Here are 8 great worship artists beyond Hillsong, Bethel, and Elevation

Musical gifts abound in the body of Christ, and they’re not relegated to the loudest or flashiest body parts.

In my last Substack, I argued that it was time for churches to stop singing Hillsong worship music. Given all we now know about the global enterprise — including the alleged coverup of sexual abuse, plus leaders’ financial impropriety and mistreatment of staff — I argue it now lacks integrity, and hampers Christian witness, for churches to financially support the Hillsong brand.

The Porter’s Gate. Image: ThePortersGate.com

But there are other reasons to branch out beyond Hillsong in church.

This spring, six researchers at the Worship Music Institute released a study showing the monopoly that just four megachurches have on the worship industry. The study, backed by a grant from the Calvin Institute for Christian Worship (insert fist pump for my alma mater), found that of 38 songs that made the Top 25 lists for CCLI and PraiseCharts, nearly 100 percent (36) came from just four churches Hillsong; Bethel Church; Passion City Church in Atlanta; and Elevation Church in North Carolina.

Christianity Today reported on the study, detailing how “Oceans,” “10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord),” “Reckless Love,” and “Way Maker” have made their way into thousands of churches the world over.

“If you have ever felt like most worship music sounds the same,” the study’s authors write, “it may be because the worship music you are most likely to hear in many churches is written by just a handful of songwriters from a handful of churches.”

Just four megachurches are shaping the theology and practices of churches across traditions and denominations. It’s the monopolization of contemporary worship.

Image: WorshipLeaderResearch.com

What’s Up with Bethel and Elevation?

I don’t know anything about Passion City Church in Atlanta, besides that it’s pastored by Louie and Shelley Giglio. But Bethel and Elevation are both familiar to me — not for glowing reasons. Bethel is a charismatic megachurch in Redding, California, and has stirred controversy for embracing some fringe neo-Pentecostal practices around physical healing, angels, and the appearance of gold dust and feathers during worship. Watchdog groups claim its leaders espouse biblically iffy if outright heretical teachings.

Bethel leaders aren’t afraid to endorse political leaders, even though the IRS bars pastors from endorsing candidates from the pulpit. (The question then becomes whether Facebook and other online forums count as digital pulpits.) Bethel senior pastor Bill Johnson publicly endorsed former President Trump in 2016 and 2020, claiming that he had “never seen a president who loved prayer as much as Donald Trump,” and that Trump’s “passion for godly counsel is also legendary.” Insert large-eye emoji. Johnson also called the 2020 election results fraud.

In 2020, Bethel musician turned political activist Sean Feucht also called the election fraudulent. Earlier that year, he and his entourage began holding public worship protests to defy cities’ COVID lockdown policies, despite warnings from public health officials. He was just trying to superspread the Spirit.

Former Hillsong pastor Brian Houston, Bethel Church worship leader Brian Johnson, Kari Jobe and husband Cody Carnes, Paula White, pop artist Britt Nicole, and Sean Feucht were all among the Christians who met and worshiped with Trump in December 2019. Feucht is the one touching the hem of Trump’s garment. A full list of attendees is here, courtesy of Andy Rowell.

According to Word & Way, “The COVID-restriction protest strategy worked. [Feucht’s] ministry’s revenue surged from less than $300,000 in 2019 to more than $5.3 million in 2020. Feucht bought two new homes worth a total of more than $2 million. Politics proved good business.”

So what about Elevation? Elevation is a megachurch in Charlotte, North Carolina, whose founding pastor is Steven Furtick. Like Bethel leaders, Furtick is a fixture on watchdog websites, accused of false teachings, especially for prosperity gospel theology and ties to the Word of Faith/New Apostolic Movement. (Here’s a decent summary of the concerns.) Furtick is also a fixture on Preachers and Sneakers, for doing things like wearing $1,000 Air Jordans from the church stage and building a 16,000-square-foot mansion close to the church. When Elevation Worship went on tour last year, a front-row seat in certain cities cost about $1,200, and Furtick himself is credited as a songwriter for Elevation Worship.

Creative homogeneity

When it comes to worship music from Bethel and Elevation, it’s not simply that church leaders have questionable practices around money and politics. It’s also that these leaders allegedly teach unsound doctrine. It’s hard to imagine that teaching staying firmly in the pastors’ sermons and books, without also shaping the worship music played before and after their sermons.

But even aside from doctrinal concerns (which are important!), I also wonder about the music that isn’t being created and sung because four megachurches have a monopoly on what most American Christians sing in church. CT has a great rundown of the financial side of this monopoly, but I’m thinking, too, about creative homogeneity. Musical gifts abound in the body of Christ, and they’re not relegated to the loudest or flashiest body parts. “Psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit” (Eph. 5:19) are meant to edify and encourage. It’s a core part of what Christians do together every Sunday. And there are plenty of talented singer-songwriters and performers with humble roots and without controversy for churches to choose from.

