This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on May 5, 2026.
In the summer of 2001, I risked getting expelled by Bob Jones University for the chance to watch Michael W. Smith in concert at a Franklin Graham crusade at Wofford College in Spartanburg, S.C. This was just one year removed from the university overturning their ban on interracial dating. So back then, we considered Smith and Graham to be compromised liberals.
Still, I was curious to see what all the fuss was about myself. So I went, knowing the consequences if I were to get caught.
It was my first experience at a contemporary Christian music concert. And rather than instantaneously morphing into a liberal, I found myself inspired by the mix of praise, patriotism and the clear presentation of the gospel as I understood it at the time. But what also stood out were the calls to give money to charity.
In BJU’s fundamentalism, we often dismissed charity as “the social gospel.” But since Graham so clearly preached the threat of eternal conscious torment while offering the gospel of penal substitutionary atonement, what I had been told was “the social gospel” felt more like basic human kindness. It felt good to witness thousands of people giving money to feed hungry children. It seemed to fit well with George W. Bush’s call to “compassionate conservatism.” It also seemed to contradict the liberals who claimed conservatives didn’t care about the least of these.
Little did I know at the time that what looked like compassion may have been part of a larger story about capitalism.
Industrializing worship
Caleb Maskell
“What does it mean to industrialize … a formative moment?” Vineyard USA pastor Caleb Maskell asked a panel of worship music industry insiders at Candler School of Theology last summer. Noting how committed evangelicals are to gathering together for worship each week, Maskell admitted, “When you introduce songs into that context, and then there’s money to be made by songs being sung together on Sunday morning, you have an entire industry that just shifts its focus toward that bucket of money.”
Maskell was talking about artists who make money through Christian Copyright Licensing International (commonly known as CCLI) when churches that are members of CCLI report which songs are sung. Bands like the Newsboys who write songs that aren’t typical Sunday morning worship songs have to find income elsewhere. But in the world of Christian music, we’re still talking about artists collecting buckets of money and concertgoers lacking awareness of where their money is going.
In my upcoming book, Weapons of Worship: How the Songs of Evangelicalism Form the Soundtrack of Extremism, I make the case that the worship industry of Christian music has essentially become its own oligarchy, reflecting the image of the American empire.
One of the clearest examples of this worship oligarchy came to light last week as news broke that Wes Campbell, co-founder of the Newsboys, is suing 31 individuals and organizations he claims cost him and the Newsboys to lose hundreds of millions of dollars.
The controversy stems from a story in June 2025, where a woman alleged she was drugged by Newsboys lead singer Michael Tait, was assaulted by their lighting technician Matthew Brewer, and the whole thing was covered up by tour manager Steve Campbell. But according to the Newsboys, the sexual encounter was consensual. And according to the lawsuit, the woman’s story is part of a conspiracy to take down the Newsboys in contemporary Christian music’s competition for cash.
Of course, we should all hope the truth will come out and justice will be served regarding the allegations against the Newsboys. But as the courts sort out those details, we can’t miss how this lawsuit reveals the inner workings of the worship oligarchy, and how those of us who attend these concerts in hopes of communing with self, neighbor and God may be getting played for profit.
Producing a communal worship experience
While concert experiences are typically considered opportunities to hear your favorite artist or band, Christian music concert experiences take on an even more heightened sense of importance.
According to the lawsuit, “A CCM performance is, at its core, a communal worship experience. Artists pray openly with audiences, share personal testimony, and generally direct attention toward faith rather than themselves as performers. The audience participates not merely as concertgoers, but as members of a shared faith community.”