Few worship leaders today are old enough to remember a time when ‘contemporary worship’ did not yet exist.
As I watched those worshipping together around the Californian mountain cabin with songs of almost 50 years ago, I realised that I had had the privilege of meeting many of them at some stage: including Chuck Girard, Barry McGuire, 2nd Chapter of Acts (siblings Annie Herring, Nelly Greisen and Matthew Ward), Jimmy and Carol Owens, and Melody Green (widow of Keith). The video took me back to a rural barn I visited in Upper New York State in 1974 when living in Toronto. At the time I was managing a company of singers, dancers and musicians called Shekinah, led by Merv and Merla Watson, who had a prominent role in the renewal then happening in Toronto. The company had earlier performed in that barn where on this occasion resident musicians Phil Keaggy and Ted Sandquist (“Lion of Judah” ) were jamming together with 2nd Chapter of Acts and their band. This was the Love Inn Community in the town of Freeville, led by radio gospel jockey Scott Ross. When our carload of young people had stopped at the Canada-US border at Niagara Falls and given our destination as “Love Inn, Freeville”, the police decided to ransack our car looking for drugs.
Many at Love Inn probably had used drugs at some stage of their lives, but now it was an iconic Jesus Movement community composed of artists, musicians and others from the entertainment world. A front page article in the NY Times in 1971 had described the Love Inn commune as “Jesus People, part of a nationwide movement of youths who are “turning on to Jesus” and dressing up the old‐time religion in hippie garb.”
Radical fervor:
That same year, TIME Magazine coined the phrase “Jesus Revolution” to describe the sudden surge in young people turning to the Christian faith in the ’70s, first in California, then spreading across America and around the world. ‘Jesus is alive and well and living in the radical spiritual fervor of a growing number of young Americans who have proclaimed an extraordinary religious revolution in his name,’ the magazine reported. ‘There is an uncommon morning freshness to this movement, a buoyant atmosphere of hope and love.’ Just three years earlier, in my native New Zealand, my brother and I had been asked by a couple in their early thirties, David and Dale Garratt, to help record scripture verses put to music. Three hours and eleven songs later, we had emerged from the recording studio with no inkling that we were witnessing the birth of the Scripture in Song label and the start of a lifelong global ministry for the Garratts. Many today regard the ministry of the Garratts as one of the main springs of the global worship movement emerging in the 1970s.
Worship, singing in prayerful expectancy to rather than just about God, became a hallmark of the nascent charismatic movement in New Zealand. Through the Garratts’ travel and the vehicle of overseas visitors, this worship emphasis spread to Australia, South Africa, the United States and Britain. Barry McGuire was one such visitor to New Zealand, whom I met there in 1973. Famous for his 1965 global protest hit, “Eve of Destruction” and actor in the 1968 Broadway hit “Hair” he became a believer in 1971 through evangelist Arthur Blessitt, and would become a pioneer of contemporary Christian music.
Double registrations:
I also became involved in leading and teaching about worship, an integral part of the Heidebeek community lifestyle even though I initially came to edit a magazine. Indeed, my first trip to Poland was in 1979 to Legnica to teach on worship alongside Bill Davidson who had been part of the Salvation Army band Joystrings that hit the charts in the ‘60s. At Heidebeek, we began holding weekly worship and teaching evenings, as both the Lausanne and Hurlach centres were doing. As in Switzerland and Germany, people came from far and wide to taste the new style worship. In 1982, we recorded in Dutch the first of a series of “Muziek voor de Koning” (Music for the King) recordings. English publishers Kingsway asked for us to produce an English version, telling us: ‘The only word we understand is ‘Hallelujah’ but we like your balance of studio quality and live recording’.
Later they asked us to provide the “choir” for Graham Kendrick’s first congregational recording. Graham came across to Heidebeek with his soundtracks and recording engineer, Les Moir. Les later authored a history of the worship movement in the English-speaking world called Missing Jewel. About the Garratt’s first extended-play recording, Scripture in Song – on which my brother and I sang as mentioned last week – he wrote that ‘they had no idea that it would take off around the world and set the pace for a whole new wave of songwriters and worship leaders influencing the shape of church worship everywhere’. Les also credits Scripture in Song with igniting worship music in Calvary Chapel churches in California, where the Jesus Movement was birthed along with the Maranatha Music label. One of the classics of the Jesus Movement, Seek ye first, by Karen Lafferty, was also birthed at Calvary Chapel. Karen joined us at Heidebeek in 1979 for a Discipleship Training School and later started Musicians for Missions (MfM) in Amsterdam.
“Heidebeek choir:”
Karen and her “Musicianaries” helped me set up a series of Concerts for the King held in each province (see photo above) introducing what was becoming known as the “Praise” genre to a broader Christian public. In the mid-80s, the Evangelical Broadcasting Company (EO) in The Netherlands asked me to come with Karen and the “Heidebeek choir” – i.e. the whole community – to lead the “singing” (a mixture of traditional psalms and hymns along with ‘our’ sort of worship songs) at their annual EO Jongerendag (Youth Day) which attracted 10,000 conservative Christian youth. This we did three years in a row, introducing the Dutch Christian public to ‘contemporary worship’, despite instructions that our hands should not rise above our hips! A nationally-known organist, who had played for years at these events, thought it was “music as usual” and assumed the lead. I, with my puny guitar, understood I was supposed to give the lead. Transition from the old to the new was not always smooth!
Mission ’87, successor to the earlier youth missions event in Lausanne, was now planned to be held in Utrecht, The Netherlands. When I was given the responsibility for the music and worship, I relished the opportunity to introduce Graham Kendrick to a broader European audience. So Graham and I shared the worship leading for the 10,000 young Europeans coming from all corners of western Europe and even a smattering from across the Iron Curtain.
By now, contemporary worship was becoming more broadly embraced in different churches. In 1989, the EO asked me to front their first televised “praise” programme – yet still with instructions not to raise our hands above our shoulders!
A generation later, my son Antonie had become well-known as a worship-leader and songwriter among his Dutch contemporaries. Responsible for worship at Soul Survivor in Holland, he later went to the Kingsway studios in England to mix the worship recordings with guest-artist Matt Redman. During introductions in the studio, the recording engineer exclaimed excitedly: “You’re Jeff’s son! I’m Les Moir. I engineered for your father and Graham Kendrik. Now I’m doing the same for you and Matt!”
(Written by Jeff Fountain – YWAM, jeff@schumancentre.eu.gmail.mcsv.net 8th & 15th July 2023, Shortened Combined Text)
Profile Background:
Jeff Fountain is the editor of YWAM International
Prayer Response to this featured article:
Jesus, we express our worship to you today.
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