CONTEMPORARY RELIGIOUS MUSIC
DR. TAN SOOI LING
Greetings! My name is Dr. Tan Sooi Ling. I come from Malaysia where I direct a
doctoral program that is a partnership between three seminaries in Malaysia. I
am also an adjunct assistant professor at Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena,
USA, where I teach online. This morning I am going to discuss about
contemporary religious music, or Christian contemporary music (CCM), and
suggest elements that have enabled this music to be a uniting force across
denominations. This discussion will first present the historical development of
CCM, second suggest four elements that have promoted unity, and third,
highlight some tensions within the movement, and suggest a way forward.
A. Historical Overview:
1. Beginnings: Charismatic Renewal and Charismatic worship
In 1967, the charismatic renewal began at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania (USA). Students a powerful and transforming experience, which
came to be known as “the baptism in the Spirit.” This later quickly spread to
other campuses and regular parishes in the Catholic community. 30,000 students
gathered at the Notre Dame campus in Indiana in the mid-1970s.
In England, renewal swept the Anglican movement through leaders such as
Harper, David Watson and David Pytches seeing the formation of groups like
Soul Survivors. In 1970 the Methodist charismatics formed Dunamis Renewal
Group.
In Asia, In the early 1970s in Singapore, high school students gathered for
prayer at The Anglo-Chinese School clock tower at Barker Road and experienced
what they described as a “move of God,” “the outpouring of the Holy Spirit,”
“baptism of the Holy Spirit.” In Malaysia, my friends and I in University Malaya
had this same experience. I saw drug addicts, gang members, rich kids, Hindus,
Buddhists and agnostics experience God’s grace in a vibrant way.
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Integral in the charismatic renewal was the use of praise choruses, simple pop-
styled songs, during worship services. Within a decade, aspects of this worship
had penetrated into nearly every circle of the universal church body. From these
simple beginnings, “charismatic” worship evolved into what is now known as
contemporary worship music. Contemporary Christian music, the term I am
using, includes contemporary worship music and Christian performance music.
2. Musical Changes in the church: Move 1: 1960s – 2,000
Musical Change with Bill and Dana Gaither: In the United States during the
1960s, early testimonial songs of Bill and Dana Gaither in the 1960s such as, “He
touched me” and “Because He lives” touched lives and introduced people to
new genre of music in church. The style was southern gospel music (mixture of
country, gospel and bluegrass of white people in the south). It was down-toearth, more folk and country.
David and Dale Garrett: (60s to 90s) In New Zealand David and Dale were the
driving force behind “Scripture in Song.” In 1968 they recorded a new album of
fresh new songs, scripture put to song. This is what many recognize to be the
birth of the modern praise and worship movement. Songs they produced
include... “Praise the Name of Jesus, He is Lord,” were regular standards in
charismatic renewal meetings.
Jesus Music:
Paralleling this was the rise of the Jesus movement in the 1970s. In the United
States, this was a turbulent era of protests over the Vietnam war and the
developing of the civil rights movement. Protest music in the form of rock to
urban folk ballads by Bob Dylan (blowing in the wind), Joe Crocker was popular.
So was Woodstock. Jesus music, also known as the gospel beat music in the UK
began with some hippie and street musicians in the late 1960s and early 1970s
who converted to Christianity. They continued to play the same style of music
they had played previously but began to write lyrics with a Christian message.
Example: Barry McGuire, Paul Stookey of Peter, Paul and Mary, Andre Crouch,
Keith Green.
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The prevalent theology of the 1960s-early 1980s was:

return to simple living

Strong belief in miracles and works of Holy Spirit

Strong communal aspect
Calvary Chapel:
In Calvary Chapel, a church in Costa Mesa, California, pastor Chuck Smith took
on a young hippie named Lonnie Frisbee as a missionary to the youth in Orange
County. By the middle of 1978, the church was filled with barefoot, blue-jeanwearing kids, and dozens of hippies and teenage runaways inhabited a string of
communal homes like the House of Miracles and Mansion Messiah. At that time
music was still traditional gospel songs and hymns. But in these communal Jesus
houses, a new spontaneous musical movement was emerging. “People were
making up new songs all the time.” Guitars and these homegrown songs were
introduced. The new church music, which was simple, melodic, heavily reliant
upon scripture for its lyrics was key to attraction. It was worship marked by
simplicity and informality.
An example is the song “Seek ye first.” This song was written by Karen Lafferty, a
musician who left her lucrative job singing at diners to serve God. As she
struggled
financially, she went home after a bible study and applied a tune to
the words of Matthew 6:33. This song became a major hit at Calvary Chapel and
spread to Jesus people homes, coffee houses, fellowships, all across the country.
By mid 1970s, it had come to mainstream evangelical congregations.
Christian Recording Industry
Grassroots musicians evolved into professional songwriters and worship leaders
and this saw the beginning of the Christian recording industry.
For example: Maranatha Music emerged out of Calvary Chapel and HosannaIntegrity music under Don Moen featuring songs like:
Give thanks (Don Moen) 1986; and Forever Grateful (Martin Nystrom) 1988.
Vineyard: United States (early 1980s)
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Ken Gulliksen planted the first Vineyard church in 1975 in Hollywood. John
Wimber was the most famous name. Worship in the Vineyard emphasized
simplicity and intimacy with God. Twenty-five years later, there are more than
1,500 Vineyard churches worldwide, 550 in the US. Vineyard introduced songs
such as, “Come now is the time to worship”, “Spirit Song” (John Wimber),
Change my heart O Lord.
UK: Graham Kendrick, Worship Together
Across the pond in the U.K. churches were embracing the music of Graham
Kendrick’s recordings. Kendrick, the author of songs such as “Shine, Jesus Shine,”
“Meekness and Majesty”, “The Servant King,” paved the way for other U.K.
worship ministries. The entire Worship Together family of albums and artists; the
music of Delirious, Passion, Matt Redman and many others all originate in the
wake of Kendrick’s influence.
Australia: Hillsongs
Travel round the world and you will congregations singing, “Shout to the Lord”
and “Mighty to Save” all songs written and recorded by Hillsong Australia.
Hillsong began with 100 people meeting in a school hall and has grown to
25,000 worshippers across four campus locations and twelve extension services.
As a network, Hillsong brand churches are found in London, Kiev, Cape Town,
Stockholm, Paris, Moscow, NY city and Konstanz Germany. In music, Since 1988,
Hillsong has recorded more than 60 albums, including live worship and kids and
youth CDs. They have been distributed in 80 countries and collected more than
30 gold and platinum awards in Australia and the US.
3. Move # 2: 2000: Diversity and Authenticity.
There was a move away from the “big worship” to embrace simplicity,
authenticity, theological soundness in worship.

Six steps (Matt Redman, Chris Tomlin)
“We are a small family of artists longing to bring to God an offering that reflects
His wonders and glory to the world. We are convinced that worship is much
more than music. Worship is all of life. Yet in our music we want to bring all the
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creative energy God has deposited within us to the table, not so that people will
talk about us but they will see Him more clearly and worship in vibrant color.”

Writing Modern Hymns (Stuart Townend, Keith and Krystin Getty) and
reworking hymns: Chris Tomlin, Michael W. Smith.

