Another Book Which Tells Our Story

Although we call it the “Christian Publishing industry” the history of Christian Retailing is strongly linked to the Christian music industry. Most of our stores had or still have a music department and that department was responsible for significant traffic flow in the days before downloading and streaming ended our dominance as a supply channel.

In God Gave Rock & Roll to You: A History of Contemporary Christian Music (Oxford University Press), author Leah Payne gives significant prominence to the role which Christian bookstores played in the establishment and perpetuation of what was first Jesus Music, then Contemporary Christian Music, and more recently, Modern Worship.

She shows how the Christian Booksellers Assocation (CBA) role in retail and the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) parallel track with radio dovetailed together to advance the music which helped define Evangelicalism itself.

But the genius of this book is the first 50 or so pages where, writing as a historian, she traces the development of CCM back even further — into the late 1800s — when ‘success’ was measured by the sales of sheet music and songbooks. It is interesting to ‘follow the money’ and trace the ‘family tree’ of more modern distribution networks, at least in the days of physical media.

The only liability of the book is the last 50 or so pages where, like so many American writers, she — in my opinion at least — overplays the relationship between the music as a Christian culture influencer, and U.S. politics. I could have lived without that, but perhaps reading as a Canadian, I am simply less interested. And I suppose playing The White House is a significant gig, right?

Everything in the middle was telling my own story, since I lived those years, was an associate writer for CCM Magazine, and have a 3,000+ piece vinyl collection to show for it. Plus some surprises:

• I did not realize that what became Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa California was actually a Foursquare Church, the same denomination as Jack Hayford.
• I did not realize that Chuck Colson was instrumental in the founding of what became K-LOVE radio.
• I did not realize that the Icthus Festival came out of Asbury College, the same place which gave us the Asbury Revival last year.

And there are the elements that Christian retailers knew too well, but may have forgotten, or perhaps not realized the significance they played, such as accompaniment cassettes. She spends more than a page talking about them. They were of course ubiquitous back in the day, but she’s trying to trace how the music formed a broader church culture; how what was happening in the bookstores and on Christian radio showed up at Church on Sunday morning.

She’s given the occasional passing nod to the UK, and there are one or two references to Canada. One of these is the Toronto Catacombs, and the influence of Merv and Merla Watson.

As to her book’s title, she doesn’t subscribe to the theory that Larry Norman was the grandfather of Christian rock, or the members of LoveSong, either. In her view there were many grandfathers, if a person wants to use that term. 

She also talks about the consolidation of everything CCM related in Nashville, and hints at the homogeneity that produced, but I would have liked a more critical evaluation of that sameness which ruled the Christian airwaves. (Of course part of that was to appease ‘Becky’ – or ‘Lisa’ – the mythical CCM target customer with the 2.4 kids and the minvan. Elsewhere, I wrote about her extensively in this article.)

After moving to Nashville herself, Leah Payne worked with Charlie Peacock. That gave her a lot access to ‘inside baseball’ things which gives her authority in her writing. She was also a guest on Peacock’s Music and Meaning Podcast where she explored the early 1900s section of the book, along with audio clips. If that interests you, click this link and go to Episode 6.

This is definitely something some of you will want to read, and deserves a place on your shelves next to the histories of Baker, Zondervan and IVP you possibly already own. For others of you, it will be placed next to works such as Jesus and John Wayne.

This book was a gift and not a review copy. I’d like to thank Lando Klassen, a fellow-traveler in the Christian retail journey who sent it to me. It was much appreciated. 

See also this excellent review at ChurchLeaders.com .

Canadian Christian Statesman Brian Stiller is an Authority on all Things Evangelical

As Global Ambassador for the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA), Brian Stiller has a big-picture perspective unlike anyone else on the planet. His two most recent books have confirmed this: Evangelicals Around the World: A Global Handbook for the 21st Century (Zondervan, 2015) and An Insider’s Guide to Praying for the World (Baker, 2016). Simply put, Brian Stiller is a walking encyclopedia on all things Evangelical and he gains his information not from typical research but through firsthand, on-the-ground observation and involvement. We’re talking both frequent flyer miles, and the recognition of Christian leaders on every continent.

This time around he’s with InterVarsity Press (IVP) for From Jerusalem to Timbuktu: A World Tour of the Spread of Christianity (248 pages, paperback).

So…about that title. Brian Stiller argues that if we see Jerusalem as the birthplace, and thereby global center of Christianity, that center point moved up into Europe and then back down and then, around 1970 that center started shifting to the global south. The impact of this is huge; it means that North American and Western Europe are no longer setting the agenda for Christianity. It also means that one particular nation, rocked by the link between Evangelicalism and the election of a particular leader and now trying to consider if it’s time to rename the group entirely, simply cannot be allowed to dictate that change when one considers all that Evangelicals, quite happy with the term, are doing in the rest of the world.

