Jesus Culture: Songs, Theology and a Catholic Review

What Is Jesus Culture?

Jesus Culture is a revival movement that runs conferences, a worship band and record label called Jesus Culture Music, schools, and local churches in Sacramento, San Diego and Cambridge in England. Its stated aim is to see revival "in our day", and its Sacramento church sums up its mission as encountering God, empowering people and engaging the city, as Banning Liebscher told CCM Magazine in January 2016.

The movement began with a youth group. In the summer of 1999 the youth ministry Liebscher led at Bethel Church hosted the first Jesus Culture conference. About 500 came, by Jesus Culture's own count. The conferences grew every year, and by the late 2000s Jesus Culture albums were spreading far beyond Redding.

The core of the original band came out of that youth group. Chris Quilala had been part of it since he was fourteen in 1996, and Liebscher told CCM that Quilala was in his wedding at that age. Kim Walker (later Kim Walker-Smith) arrived in Redding at eighteen, graduated from the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry, and became a Bethel worship pastor. Melissa How, Kristene DiMarco, Bryan and Katie Torwalt, Chris McClarney and Derek Johnson followed. In the RELEVANT feature marking the movement's 25th year in April 2025, Derek Johnson and Marie Welch spoke for the current team.

Jesus Culture cannot be understood without Bethel. Liebscher spent eighteen years on Bethel's staff, according to his publisher, and the movement still carries Bethel's charismatic, revival-centred faith. Our review of Bethel Music and Bethel Church and our profile of Bill Johnson cover that church's teaching in full. This page stays with Jesus Culture.

Jesus Culture Timeline, 1999 to 2026

The dated milestones, from Jesus Culture's own history, Wikipedia's sourced entries and the music press.

• Summer 1999: Banning Liebscher's youth group at Bethel Church, Redding, hosts the first Jesus Culture conference.
• 2005: Jesus Culture holds its first event outside Redding, in Atlanta, and its first international event, in England. A gathering in Melbourne, Australia follows in 2006.
• 2006: The first album, Everything, is released. Kim Walker-Smith told CCM it was all covers, made so conference youth could worship at home.
• 2007: We Cry Out includes Kim Walker's live cover of John Mark McMillan's How He Loves.
• 2008: Your Love Never Fails is released, and Jesus Culture becomes a wider movement with a full-time team.
• 2010: Come Away includes Rooftops and Chris Quilala's lead on One Thing Remains.
• 2011: Jesus Culture holds its first arena gathering in Chicago, which it says drew 14,000 people, and releases Awakening: Live from Chicago, with Kristene DiMarco leading Break Every Chain. Bryan and Katie Torwalt release Here on Earth, with their song Holy Spirit.
• 2013: Jesus Culture announces its move to Sacramento to plant a church.
• 14 September 2014: Jesus Culture Sacramento holds its first meetings, at Folsom High School.
• December 2014: Chris and Alyssa Quilala's son Jethro is stillborn. Their song Miracles appears on Let It Echo (January 2016).
• February 2016: Francesca Battistelli's recording of the Torwalts' Holy Spirit wins a Grammy.
• 2016 and 2020: Banning Liebscher publishes Rooted: The Hidden Places Where God Develops You and The Three-Mile Walk.
• December 2018: Living With a Fire, recorded live in Sacramento, earns the band its first Grammy nomination, for Best Contemporary Christian Music Album.
• 2020: The live albums Church, Volumes 1 and 2, are recorded with the Sacramento congregation.
• 2021: Jesus Culture San Diego launches.
• 2024 to 2025: Sounds from the House, Vol. 1 is released; RELEVANT reports in April 2025 that the movement is focusing on its local churches.

What Does Jesus Culture Sound Like, and Which Songs Matter Most?

Jesus Culture plays arena worship: loud guitars, long builds, repeated choruses and spontaneous singing the movement calls prophetic worship. Its albums mix originals with covers, so many songs credited to Jesus Culture were written elsewhere. Here are the ones that matter most, with the Scripture under each.

