I've been the music & arts pastor for Cedar Hills Church in Sandpoint, ID for 5+ years now. One of the biggest challenges I've faced is finding good resources for music. Many of the typical "worship" music sites are filled with great music, but a lot of it (the popular stuff) is sort of encrypted in a Christian code using terms and metaphors that are not readily identifiable to the average person who may happen into our gatherings. We have made a choice that our gatherings should be understandable to most everyone, regardless of their past experience. Whether they resonate with it or not is God's job, but we feel we have a responsibility to present the good news of Christ's love in a way that is at least comprehensible if not compelling.
So here's a list of artists that we cover pretty consistently. We may only do one or two songs by some of these artists, but we've resonated with their music to some level.
- Delirious
- Matt Redman
- Ryan Townsend (this guy has yet to relttsease a "worship" music album, but I'm lucky enough to get a copy of pretty much everything he records, so we get a lot of great music there. Email him if you're interested in hearing it.)
- Soul Survivor USA (this is one project that Ryan was heavily involved with, which didn't get the distribution that it could have, I think because the powers that be felt that it wasn't up the alley of the mainstream "worship" music crowd. It's my favorite "worship" record and I think the most underrated.)
- Justin Fox(this guy is an independent artist based out of orange county in southern california. his music is fun, heartfelt and his live show is engaging and uplifting. he's a christian artist who gives christian artists a good name.)
- Tim Hughes
- Sanctus Real
- Starfield
- U2
Please reply with music that your church covers and enjoys, especially if it's stuff that isn't in the latest
worshipmusic.com newsletter.
