unusual because it shares with Pentecostalism and the charismatic movement the continuation of prophetic gifts (inspired revelation apart from scripture) in the church today. Bob Kauflin, who had an association with the a cappella gospel group Glad in the 1980’s, is the head of worship ministries at Covenant Life Church and is a key leader for worship ministries for the entire ministry.
Sovereign Grace Worship has published many albums, songsheets, and songbooks based on the songwriting, live worship events, and conferences from their churches. Kauflin’s Your Great Name We Praise (2001), an updated version of the hymn Immortal, Invisible, God, Only-wise, Mark Altrogge’s I’m Forever Grateful (1985), I Stand in Awe (1987), As Long As I Have Breath (1999), Vikki Cook’s Before the Throne of God Above (1997) a new tune to a Charitie Lees Bancroft hymn, and with husband Steve Cook I Will Glory in My Redeemer(2001). Before the Throne of God Above has received wide distribution and has been recorded on many different CWM projects even though it has never made a top 25 CCLI list or is currently even in the top 100 list.
Keith and Kristyn Getty and Stuart Townend. Keith Getty is most famous for his contemporary hymn written with Stuart Townend, In Christ Alone (2001). Some observers claim that this Townend and Getty hymn will be one of the few from this repertoire that will stand the test of time. It is almost misleading to put the Getty’s in the company of CWM; they really are contemporary hymn writers, as is much of Stuart Townend’s work. But they have strong associations with the CWM movement via conferences and the manner in which some of their work has been recorded and distributed by others and typical CWM channels. Other songs on the list in Table 1 by the Getty’s and Stuart Townend are The Power of the Cross(2005) and Behold the Lamb (2007). Townend’s How Deep the Father’s Love for Us (1995) and Beautiful Savior (1998) also have a very traditional hymn sound to them.
Reformed University Fellowship and Indelible Grace. Reformed University Fellowship is the campus ministry of the Presbyterian Church in America. The leadership of RUF and the Franklin, Tennessee Christ Community Church (PCA) have promoted the use of traditional hymn lyrics to new tunes. Typically, these songs have a folk/country feel to them. RUF songs from the list in Table I are Arise, My Soul, Arise (1996), From Depths of Woe (Psalm 130) (1997), God, Be Merciful to Me (1997), appearing on the Jars of Clay Redemption Songs album in 2005, How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds (1997), Jesus, I Am Resting, Resting (1998), and Just As I Am (1998). RUF music is distributed through their campus ministries and through the Internet. A series of recordings called Indelible Grace was originally distributed through the igrace.com web site and other indie channels but is now available through other on-line channels such as Apple, Inc.’s iTunes Store.
Other Forces Influencing CWM
CCLI/SongSelect. The Christian Copyright License International is a service representing the publishers of Christian music that allows churches and other religious groups to pay royalties to holders of copyrights in a convenient manner. The service started in 1988 and now over 200,000 churches and hundreds of publishers and copyright holders participate. While not a perfect tool for assessing quality or even popularity of CWM, the reports that churches submit to CCLI which translate into royalty payout to copyright holds is a useful measure of a song’s use. The availability of permission to use songs, copy lyrics and now even printed music is a significant part of the explosion of CWM. Churches are not required to purchase hymnals or other kinds of songbooks in order to use this new music. The use of projection technology, originally overhead projectors, but now computer projection methods using Microsoft PowerPoint or MediaShout, reduced even more the need for hymnals or songbooks.
The SongSelect service from CCLI allows web-based access to lyrics, chord sheets, lead sheets, and vocal/hymn sheets (with harmonizations) for around 200,000 songs. This includes over 7000 public domain songs and hymns. The web service also comes with a transposition tool so that music can be easily re-keyed for various instruments, worship leader and congregation vocal ranges, etc. The price for this is less than $200 per year (in addition to the CCLI license fee which depends on the size of the church). Unlimited viewing of the SongSelect database is available to members, but only up to 200 printings of the lead/chord/hymn sheets is allowed. Nearly all of the songs listed in Table 1, even the most recently published, are available via this service. With this service it is now possible to have access to “all” CWM without ever buying a hymnal or songbook. With the growing ubiquity of the Internet, access to this repertoire is both inexpensive and convenient.
