From Hymns to Modern Worship: an Evolution

For many, the musical journey begins on a vibrant Sunday morning in the church choir, standing alongside family. If you grew up in a Christian home during the 2000s, your soundtrack likely featured a significant amount of Hillsong. However, modern worship music has evolved considerably since then. This article explores the traditional hymns and scriptures that inspire contemporary worship, examines the influences shaping new Christian sounds such as the recent rise of Forrest Frank, and invites you to perhaps discover a new artist this Christmas season.

Before worship bands were releasing live albums and world tours, churches were turning to hymnbooks and early praise songs to give voice to their faith. Traditional hymns like “Be Thou My Vision,” “Great Is Thy Faithfulness,” and “Amazing Grace” used rich, poetic language to carry big ideas about the character of God. They helped people remember Scripture long after the service ended, embedding verses and theology into melodies that could be sung while doing dishes or walking to work.

“Amazing Grace” is one of the clearest examples of how powerful that combination of story and Scripture can be. Written in the 1700s by John Newton, a former slave trader who encountered Jesus and slowly turned his life around, the hymn is basically his testimony in song form a confession that grace really did “save a wretch like me.” Over the centuries, it moved from church pews into movements for justice and freedom, becoming a song sung at funerals, protests and kitchen tables all over the world.

Decades later, Elvis Presley helped carry “Amazing Grace” and other gospel standards even further into the mainstream. Elvis grew up in the American South surrounded by Black gospel quartets and white Southern gospel groups, and he never lost that first musical love. His gospel recordings filled three full-length albums His Hand in Mine, How Great Thou Art, and He Touched Me and all three of his competitive Grammy awards were for gospel performances rather than his rock ’n’ roll hits. Offstage, friends remember him happiest gathered around a piano, singing hymns like “Amazing Grace,” “Peace in the Valley,” and “How Great Thou Art” into the early hours. In a world that labelled him the king of rock ’n’ roll, his most award-winning work was, quietly, his Christian music.

Fast-forward to the 1990s and another song that changed the worship landscape: “Shout to the Lord” by Darlene Zschech. Written in 1993 out of her own prayer time, it became one of Hillsong’s first truly global songs. For a lot of churches, this was the bridge between hymns and the big, contemporary worship anthems that would dominate the 2000s. Its chorus “Shout to the Lord, all the earth, let us sing” took the language of the Psalms and wrapped it in a soaring pop ballad. Even people who had never heard of Hillsong often knew that song.

By the late 1990s and 2000s, a full wave of modern worship began to shape the sound of Sunday. Instead of organ-led hymns, many churches were singing guitar-driven anthems such as “Here I Am to Worship,” “Open the Eyes of My Heart,” “How Great Is Our God,” “Our God,” “At the Cross,” “10,000 Reasons,” “Shout to the Lord,” “Good Good Father” and “Nothing Is Impossible.” These songs were still deeply rooted in Scripture, but the language felt more conversational. It was as if someone had taken the Psalms and translated them into the vocabulary of youth groups, summer camps and church conferences.

This was also the era when Hillsong and similar worship movements became the unofficial soundtrack of Christian teenagers. Songs like “Mighty to Save,” “Oceans,” “One Way,” “Shout Hosanna,” “God So Loved,” and “Waymaker” filled youth rooms and school halls. They were simple enough to learn quickly, but big enough to feel like they carried the weight of the moment. A single chorus could turn into a room-wide declaration, shouted with eyes closed and hands raised just as generations before had done with “Amazing Grace.”

If you strip back the production and the crowd noise from these songs, what you find underneath is surprisingly consistent: Scripture reshaped into melody. “Here I Am to Worship” and “Open the Eyes of My Heart” lean heavily on the language of the Gospels and Paul’s letters about the glory of Christ. “10,000 Reasons” echoes the Psalms and their insistence on blessing the Lord “from everlasting to everlasting.” “How Great Is Our God” and “Our God” are sung meditations on the majesty and power of God found in passages like Isaiah, Romans and Revelation. “Shout to the Lord” picks up Psalm-like images of mountains bowing and seas roaring at the sound of God’s name, turning them into a chorus you can belt from the back row.

“Amazing Grace” traces the journey from lostness to being found, echoing Jesus’ parables about the lost sheep and the prodigal son. That same biblical backbone runs straight into newer worship favourites. “Goodness of God” tells the story of God’s faithfulness over a lifetime, drawing on verses about God’s steadfast love and the idea that goodness and mercy will follow us. “What a Beautiful Name” reflects on the divinity and humanity of Jesus, mirroring the theology of John’s Gospel and Philippians. “Who You Say I Am” turns identity verses into singable lines, reminding listeners that they are chosen, not forsaken. “Holy Forever” borrows the language of heaven’s worship scenes, picturing people and angels united in one song of praise.

