Planetshakers: Songs, Theology and a Catholic Review

Who Are Planetshakers?

Planetshakers is a contemporary worship band and the music ministry of Planetshakers Church in Melbourne, a congregation affiliated with the Australian Christian Churches, the Assemblies of God fellowship in Australia. The band records under its own label, Planetshakers Ministries International, and has released dozens of albums, most of them recorded live at its annual conference.

The founders are Russell and Sam Evans, who lead the church as senior pastors. The Age described Russell in 2007 as the son of Andrew Evans, the veteran Adelaide pastor who founded the Family First party. Before Melbourne, Russell served as youth pastor at his father's church, Paradise Church in Adelaide, and as national leader of the Australian Youth Alive movement, according to his biography at Oral Roberts University, where he sits on the board of trustees. Sam Evans is a worship leader, songwriter and preacher, and her voice has led the band since its early years.

In a 2024 interview with China Christian Daily, Russell Evans named churches in Melbourne, Singapore, Cape Town and Papua New Guinea, and The Alabama Baptist reported the same year that the church had campuses in Melbourne and abroad and people of 151 nationalities. The church also runs Planetshakers College, a youth ministry called Planetboom with its own band, and a community arm called Empower.

Its stated mandate, quoted by The Alabama Baptist, is "empowering generations to win generations". Everything about Planetshakers is built to reach the young.

Planetshakers Timeline, 1997 to 2026

Planetshakers grew from a youth conference in Adelaide into a global church and touring band in under three decades.

• 1997: The first Planetshakers conference is held at Paradise Community Church in Adelaide (now Futures Church), and a band is formed to lead its worship. Russell Evans told The Christian Post in 2014 that the first conference was funded when he asked the youth to give a week's wage, and that the offering reached $66,000.
• 2000: The band's first live album, When the Planet Rocked, is released.
• Early 2000s: Guy Sebastian sings in the Planetshakers band before winning the first season of Australian Idol in 2003.
• 2004: Russell and Sam Evans move to Melbourne and start the church, first known as Melbourne City Church, then Planetshakers City Church.
• April 2007: The Age reports that two Sunday services draw 3,000 people, ten times the first service in 2004, that more than 20,000 attended the January conference, and that the band sells 70,000 CDs a year.
• June 2007: The album Saviour of the World is released. It includes Healer, written by Michael Guglielmucci.
• August 2008: Guglielmucci admits he faked terminal cancer (see below).
• 2011: Nothing Is Impossible is released and becomes a signature song.
• 2014: Endless Praise: Live reaches No. 3 on Billboard's Heatseekers chart. The Spanish album Nada Es Imposible reaches the Billboard Latin Pop Albums chart. Russell Evans publishes The Honor Key.
• 2016 to 2017: Sé Quién Eres Tú, recorded with the Colombian group Su Presencia, earns a Dove Award nomination for Spanish Language Album of the Year.
• 2019: The youth band Planetboom releases its first album, Jesus Over Everything.
• January 2020: The church gives $252,875.89 to bushfire relief through Empower, forwarded to the Australian Red Cross, the Salvation Army, fire services in Victoria and an ACC bushfire fund, the Gospel Music Association reported.
• 2024: The church marks 20 years. Sam Evans tells The Alabama Baptist the church has seen 123,000 decisions for Jesus (the church's own count). The album Winning Team is released in July.
• 2025 to 2026: Yearly live albums continue, with recent arena events in Manila, Colombia and Peru.

What Do Planetshakers Sound Like, and Which Songs Matter Most?

Planetshakers sound like a stadium pop-rock band at full volume: fast tempos, big drums, gang vocals, dancers on stage, and long anthems built for jumping and shouting. Sam Evans told The Alabama Baptist in 2024 that the fast songs are for dancing, clapping and shouting, the slow ones for intimacy with God, and that the band wanted to "take back" dance for the Lord, with no apology.

