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March 9th, 2013
10:00 PM ET
Chris Tomlin, king of the sing-alongBy Eric Marrapodi and Tom Foreman, CNN Baltimore (CNN) - The capacity crowd at the 1st Mariner Arena in Baltimore is bouncing in unison to the most widely sung music on the planet today. The catwalk above the arena is shaking. Chris Tomlin grabs the microphone and asks the crowd if they’re ready. "I feel alive, on God's great dance floor!" He leads the packed venue in singing and jumping. Tomlin is out touring the country with his latest studio album, “Burning Lights.” In January, it topped the Billboard 200 charts. But unlike those who've enjoyed performances by Beyonce, Johnny Cash and a host of others who've played this Baltimore hall, after these fans stream out the doors they will have ample opportunity to sing Tomlin's songs again, as one. That is the secret to Tomlin’s success – the stage, the lights, the band - aren’t about him. As lively as his shows are, the point is not to get you inside the doors. The point is to get you singing in church. “I strive for trying to write something that people can sing, that people want to sing, and that people need to sing,” Tomlin explained before the show. Tomlin is the undisputed king of worship music, a genre of Christian music sung on Sunday mornings all across the world and increasingly played on Christian radio stations. The music is simple, devotional and easy on the ears. Follow the CNN Belief Blog on Twitter “We would say that Chris is the most prolific songwriter in the United States now, in this past decade,” said Howard Rachinski, CEO of Christian Copyright Licensing International, the company that tracks what music is used in churches around the world. In 2012, CCLI paid out $40 million to artists and musicians, and Tomlin got a healthy slice of that pie. Churches around the world used 128 songs he wrote or co-wrote last year, Rachinski said. CCLI estimates that every Sunday in the United States, between 60,000 and 120,000 churches are singing Tomlin’s songs. By extrapolating that data, Rachinski says, “our best guess would be in the United States on any given Sunday, 20 to 30 million people would be singing Chris Tomlin's songs.” In their last two reporting periods, Tomlin had the No. 1 most-sung song and five of the top 25. Search YouTube for "How Great is Our God" or "Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)." Black, white, Asian, big churches, small ones are all belting out Tomlin songs. A lot. For perspective, consider Tomlin’s musical success against one secular counterpart. In 2012, Katy Perry's record sales dwarfed Tomlin’s, but Billboard reported her songs were played 1.4 million times on the radio. Using CCLI’s low-end calculation, Tomlin’s songs were played 3.12 million times in churches. Growing up Tomlin Chris Tomlin was reared in Grand Saline, Texas, heavily influenced by country music. His dad taught him to play the guitar. “I learned all country music - Willie Nelson, and Johnny Cash, all those kind of guys. Those are what my dad played and I played. And I played at my church as well,” Tomlin said. Tomlin went to college to study sports medicine. “I just didn't know the music would take me here. I loved it and I was getting opportunities to go play, and when I say go play I was starting to write songs of worship even (as) a young kid. I didn't know really what worship music was, what a worship leader was, any of that. I didn't know any of those terms,” he said. Today, at 40 years old, he is the artist most associated with worship music. While in college he began singing and writing in earnest. As a senior, he said, he was getting invitations to lead the music for Christian conferences with 10,000 students. He knew his music was resonating with crowds when he got a call from EMI Publishing after his song “We Fall Down,” which was released in 1998, starting being played in churches. “I was just writing songs for the church and from there they just started taking off.” The compositions are considerably different from pop music. They are simpler, and he takes pains to write them that way. “I'm thinking as that comes out of my heart as a song of response, I'm trying to think, how can I form this so that everybody, people who are tone deaf, who can't clap on two and four, how can I form this song so they can sing it, so that it is singable?” Part of that process comes from his love of country music, the simplicity of that music and the stories those songs tell. His goal is to write songs that communicate what people would like to say to God. “Now, that doesn't happen all the time. I mean, I write so many songs that you never hear because they are not any good.” Tomlin is the worship pastor at Passion City Church in Atlanta. He leads worship there twice a month and beta tests all his new songs on the congregation. Tomlin is also a major draw as the worship leader of the Passion Conferences, a series of Christian conferences around the world. In January, the conference packed out the Georgia Dome in Atlanta with 60,000 college-age students. Billboard magazine noted the conference helped push up pre-sales of Tomlin’s latest CD. His songs are so sought-after that, even before they're released on CD, they start showing up in CCLI’s online database. “His songs have probably had the most immediate impact on churches that we have seen in history,” Rachinski said. “Even before you get to street release [of a CD], churches are already networked and engaged with his songs.” Don’t look for a crossover Other