• How He Loves (written by John Mark McMillan; Jesus Culture version 2007). Kim Walker heard McMillan lead it in Charlotte and brought it to Liebscher, she told Cross Rhythms; her video has passed 27 million YouTube views, per Wikipedia. God's overwhelming love, as in Romans 5:8.
• Your Love Never Fails (Anthony Skinner and Chris McClarney; 2008). God's enduring love, from 1 Corinthians 13:8 and Lamentations 3:22-23.
• Rooftops (Jonathan Berlin, Lindsey Sweat and Ben Williams; 2010). Surrender and public praise, in the spirit of Matthew 10:27.
• One Thing Remains (Brian Johnson, Jeremy Riddle and Christa Black Gifford). Jesus Culture first released it on Come Away (2010) with Chris Quilala leading, Bethel Music recorded it in 2011, and Passion's version with Kristian Stanfill reached No. 1 on Billboard's Hot Christian Songs chart. Psalm 136 and Romans 8:38-39 in modern form.
• Break Every Chain (Will Reagan; Jesus Culture version 2011). First recorded by Will Reagan and United Pursuit in 2009, it spread through Kristene DiMarco's live lead and Tasha Cobbs's 2012 gospel hit. Isaiah 61:1 and Acts 16:26 lie under it.
• Holy Spirit (Bryan and Katie Torwalt; 2011). A prayer for the Spirit's presence, spread everywhere by Francesca Battistelli's Grammy-winning cover. Catholics have prayed the same request for over a thousand years in the Veni Creator Spiritus.
• Fierce (Chris Quilala, Joshua Silverberg and Mia Fieldes; 2016). God's love pursuing the sinner, as in Luke 15. Nominated for Worship Song of the Year at the 2017 Dove Awards.
• Freedom (2018, led by Kim Walker-Smith on Living With a Fire). Freedom in the Spirit, from 2 Corinthians 3:17.

The great Jesus Culture songs are love songs to God and prayers for the Spirit. That is their strength, and it shows what a Catholic needs to add.

What Does Jesus Culture Teach?

Jesus Culture teaches the historic core of evangelical faith (the Trinity, Christ's divinity, his saving death and resurrection, the authority of Scripture) inside a charismatic theology of revival learned at Bethel. Four emphases define it.

Revival in our day

The movement's own statement says it is "not satisfied to read about revivals of old" and longs to see one now. Liebscher's Rooted (2016) is about God forming a person in hidden seasons, and The Three-Mile Walk (2020) is about courage and holiness.

Encounter with God's love

The songs and the conferences aim at a felt encounter with God's love. Kim Walker-Smith has told how, during a hard season at Bethel, she received a vision of God's love for her and was changed by it, as her Jesus Culture biography recorded.

Power and healing

Jesus Culture expects signs to follow. Its history describes its first Atlanta event in 2005 as a time when young people "took healing to the streets", and Kim Walker-Smith has said her heart's desire is to see God's power set people free and heal them.

Every believer a leader

Liebscher told CCM in 2016 that the church believes "every believer is a leader who has been called to change the world".

Behind all of this sits Bethel's distinctive teaching: that healing is always God's will, that apostles and prophets lead the Church today, and that believers can do Jesus' works by the Spirit. Researchers place Bethel within the New Apostolic Reformation, a label Bethel's leaders dispute. Our Bethel Music review sets out those teachings and the Catholic response in detail.

How Does Jesus Culture's Theology Hold Up Against Catholic Teaching?

Jesus Culture's theology holds up well on God's love and the Holy Spirit, says little about the sacraments, and differs from Catholic teaching on authority, discernment and suffering.

What is true

• God loves you first. "We love because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19). How He Loves, Your Love Never Fails and Fierce sing the Gospel's starting point.
• The Holy Spirit is a Person to be welcomed. The Torwalts' Holy Spirit is a sung epiclesis, the calling down of the Spirit the priest makes over the gifts at Mass. The Catechism teaches that charisms, "extraordinary or simple and humble", are graces of the Spirit for building up the Church (CCC 799-800).
• Christ breaks chains. Break Every Chain proclaims the liberty of Isaiah 61 that Jesus read at Nazareth (Luke 4:18), the freedom the Church gives in Baptism and confession.
• Young people can be on fire for God. "Let no one despise your youth" (1 Timothy 4:12). Every parish should take teenagers this seriously.

What is missing

• The Eucharist. The Church calls the Eucharist "the source and summit of the Christian life" (CCC 1324). A movement that seeks God's presence rarely sings of where Catholics find it most fully: the altar.
• Repentance and confession. The songs celebrate freedom and love. They say less about sin, contrition and the mercy of absolution.
• The communion of saints. Mary and the saints, the "great cloud of witnesses" (Hebrews 12:1), are absent.
• Lament. The honest exception is Miracles, written by the Quilalas after their son's death; Chris Quilala told CCM they chose to praise God in that loss. Catholics should honour it.