The songs that carried the band around the world, with the Scripture beside them:

• Nothing Is Impossible (2011). The title echoes the angel's words to Mary at the Annunciation: "nothing will be impossible with God" (Luke 1:37), and Jesus' words in Matthew 19:26. A Catholic hears the first Joyful Mystery of the Rosary.
• The Anthem (2012). The Gospel Music Association named it in 2020 among the favourites the band takes on tour, alongside Endless Praise and Turn It Up.
• Endless Praise (2014). Praise that never stops, in the line of Psalm 34:1, "I will bless the Lord at all times."
• This Is Our Time (2014). The title track of the band's second live album that year; its video earned a Dove Award nomination for long form video.
• Heaven on Earth (2018). The title takes up the Our Father: thy will be done "on earth as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10).
• Winning Team (2024). Sam Evans said the album was about "the true winning team", the family of God, and a revelation "that God gives us overwhelming victory", language close to Romans 8:37.

Spanish and Portuguese recordings and Asian and Latin American tours carry the band far beyond English, alongside Australia's Hillsong Worship and Hillsong United.

What Does Planetshakers Church Teach?

Planetshakers Church teaches the classical Pentecostal doctrine of the Australian Christian Churches, with its own emphasis on encounter, honour and abundance. On the core of the Creed, Catholics and Planetshakers stand together.

The shared foundation

The ACC's published doctrinal basis confesses one God in three Persons, Jesus Christ the eternal Son "conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary", his atoning death and bodily resurrection, salvation by grace through repentance and faith, the return of Christ to judge the living and the dead, and the resurrection of the body. Every one of those lines is Catholic faith.

The Pentecostal distinctives

• Spirit baptism with tongues. The ACC teaches a baptism in the Holy Spirit that is "distinct from and subsequent to salvation" and "accompanied by the initial evidence of speaking in tongues". See our guide to speaking in tongues.
• Healing today. The ACC teaches that "God heals today through the atoning work of Jesus Christ" and calls believers to pray in faith for healing and miracles.
• Symbolic sacraments. Baptism is "a public declaration" of faith by immersion, and the Lord's Supper is "symbolic remembrance".

The Planetshakers emphases

• Honour. Russell Evans' book The Honor Key: Unlock a Limitless Life (2014) teaches that honour is a foundational truth of God's kingdom. He told The Christian Post that honouring God in obedience brings "breakthrough, blessing and generational inheritance".
• Seed giving. In the same interview he described asking young people to give a week's wage "to seed the conference", and traced the band's worldwide reach back to that seed.
• Encounter and empowerment. In 2024 he told China Christian Daily that his message centres on being "empowered by the Holy Spirit" and helping people "encounter the presence of God".
• Victory. The songs and albums repeat the language of winning, breakthrough, overflow and greater things.

For the tradition behind all this, see our guides to Pentecostalism and the Assemblies of God.

What Does a Catholic Review of Planetshakers' Theology Find?

A Catholic review finds songs mostly orthodox, enviably joyful, and thin in what they leave out. The serious differences lie in the church's teaching on the Spirit, the sacraments and money.

What is true

• Praise with the body is biblical. David danced before the ark "with all his might" (2 Samuel 6:14). The psalms command clapping (Psalm 47:1) and dancing (Psalm 149:3; Psalm 150:4). Singing and music serve the liturgy (CCC 1156-1158).
• Victory in Christ is real. "In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us" (Romans 8:37).
• Nothing is impossible with God. Gabriel said it to Mary (Luke 1:37).
• The Holy Spirit gives gifts. The Catechism teaches that charisms are graces of the Spirit for building up the Church, to be received "with gratitude" (CCC 799-800). Popes have encouraged the Catholic Charismatic Renewal for decades.

What is missing

• The cross and lament. A catalogue built on winning has little room for the believer who is losing. The Church sings Psalm 88, which ends in darkness, at Compline every week.
• Silence. God came to Elijah in "a still small voice" (1 Kings 19:12), and Scripture says "Be still, and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10). The Mass builds silence in.
• Repentance and the sacraments. The songs rarely mention confession, the Eucharist, Mary or the saints, so a Catholic who sings only these songs is formed by half a faith.

