Christian quandary

Christian music is in an artistic quandary. Financially, the industry is doing quite well, grossing about $938 million annually, according to the Gospel Music Association. That’s almost 7 percent of a $14 billion a year U.S. music market.

But Christian artists are being hemmed in, their creativity “stifled” by an overwhelming demand for worship music, a style that has become popular in the past four years, according to Christa Farris, editor at CCM Magazine.

“It’s gotten to the point where if one more worship CD comes across my desk I’m going to scream,” said Miss Farris.

Contemporary Christian music (“CCM” in industry shorthand) spans styles from bluegrass to rock to hip-hop-flavored sounds. Worship music is a CCM category typified by lyrics of hymnlike praise for God and repeated choruses that lend themselves to singalongs at concerts, church services and youth group events.

At the midyear point in July, nine of the Gospel Music Association’s top 20 Christian albums were worship albums. Most of the top names in Christian music — Michael W. Smith, the Newsboys, Third Day and Rebecca St. James among them — have released worship albums in the past two years.

In the case of Mr. Smith, who has sold 8 million records, his two worship albums were the best-selling releases of his 20-year-career.

“Our consumers desire a real connection to God with their music and are actively seeking music that extends their church experience into daily life,” said John W. Styll, president of GMA.

That’s all fine and good with Miss Farris. But she said the worship movement has sidelined Christian musicians who want to sing about their faith in a less direct way.

“Artists are responding to what consumers seem to want,” Miss Farris said. “It seems like a good thing because we’re giving worship to the Creator, but the Psalms talk about singing a new song unto the Lord. I think we’re all waiting for these new songs to emerge. … How many more times can you hear ’I Could Sing of Your Love Forever’”?

That song, “I Could Sing of Your Love Forever,” was first recorded by the British band Delirious in 1995. Delirious is widely credited with starting the worship-music trend. During the late 1990s, a band named Sonic Flood accelerated the movement in the United States.

But now Delirious is a victim of its own success in some ways, Miss Farris said. The Christian audience that buys Delirious albums for the group’s worship songs criticize the band for doing anything else.

Delirious “want to do rock ’n’ roll music, but they’ve written ’I Could Sing,’ which churches sing all over the world,” Miss Farris said. “They’re almost too Christian in the States for mainstream acceptance, but people struggle when they want to play good old-fashioned rock ’n’ roll.”

Ironically, Sonic Flood, whose 1999 self-titled debut sold almost 1 million copies, has also hit hard times after its huge success. Sonic Flood kicked its lead singer out of the band on the verge of its first major tour, and the rest of the band imploded, leaving only one original member.

Sonic Flood’s tale is a cautionary one of the dangers of fame and success. The crash-and-burn saga is a familiar one for pop musicians, but it is given a new twist in a music genre where the focus is supposed to be on God, not on the performers.

And former lead singer Jeff Deyo believes Sonic Flood embodies much that is wrong with worship music today. It is more about the appearance of worship than an actual spiritual experience, he said. Also, the financial incentives in playing worship music make motivation a tricky issue.

Rick Heil, the former Sonic Flood bassist who is now the lead singer for the group, “still sings worship songs, but he’s a song leader, not a worship leader. He doesn’t understand the connection he’s trying to make vertically with God and with trying to bring people into the presence of God. … I really don’t think his actual motives are wrong. He’s just… blind in so many ways,” Mr. Deyo said during an interview in downtown Washington this month. He was in town to lead worship for 12,000 people at a national Assemblies of God youth conference.

Mr. Deyo believes he was chosen by God to be a worship leader, to play music that “brings people into the presence of God.”

Sonic Flood brought passion and excitement to a music genre usually plagued by subpar quality, and soon it was headlining a national tour in major venues.

“The first album was just magical. It was really trend setting at the time,” Miss Farris said.

But even early on, Mr. Deyo said, there were serious rifts within the band. The entire group was not as excited about being a worship band as Mr. Deyo was, he said.

“It’s different than just being a Christian band. When you’re a Christian band, you put a label on yourself that says, ’Christian.’ When you add ’worship’ to that, it’s a whole nother level of expectation added,” he said. “It was a lot of pressure… I call it battles, but people get tired of it. People grow weary in doing well.”

The band was not only worn out by Mr. Deyo’s fervor, the players and their wives also mistook it for arrogance, he said, especially as the band garnered national attention.

“There’s always a fine line between someone who’s spiritually intense and someone who’s proud and cocky,” he said. In May 2000 the band asked Jeff to leave, and four months later, the entire band had been replaced with musicians of Mr. Heil’s choosing.

Mr. Heil declined to comment for this story, said Brent Vance, Sonic Flood’s manager. “It’s just old, and there really isn’t any benefit to either party to continue to talk about that. …There’s no story,” he said.

“I can’t really add anything to Jeff Deyo deciding to leave the band. I know that Rick doesn’t have anything to do with that. Rick’s heart was and is completely pure and focused on the original intent of the band, which is to lead the church in worship,” Mr. Vance said.

Miss Farris said that in Christian music circles, people were saddened by Sonic Flood’s breakup, but that CCM has never done “hard-hitting” journalism on the authenticity of worship artists like Sonic Flood or Jeff Deyo.

“It’s easy for a critic to get cynical and judge what is genuine and what is not genuine. Only God knows people’s hearts. What may appear to be profit-driven to me may bless somebody else,” she said. “For me to judge someone else’s motivation is not ethically correct either.”

The main problem, she said, is that Christian music is too homogenous.

“Christian music should set the bar for other music, but right now it’s in a rut.”