The Heart of Worship

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​ALONG WITH LINKS TO THIRD PARTY WEBSITES MENTIONED IN THE POST.*

On Tuesday of this week (January 6th, 2026) I posted my daily vlog where I shared a few thoughts about worship music. I had been listening to a worship playlist through Apple Music, and as the music played, the selection of songs started bouncing from newer worship music to some of older worship songs. As I listened, I found myself pausing to listen and remember. Some of the older songs on the playlist not only moved me, by reminded me of the times, places, and people who once sang these songs along side me.

I call it the worship movement, a season when modern worship music was huge. This would have been somewhere between 1990 and 2010 (approximately). There was a movement in the Church where artists and worship leaders were writing lyrics and music that called a generation back to worship. 

I think of artist and bands like Matt Redman, Chris Tomlin, David Crowder, Delirious?, Sonic Flood, Hillsong, Stuart Townend, Passion, and Darlene Zchech, just to name a few. It was an incredible season of music. I remember standing with my students at a Creation music festival in Pennsylvania, (along with a couple thousand attendees) singing with Casting Crowns, Newsboys, Third Day, and Delirious? and being moved and thinking, is this what God desired of His church; multitudes worshipping the Creator? Camps and retreats offered powerful moments of humility and offerings through song and prayer. Weekly student gatherings were led by student bands, little more than a high school garage band, who loved Jesus and wanted to lead their peers in worship. It was an exciting season of ministry.

If you haven't watched the vlog post, take a moment to listen/watch by clicking here: 01.07.2026 - Heart of Worship.

To listen/watch the Heart of Worship song video, hit play on the video to the right. This is the Shane & Shane version of Heart to Worship. It's a great song to worship along with.

After posting the video, I noted a few errors in what I shared about the song, Heart of Worship. The song was written by Matt Redman, which I said. But it was written sometime between 1997-1999. The version I shared is Shane & Shane on the project, The Worship Initiative Vol. 9. It was recorded in 2014 along with a number of great worship songs.

I also mentioned the worship genre exploding around 2014. That's partly true. As I said above, 1990-2010, in my mind was the heyday of the worship movement. However, worship music continued to be a huge part of the landscape deep into the years between 2010 and 2015. It wasn't quite as big, meaning many of the bands artists and bands who were prevalent at that time had grown quiet. 

Starting again in the latter part of the 20-teens, a new rise in the worship genre began to surface. That rise has been fueled by new bands and church praise teams such as Elevation, Red Rocks Worship, Maverick City, Phil Wickham, Crowder, and Cody Carnes.

All that's to say, there is still good worship music out there.

More to come soon!

- jay
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