Contemporary worship music has grown into a big business—CD sales, downloads, merchandise, and high-ticket concerts where celebrity worship leaders draw crowds like pop stars.

I recently wrote about decisions regarding what songs we should sing. I originally focused on decisions about lyrics but then was asked about how we respond to questionable sources, what do we do if the song comes from a writer/church with an iffy theology. That’s an important question.

However, the issue goes deeper. As I noted in my previous article, we need to think about the overall culture of contemporary worship music. Specifically, globally, contemporary worship has become a multi-million-dollar business with sales of CDs and nowadays downloads, not to mention lots of other merch. Then there are the concerts and the conferences, sometimes with special, higher priced “VIP tickets” given you greater access to celebrity worship leaders. The Christian music industry has also long mirrored the secular world with its charts based on sales and plays. Christian events and festivals are promoted based on who the headline acts (sorry, worship leaders, will be).

I might also observe that there is a tendency too to measure spiritual health based on the popularity of music. So, following this year’s Big Church Festival, several of those who performed there were quick to talk about the numbers and their enthusiasm as evidence of revival here in the UK.

Read More