contemporary Christian musicians, as the music industry designates them, have crossed over to mainstream pop with some success. Tomlin said he has no designs on making that leap. He also doesn’t need the money. Over the course of his career he’s sold 4.2 million albums, had 6 million digital downloads, a number of sold-out tours, and of course, the copyright royalties. Tomlin said money isn't what motivates him to write and perform. “I feel like I have a responsibility, that God has given me a gift to write songs for his church that people listen to and that people are coming to expect now,” he said. “When I make a record I feel that responsibility that worship leaders, churches are going to say, 'Hey, are these some new songs we can sing in our church?' And I don't take that lightly, and I don't go, ‘Oh let's go do something else fun.’” CNN’s Belief Blog: The faith angles behind the biggest stories “I haven't invented any new instruments, I haven't created new chords that no one has ever played. I play the same chord that every band plays, we play the same instruments up there, the melodies are melodies. The difference to me in the music is that I ask that God's presence be on it and that people, when they sing these songs, sense that God does something.” The spotlight is on Tomlin even more than ever after starting the year a top the Billboard charts. As he tours the country at bigger and bigger venues, he would prefer to step out of the spotlight, away from the microphone, and let everyone else sing. “People would be mad that they paid for a ticket for that. So I do that just occasionally, but that is what I love.” He said the night before, at the Theater at Madison Square Garden, he took as much time as he could to step back and let everyone else sing. “It was just so beautiful, because I feel like it says something. It's not just like, ‘Hey, listen to me sing.’ This is all of us together. I think when you step back from the mic and it is not about you - and yeah, the light may be on you, but this is about all of us singing. This is about a bigger story, it's about a greater story. It's about a greater name than my name. My name is on the ticket, but this is about a greater name.” CNN's Oliver Janney, Chris Turner, and Dan Merica contributed to this post. soundoff (1,754 Responses)« Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Next »
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The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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Man, don't you guys really hate believers? They are so intolerant. Not like us, of course. I mean, how dare these guys believe in something we don't. That's why it's our duty to lurk the "belief" blogs and enlighten all the crazies out there. Not that it matter's to us, of course. Hold on, one of the idiots will post something about brotherly love and maybe even comment on Chris Tomlin's so called "gift". Raw meat, boys! I live for this stuff! Thoughtful dialogue? Baloney! Whose turn is it to attack? I lose my place.
One day your spiritual eyes will be open either during your life time or at the time of your death. I do pray it is during your life time. Peace!
It is kind of funny that one of your fellow religious people (Temi) doesn't understand sarcasm at all...
What if your wrong about hell? At least if you believe you will go to Heaven.
By the way, I don't find any problem in questioning ridiculous religious delusions at all. The religious zealots are trying to impose their horrible views on e.g. science and women's rights on society so it is the right thing to do to try to stop them.
Believing in "heaven" and "hell" is extremely infantile. I cannot even fathom how anyone can actually believe such nonsense.
@Skippy, I think you're missing the point most people are trying to make. Most people don't object to people believing differently than they do as long as there aren't dangerous implications to those beliefs that hurt real people. When that unfortunate scenario arises, as it does in the case of some forms of Christianity, it's time to examine some of the premises on which a system rests. Christianity is not in itself anti-scientific. What it is is a belief system that has been left behind by growing and changing scientific knowledge. It is out of step and needs an upgrade or needs to go.
There is a lot of room for varied beliefs, both with and without gods. But when you start to pick beliefs that conflict with science and logic, people are going to kick back.
You are trying too hard, but we get the picture. You hate people who don't go to your church, and you hate them in Jesus' name, Amen. Pretty damn sad.
Wow, so "Skippy the Kangaroo" ended up trolling websites in his old age? Should have buried those bones like I did, Skip.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcyW7rMYR7A
Composing a song is one of the toughest things to master. Composers get very little respect for the precious gift of music they create. Copyright infringement is rampant in the Church, just like everywhere else. Don't you know there is no life without Music...
Back when I went to church, I met Chris Tomlin in 1998 at a youth church retreat just as he was becoming popular. He was a super nice, down to earth guy- eager to sit down with you at dinner and just chat without being pushy about religion, but honest about his beliefs when asked. I no longer consider myself a religious person, but every time I catch his songs on the radio scan, I remember what a great person I thought he was. I hope he is still that way.