Where Catholic teaching differs

• Spirit baptism. The Catholic Church teaches that the Holy Spirit is given in Baptism and that Confirmation brings "an increase and deepening of baptismal grace" (CCC 1303). Tongues are a real charism (1 Corinthians 12:10), but the Church never makes them the required evidence of the Spirit. Paul asks, "Do all speak with tongues?" and expects the answer no (1 Corinthians 12:30).
• The sacraments are real. Catholics believe Christ is truly present in the Eucharist and that the sacraments give the grace they signify (CCC 1127; CCC 1374). Symbolic remembrance falls short of what Jesus said at the Last Supper (Luke 22:19-20; John 6:53-56).
• Giving and blessing. The Church asks every Catholic to help provide for the needs of the Church (CCC 2043), and Paul praises the cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:7). Teaching that frames giving as a seed for personal increase drifts toward the prosperity gospel. The Catechism calls Christians to poverty of heart and detachment from riches (CCC 2544-2547). Jesus praised the widow whose two coins bought her nothing (Mark 12:41-44).
• Healing and suffering. The Church prays for healing and anoints the sick, and teaches that "even the most intense prayers do not obtain the healing of all illnesses" (CCC 1508). Paul's thorn stayed (2 Corinthians 12:7-9). Lack of healing never proves lack of faith.
• Honour and authority. Scripture tells believers to honour their leaders (Hebrews 13:17). The Church also teaches that "no charism is exempt from being referred and submitted to the Church's shepherds" (CCC 801), and leaders themselves answer to an authority outside their own circle.

Can Catholics Sing Planetshakers Songs?

Yes. Catholics may sing Planetshakers songs whose words are true, in private prayer, youth groups and prayer meetings, judging each song on its text. At Mass the rules are stricter, and most of these songs do not fit the liturgy.

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 tells us to sing with joy. "Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth" (Psalm 100:1).
• Joy draws the young. The Age reported in 2007 that Melbourne's Catholic auxiliary bishop, Christopher Prowse, said the Church would do well to learn from Planetshakers' methods of reaching young people.
• The band itself has no documented scandal among its current leaders.

The case for caution

• Lex orandi, lex credendi. What we pray shapes what we believe (CCC 1124). A steady diet of victory songs can teach a young Catholic that a struggling Christian is a failing one.
• Volume and emotion. Bishop Prowse added in the same 2007 report: "We sell ourselves short if we simply put on a light show and call it worship." He said he was not accusing Planetshakers. St Augustine loved the hymns that made him weep (Confessions IX.6) and confessed that when the music moved him more than the words, he sinned (Confessions X.33).
• Where the money goes. Streams, downloads and concert tickets send money to the band's label and its church. Some Catholics decline to fund teaching on seed giving they reject. Respect that conscience.
• The forgotten treasury. The Second Vatican Council called the Church's music "a treasure of inestimable value" (Sacrosanctum Concilium 112).

At Mass

The Council gave Gregorian chant "pride of place" in the Roman liturgy, other things being equal (Sacrosanctum Concilium 116), and required that texts for sacred song "be in conformity with Catholic doctrine" and "drawn chiefly from holy scripture and from liturgical sources" (Sacrosanctum Concilium 121). The General Instruction of the Roman Missal repeats chant's pride of place and allows other music that fits the spirit of the liturgical action (GIRM 41). It forbids replacing the chants of the Order of Mass, such as the Agnus Dei, with other songs (GIRM 366). Sing Planetshakers at youth night. At Mass, sing the Mass.

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What Scandals and Controversies Has Planetshakers Faced?

One documented scandal is tied to the band: Michael Guglielmucci's 2008 cancer hoax. Beyond it, the record holds criticism of the church's style and teaching, and no documented finding of wrongdoing against Russell or Sam Evans.

The Michael Guglielmucci cancer hoax (2008)

Michael Guglielmucci was a former Planetshakers band member, and The Christian Post described him as a former youth pastor at Planetshakers City Church. He wrote the song Healer, which appeared on the Planetshakers album Saviour of the World (2007) and on the Hillsong album This Is Our God (2008).

On 24 August 2008 ABC News reported that Guglielmucci had faked a terminal form of leukaemia for two years "while preaching to the Planetshakers group in Melbourne and Adelaide", and that he had received donations for treatment. In a statement read by his father, Danny Guglielmucci, a founder of Edge Church in Adelaide, he said he had been addicted to pornography for 16 years, apologised to those he had misled and promised restitution. The Australian Christian Churches stood him down, and his father said donors could get their money back.

On 15 September 2008 The Christian Post, citing The Adelaide Advertiser, reported that South Australian police had tracked the donations but were unlikely to lay charges because no formal complaints had been made. Hillsong said it was "obviously shocked" and removed his footage from its DVD, and Brian Houston wrote that he too had been fooled. The reports place the deception on Guglielmucci himself.

