Worship Teams

The Transformation of Christian Music w/ Sanctus Real

Sanctus Real members Chris Rohman and Dustin Lolli joined Loop Community Founder Matt McCoy to talk about how they’ve seen worship music change since the 1990s, their new music, and songwriting.

How Christian Music Has Changed

[Matt] You’ve been a part of christian music over the last 30 years. There have been eras and seasons and you’ve gotten to see it change a lot. I think there’s a lot of good things that are happening now, but is there anything you think we’ve neglected that we need to get back to?

[Chris] We saw a lot of changes in Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) over the years. We were never considered a “worship band” as Sanctus Real. But I think if your heart is to express the joy that God has brought you, if you use the talents He’s given you, and if it’s all directed towards Him, it should be considered worship. It might not be what the Church has come to know as modern worship today, but we’re getting into this new season and our heart has always been for worship. I think things are starting to merge a lot more with modern worship music. If the heart is there, I love it when the songs that we write that might not be what are considered straight up “worship songs”, are used in worship environments.

[Dustin] I still lead a lot of worship, and there’s a lot of young worship leaders that I lead with. Something I think is missing is a lot of songs that are being written is very “me” based. I think a lot of the songs from 30 years ago were songs of reverence. “How Great Is Our God”, these songs where it doesn’t matter your situation, God is the same, He’s big. There’s a certain level of humility in our singing when we don’t come into it at all. I think a lot of modern songs feel like we’re saying “Look what the Creator can do for me”. There’s a balance to this, because you want to express from where you’re at, but at some point it starts to feel inward focused. We need to remember that God is the same whether we’re benefiting or not.

“The Difference”

[Matt] You just released a great new song called “The Difference”. Tell us about it!

[Dustin] Something that has been on all of our hearts the last few years is hopefulness. We travel church to church and meet a lot of people, and it feels like people in the church are hopeless. You talk to people and their believers, but they’re struggling day to day. We have said “God, if we can speak hope into people’s lives in this next season as a band, that’s what we want to do.”

So this song came from that idea, talking through if we didn’t believe in Jesus, where would we be? It’s not just that He’s making everything better, it’s that we believe in something that goes beyond the situation. The difference in who we are, how we think, how we talk and how we love is really because we believe in something greater. This song is incredibly hopeful because it relies on our faith and our belief in Him.

Watch the full interview below!

You can download the Master Tracks for “The Difference” to lead the song at your church on LoopCommunity.com.