Still waiting for the atheists who spout all this 'science' talk and claim factual empirical evidence to take that first step in the scientific method and actually disprove their null hypothesis...Until then evangelicals of any faith (or lack therefor of) are all equally mentally challenged and annoyingly self-righteous in my book... then again BACK TO MORE BELIEF CASH FOR CNN!..Soo wish I was in on that deal..
I don't understand. The null is always the hypothesis of no difference. Failure to reject the null hypothesis in every scientific approach to the supernatural (for example, the efficacy of prayer) is the reason science-minded people tend to reject supernatural beliefs. Am I missing something?
atheist follow science
religion follows magic.
science -universe was created according to the laws governing our universe.
religion -"god did it"
science- universe was created from amtter and energy
religion- god did it...........took him 6 days and he needed a break.
XD ROFLMFAO.
Religion: God created the laws that govern the universe.
" the atheists who spout all this 'science' talk and claim factual empirical evidence" Man, what are you even talking about. Why put little quotes around 'science' like you don't believe in it, as you post from a computer over a satellite uplink to cloud servers?
Explains why I've never heard of him. He does worship music, which is something I don't listen to. I haven't even attended a church service in over a decade, & I only went then as a favor to my friend's mother for mother's day. Even then I had pretty much spaced out. I don't go because I no longer believe in the church. I have faith, just not in the church. I've yet to find one that doesn't try to pressure me in one form or another, or treats me as a lesser person. When I was a child I attended a church where the parishoners & the priest would look down on you if you weren't well off financially. The church I attended after that tried to pressure me back into being an acolyte when I was tired of that position, & also had fellow parishoners trying to stick their noses in my personal life & one even told me that my parents would be punished by God because they didn't attend church service (my mom was home sick & my dad had just pulled a double shift & needed sleep). After that I'd had enough. I don't listen to the worship music, because it's not my cup of tea & it reminds me of the bad memories I have of church. I'll stick to my beliefs & let everyone else stick to theirs.
sorry u had such a bad history with church. that's not how it's meant to be. but ur story is similar to many others. i hope that if u r one day open and willing that u find a place that u can be free to be urself. no church is perfect and there will be mistakes made. but also the best way to create that type of accepting and loving atmosphere is by initiating it urself. u have the ability to create positive change. christians, priests, pastors, nuns, all make mistakes just like u and me. all r sinners. try to temper ur expectations by separating god and the mistakes of man. ur past may hold a lot of bad memories, but i hope ur future has opportunities for good ones. but only u can allow urself to be open again to that possibility.
You are right, rs, people in the church can do some mean and inconsiderate things. I think most intend to do the right thing, but they may not hear what they are saying to others. They are people, though, and are flawed. I am older so I don't hear a lot of questioning of what I do, but I hear people in the church talking about things like you mentioned. My normal response to unloving or inconsiderate words is "My belief on that is different..." and then explain how. If I convince them, great, but if not, I say something like "I guess our beliefs are different on that point" and move on. I wish you the best and that your faith grows...
rs1981, don't blame yourself. Your experience is exactly why the church is failing. You want to fit in there and they shun you. They will shun themselves out of an organization before they're happy.
NClaw441
The difference between you Christians and atheists like me then is that I don't feel obligated to hang around with people who do mean and inconsiderate things on my spare time.
Worship requires music and shouting rather than stillness and quiet because it evokes an emotional response, and belief is reliant on emotional thinking overriding rational thinking.
The gubmint churches are confused about worship and service. Is that surprising??
"Rom 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, [which is] your reasonable service." .............That happens during the week on a daily basis. So quit bringin' the sharks in on sunday morning to steal all the food! That ain't relaxin'.
Evidence based– Almost all worship services I have attended have both singing as well as stillness and quiet prayer time. I believe these are necessary to effective worship, along with confession, scripture reading and returning back to God a portion of what he has provided to us.
NClaw441
Time between sets and to change camera angles is just part of big event programming, and probably not intended as actual "reflective time".
NG and that lie/evil you told the priest could/might be used against you.
Peace
Christian rock, it doesn't make Christianity better...it just makes Rock & Roll worse.
amen
You've probably listened to many Christian rock bands and never knew.