Culturally Appropriate worship songs: Cultures around the world also have
begun to embrace their own cultural music, dance and poetry as valid
expressions of worship. New sounds in worship and relevant local texts in
different languages are being created as we speak.
B. Uniting Dynamics
At this juncture let me suggest four elements that emerge as uniting dynamics.
1. CCM Worship enabled simple expression and unlocked hearts.
It was a musical style that connected with people easily, with the use of simple
pop-styled songs. The genre of pop music was a softer alternative to rock music
and borrowed elements from other styles such as the sentimental ballad, vocal
harmonies from soul and gospel, tempo from dance music, backing from
electronic music, instrumentation from rock and country music and orchestration
from classical music. The music structure is: verse-chorus-bridge with repeated
choruses and the focus is on melodies and catchy hooks. The goal of popular
music was for pleasure (bubble gum music) rather than artistry. It is also
commercially recorded and marketed. (Examples of pop artistes are Osmonds
aimed at preteens, country pop singers like John Denver, and adult
contemporary pop music stars like Barbara Streisand, Neil Diamond.) The one
advantage of popular music was that it was able to express the range of human
experience such as “I can’t help falling in love”, being “on top of the world,” or
“country road, take me home, to the place I belong.”
David Garratt explains, “We simply wanted songs directed to God…We also
wanted to present the songs in a style and language that would appeal to the
ordinary person.” Dave Garratt (Scripture in Song)
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Darlene Zschech says this of Shout to the Lord: It's “just a song that is easy for
people to sing and the words reflect many people's thoughts. It's easy for
people to identify with.”
2. CCM enabled honest and authentic expression.
For the youth: Bands like Delirious, Soul Survivors and Joel Houston created
strong rock-type songs that echoed the music of the youth. Instruments from
rock bands are retained: electric bass, rhythm, lead guitars, drums and
percussion kit. They strive away from consumerism towards authenticity. This is
represented in the slight “rawness” of sound, intensity of performance, dressing
that is informal (T-shirts, hair style), and lyrics that were honest. U2 is another
example of Christian performance rock music that was decidedly Christian.
Dealing with issues of theodicy: Worship songs in CWM also recognizes earthly
realities and deals with issues of theodicy, suffering. Blessed be Your Name is
such an example. Written in response to 9/11 disaster, the Beth and Matt
Redman address the issue of suffering, walking through the wilderness, when
the world’s not all “as it should be”, a road marked with suffering. This song
theologizes about a God “who gives and takes away” and our response to the
grief’s and heartaches that we face in this broken world with its broken realities.
This interestingly counters the falsity of the “name it and claim it” beliefs and
prosperity theology.
These honest musical expressions enable empathetic relationships to be
cultivated by listeners and enhance a common shared experience.
3. The emergence of praise as a constitutive act
Walter Brueggemann posits that praise (in the book of Psalms) is not merely a
responsive act but is a constitutive one and what is being constituted is a
theological reality. Brueggemann elaborates that the two primary activities that
take place here, are that the forces of ‘world-creating’ and ‘world-destroying’:
the creation of God’s reality where God is sovereign and the destruction of the
lies and fallacy that debunk that Truth.
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Tanya Riches, a worship leader and writer from Hillsong explains, “When we
begin with a shout of praise, we really felt that it effected a change … a
transformation in the atmosphere. In Darlene’s (Zchesch) language, “praise
opens people’s hearts to worship and intimacy. The power of that was a reality
more than anything else I knew”.
In this aspect, text is important. For example, one the one hand, the low text
load of simple praise choruses together with their singability enables
memorization and ultimately internalization.
On the other hand, the high text load of some worship songs and contemporary
hymns allow for theologizing of deep truths and sustained teaching. Verses
allow for expansion of doctrine or teaching of theological truth, introducing and
bringing to a mature conclusion.
Tanya Riches adds, “Songs were personal narratives and performed. As I
performed it, the narrative becomes my story and could be appropriated. For
example Michelle Fragar’s song, “You calm my restlessness”. “After singing that
song, I could explain what God had done”.
What then are some theological themes that emerge and the subsequent
theological realities constituted? The following are three dominant theological
themes from the top 10 songs used in worship over the last ten years (taken
from CCLI over the last ten years ):
a. Sovereignty and Kingship of God.
In “How Great is Our God” there is strong descriptive praise of God who
is King, clothed in majesty and who is sovereign even over darkness. The
illumination of the nature of God expounded in these verses enable the
worshipper to internalize these truths and respond to that.
“Shout to the Lord” has similar themes with the chorus calling for
worshippers to shout to the Lord, power and majesty, praise to the King.
The use of merism – (using two contrasting concepts: high and low)
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Mountains bowing down, seas roaring is indicative of the overarching
extent of God’s greatness. Psalm 95. This theological reality is so
appropriate in a world where brokenness abounds, where senseless
deaths are reported, where wars abound and where injustice dominates.
b. God is personal.
There is a move from the “us” to the “I”: The genius of “Shout To the
Lord” is that while God is sovereign and all-powerful, God is still very
personal and immanent. The verse starts off softly with a personal
declaration, “My Jesus, my savior, Lord there is none like thee, My
Comfort, my shelter” speaks of a Jesus who is immanent and who
intervenes on our behalf and protects us.
“How Deep the Father’s Love for me” also has this personal, intimate
touch that the Father loves His people so much He sent Jesus to die on
the cross. Most poignantly, these deep truths are sung, “It was my sin that
held him there, Until it was accomplished, His dying breath has brought
me life, I know that it is finished”. Such well crafted words that speak of
the deep and personal love of God that can touch the very core of a
person’s being
c. Centrality of the work of Jesus Christ
The work of Jesus Christ described in brief (Lord, I lift your name on high)
or in detail (In Christ Alone), is reminiscent of the hymn in Philippians 2.
The centrality of the work of Jesus, salvation, redemption, sanctification is
sung.
These are some theological truths are proclaimed, affirmed and reinforced.
Getty describes his philosophy as he writes modern hymns. “It's not converting
people to a hymn but confirming them to rich theological truth. That affects
music, art and everything beyond it.”
4. The expectation of transcendental efficacy.
Songs are sung to effect change. In other words, God by the power of the Holy
Spirit is present to transform during the event of worship. Upon analyzing
Hillsong texts, Riches identifies seven theological themes of transcendental
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efficacies: Personal Development, Supernatural Empowerment, Revival,
Prosperity, evangelism, presence in suffering, social transformation.
In terms of trends she notes:

