CONTEMPORARY CHRISTIAN MUSIC

WHERE DID IT COME FROM?

The principle of using current popular music forms in Christian music is centuries old, but it had largely fallen into disuse in the first half of the Twentieth Century.

The Way it Was
Evangelical churches usually had an organ, a piano, a choir and sometimes a few soloists with just enough classical training to be dangerous.

The music consisted mostly of old hymns, anthems, religious art songs and gospel songs in the quaint archaic styles of the 19th Century.

Some Bible Belt churches used Southern Gospel or Country Gospel music along with some simple congregational choruses, while black congregations enjoyed their own unique musical styles.

Bible teaching radio broadcasts presented male quartets that sang all four verses of these hymns and outdated gospel songs in incessant simplistic four-part harmony.

Certain instruments were considered worldly and were not welcome in church, especially saxophones, and drums were definitely of the devil. There was little there that people not raised in church tradition could relate to.

New Beginnings
By the early 1950’s a few Christian musicians began to experiment with a radical concept, that of trying to communicate the gospel again in musical styles the unchurched could identify with.

John W. Peterson was writing gospel songs with modern harmonies, and an innovative young Bible college student named Ralph Carmichael rattled academic officials by setting hymns to big band jazz.  In 1964 a Salvation Army group called “Joy Strings” introduced Christian folk music, and some brave Catholics created the “folk mass.” Ralph Carmichael went on to become the pace setter in what came to be called Contemporary Christian Music.

Many early efforts were opposed by the church, but gradually there was some progress. The first significant Christian music recordings were made and the tamest of these began to get played on Christian stations.

Catching On
By the early 60’s the atmosphere was changing, and some very high quality music was being done. At first it was accompanied mostly by strings, then acoustic guitars sneaked in, still with no drums.

The term “Contemporary Christian Music” was coined in the 60s to define what was being done.

The big breakthrough came with the dawn of the Jesus Movement, when a new generation of young people was swept into the church in a great move of the Holy Spirit, bringing their music with them.

We were privileged to be among the pioneers of this genre, bridging from the pre-CCM times into Jesus Music and beyond into the Contemporary Praise and Worship Movement.

Our intention in these blog posts is to encourage a wonderful younger generation who have the opportunity of taking music to greater heights of ministry than we’ve done. We hope you’ll receive us as elders, as we pass on some things we’ve learned—even some things we’ve learned by doing them wrong.

Where Are We Now?
All this has led us to (and we believe almost through) the current Praise and Worship Movement.

We’ve had a wonderful time, but as in every new movement, the purity of its beginnings has eventually become contaminated, as was its predecessor the CCM movement, with Show Biz trappings and excesses and idolization of its pop stars.

There is still some good stuff going on, but we believe the “movement” at large is in danger of imploding and in need of revival.

And revival may not be what we expect. In fact it can be messy. In the sage words of Winkie Pratney, who has made a life study of revival, “Revival is when the Holy Spirit comes and takes names and kicks butt.”

Where Next?
We don’t know. Historically, the general cycle has been:
Revival gives birth to
New practices, which in time fall into
Familiarity, which breeds
Apathy, which results in
Atrophy, which leads to
Devolution, which becomes
Dissolution, out of which grows
Dissatisfaction, which sinks into
Desperation, which hopefully causes
Repentance, which produces
Revival, which gives birth to
New practices, which in time fall into
(You get the picture . . .)

But the Holy Spirit is infinitely creative. He may never do it the same way twice. Same principles. Different methods. Be watchful. Seek him and let him use you.

Dig In!
Don’t just check out our current post. We invite you to surf through our stack of over 120 articles for Songwriters, as well as as many each for Pray-ers and just plain Christian livers!