The Big Worship Four: Jesus Culture
This article is part of a series on worship music, in which I cover four modern churches and their influence on the genre: Bethel, Planetshakers, Jesus Culture, and Hillsong.
Jesus Culture Music Artists 2025, photo by Lexiford, source: Wikimedia Commons
Jesus Culture
The good guys.
Jesus Culture is the one from The Big Worship Four that I would say I’m familiar with less. Therefore this text will be shorter and highly subjective.
Jesus Culture strikes me as the most straightforward project of The Big Worship Four. The band, which was originally part of Bethel Church, was until recently pretty much the same the whole time, rotating 3-5 main singers; the music stays (with just a few attempts to explore) in its firm form and the whole feeling from Jesus Culture is - in a good way - pretty normal.
So why include Jesus Culture in the Big Worship Four?
Two things: songs, and voices.
Let’s simplify a bit:
- Hillsong are the innovators.
- Planetshakers are the Bruno Mars of the party.
- Bethel are the worshippers.
- And Jesus Culture are the great voices.
Kim
Each of The Big Worship Four has a handful of decent singers. But they are all pale when Kim Walker-Smith kicks out a song. I like to say that this is the sound of Adele as if Adele didn’t have to prove anything (meaning, Adele has a great voice, but for my taste she’s trying too hard).
So Kim Walker-Smith as a singer rocks. Funny observation - I thought she had a typical rock voice, but listen to “Rooftops (Oh Snap It’s Luke Remix)”, where her voice links very naturally with electronic dance music sound. That tells you something about what kind of singer she is.
I also very much like her solo album Home, with a completely different, acoustic and very intimate atmosphere. The songs “Unstoppable Love“ and “Christ the Rock” from this album are for me on the top of all Jesus Culture music.
Chris
Chris Quilala is another important name linked with Jesus Culture. Although he’s not very much a singer as I like them, he’s a brilliant songwriter with a specific style that provides the heart to Jesus Culture music. Where other worship songwriters often reflect trending genres, Chris Quilala seems to almost ignore not just trends, but even the genres themselves — not in a way of combining them, but as if he’s using a very raw and simple, yet highly functional formula to bring classical sounding hymnic songs with huge choruses.
That said, this simplicity is from time to time cut with subtle original refreshment, like the build-up in “Pour Over Me” which goes with some nice and smooth linking to the rest of the song and powerful melodic variations.
Katie
Katie Torwalt is this beautiful worship leader that you look at and think, OK she’s very pretty, so I’ll cut her some slack with the singing. And truly the way she sings is not the way you would expect it to be. Katie T’s singing was something I had to put some time into, but eventually I discovered one of the most interesting and full-of-character voices in the worship music space.
My favourite Katie song is “Flood the Earth”. Which by the way is also the bomb when it comes to drumming — it used to be the last song of my drums practice sessions for a long time.
… and others
But it’s not just the singers. There is the guitarist Jeffrey Kunde who has the image of the rocking dude next door, but in fact his playing is tasty, mature and for-the-song. Always happy to analyze his parts. Or the drummer Josh Fisher providing a very based and great sounding floor. His low tuned and widely reverbed snare is legendary even among Bethel’s drummers who invented the low tuned and widely reverbed snare sound! - just kidding, I can’t know that. 😁
I’m a fan of most of the Jesus Culture music. I appreciate the simple yet specific songwriting in combination with awesome voices. Their recognizable sound and heart are the stable reminder of what worship music stands for.
Recommended albums: Come Away (2010) Home (Kim Walker-Smith & Skyler Smith) (2013) Love Has a Name (2017) Why Not Right Now (2023)
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