Flyleaf, Red, POD, Relient K, Anberlin, Family Force 5, Dead Poetic, Thousand Foot Krutch, Further Seems Forever (singer of Dashboard Confessional before he moved on to create DBC), Switchfoot, Skillet, Mute Math, Lifehouse, even U2 is considered Christian.
Listen to pretty much any of those and you'll see it's really not hurting rock at all. I know quite a few people that listen to many of those bands and have no clue it's Christian. Much of "Christian" music isn't shoving the God mentality in your face, it's a lot of just healthy music and encouraging words to live by.
@Hood, Except for U2 I've never heard of any of these, but maybe I'm just too old and not musically savvy.
"Stryper" were the poster boys for that. They were technically good musicians and popularized the "drummer's cage" as they toured with Christian rock, and they trumpeted their belief as the power behind their rock music. Then they actually PLAYED their rock music, and if that weak watery stuff was inspired by Jesus, no wonder other bands went to the Devil for inspiration. Tomlin's got talent, and he could be writing jingles for burger places instead of doing this, so I'm all for it. But he isn't getting these songs from God by angelic pipeline anymore than Stryper got their talent from praying.
@ Hood – I think we listen to VERY different radio stations...
Watching tonight's The Bible. David just gave Saul his trophy of a hundred Philistine foreskins.
Such an inspiring story!
i hope he washed his hands.
...inexplicably, Saul's camp was served calamari for dinner that night.
Reminds me of "Prairie Oysters". A true delicacy, I hear.
ken,
a group of friends and i had prairie oysters this weekend and inexplicably the serving was 13. we were perplexed, though they were very tender.
snowboarder
You would think that they'd come in multiples of two, wouldn't you? One for the cook, maybe?
My favorite is still Lot having incestuous s3x with his two daughters. Talk about "family values" 🙂
I've got a trick with underinflated balloons where I show how the foreskins thing went. It's a real crowd pleaser. Sometimes I get arrested for doing it, though.
Veritas
They didn't show Lot doing that, or even offering his daughters up to the mob to be ra.ped. It's a total whitewash job, except for all the gory violence. The producers obviously know what their audience likes.
He looks like Jesse Pinkman's older brother.
haha. nice!
Let's cook!
i wish all the ladies were bricks in a pile and i were a mason, i'd lay them all in style...
Roll yer leg over the Man in the Moon? I heard all those songs, matey.
It's not religion, it's entertainment.
People even want to be entertained while worshiping God, because they don't have enough respect or reverence for Him to shut up, be still, humble and listen. If people spent more time listening and less time flapping their lips, God might be able to get a word in edgewise.
Without entertainment to distract people during worship they might actually, you know, think about what's being said. See the problem?
Caters to people who can't think for themselves. It's amazing how much money people sling to support religious things like this that don't really exist.
Superstition!
How does god get a word in edgewise?
"If people spent more time listening and less time flapping their lips, God might be able to get a word in edgewise."
Poor wittle, weak and unimaginative god...
Star, I posted mine first,
lol??
Poor widdle confused babies, on a belief blog, no less.
March 11, 2013 at 12:22 am
What are ya, some kinda copy cat??
@lol??
Part of any discussion about belief are the many reasons why intelligent people don't believe.
it's as if there is some sort of unspoken rule in Christian music that songs need no talent or soul or even a nice beat. Christian music is as vapid and thoughtless as every other aspect of their religion.
As I said earlier. Get rid of the christian schtick and he's a mediocre pop musician at best.
It's the same in Christian literature, at least the stuff coming from the born-agains. No real plot, two-dimentional, black and white characters. The Left Behind series was really lame. Characters who knew they couldn't defeat their enemy. Pointless and boring.
Aw, that's too harsh. Let's just say that it doesn't pay to write "worship music" that is controversial, challenging, or overly-accepting, and he wants to get paid. He didn't create the genre and he's not in a position to enlarge it, so why complain that he's doing well? If he makes people happy and fills them with good fellowship, maybe they won't stop off and set a bum on fire on their way home from church.
After years of asking, any religious persons got an explanation for the tsunami massacres of so many young innocents and the loving god who either caused or ignored them?
Tragedy happens, God never said it wouldn't.
