The Dirty Little Business of Christian Music

It’s not what it seems... it’s worse.

Have you ever wondered why most popular Christian worship music sounds the same?

That’s because 95% of it is produced by a few songwriters from just four churches. They’re cranking out these tunes like sugary treats from Willie Wonka’s Chocolate Factory... and making a fortune doing it.

The problem is that these “churches” use those profits to grow their doctrinally deficient ministries and attract more adherents to their false teachings. They count on these new “converts” being a source of even more revenue.

Over the last twelve years, the ‘Big Four”, consisting of Bethel, Elevation, Hillsong, and now Passion, have produced 23 out of 25 of the most popular “Christian” worship songs. Money from the royalties, concert tickets, streaming, and downloads goes to support these organizations that continually distort the word of God. It does not appear they are out to glorify God but to build profitable worldwide brands based on the ideas of man and not to fulfill the commands of Scripture.

Worship music is supposed to be about pleasing God… and should never be about pleasing man for his entertainment or to produce massive profits. Sadly, many of these “churches” who play this music think they’re praising God… while nothing could be further from the truth. Some of the worst of it may go so far as to unwittingly “call down” demonic spirits.

Authentic Biblical worship music aims to help prepare one’s heart to hear the word, to praise God for what He has done for us, and for scripture memorization.

Over the last several years, most popular Christian music has moved away from worshiping God to become a self-serving, manipulated, profit-making entertainment “experience”. Many of the most popular songs have been written to be mesmerizing, with rhythmic melodies that are hard to resist. Along with light shows and often effeminate male singers sporting skinny jeans and overly coiffed hair, much of this so-called worship music uses mindless, repetitive lyrics intended to generate a “spiritual experience” rather than glorifying God.

This performance-based “worship” music has become commonplace in many Christian churches. Many of these are the same “churches” that affirm environmentalism, social justice, same-sex marriages, transgenderism, abortion, and religious unity rather than biblical principles.

Sadly, many non-discerning church worship leaders say they don’t care if their church’s worship culture becomes like the ones exemplified by the “Big Four”. Others wish their churches were, at least sometimes, more like that culture... cool and popular. (Source)

What does coolness and popularity have to do with proper Biblical worship?

Nothing...

Worship is being replaced with entertainment in an increasing number of churches. Few of the currently popular Christian worship songs qualify as biblical worship. In fact, much of it becomes idolatry because it takes the focus off of God and places it on the performing artists.

Show Me the Money

Bethel Music is played on Christian radio stations around America, downloaded nationally and internationally via Spotify and iTunes, and streamed on YouTube. Bethel Music includes a record label, publishing company, and events department. They hold live events nationwide, which drew in approximately 125,000 participants last year, again per the church’s annual report. Bethel Music, along with Bethel TV, made up 38% of Bethel’s overall income, amounting to just over $23 million. According to Bethel, 234,000 churches sang Bethel Music songs during a recent twelve-month period. Since there are over 300,000 Christian churches in America... That’s almost 80% of them.

Eight years after its release, the Bethel Music song Lion and the Lamb remains among the top 30 contemporary worship songs sung in churches on any given Sunday. Each time churches sing Lion and the Lamb, it adds up financially... especially if the service is live-streamed. A portion of the rights and royalties for the song were sold at auction in 2020 as part of a $900,000 package to a private investor.

In fiscal year 2017/2018 (the last figures publicly available), Bethel Lutheran Church’s annual report showed almost $60.8 million in total income. And per its annual report, much of that income came from sales, services, and royalties rather than traditional tithes and offerings.

Bethel Music is known for its popular songs, This Is Amazing Grace, Lion and the Lamb, and We Will Not Be Shaken. Bethel is into the occult with Christian Tarot cards; mysticism with its gold dust practices; “little god theology” with their attempts to speak things into existence; a fraudulent School of Healing; and heresy with their grave soaking rituals. (Grave soaking involves laying on the grave of a departed “anointed person” to soak anointing from their remains.)

Add to that the fact that Bethel is constructing a $100 million “Apostolic Training Center” that partners with their heretical Supernatural School of Ministry designed to train the next generation of false teachers. It is set to open by early 2024. Bethel Music royalties will doubtless help pay for it.

Why on earth would any serious pastor or worship leader knowingly want to support that?