Criticism of style and teaching

• "Christianity Lite". In April 2007 The Age wrote that critics "might dismiss its blend of self-help exhortations and pop sensibilities as Christianity Lite". The same report noted members' traditional morals.
• Prosperity language. Critics of Australian Pentecostalism place the church's talk of seed offerings, increase and breakthrough near the prosperity gospel. Its published doctrine says nothing about wealth, and its record includes real giving: Russell Evans told China Christian Daily in 2024 that its feeding programme had provided the equivalent of three million meals over three years.

Credit where it is due: for a band nearly three decades old, Planetshakers' leadership has no documented scandal of its own that we could verify.

Our Verdict: Should a Catholic Listen to Planetshakers?

Yes, with your eyes open. Planetshakers is one of the most joyful bands in the worship world, and its best songs say true things about God loudly and gladly. Its weakness is what it leaves out, and its church's teaching on Spirit baptism, the sacraments and seed giving parts from Catholic faith.

• Where it helps: exuberant praise, a strong sense that Christ has won, songs that pull teenagers off the couch and into worship, and a band record without documented scandal among its leaders.
• Where to be careful: a steady diet of victory with almost no lament, the absence of the Eucharist and confession, a church culture of seed giving, and an emotional intensity that can feel like God's presence when it is only volume.

What Catholic Music Should You Play Beside Planetshakers?

Put Catholic artists and the Church's chant beside Planetshakers so your playlist forms you in the whole faith.

• Matt Maher. A Catholic songwriter whose songs, such as Your Grace Is Enough and Lord, I Need You, are sung in Catholic and evangelical churches alike.
• Fr Rob Galea. An Australian Catholic priest and singer who auditioned for The X Factor Australia in 2015, serves in the Diocese of Sandhurst in Victoria, and leads high-energy youth worship. Start here if you love the Planetshakers sound.
• Sarah Hart. A Catholic songwriter whose songs are sung in parishes and at youth conferences.
• Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist. The Ann Arbor sisters' recordings, such as Mater Eucharistiae, bring sung prayer and chant to a wide audience.
• Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles. The Missouri nuns' chant albums, such as Advent at Ephesus, have topped Billboard's classical charts.
• Gregorian chant. The Church's own song, with "pride of place" in the Roman liturgy (Sacrosanctum Concilium 116). Start with the Salve Regina and the Pange Lingua.
• Audrey Assad's earlier albums. Fortunate Fall and Inheritance were written while she was Catholic and remain beautiful Catholic prayer. In 2021 she said publicly that she no longer identifies as Christian, as the National Catholic Reporter covered, so listen to the songs on their merits.

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What Can Every Believer Learn From Planetshakers?

Planetshakers teaches that joy is a duty, that the young come when the Church speaks to them, and that a crowd needs deep roots.

• Joy is a command. "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice" (Philippians 4:4). Many Catholics sing at Mass as if under protest. Sing this Sunday with your whole voice.
• Speak the language of the young. Russell Evans told The Age in 2007 that young people come when you "speak their language". St Paul became "all things to all people" (1 Corinthians 9:22). Ask what your parish is doing for its teenagers, and offer to help.
• A song cannot carry you through every season. When grief comes, you need the psalms of lament, the Rosary, the Mass and a confessor. Build those habits while the music is still loud.
• Hidden sin always comes out. "Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed" (Luke 12:2). Go to confession this week. No one knows the day or the hour (Mark 13:32).

How Do You Build a Joyful Catholic Worship Habit This Week?

Take the joy of Planetshakers into Catholic prayer for seven days. Fifteen minutes a day, starting today.

1. Day 1, Nothing Is Impossible. Read Luke 1:26-38. Pray the first Joyful Mystery of the Rosary, the Annunciation, and hand God the one thing you think is impossible.
2. Day 2, Endless Praise. Pray Psalm 34 aloud. Write down ten gifts from today.
3. Day 3, Heaven on Earth. Pray the Our Father slowly, stopping at "thy kingdom come". Do one hidden act of service.
4. Day 4, lament. Pray Psalm 88. Sit in silence for five minutes with someone else's suffering.
5. Day 5, the Spirit. Pray "Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love." Renew your Confirmation promises.
6. Day 6, the true victory. Read Romans 8:31-39. Make an examination of conscience and book your confession.
7. Day 7, the Mass. Go to Sunday Mass. Sing the Gloria and the Sanctus with all the joy you bring to a concert.

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