SongDiscovery. Worship Leader magazine has offered its SongDiscovery service since 1997. For around $60 a year subscribers receive the monthly Worship Leader magazine, a CD at least every other month with about 15 new CWM songs from all the various publishers of CWM, lead sheets and chord sheets for all the songs, and PowerPoint and MediaShout media slides for projection. The most recent CD available via this service is Volume 76. There is an editorial review committee that surveys new music and allows musicians to submit songs. Selections from new worship albums from established CWM artists are routinely found on each new SongDiscovery CD. But there are also new songs from new songwriters, worship leaders, churches, from indie or local church produced worship CD’s. To be featured on a SongDiscovery CD is a huge boost to a songwriter’s and worship leader’s standing in the CWM world. Exposure via this mechanism combined with the ready-availability of sheet music via SongSelect and the audio track via Internet music distribution sources makes it possible for songs to be global worship “hits” and songwriters to have global “renown” almost overnight. It is reported that smaller churches that don’t have enough gifted musicians to have a worship band but are otherwise interested in using the latest CWM use SongDiscovery resources, including the playing of the audio track, in their worship services, singing along to the “professionally” recorded track. I have been a member of SongDiscovery since about Volume 20 (2000) and have amassed a large collection of CWM recordings. 94 of the 270 songs listed in Table 1 appeared on a SongDiscovery CD (35%). Of the 117 songs in Table 1 published since the premier of the service in 1997, 69 appeared on a SongDiscovery CD (59%). The column labeled “SD” in Table 1 shows in which volume of SongDiscovery that song appeared.
WOW. The WOW Worship CD collections illustrate another way that CWM has been distributed. The WOW series began as an annual compilation of the year’s top CCM songs. Starting in 1999 the first WOW Worship CD was released. Each release is a two CD set. Similar to the original CCM version, these recordings had the CWM song from a worship album put out by Vineyard, Maranatha! Praise, Integrity’s Hosanna, or some other prominent publisher of CWM. Additional recordings were released in 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2006, and 2007. The column labeled WOW shows which songs in Table 1 were on a WOW compilation. 100 out of the 270 songs in Table I appeared on a WOW compilation CD.
Production and Distribution of New Music. Inexpensive computers and digital recording equipment allow anyone who wants to put in the time and effort to have a recording studio in home or church. A $1000 MacBook comes with Garageband, a richly featured 8-track mixer with lots of live-recorded (not synthesized) virtual instruments that allows you to create loops and background tracks for whatever instrumentation you want behind your own vocals and actual live recorded instrumentation. Live recording of live worship bands leading churches in worship is also easily done by similar technologies. Fully professional recording software such has Logic or ProTools running on similar inexpensive hardware brings power recording methods to the masses. Music writing and sheet music publication software such as Finale or Sibellius bring professional quality music publication readily available. Today virtually anyone can produce and publish music. Of course, this is not to say that a professional sound engineer and producer will not create a superior product. Add to this the ability to independently market and distribute your or your church’s projects on the Internet or by means of a podcast or via digital music distribution channels such as Apple’s iTunes Store or Amazon.com. No wonder there has been an explosion in new CWM. Even in our small church of under 200, one of our worship teams achieved a level of performance quality that they felt it would be worthwhile to produce a CD. For them it was not for the purpose of producing new worship music since there weren’t really any songwriters in the group. But they were interested in having a music ministry around town and they wanted to make a demo CD that they could give to prospective venues. In the end the group did the production in a local professional recording studio. Nonetheless, it demonstrates the idea that a small church with quality musicians can produce and market a professional level product.
Some Reflections
In this last section I wish to offer some personal observations and opinion based on my cursory review of CWM.
Quantity of music. The CCLI database has over 5 million entries. CCLI’s SongSelect service boasts of over 200,000 available songs. Over 2000 songs are found in Integrity’s Hosanna Music collection. Over 1100 from SongDiscovery. Over 700 from worshiptogether.com. 200 songs on the WOW collections. Yet only 270 songs appear on my list and used more or less by our local church, a fairly typical consumer of CWM in many ways. While the creative effort behind between 2000 and 200,000 songs is remarkable, only a small fraction of these are excellent, widely used, and loved. While sometimes it appears that marketing does more to make a song successful than intrinsic quality, it does appear to be the case that there is some sifting of the good and excellent from the just okay or even bad. Whether the CCLI charts are the best means of sorting the good from the bad remains to be seen.