@ Van, Jesus said, "If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it." So are you either suggesting that Jesus was being less than honest here, or that no one have ever prayed in Jesus' name to be saved from a disaster?
correction: "has"
If you go by the oldest version of the biblical Flood, God's wife's Eliat is the culprit. She asks her husband to wipe out the human race every time she gets a headache or is hungry. Of course most christians today are ignorant of the fact that God had two wives. You can't expect straight answers from a people that aren't even interested in exploring their own mythology.
Innocent children dying in a tsunami is all part of the master plan. Don't question the plan Tony.
It's comical when religious fanatics quote the bible, but leave off all the massive amount of seriously bad quotes that make it look REALLY bad. Selective reading.
Poor widdle confused babies, on a belief blog, no less.
Van
Except when people feel that God chose to spare them from tragedy, then they call it a miracle, right? What people really question is why God supposedly uses his power to save some, but not all. If a fireman were in the same position, and could save everyone from a disaster, but chose not to we'd judge him pretty harshly, wouldn't we?
tony, I am sure I can't explain it to your satisfaction (or mine, for that matter). I do believe that God wants the best for us, and wants the best out of us. I believe that God set nature in motion, and that while He COULD intervene so that no one ever suffered any harm or inconvenience, He chose to make a world that challenges us (whether the Garden of Eden story is factual or illustrative, I cannot say), in hopes that we would rely on Him in times of need and love Him of our own volition, and not because He made us robot-like. What sort of love would that be anyway?
If you think of all the best attributes of man, the qualities that we identify as good, they all require a corresponding negative. Generosity is best shown by giving to someone in need. Bravery requires conflict. Healing requires injury or illness. To comfort someone requires that they are in need of comforting. How can there be compassion for someone who is not in need of it, etc.
I also find that, for me, I am closest to God in times of need, in part because in good times I like to take the credit.
It takes faith to understand, perhaps, and I hope that you and others come to have that faith, if you don't have it now.
The god of the bible is a jealous god. I wonder of whom or what???
probably the other 2,999 gods.
texas gots lots of jesus.....
Maybe some ol' lost beer drinking songs will be found. Anybody use the "99 bottles of beer on the wall" music"?? Perchance even US Army basic training marching tunes could be used.. They were useful before killin' commies.
It's hard to fight the commies when your mommie is one,
It's hard to fight the commies when your mommie is one,
It's hard to fight the commies when your mommie is one,
Their truth keeps marching none.
My whole family consists of commies and socialists and I fight them.
Always a pleasure to get home from work and find lol?? hallucinating in public...again.
Rail, how can you be so, errr "out of it"?? You think you have a home?? Get behind on yer RE taxes and see what happens. Didn't the Blues Brothers get through to yer bwain??
See previous post.
Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, she loves you yeah, yeah, yeah.. Posts and rails, don't fence me in matriarch.
i wish all the ladies were pies on a shelf, and i was a baker, i'd eat them all myself...
Please, don't drop, an H-Bomb on me,
oh please, don't drop, an H-Bomb on me,
please, don't drop, that H-Bomb on me,
go drop it on yourself.
upto I looked at the paycheck four $7092, I did not believe that my best friend woz trully making money part time from there pretty old laptop.. there moms best frend has done this less than 19 months and just paid for the debts on their condo and got a new Toyota. this is where I went, ........... BIT40. ℂOℳ
Is that you Tom Tom?
You really need to try it John. Could be all the answers you're looking for.
I believe all men and women are born equal, regardless race or religion.
No one race is above another.
No one religion is above another.
A fine freemason thinker you are.
You're wrong.
Can't think of anything any religion is above.
Religion is not to be put in the same category as gender or race. The God of the Bible is the one true God so therfore all other religions are false.
Is God a latent appliance fetishist?
I think the Rolling Stones must have been inspired by the bible when they wrote "Under my thumb" since the bible is so full of the subjugation of women. "The way she talks when she's spoken to" ......."The difference in the clothes she wears"
There just might be something to this xstian music yet. I'm going to make a song about being happy about murdering children
. Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones." (Psalm 137:8-9) Dasheth them against the rocks, BAM (big snare drum smash here) dasheth them against the rocks BAM
That's pretty funny, in a twisted sort of way.
They were just high.
Need some growling vocals.
cool story bro, too bad it's not true...there were plenty of 'powerful' women in the Bible...some were judges, some were business owners
Others acknowledged that s.exual gratification can only be achieved through the use of machines.
Hey Damocles heads up just noticed a post loon left for you over on be nice
The loon is not being nice.
Peace
Stacy sounds like a chad .....thought too