(A personal caveat: Most of my adult life, I have been in liturgical churches that almost exclusively feature traditional hymns. Even though I’ll grant there are a few contemporary bangers, I don’t believe we can improve upon the beauty and theological richness of songs like “O Sacred Head Now Wounded,” “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling,” “This Is My Father’s World,” and “At the Name of Jesus.” What I like about hymns, beyond their lyrical meatiness and corporate focus (more we’s than me’s), is that my individual emotional response isn’t the point. Whereas I think it’s safe to say that a lot of contemporary worship is designed to evoke a surge of emotion, and that the surge is deemed the metric of authentic communion with God, and I reject that metric.)

That caveat aside, I had help from some of you to highlight the following worship artists and groups creating music for use in congregations. I’m leaving out artists who are creating music for individual use or expression. These are songs meant for Christians to sing together.

Here are 8 great worship artists besides Hillsong, Bethel, and Elevation to choose from.

#1 The Porter’s Gate

The Porter’s Gate is a “sacred ecumenical arts collective” founded by Isaac and Megan Wardell in 2017 to serve as porters, or people who offer beacons of life to people inside and outside the church. They have partnered with musicians and songwriters such as Sara Groves, Jon Guerra, Josh Garrels, Urban Doxology, and Audrey Assad. Their newest release is “Always With Me,” the first single on an album about mental health and faith, created in conjunction with Sanctuary Mental Health Ministries.

#2 Common Hymnal

Common Hymnal is a curated virtual library that spotlights artists working on the outskirts of institutional Christianity. Its mission is “to help Christ followers navigate these uncertain times and find a safe passage into the future by loading them up with forward-facing content from the spiritual underground.” Many of their songs feature praise and protest, in keeping with the Old Testament prophetic tradition. “The Kingdom Is Yours,” written by Grammy-winning artist Dee Wilson, honors the meek, peacemakers, and others whom Jesus praises in the Beatitudes.

#3 City Alight

City Alight is the music ministry of a church based in Sydney, Australia — not that one! — St. Paul’s Castle Hill. Started in 2013 by 15 parishioners at the Anglican church, City Alight aims to write songs that “declare the name of Jesus and promote theological truth,” bridge the gap between traditional hymns and contemporary music, and can be sung by small congregations. Their most popular song is the 2018 single “Yet Not I But Through Christ in Me,” which won a 2018 GMA Dove Aware for Inspirational Song of the Year.

#4 Maverick City

Maverick City launched in 2018 by Atlanta natives Tony Brown and Jonathan Jay to create space for creatives who are often sidelined in CCM, including black and women musicians. According to its website, “The sound that is vivaciously smacking you in the face the first time you hit play on a Maverick track isn’t the sound of a community that centered around their deprivation, it’s the audacious sound of true belonging: The beautiful harmony of a long-lost family.” They host online writing camps for aspiring songwriters, have recorded 10 albums and 100-plus songs, and have collaborated with Kirk Franklin, David Crowder, and Phil Wickham. (NOTE: Maverick City has also collaborated with Elevation Worship, and their recent albums are released on Elevation Worship Records, so this is fuzzy.)

#5 Anchor Hymns

Anchor Hymns launched last year as a “multigenerational collective of artists and musicians who are creating songs from a theological lens.” They draw from many genres, including neo-soul, indie rock, blues, jazz, and R&B, and cover many well-known worship songs as well as produce their own. Anchor Hymns has worked with CCM mainstays such as Sandra McCracken, Andrew Osenga, and Lucy Grimble, and recently released a second album, Give Thanks.

#6 Good Shepherd Music Collective

Good Shepherd Music Collective, spear-headed by David Gungor (The Brilliance) and Tyler Chester, draws from the musical talents of members at Good Shepherd Church, here in New York City, as well as nonlocal musicians, who together recorded virtually amid the pandemic. They create “liturgical art to inspire the Christian imagination; that we may embody the love of Christ for the good of our neighbors,” and have collaborated with Liz Vice, Propaganda, Jayne Sugg, Dee Wilson of Common Hymnal, and more. “The Medicine” is a song of lament and worship released in June 2020, at the onset of a global pandemic and protests after the murder of George Floyd.

#7 Shane and Shane

Shane and Shane — who are in fact not brothers, something I assumed for a long time, even though that makes no sense — are CCM staples Shane Barnard and Shane Everett. In recent years, the bearded, Texas-based college friends have redirected their songwriting toward equipping worship leaders with practical tools through the Worship Initiative. Their 2023 release, Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs (Live), mostly features traditional hymns but also two new songs, including “You’ve Already Won,” dedicated to Christians in Ukraine.

#8 Meek Squad

Meek Squad is the musical fruit of an intentional community in Durham, North Carolina, that seeks “a common life of friendship and mutuality amongst people with and without intellectual and developmental disabilities.” The band consists of three friends, Suvya Carroll, Sloan Meek, and Lee Anderson, who love to sing together. I don’t know how translatable the songs from their 2020 album, I Am For You: Songs of Prayer and Peace, are to congregational contexts, but their lyrics are on the website, and remind me of the simple power of Taizé.

This list is by no means exhaustive, so I’d please leave your recommendations in the comments! —KB