The first four themes common with Pentecostalism (Personal
Development, Supernatural Empowerment, Revival, and Prosperity),
decreased in frequency despite the increase in published songs.

Following intense media criticism against ‘prosperity’ theology or ‘blab it
and grab it’ religion, the theme of prosperity has disappeared from
Hillsong’s text in recent years.

The category of Evangelism however, remained consistent.

God’s presence in Human Suffering, which some Catholic theologians
criticized as absent in contemporary gospel music, is seen to burgeon
during the third phase.

Social Transformation emerges in the fourth phase. The changes above
illustrate Hillsong’s responsiveness over time to the sensibilities of an
increasingly wide audience.
C. The Tensions Within
There are also underlying tensions within the CWM movement.
1. Authenticity vs. performance commercialism
The beginnings of CCM, as evidenced in the Jesus movement, were marked not
only by the simplicity of worship songs but by a return to a simple lifestyle and
authentic communities. However, with the rise of performance bands and
commercialism, the criticism of CWM is that the worship and music can be
formulaic, focuses on the multisensory and emphasizes ambience (not presence).
This tension between authenticity and commercialism is aptly described by
Barnett, a worship leader and composer (Holy and Anointed One) from Vineyard
says:
“I’ve never fit into the polished, worship-leader mold … There’s a tension when it
comes to writing music without pretention, yet wondering if I should be
attempting to create hook-y songs for the radio. The result is always the same: I
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can’t pretend to be anyone other than what I am, and this is the music God’s
led me to create.”
2. Being personal with God or being focused on the self. (I)
Lester Ruth makes this astute comment: “many worship songs are more about
us than about God. We praise God for making us feel good and impress on God
how much we are singing, clapping, lifting our hands or bowing down.”
(Lester Ruth, Asbury Theological Seminary)
3. An unbalanced diet leads to shallow Christianity.
Exclusive use of choruses tends to produce a people who have the same depth
and spirituality as the music they sing. “The result is a faith, which lacks depth, is
simplistic, pleasure oriented, emotionalistic, intellectually weak, undisciplined and
prone to the changeability of feelings. The end result of nothing else but chorus
singing is immaturity.” (Calvin Johansson in Webber: 201)
A Way Forward:
In light of the above, let me propose a way forward. I want to work with
Constance Cherry’s suggestion of convergence worship in her book “The
Worship Architect.” I have however one addition to her suggestion.
For Cherry, convergence worship embraces the fullness of worship practices. It
incorporates:
(a) The contemporary: it values the fresh expression of worship elements
appropriate for every age.
(b) The historical: it incorporates the richness of worship practices throughout
centuries and across denominations. This includes all the elements: prayer forms,
scripture reading, sacraments, sermon, Christian fellowship, offering, observing
Christian year.
I wish to however add a third sector and that is:
c) The cultural: This draws from and affirms a community’s cultural and
contextual forms of expression. Cultural music as forms of expression include the
celtic influence in the music of Keith and Krystin Getty (In Christ Alone), the use
of dance and song accompanied by the pulsating rhythms African drumming,
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the use of Mongolian folk music and instruments in worship, or the Chinese
pentatonic scale in Chinese worship songs.
When the historical, contextual and contemporary combine, the possibility for
the engagement of the worshipers with the presence of God is enhanced.
Furthermore, meaningful intersections between these three areas will bring
churches and denominations together in a rich celebration of unity in diversity.
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