While these numbers seem vast and the options to church musicians and worship leaders seem limitless, it’s really not that different from previous eras. Charles Wesley wrote over 8000 hymns, yet only a small fraction of those numbering at most in the 10’s are found in most modern hymnals. The same is true of Fanny Crosby’s 8000 hymns or Isaac Watts 700 hymns. Of course, unlike today where there are many, perhaps numbering in the hundreds, songwriters, Watts, Wesley, and Crosby were the dominant songwriters of their day.
Our collections of worship music, traditional hymnody or contemporary worship music, are always eclectic. Much is produced and only the best is actually consumed. And only the best of the best continues to be used throughout history. Our expectation should be no different with CWM.
But, isn’t this true of art in general? The creative impulse exists in many of us. We create to the best of our ability in the medium of our choice. Only a few become popular in their own time. Even fewer are recognized as creative geniuses. And perhaps even few “works” are deemed masterpieces. Dare we stifle the creative impulse in anyone? Mozart might have been lost to the world.
Old vs. New. The quantity of new worship music and the desire to communicate Biblical truth to our own culture (whether it be ourselves—for we are in our own culture—or our unchurched neighbor) place huge pressures on the church to abandon the old. But it would be a loss to do so and not just a cultural loss. Certain expressions of the faith are worth preserving and transmitting to the next generation. Part of the eclecticism noted above results in the best of the best being preserved. Most hymn collections now have the best of Wesley, and the best of Crosby, and the best of Watts. Why are these the best? That is often a difficult question, but the particular articulation of the faith objectively stated and of religious sentiment stirs most of us in a timeless fashion. Theologians, musicians, pastors, church leaders, etc. influence the process, but there seems to be consensus about the leaders of the pack that often even the hoi polloi can recognize. The church needs to take care to introduce each rising generation to this time-honored collection.
So, how to balance it all? At our church we continue to use music found in the two hymnals we have (1987 Psalter Hymnal of the Christian Reformed Church and the 1976 Hymns for the Family of God—both discussed earlier). Approximately 40% of our worship music comes from the hymnals, 60% from the list of 270. This past Sunday of 3 of the 8 songs used in worship were traditional hymns. The tunes were also traditional although the instrumentation and performance style had a contemporary feel. The Sunday before 3 of the 7 songs used were traditional hymns, 2 with an organ accompaniment using traditional tunes. The third hymn was Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me to a contemporary tune. We’re not formulaic or legalistic from week to week, but overall we aim for a mix of the contemporary and the traditional.
The World Is Flat. Thomas Friedman in his 2005 (expanded in 2006 and again in 2007) book The World Is Flat talks about how the Internet, transportation and global supply chains, world markets, etc. have altered the world economically and culturally. CWM is also doing this and for many of the same reasons. One writer referred to the phenomenon of “Hillsongization” (similar to “McDonaldization”) where everyone all over the world is singing the same worship music with the same rock band worship team and in some cases even using the same gestures and body movements (since the video of the Hillsong performance is readily viewed on YouTube). Indeed, the top 25 CCLI list from Australia looks not too different from the lists in other parts of the English-speaking world. The last Hillsong worship album in my collection came to me from a Spanish-speaking friend from Ensenada, Mexico. They were using several of the songs in Spanish translation, he was commending them to me with his gift. A fellow student in this class played a recording of Shout to the Lord in Chinese for us as part of her class project. The globalization of CWM is remarkable and it happens almost instantly due to the Internet. At least the lyrics are being sung in their own language.
The same argument can be made here that was made about the old vs. the new. Is there really anything wrong with taking the best CWM that is being produced around the globe, whether it’s Nashville or Sydney or Mexico City, and then using it everywhere, especially in translation? Christians do believe, after all, that their faith is trans-cultural, and that expressions of faith and life are similar from one culture to the next because they are rooted in Biblical teaching and in the Biblical story of redemption. It is interesting that a current dominant player in CWM globally, especially in the English-speaking world is not from North America. The success of Hillsong testifies in part to one of the positive aspects of the “flat world”, that the playing field is level, that you don’t have to have the connections with the big American label in order to become a dominant player.
