Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Larger Than Life, Yet Relatively Unknown

"We've been closing the gap between what you would hear in church and on a rock radio station. Artists like Chris Tomlin help bridge the gap more and more."

--Matt Lundgren, worship leader at Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois. The quote is from a Time magazine article about Chris Tomlin, pictured right. Tomlin's songs are the most often sung contemporary music used in U.S. churches today, according to Christian Copyright Licensing International (CCLI), an organization that licenses music to churches. And, as the article speculates, this could make Tomlin the most often sung artist anywhere. Yet very few people--even churchgoers--have heard of Tomlin, the article asserts. Time writer Belinda Luscombe sums it up this way: "Tomlin doesn't want to be Prince. Music immortality is fine. It's just not the sort he cares about."

FULL ARTICLE:
Hip Hymns are Him

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