Even songs that sound more like modern pop still carry that scriptural DNA. “I Speak Jesus” is essentially a prayer set to music, naming the authority of Jesus over fear, addiction and anxiety. “Waymaker” centres on God as a miracle worker, promise keeper and light in the darkness. “The Blessing” lifts the ancient priestly blessing from Numbers and reimagines it for modern congregations, letting generations sing words that have been spoken over God’s people for thousands of years. “There’s Nothing Our God Can’t Do,” “Graves Into Gardens,” “House of Miracles,” “Raise a Hallelujah,” “God So Loved,” and “I Thank God” all revolve around the same idea: when you sing these words, you are singing Scripture back to the God who first spoke it.

Modern worship is no longer defined by a single sound or place. It has become a global conversation, evident in the way genres and cultures intersect within the same worship playlist. For example, one might begin with the R&B energy of Mary Mary’s “Shackles (Praise You),” where praise is expressed through danceable freedom, and then transition to global anthems such as “Waymaker,” “Oceans,” “Our God,” and “God So Loved,” which are sung in both small churches and mega-churches worldwide.

From there, you might find yourself immersed in songs like “Graves Into Gardens,” “There’s Nothing Our God Can’t Do,” “House of Miracles,” “Raise a Hallelujah,” and “I Thank God,” where rock, gospel, pop and even a touch of indie all live together in the same worship set. The themes are familiar God’s power over death and despair, the possibility of transformation, the belief that prayer still changes things but the sounds are wonderfully varied. In one service, you might move from the gentle piano of “Good Good Father” into the roaring bridge of “Graves Into Gardens,” then end with a stripped-back “Amazing Grace” or “Here I Am to Worship” over quiet keys.

In the middle of all this, older favourites still weave their way in. “Open the Eyes of My Heart” might lead into “Goodness of God.” “Our God” may sit next to “Holy Forever,” linking an early-2000s worship sound with a more recent wave of reverent, soaring praise. The old and the new sit side by side, like “Shout to the Lord” following “Amazing Grace” or “I Speak Jesus” leading into “Waymaker.” It all adds up to one long, multi-genre prayer.

If you grew up in Aotearoa, another familiar voice in this story is Brooke Fraser. She is a uniquely Kiwi example of how Christian and “secular” music can coexist not only in the same person, but sometimes in the same songbook.

Fraser signed with a major label as a teenager and became one of New Zealand’s best-selling singer-songwriters through albums like What to Do with Daylight, Albertine, Flags and Brutal Romantic. Songs such as “Shadowfeet,” “Albertine,” and especially “Something in the Water” turned her into an international folk-pop success, with “Something in the Water” climbing charts across Europe as well as at home.

At the same time, Brooke was quietly shaping the sound of modern worship from inside Hillsong Worship. Under her married name, Brooke Ligertwood, she co-wrote and often led songs like “What a Beautiful Name,” “Who You Say I Am,” and “King of Kings,” and later released a solo worship record, Seven, that sits comfortably alongside her earlier pop work.

Brooke’s career shows that the so-called “two worlds” of Christian and secular music do not actually have to be at war. On one hand, she has songs that mainstream radio loves: tracks about love, justice, grief, travel and growing up, written with poetic honesty and not always naming God directly. On the other hand, she has explicitly worship-focused songs written for congregations to sing on Sundays. The same pen, the same voice, two different contexts.

For listeners, that coexistence can be freeing. You can listen to “Albertine” and hear a story shaped by faith and justice without it sounding like a worship chorus, then switch to “What a Beautiful Name” or “Who You Say I Am” and enter fully into a corporate worship moment. Both are true to who she is. Instead of seeing “Christian” and “secular” as two boxes that never touch, Brooke’s catalogue offers a more honest picture: a Christian artist making art for the whole of life, with some songs written as prayers and others written as observations, all coming from the same heart.

You can see that same “worship in unexpected places” idea in something as big as a whole country. New Zealand’s national anthem, “God Defend New Zealand | Aotearoa,” is literally written as a prayer.

The Māori verse opens with “E Ihowā Atua, ō ngā iwi mātou rā,” addressing God directly as Lord of the peoples and asking Him to hear us and show mercy. The English verses do the same thing in different words, calling God “God of Nations” and asking Him to defend our land, guard us from war, and protect the Pacific “triple star.”

Most of the time at sports games, we only sing the first Māori and first English verses, but the full, extended version goes even further. Later verses ask God to bless people of every creed and race, to guard Aotearoa from dissension, envy, hate and corruption, to keep the nation’s name free from shame, to give “plenty” and peace, and to guide New Zealand to “preach love and truth” among the nations. In other words, the anthem is not just patriotic; it is a sung intercession over the country. It is a reminder that, at least in its lyrics, New Zealand has literally chosen a worship song as one of its national signatures.

