Electric guitars, drums, and music with a beat are commonplace elements of modern Christian worship, but such things were unknown just a couple of generations ago. How and why did it change? The 'why' question is easy to answer. We've moved on a generation or two, and tastes in music, whether religious or secular, have changed. The 'how' question takes us on a historical search.
Inevitable
We can be precise
about the point where rock music made its first appearance in a church service, though it had
already been used in other Christian settings. The date and place will surprise those Christian
rock music enthusiasts who believed that it started in America with Larry Norman in 1969. But,
by that time, Christian rock was a familiar feature in Great Britain. The birth of Christian rock
wasn't a cynical move by church leaders to entice young people into church. It came from the
teenagers themselves. In almost every town in England during the early 1960s, people were forming
rock bands, so it was inevitable that Christian teenagers would be drawn into the trend.
Naive
The point where Christian
music changed in the 20th century is not rooted in worship and congregational singing, but in evangelism.
A naïve bunch of recently converted rock music enthusiasts decided to use their music to preach the
gospel. The story of their conversion makes interesting reading and occurred in the summer of 1961.
Initially, they played their music in youth clubs and coffee bars, but their first appearance in a
church service can be traced precisely to 27th May 1962 at a Congregational church in South East London.
Passionate
We can be certain of
that date, because the event was so novel that it attracted popular press attention - and the press
cuttings have been preserved. But I don't need printed proof of those events, because I was there.
I was a member of the group that unwittingly made that first breakthrough. I say "unwittingly"
because we didn't fully realise the significance of what we were doing. We liked rock music,
we were passionate about preaching the Gospel, and it seemed natural to put these passions together.
Lasting
Our group was called
The Pilgrims - and our story could easily have slipped out of sight as one more unmarked change
in the history of Christian music. But Don, another former member of the group, told some of the
stories to his lodger, and the lodger created a small website, and the website was spotted by an
American retro-music enthusiast, and the American decided to revive The Pilgrims' music by creating
a CD. All this happened 40 years after the group stopped playing. But the story took off after that.
We were featured in magazines and radio programmes, and our music was being played in countries we'd
never been to. Meanwhile, people were comi ng forward with stories about their experiences of the
group and the lasting effects of its seven-year mission.
True
All this attention, and the
wealth of inspiring and amusing anecdotes that came to light, prompted me to tell the story in full.
The book is available internationally through Amazon in Hardcover, Paperback or Kindle eBook format.
Search for:"Pilgrims Rock! The true story of the first Christian rock group".
And the website Don's
lodger created still exists as part of my personal website (see The Pilgrims)
New Normal
The Pilgrims were not
alone for long. Within a couple of years many other Christian groups came onto the scene. Some of
them were directly inspired by The Pilgrims. Many more bands formed independently - prompted by the
same musical tastes and love for the Gospel that drove us in the beginning. Some of the bands and
musicians who came later to this scene advanced much further in fame and inspiration until what
was almost unthinkable at the beginning of the sixties became the new normal for Christian worship
- as it is to this day.