Disclaimer: I am blessed to know Brian personally. His wealth of knowledge impacted me when I sat in the offices of Faith Today magazine, and Brian rhymed off the names of organizations founded in the years immediately following World War II, and then how, as these maverick, dynamic leaders passed the baton to the next generation, these organizations entered a type of maintenance mode, with lessened radical initiative. As Director of Youth for Christ Canada, President of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (this country’s counterpart to the NAE), President of Tyndale University College and Seminary and now Global World Ambassador for the WEA, he has truly lived four distinct lifetimes.

But that’s not the topic for this book. Rather he looks at five drivers which have characterized the growth of Evangelicalism globally. These are:

1. An undeniable increase in emphasis on the work of the Holy Spirit.
2. The fruit of years of work by Bible translators.
3. A shift towards using national (indigenous) workers to lead.
4. A greater engagement with legislators and governments.
5. A return to the teachings of Jesus regarding compassion and justice.

Beginning with the first of these, Brian doesn’t hide his own Pentecostal/Charismatic roots, something I haven’t seen as much in his earlier books. A final chapter looks at the influence of prayer movements, the role of women in ministry, the trend in praise and worship music, the challenge of welcoming refugees, and the constant spectre of persecution.

The book compresses decades of modern church history into a concise collection of data and analysis. It is an answer to the question, “What in the world is God doing?”

I know of no better title on the subject simply because I know of no one more qualified to write it. This is an excellent overview for the person wanting to see the arc of Evangelicalism since its inception or the person who is new to this aspect of faith and wants to catch up on what they’ve missed.

For both types of people, this is a great book to own.

► See the book’s page at the IVP website.

Brian Stiller’s New Book, In His Own Words

by Brian Stiller

It all started in Jerusalem, the home place of Christian witness. It then moved out into Asia and Europe, and in time elsewhere, but Europe continued for centuries to be the center of gravity. But then, in the twentieth century, the witness of Jesus broke out in new ways. It spread down through Africa, and a renewed form of faith infused Latin America and took hold in Asia. That center of gravity that once hovered over Jerusalem shifted westward, then south, with it now being around Timbuktu.

Today in every corner of the world, to over two billion people, Jesus has gone global.

Each book has a story. This one began years ago as I traveled, working with colleagues internationally, speaking at churches and staff conferences in various parts of the world. But it particularly took hold of me when in 2011, after stepping down as a university and seminary president, I was invited to immerse my life in the Christian community as global ambassador for the World Evangelical Alliance.

Be it in my home country of Canada or in visiting abroad, I was asked to speak on what I was seeing globally. In study and research, reflection, conversation, and observation, I saw particular forces (or as I note, drivers) at work, growing and reshaping the church. I tested these with missiologists, seeking to fairly and accurately identify what is at work today in our global Christian community.

Many factors impinge on and free up the gospel witness. Much has been written, as is indicated in the bibliography. My interest was to get to the heart of the drivers creating such remarkable growth. As Patrick Johnstone has noted about this period, “Evangelical Christianity grew at a rate faster than any other world religion or global religious movement.”1 In 1960, Evangelicals numbered just under 90 million, and by 2010 that had reached close to 600 million. I wanted to find out who and what they were. I also wanted to see what, within my lifetime, has engaged and continues to engage the reshaping of the church to which I belonged.

My life has been lived in the convictions and practices of an Evangelical community. Raised in the home of a Pentecostal church leader, after university—and for more than fifty years—I served in various Evangelical ministries, all the while building friendships and partnerships with Roman Catholics, Orthodox, and mainline Protestants. However, I know best this Christian communion. In general, my writing concerns itself with the Evangelical world, although occasionally statistics will encompass the entire Christian community.

A number of labels are used to describe this Christian world of “Evangelicals.” I include Pentecostals, as their history and theology is family in the Evangelical community. In some cases, to give emphasis, I use terms such as Evangelical/Pentecostal, or Evangelicals and Pentecostals, as in some countries, Pentecostals make up more than half of Evangelicals.

The shifting force of faith, in a world most often described in materialistic and commercial terms, is a factor that no longer can be denied, be it by a country leader, academic, or social observer. Each year, as more and more people in the Global South embrace Christian faith, the center of density of Christian populations pushes further south, leaving the real (and emblematic) city of Timbuktu toward places never before imagined.

 

Canada’s Brian C. Stiller is former President of Youth for Christ Canada, former President of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada former President of Tyndale University College and Seminary and is now Global Ambassador, The World Evangelical Alliance.

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978-0-8308-4527-9 | 248 page paperback | IVP Web-page & Reviews | in Canada: Parasource Distribution

Author’s blog and source for this article: Dispatches From the Global Village

Ed Underwood on the Jesus Movement

I’ve devoted a post on my personal blog this weekend to an early reading of Reborn to Be Wild, publishing in June from David C. Cook.   This review clearly spells out who this book might be aimed at, and I think it’s the right timing for a title of this nature.    Check out my comments; I will be returning to this later for a second review!   I think you’ll consider placing an advance order.