Elevation Worship is on tour this year with the very best seats in the house, with a pair of tickets costing $1052 plus tax (with no backstage pass). Parking can range from $40-$60 at some venues. Prosperity gospel teacher Steven Furtick will give a brief sermonette before each performance. After that, the Elevation “Worship” band will perform hits like Graves Into Gardens, RATTLE!, Do It Again, and The Blessing. As one writer put it... “While tickets can still be had for $34 up in the nosebleeds, many of them cost $100-200, and if you want closer seating to be nearer to the hem of Furtick’s garments, it’ll cost you.”

Last year, over 100,000 people packed nearly sold-out venues like the 17,500-person Kia Forum in Inglewood, California, and the 20,000-seat T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Furtick’s home in Waxhaw, North Carolina, is a 16,000-square-foot mansion with seven bedrooms, eight bathrooms, a private theater, a pool, several outbuildings, and an oversized garage. No one should expect pastors to live in poverty, but a $1.9 million estate?

Elevation has built an empire of over twenty campuses in the U.S. and Canada. Its version of the prosperity gospel teaches that God is like a genie in a bottle and that you can get what you want from Him by having enough faith.

Sadly, Pastor Furtick has apparently stopped preaching about sin, repentance, and Jesus Christ being our only hope for redemption in favor of something else.

Hillsong Music is produced by Hillsong Church in Sydney, Australia, and some of their spinoff churches, Hillsong London and Hillsong Kyiv. Their worship “experiences” resemble rock concerts rather than respectfully leading others in giving thanks to and honoring God. Two of their most popular tracks include Oceans and Forever Reign. Hillsong’s recent Christmas programs have featured disgustingly paganistic performances of Silent Night. Hillsong worship leaders and pastors are apparently profiting quite handsomely, with reports of some salaries and royalties as high as $1,900,000.00 yearly, not including tour bonuses or other honorariums.

Rocked by recent sex and money laundering scandals, Hillsong offers a grossly counterfeit version of Christianity.

Passion is a contemporary worship music band that is part of Passion Conferences and part of the Passion City megachurch in Atlanta, Georgia. The organization holds an annual conference popular with both millennials and college students. Pastor Louie Giglio promotes a Word of Faith heresy known as little-god theology... that all human beings are inherently divine. The Passion Conference has regularly booked other false teachers like Francis Chan, a charismatic false teacher who is into mysticism; Hillsong’s Christine Caine; Jackie Hill Perry, and John Crowder, whose teachings include how to operate in trances, mysticism, signs, and wonders.

As one blogger puts it, the Passion City Conference is “an ecumenical gathering of some of the worst heretics and false teachers who have ever been associated with the body of Christ.”

Those who don’t have a problem with music from these organizations say that “we aren’t paying them any royalties” or “we pick and choose only the good stuff” are ignoring the fact that they are opening a door by allowing their congregation to think that all Hillsong, Bethel, Elevation, or Passion music and teaching is somehow acceptable. Nothing is further from the truth. Sadly, their church members will see other tracks and think it is okay to listen to them. The same goes for their books, workshops, YouTube channels, and the rest of it.... particularly Bethel.

Is 100% of the music coming out of these four so-called churches all bad?

Most, but not all, of these lyrics will pass a basic doctrinal smell test... and that’s intentional... Because they know that if it didn’t, most churches would not put it in their playlists.

But that’s the con...

Those who intend to deceive others often work first to develop trust. Con artists do this by falsely establishing credibility and reputation as honest individuals in the early stages of a relationship. The goal is to gain the confidence of their victims, so they will trust who they say they are and that their intentions are honest. Once that foundation of trust is well established, the con artist will strike.

The problem is that music is designed to draw people into the churches that produce this music. When congregants see the name of Bethel Music, Elevation, Hillsong, and Passion music with that, they might think, “I’ll check them out; they must be okay as we’re singing their music”. The truth is that they use their music as a magnet to attract unsuspecting people into their web. These four churches have conferences, albums, and concerts to happily help the spiritually vulnerable part with their money.

By playing the music of these Big Four organizations, non-discerning church leaders are unwittingly opening doorways of deception into the hearts and minds of their congregations. How can any pastor or worship leader still play this music with all that is known about these organizations? How can they be so blind to what is happening around them?

If your church still plays this music, it is likely run by hirelings, not shepherds...

“I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. 12 He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf snatches them and scatters the flock. 13 He flees because he is a hired hand and does not care about the sheep.” (John 10:11-13)

By the way... Whatever happened to singing the Psalms?

I’ll answer that question next week…