Quality Christian Music

I'm looking for some quality Christian worship music to listen to, the Contemporary Christian music scene just have very shallow music and lyrics, and I'm missing the days of music that Keith Green produced. Thanks for your suggestions, blessings!

Hi Doug and All,

ESTHER MUI sings pure scripture and has put many
Psalms to music. May I suggest "Isaiah 53 - By His Stripes."

AARON KEYES has also put much scripture to music.
His CD "DWELL - the Living Room" edition is really good.

LAUREN DAIGLE has depth to her songs.

BOB CULL has written much worship songs out of
experiential knowledge.

Everyone has their favorites, I'm sure :)

Mary

Doug: I am not in any way trying to be trite with this comment, but why don't you just listen to Keith Green.

I too grew up in the 80's and was ministered to in a powerful way by the uncompromising lyric of people like Keith Green, Petra, Degarmo and Key, Steve Camp, etc.. I agree that it is hard to find a lot of CCM today that has the same hard hitting lyric. There is some. I listen to LeCrae and Tedashi when I am in a mood for it. Crowder is almost always good as is Jeremy Camp. I listen to a lot of worship music. Occasionally into southern gospel. That was my roots growing up. My Grandfather grew up with Albert Brumley's boys and played that style music in the hills just south of my home. Still have a lot of Delirious? on my phone. But it seems my go-to music is still that music from the 80's. My wife sometimes teases me good-naturedly about it.

I do a lot of song based listening. Maybe one song has powerful lyric and really ministers to me. I will listen to that song and it may be the only one that I listen to from that artist.

John Fischer (his album Naphtali is great), Dallas Holm, Phil Keaggy, Matthew Ward, Love Song, Mustard Seed Faith, pretty much anything from the Jesus Music era. (And Keith Green of course!) A lot of CCM nowadays is so flat and lifeless, in my opinion.
For worship music, I think anything Times Square Church puts out is stellar; also I like Robin Mark.
I like some christian rap too, but TRUCE is my favourite (the group Nicky Cruz put together). Also The Cross Movement.

Hi Brother Travis,

I have been listening to Keith Green since 1987 when I was first introduced to his music and ministry. As a musician I have alot of different musical tastes so I have been trying to find that blend of quality Christian music with words based in truth and Scripture that points to the Word and not the flesh.

Thank you for the replies to this thread, I'm looking forward to listening to the new music. Never heard of some of them.

I wanted to share some music I listen to from a couple at the college I attended in Upstate New York who lead a weekly time or worship and prayer.

http://www.pilgrimsongs.us/home

Paul Baloche

Anything by Tommy Walker is absolutely wonderful, he ministers a lot overseas.

Robin Mark's "Revival in Belfast" will always be one of my favorites

Dennis Jernigan
Marty Goetz

Exactly what style of music are you looking for?

It is very hard to recommend music when you know the lifestyle of some of the singers. So many who were in it professionally pursued sinful lifestyles....e.g. Charlie Louvin sang about the pitfalls of alcoholism but was an alcoholic and died a death in which alcohol was present; was an abuser, violent man. I love the Louvin Brothers' religious music but why, oh why, did Charlie have to go off the rails like he did?

Still, what kind of music are you looking for?

Sandra

Hi Sandra
I have a different stand point on music,music to me is nuetral when it comes to Christianity.Im not talking about Lyrics just the music.I produce some Christian music as a hobby but inspired by God I believe.I can use the same tune or series of notes to make something Godly or something Ghastly,I can add beautiful words that revere God or I can add words that tickle the ears of the world.
My opinion on Christian Music if I am being honest and not wanting to hurt anybodies feelings are that its mostly badly produced and has alot of poor musical melody.
We have a serious issue when it comes to Christian Music an issue which I find it hard to verbalize.
Are the songs we are making for the Church to hear or for the world?or for both?
The way I see it is that we are currently in a phase of making worldly music for the church thinking wrongly that it will attract the world.We are having an identity Crisis,
Yours staff

Staff-

Are you saying that the popular worship music in churches today is essentially pop music with Christian lyrics?