When you set that alongside songs like “Shout to the Lord,” “Goodness of God,” or “The Blessing,” it makes sense that Kiwis would be comfortable with worship language in public spaces. From stadiums to school assemblies, the anthem quietly keeps the idea alive that talking to God about our land is critical. 

Brooke is not the only artist to live in two musical worlds. Elvis spent much of his career singing rock ’n’ roll onstage while returning to hymns and gospel songs whenever he could. His three dedicated gospel albums show how seriously he took that side of his craft. His Hand in Mine leans into the quartet tradition he loved as a teenager. How Great Thou Art pushes further, placing his voice in front of choirs and more dramatic arrangements; the album won him his first Grammy for sacred performance. He Touched Me followed and earned another, meaning every competitive Grammy Elvis ever owned was for his Christian music, not for hits like “Hound Dog” or “Jailhouse Rock.”

Compilations like Amazing Grace and Peace in the Valley: The Complete Gospel Recordings gather studio tracks, outtakes and home recordings into one place, revealing just how often he returned to songs like “How Great Thou Art,” “Crying in the Chapel,” “He Touched Me,” “His Hand in Mine” and “Take My Hand, Precious Lord.” For many people, especially those who discovered “Amazing Grace” through his voice, Elvis functions a bit like Forrest Frank or Brooke Fraser do for a younger generation: a bridge between church music and “real life,” someone who shows that faith can sit inside the biggest pop culture moments without disappearing.

Into this streaming-driven world steps artists like Forrest Frank, who have grown up on both worship music and mainstream pop and are deliberately asking, “What does Christian music sound like on the internet?” His albums Child of God and Child of God II are packed with bright, beachy pop songs that talk unapologetically about Jesus, repentance and identity. Tracks such as “Goodbye Yesterday” and “Lemonade” sound like summer, but underneath the good vibes is a story of leaving old patterns behind and learning to walk as a child of God.

Social media is not just an add-on to his music; it is the main highway. When songs like “Your Way’s Better” and “God’s Got My Back” trend on TikTok, they carry worship lyrics straight into the For You page of people who may never walk into a church. For teenagers and twenty-somethings whose “room” is often a screen, artists like Forrest Frank show one way forward: use the same platforms and sounds everyone else is using, but do it with lyrics that are honest about Jesus, doubt, joy and surrender. In a way, he is doing what Elvis did with gospel and what Brooke does with worship, just in a new medium.

Another huge part of modern worship’s evolution is Christian rap and hip hop. For more than a decade, Christian hip hop has been growing into a serious force, with artists all over the world using beats and bars instead of guitars and choruses to talk about faith. For youth and young adults who instinctively connect more with 808s than with organs, hip hop becomes holy ground when someone starts rapping about grace, purpose and the presence of God.

In Aotearoa New Zealand, this is starting to take on its own distinctive flavour. Kiwi gospel and Christian rap voices are emerging from cities and small towns, using hip hop to tell hyper-local stories about God, family, mental health and hope. Within that landscape sit Christian rappers such as Mbongeni Ndebele, part of a new wave of artists who are comfortable taking the energy of hip hop and marrying it with unapologetically Christian lyrics. For young people, hearing someone with a similar accent and familiar references rap about Jesus can be a game-changer. Instead of feeling like they have to choose between their rap playlists and their faith, they can see their world reflected and redeemed in the same genre.

Put all these songs and stories side by side, and you get more than a random collection of Christian tracks you get a long, winding story of grace. “Amazing Grace,” carried from John Newton’s pen to Elvis’s microphone, demonstrates how a simple confession can transcend centuries and genres. Elvis’s gospel catalogue proves that faith can sit at the centre of a life the world mostly remembers for something else. Brooke Fraser shows that a Kiwi can write both thoughtful pop hits and congregational anthems without becoming a different person in each world. Forrest Frank demonstrates how to bring youth to Christ in the age of TikTok, meeting them where they already are. Mbongeni Ndebele and other Christian rappers demonstrate that hip hop can be a vehicle for hope rather than despair.

And standing over all of it, like a sung blessing at the beginning of a game or ceremony, is a whole nation quietly praying, “God defend New Zealand.”

The instruments have changed from organs and choirs to guitars and drum kits, from Elvis’s gospel choirs to Brooke’s folk-pop, from stadium worship to TikTok hooks and backyard rap sessions but the thread is the same. People encounter God, reach for Scripture, and then turn those encounters into songs. Those songs move from church to church, country to country, living room to living room, and eventually into your headphones as you walk through this Christmas season. Somewhere between “Shout to the Lord,” “Amazing Grace,” a Brooke Fraser chorus, an Elvis gospel track, a Forrest Frank hook, the words of the anthem, and a verse from Mbongeni Ndebele, you might discover a new favourite or hear an old one in a completely new way.