As precaution must be taken to not let the new crowd out the old, precaution must be taken to not let the global crowd out the local. I point to our local church again as an example. As noted earlier nearly half of the CWM songs that we use are not from the top 140 list. These songs reflect preferences of the local body. They reflect songs that may have become favorites of the local church that haven’t taken the global church by storm. They reflect the idiosyncrasies of the local worship leaders and planners. In some churches they may reflect the fruit of local songwriters. The list in Table I contains two contemporary Spanish-language songs. We are a very “Anglo” congregation with only a few Spanish speakers. Why are these songs in our repertoire? We have a partner church in Ensenada, Mexico, and we send a group of 10-20 folks, mostly youth, there every year. They have a group that also comes to our church every other year or so. These two songs are songs from their Hispanic CWM repertoire that we learned in our partnership. Their more local worship music became part of ours. (It may be the case this music was part of a broader CWM from the church Spanish-speaking church from Latin America and elsewhere.)
My family and I occasionally attend a local Spanish-speaking congregation. Interestingly, there music is a mix of CWM in translation from the sources described in this paper with which I am familiar and music by songwriters and worship leaders indigenous to their own Hispano-American church. This is good.
Pentecostal roots. As we’ve traced the history of CWM we’ve seen that the Pentecostal roots run very deep. Nearly every branch of CWM has connections with Pentecostalism and the modern charismatic movement. Is it possible for someone who rejects the distinctive teachings of Pentecostalism to embrace this music? First, it should be said that there remains much theological overlap between Pentecostals and other Christians: God and his attributes, the Trinity, the dual nature of Christ’s person, the Incarnation, the atoning work of Christ, His second coming, the way of salvation, the authority of scripture, the nature of Christian discipleship, loving and serving God and your neighbor, evangelizing the lost, etc. Even Calvinist vs. Arminian differences are not explicit if Biblical language is used in the lyrics. Most of the time the differences have more to do with underlying theological frameworks than actual words used. (For example, both Calvinists and Arminians understand the Biblical word “all” differently. If used in a song, the Calvinist understands what they are singing differently from the way the Arminian understands it. Of course, this is why more detailed creedal formulations arise, so as to clarify these differences, and sometimes these more detailed creedal formulations can appear in song.) So as long as the lyrics focus on this common ground (or ambiguous common ground), the songs can be legitimately used across much of the ecclesiastical spectrum without fear of theological compromise.
Where explicit Pentecostal distinctives (continuing prophecy, speaking in tongues, second blessing/baptism of the Holy Spirit, sign and wonders, or sometimes associated prosperity theology) are present in the lyrics, these songs should not be used at all or must be used with care in non-Pentecostal ecclesiastical contexts. Since many of the lyrics are direct Biblical quotes, it is their context that defines their meaning. As with the comment above about Calvinist vs. Arminian understanding of a lyric, there can also be a Pentecostal vs. a non-Pentecostal understanding of a given text of scripture. The context in which the lyric is used determines its meaning, especially when it is a Biblical text that both groups consider authoritative. It turns out that very few songs in the list in Table 1 have lyrics that can only be understood in terms of Pentecostal distinctives.
Perhaps more worrisome is the nature of the encounter between God and the worshipper. We noted earlier that the intimate encounter with God in the worship experience was one of the significant aspects of Vineyard worship. Sometimes this intimate encounter is expressed in what appears to be romantic terms and this has been criticized as the “feminization” of worship and derisively called “Jesus is my boyfriend” lyrics. See essays “I Could Sing of Your Love Forever: American Romance in Contemporary Worship Music” by Jenell Williams Paris and “I’m Desperate for You: Male Perception of Romantic Lyrics in Contemporary Worship Music” by Keith Drury in The Message in the Music and the section on “’Feminising’ Congregational Song” in Evans. By and large I found these complaints to be misguided. They analyzed isolated phases “I’m lost without you”, “I’m desperate for you”, “You’re beautiful to me” “You’re altogether lovely”, “I love you”, etc. without taking into account the context of the song itself, which usually had explicit references to God, His unique Divine attributes, or His saving work. Also, these songs are seldom used in isolation. They are part of worship service including other songs and liturgical elements, where it is perfectly clear that the object of worship is God and not my human lover. Scripture itself doesn’t hesitate to use this language. I found it somewhat amusing that one of the songs criticized by Paris was Matt Redman’s Better Is One Day because of phrases like “For my soul longs and even faints for You / For here my heart is satisfied within Your presence” complaining that the worshipper would have human companion in mind. But this song is firmly rooted in the phrasing and sentiment of Psalm 84.