Where Catholic teaching differs

• Encounter is a gift and a poor measure. Faith is an act of the intellect and will moved by grace (CCC 155). A Catholic who feels nothing at Mass has still received Christ. Worship built to produce an encounter every time trains believers to judge faith by feeling.
• Visions and prophetic words are tested by the Church. Private revelations never add to the deposit of faith (CCC 67), and "no charism is exempt from being referred and submitted to the Church's shepherds" (CCC 801). Spontaneous prophetic singing has no such check.
• Healing is God's free gift. The Church prays boldly for the sick and also teaches that "even the most intense prayers do not obtain the healing of all illnesses" (CCC 1508). Lack of healing never means lack of faith.
• Revival comes through the Church's ordinary means. Christ gave the Church its apostles in the bishops who succeed them (CCC 861-862), and the sacraments are the ordinary channels of grace. The saints, from Francis of Assisi to the Curé of Ars, led revivals through preaching, confession and the Mass.

For more, read our guides to spiritual gifts and the Catholic Charismatic Renewal.

Can Catholics Sing Jesus Culture Songs?

Yes, Catholics may sing Jesus Culture songs whose words are true, in private prayer, youth groups, prayer meetings and many parish events, judging each by its text. At Mass the rules are stricter.

The case for singing them

• Truth belongs to Christ wherever it is spoken. The Church recognises "many elements of sanctification and of truth" outside her visible structure (CCC 819).
• Scripture commands song. Paul urges believers to sing "psalms and hymns and spiritual songs" (Colossians 3:16). Holy Spirit and One Thing Remains fit that description.
• Catholic youth already pray this way. Many young Catholics first prayed from the heart with these songs.

The case for caution

• Lex orandi, lex credendi. What we pray shapes what we believe (CCC 1124). A playlist with no Eucharist, no Mary and no confession slowly teaches that those things are extras.
• The spontaneous sections. Improvised lines between verses carry unchecked teaching. Sing the written song.
• Feeling as the target. St Augustine wept at the hymns of Milan (Confessions IX.6) yet confessed that when music moved him more than the words, he sinned (Confessions X.33).
• The treasury going unsung. The Second Vatican Council called the Church's musical heritage "a treasure of inestimable value" (Sacrosanctum Concilium 112).

The rules at Mass

The Council gave Gregorian chant "pride of place" in the Roman liturgy while allowing other kinds of sacred music that fit the spirit of the liturgical action (Sacrosanctum Concilium 116; General Instruction of the Roman Missal 41). Texts sung at Mass must be "in conformity with Catholic doctrine" and drawn "chiefly from holy scripture and from liturgical sources" (Sacrosanctum Concilium 121). And the General Instruction forbids replacing the chants of the Order of Mass, such as the Agnus Dei, with other songs (GIRM 366). A song like Holy Spirit might suit some parish moments, at the pastor's judgment. No song can stand in for the Gloria, the Sanctus or the Lamb of God.

Has Jesus Culture Had Any Scandals or Controversies?

As of October 2026 we found no documented financial, abuse or misconduct scandal involving Jesus Culture or Banning Liebscher in major news reporting. That deserves to be said plainly and to the band's credit, in an industry where many ministries cannot say the same. The real debates are theological and pastoral.

The Bethel connection

Most criticism of Jesus Culture is criticism of Bethel Church: its teaching on healing, prophecy and modern apostles, and the controversies Bethel has faced, from the public prayers for Olive Heiligenthal's resurrection in December 2019 to the 2025 and 2026 fallout over Shawn Bolz. Those events belong to Bethel, and our Bethel Music review covers them with sources and Bethel's responses. Jesus Culture has operated as its own movement since 2008 and has had its own church since 2014. It shares Bethel's roots, so judge it on its own record.

Some online critics go much further. Their claims rest on opinion pieces and social-media posts, and we do not repeat them. The eighth commandment binds us to say only what is documented.

Critics of the sound and the lyrics

Christianity Today's review of Awakening: Live from Chicago (November 2011) granted that the heart was genuine and the live production stellar, but said the loud sound left little room for reflection and that the lyrics lacked theological depth. Jesus Freak Hideout praised the same album's open passion for God. Liebscher's own answer, given to CCM in 2016, is that every album is "a gift we are giving to God" and that sales and reach do not define success.

Departures

Kim Walker-Smith, for two decades the band's best-known voice, has left. She explained on RELEVANT's podcast that she had been with Jesus Culture for 21 years and that she and her husband sensed God moving them on, and she continues as a solo artist. No wrongdoing has been reported by anyone in connection with her departure.