I would certainly agree if that is what you mean but I am not sure if/why you find that objectionable.

If it's not hymns, the only option would seem to be pop or ballad type melodies.

As an aside, I have toyed with the idea of changing some of the lyrics to the song "close to you" by the Carpenters to make it a worship song. Not sure if that would be sacrilegious or not.

Hi TMK,
More or less yes but poor quality pop/modern music.
Ok my objection is the intent behind making of the music.
We think that it will in some way make us attractive to the world.Im not talking about Sunday Morning Worship,im talking about Christian music you hear on Christian radio stations.
The production is of high quality but the songs are so poor,instantly forgetable because its just an imitation product.We think that this music has some evangelical properties but it doesnt its just bland,bland,bland.
I think music is nuetral for the most part so if you had never heard the music of "close to you" before that music could become a worship song but because we have heard it before it wouldnt work due to the baggage it brings.
I have a saying :
We are making Worldly music for the Church,
I want to make Church music for the World,
We are the group of people who say we have a hotline to heaven but our music for the most part doesnt reflect that.
Yours staff

Does anyone know any information about Jason Bellard? His music has strong good messages, but it be good to know what he believes etc

Thanks

In the 80’S and 90’s Hosanna Inegrity put out some wonderful praise and worship music. Many of the songs from the Word.

Don Moen, Kent Henry, Lenny LeBlanc, Paul Baloche, and Paul Wilbur were some of my favorites. Dallas Holm travelled with David Wilkerson in the 70’s.

staff,

I reckon I am not sure I know what you are looking for. I know what I like - I like for it to be beautiful to the ears, not noise like another poster said. I also like it to be something that invites singing along which is why I appreciate acapella music with four part harmony. I cannot stand 4-11 songs - 4 words repeated 11 times. I think this is an insult to ones intelligence.

Anyhow - do not want to open a can of worms here because music is a topic that seems to invite controversy. But would like to know exactly what you consider good music. If you want to know what I think is really good music is just go to a conservative Mennonite church when they have a hymn sing and listen to it. Now that is what I love - everyone singing to their hearts content - and so what if someone is singing off-key?! They are singing to the LORD and in the meantime the lyrics are becoming in-bedded in the subconsciousness mind that will come back to minister to the soul and spirit in times of need.

Sandra

Hi
We have at least two different types of music in the Church that I can see
Church Worship music
A:Hymnal which could have a modern take with consistantly strong content.Some of the famous hymns are well known by Christian and Non Christian alike,The really Great ones have a great message and great musical melody.
B; Modern Worship Music which at its best like Hillsongs Where Feet May Fail are great but although they top Christian Charts have no effect on the regular charts(non Christians dont hear them)At their worst they are neither fit for the Church or the World(they have a conflicted target audience,they dont know what they are about)and some of them might have poor theology.
I like the good modern worship music and the famous hymns from the past whether they have a modern take or not.
As Greg said their are 1600 mp3s added to SI to listen too which is a valuable resource to say the least.

Going forward I think we need modern music with a great message that is listened too by the world.That seems like an amazing tall order!Their are a couple of steps we need to take if we want our songs to be evangelical or spread truth to the world.
1:The Music has to be great(it will be great if it is inspired by God)like it was in the old testament Temple
2;The message of any such song should not try to cover every theological truth in the bible but just chip away with one truth.
For instance the truth could be in "one second I could be dead" which makes people think what happens after death or it could be "about the end of the world" etc

A song I can think of with what I am talking about are "You got the love" which had these words
When food is gone you are my daily meal, oh
When friends are gone I know my savior's love is real
This song charted high up as I remember and gets regular airplay on non Christian radio stations etc

Its this third type of music that will have an effect on the world that has the great music and simple message that is an arrow to the heart.
We have so many disadvantages when it comes to producing world beating Christian music;the world has more quality musicians,songwriters,producers and singers than we.The world can sing about ear tickling subjects etc.
We however have one resource that is a game changer when it comes to quality music and lyrics and that is the Holy Spirit.When we can tune into what God wants to say then we will get a message through our songs to the world,
Yours Staff