Why I Left the Contemporary Christian Music Movement


Book Description

For many churches today, music has become one of the most important factors in attempting to reach unbelievers with the gospel. Writing from his own personal experience as a former worship leader, Dan Lucarini questions the use of contemporary music in the worship of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.




Apostles of Rock


Book Description

Apostles of Rock is the first objective, comprehensive examination of the contemporary Christian music phenomenon. Some see CCM performers as ministers or musical missionaries, while others define them as entertainers or artists. This popular musical movement clearly evokes a variety of responses concerning the relationship between Christ and culture. The resulting tensions have splintered the genre and given rise to misunderstanding, conflict, and an obsessive focus on self-examination. As Christian stars Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, DC Talk, and Sixpence None the Richer climb the mainstream charts, Jay Howard and John Streck talk about CCM as an important movement and show how this musical genre relates to a larger popular culture. They map the world of CCM by bringing together the perspectives of the people who perform, study, market, and listen to this music. By examining CCM lyrics, interviews, performances, web sites, and chat rooms, Howard and Streck uncover the religious and aesthetic tensions within the CCM community. Ultimately, the conflict centered around Christian music reflects the modern religious community's understanding of evangelicalism and the community's complex relationship with American popular culture.




The Billboard Guide to Contemporary Christian Music


Book Description

Chronicling the amazing rise of this genre from its gospel roots to today's diverse musical sound, this guide offers a complete capsule encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian artists as well as an introduction to the music form. 40 illustrations.




Contemporary Christian Song Collection


Book Description

This collection gathers the best in contemporary Christian music from the 2000s and 2010s, including songs by Billboard-charting and GRAMMY(R) Award-winning artists like Amy Grant, Laura Story, and Steven Curtis Chapman, as well as current hits from Casting Crowns, Newsboys, TobyMac, and more. All arrangements include full lyrics and guitar chords for added versatility. Titles: All the People Said Amen (Matt Maher) * All You've Ever Wanted (Casting Crowns) * Back to You (Mandisa) * Better Than a Hallelujah (Amy Grant) * Blessings (Laura Story) * Cinderella (Steven Curtis Chapman) * City on Our Knees (TobyMac) * Courageous (Casting Crowns) * East to West (Casting Crowns) * Glorious Day (Living He Loved Me) (Casting Crowns) * God Is on the Move (7eventh Time Down) * Greater (MercyMe) * How He Loves (David Crowder Band) * I Am (Crowder) * I Can Only Imagine (MercyMe) * Jesus Loves Me (Chris Tomlin) * Just Be Held (Casting Crowns) * Like a Lion (God's Not Dead) (Newsboys) * Made New (Lincoln Brewster) * More of You (Colton Dixon) * Need You Now (How Many Times) (Plumb) * Overcomer (Mandisa) * Overwhelmed (Big Daddy Weave) * Redeemed (Big Daddy Weave) * Shake (MercyMe) * Speak Life (TobyMac) * Start a Fire (Unspoken) * Stronger (Mandisa) * Tell Your Heart to Beat Again (Danny Gokey) * Touch the Sky (Hillsong UNITED) * Waiting for Tomorrow (Mandisa) * You Amaze Us (Selah) * Your Great Name (Natalie Grant) * Your Love Awakens Me (Phil Wickham).




Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music


Book Description

These essays provide bandmember lists, complete discographies, lists of awards, artist-website addresses, biographies of the artists, and reviews of their work."--BOOK JACKET.




The Best Praise & Worship Songs Ever (Songbook)


Book Description

(Easy Piano Songbook). The name says it all: over 70 of the best P&W songs today. Titles include: Awesome God * Blessed Be Your Name * Come, Now Is the Time to Worship * Days of Elijah * Here I Am to Worship * Open the Eyes of My Heart * Shout to the Lord * We Fall Down * and more.




Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music


Book Description

The first comprehensive overview of contemporary inspirational music, covering its historical roots and dramatic growth into one of America's most vital music genres. The Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music: Pop, Rock, and Worship is the first comprehensive reference work on a form of American music that is far more popular than nonfans may realize. It fills a major gap in the literature on American music and Christian culture, looking at this increasingly popular genre in the context of the overall history of religious music in the United States. With over 200 entries, The Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music covers important performers and industry figures, songs and albums, concerts and festivals, the rise of Christian radio and television, and other issues related to the growth of inspirational music. Scholars and fans alike will find a wealth of revealing information and insightful coverage illustrating the influence of gospel on modern American music with musicians such as Elvis, Sam Cooke, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, and U2.The work also examines the use of fundamental rock, pop, and rap music templates in the service of songs of faith.




Modern Worship Hits


Book Description

This book contains 30 easy piano arrangements of Contemporary Christian songs, including selections by Hillsong United, Kari Jobe, Matt Redman, Chris Tomlin, and many others. The arrangements, by leading Christian music arranger Carol Tornquist, sound great both as piano solos and for sing-alongs. Lyrics, chord symbols, and helpful fingerings are included. Titles: 10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord) * At the Cross (Love Ran Red) * Back to You * Beautiful * Broken Vessels (Amazing Grace) * Come As You Are * Cornerstone * Forever * Greater * He Knows My Name * I Am Not Alone * It Is Well * Jesus Loves Me * King of My Heart * Lord, I Need You * Made New * More of You * Multiplied * My Heart Is Yours * Oceans (Where Feet May Fail) * Open Up the Heavens * Overwhelmed * Something in the Water * Start a Fire * This I Believe (The Creed) * This Is Amazing Grace * We Believe * Whom Shall I Fear (God of Angel Armies) * You Amaze Us * You Make Me Brave. 112 pages.




Singing the Congregation


Book Description

Contemporary worship music shapes the way evangelical Christians understand worship itself. Author Monique M. Ingalls argues that participatory worship music performances have brought into being new religious social constellations, or "modes of congregating". Through exploration of five of these modes--concert, conference, church, public, and networked congregations--Singing the Congregation reinvigorates the analytic categories of "congregation" and "congregational music." Drawing from theoretical models in ethnomusicology and congregational studies, Singing the Congregation reconceives the congregation as a fluid, contingent social constellation that is actively performed into being through communal practice--in this case, the musically-structured participatory activity known as "worship." "Congregational music-making" is thereby recast as a practice capable of weaving together a religious community both inside and outside local institutional churches. Congregational music-making is not only a means of expressing local concerns and constituting the local religious community; it is also a powerful way to identify with far-flung individuals, institutions, and networks that comprise this global religious community. The interactions among the congregations reveal widespread conflicts over religious authority, carrying far-ranging implications for how evangelicals position themselves relative to other groups in North America and beyond.




Measuring the Music: Another Look at the Contemporary Christian Music Debate


Book Description

Though the acceptance of popular culture (and in the case of music, pop music) within the Christian church is now an established fact, its very normality across the face of virtually every variety of Christian theological persuasion is telling. In a climate of extreme multi-culturalism, pluralism, and relativism satiated with the notion that music is value-neutral and worldview-free, church music has been cut off from history, tradition, theology, aesthetic norms, and ultimately the Word. The result has been a breakdown of church music standards along with a collateral weakening in other areas of life as well.