Our Verdict: Where Jesus Culture Helps and Where to Be Careful

Our verdict: Jesus Culture is one of the more trustworthy names in charismatic worship, with a clean public record and a catalogue of heartfelt songs about God's love and the Holy Spirit, carried by a Bethel theology that a Catholic must read with discernment. On a scale of how easily its best songs fit Catholic prayer, we rate it well, with clear cautions.

• Where it helps: songs that teach young believers to speak to God with love and confidence; a strong sense that the Holy Spirit acts; a team that has kept its integrity for over 25 years; and a recent turn toward ordinary local church life that Catholics should welcome.
• Where to be careful: spontaneous prophetic sections; an implied link between strong faith and visible miracles; a near-total silence about the sacraments; and the pull to chase the feeling of the conference over the faithfulness of Sunday.
• Best songs for Catholic prayer: Holy Spirit, One Thing Remains, Your Love Never Fails and Break Every Chain.

Compare this verdict with the rest of the series on the worship bands reviewed hub, where every band is rated by the same test.

What Catholic Worship Music Should You Add to Your Playlist?

Keep the best Jesus Culture songs and add Catholic music that carries what they leave out: the Eucharist, Mary, the saints and the Church's own voice.

• Matt Maher. A Catholic songwriter in the contemporary worship world, so the sound feels familiar. His Lord, I Need You is sung in Catholic and Protestant churches alike.
• Sarah Hart. A Catholic composer whose songs are written for parish worship and Catholic devotion.
• The Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist. Their recordings of hymns and Marian chant reached the top of the classical charts and bring cloistered prayer into your car.
• The Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles. A community of sisters in Missouri whose chant albums, such as Advent at Ephesus, have reached wide audiences.
• Gregorian chant. The Church's own song, given "pride of place" by the Council (SC 116). Start with the Salve Regina, the Veni Creator Spiritus and the Ubi Caritas. If you love the Torwalts' Holy Spirit, the Veni Creator is its thousand-year-old ancestor.
• Catholic charismatic renewal music. If the Spirit-filled style is what drew you to Jesus Culture, look to music from Catholic charismatic conferences and renewal communities, where the same openness to the Spirit sits beside Eucharistic adoration.
• Audrey Assad's earlier albums. Fortunate Fall (2013) and Inheritance (2016) were written from her Catholic faith and are rich in Scripture and tradition. Be aware that she announced in 2021 that she no longer practises the faith, as the National Catholic Reporter reported. Pray for her.

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What Jesus Culture's Story Teaches Every Believer

Jesus Culture's story teaches that hunger for God is a gift, that a movement lasts only when it puts down roots, and that every believer needs the Church to anchor what they feel in worship.

• Hunger is holy. "As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God" (Psalm 42:1). Do you still want God the way those teenagers in Redding did? Ask him today to stir that desire again.
• Roots before fruit. Liebscher's book Rooted makes a point every saint would affirm: God forms us in hidden places first. For a Catholic those hidden places are daily prayer, the examen and the tabernacle.
• Movements need homes. Jesus Culture discovered that conferences were not enough and planted a church. Catholics already have one in every town. Stop waiting for the next conference and go to your parish.
• Do not wait. No one knows the day or the hour (Mark 13:32). If you have been living off old worship highs, make a good confession this week. Our step-by-step guide to confession makes it simple.

A Seven-Day Worship Habit: From the Youth Night to the Altar

Take seven Jesus Culture songs and root each one in Catholic prayer. Fifteen minutes a day, starting today. By the end of the week you will sing these songs as a Catholic, with the whole faith underneath them.

1. Day 1, Holy Spirit. Pray the Veni Creator Spiritus or "Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful." Read Acts 2:1-13. Ask the Spirit for one gift you need this week.
2. Day 2, How He Loves. Read Romans 5:6-11. Sit in silence for five minutes and let God love you without saying anything.
3. Day 3, Break Every Chain. Make a full examination of conscience. Write down the chain you keep returning to and book your confession.
4. Day 4, Your Love Never Fails. Read 1 Corinthians 13. Do one hidden act of love for someone who cannot repay you.
5. Day 5, One Thing Remains. Pray Psalm 136 aloud. After each line, name one way God has been faithful to you.
6. Day 6, Fierce. Read Luke 15:1-7. Pray by name for someone who has wandered from the faith.
7. Day 7, the altar. Go to Mass. Arrive ten minutes early, kneel before the tabernacle, and tell Jesus that the presence you sought in every song is here.

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