I am fully supportive of expressions of love for, devotion to, passion for, delight in, and desire of God. Clearly, this is what loving God with all your heart, soul, body, strength, and mind means. Private and public worship is an important place where this happens. But Pentecostal worship anticipates an unmediated encounter with God through these worship experiences. Not only does the believer express their devotion to God in these worship experiences, they expect and anticipate that God reciprocates and that He shows Himself, reveals Himself so that they powerfully sense His presence. Moses’ prayer in Exodus comes to mind when he said to God, “Show me your glory!” This is the deeper worship that Hillsong claims to be anointed for and the deeper worship that it will teach the rest of the world if they learn to worship like Hillsong.
But in reality this is a Pentecostal distinctive as well. In most Protestant and Catholic traditions, worship is mediated by Word and Sacrament. Our whole relationship with God is mediated through Christ. Only He offers perfect worship, because He alone is the sinless one, and only He has perfect communion with the Father. We have those things because we are united with Him. Yes, the Holy Spirit indwells believers; all Christian traditions believe this. But, in non-Pentecost traditions, the work of the Holy Spirit is to create faith in Christ, to help us look to our mediator, to help us understand the Word and apply it to our lives, to help us see the gospel and the Savior in the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, in sanctification, etc. Indeed, scripture still speaks of seeing through a glass darkly. More and more Christians, even non-Pentecostals, speak of listening to God speak in prayer. Yet, traditionally, Christians have sought the voice of God in scripture, God’s Word. Perhaps what most people mean is that certain Biblical truths are brought to mind in their prayer, but if they mean that they are hearing the voice of God in some kind of direct personal revelation, then they have moved to a Pentecostal understanding of the experience. Much CWM mediates and brings about this direct encounter in Pentecostal practice, i.e. the way it is performed and incorporated into the full worship event, whereas when non-Pentecostals use these songs, they are engaging in God-church dialogue mediated by Word, sacrament, and prayer that has been the understanding of Christian worship for most of the church’s history.
Worship Themes and “the whole counsel of God”. CWM tends to focus on the praise of God for His attributes or on the joy and gratitude of the worshipper because of God’s salvation. Some have criticized the narrow focus and the absence of richer theological themes. See Lester Ruth’s essay “How Great Is Our God” that analyzes and finds lacking CWM’s explicit references to the Trinity or Jay Howard’s essay “Let the Weak Say I Am Strong: Contemporary Worship Music and God’s Concern for Righteousness and Social Justice” both from The Message in the Music. While there is a certain validity to these criticisms, I cannot help but wonder if the same result would be found if the most common used traditional hymns were analyzed. Hymnal editors can make sure that there is balance in the hymnal, but it takes pastors and worship leaders who are committed to “the whole counsel of God” to make sure that the worship diet is not imbalanced. Additionally, it should be stated that worship music is not the entirety of a worship service. Many additional aspects of Biblical faith can and should be brought into focus via readings, litanies, preaching, prayers, ministry news, etc. It doesn’t all have to happen in congregational song. That being said, as CWM has been progressing there has been increasing lyrical complexity—more words in songs allow for more Biblical and theological depth; more verses allow for the fuller development of an idea.
The subjective in worship. One feature of CWM is the tendency to sing about our singing. We sing about our praise: “Let’s just praise the Lord”, “I could sing of your love forever”, “All of my days, I want to praise…”, “We stand and lift up our hands…we bow down and worship Him now”. Usually these songs eventually get to objective praise. For example, Shout to the Lord (1993) starts with “My Jesus, my Savior, Lord, there is none like You; all of my days, I want to praise the wonders of Your mighty love” but moves to the Psalm-like “Shout to the Lord, all the earth, let us sing. Power and majesty, praise to the King. Mountains bow down and the seas will roar at the sound of Your name.” Some have criticized this as a tendency to want to stress our role in worship or even to worship ourselves in addition to God. Without totally dismissing this concern, I think it is overstated and that there is a much more sympathetic way of understanding this trend. This kind of language makes the worship personal. This is not just what is true about God, but this is what I sing sincerely and authentically to God. These lyrics are expressions of the believer’s heart for God and his or her sincere human need. These are prayers of devotion and dependence. We find these sorts of prayers in the Psalms. How can we complain that they are inappropriate for worship?
Denis O. Lamoureux’s argument in Evolution: Scripture and Nature Say Yes! can be summarized in three points:
Terry M. Gray's Blog 