Backstory

Our Complex Christian Roots

Institutionalized Christianity has been going through a massive shaking these past years. Escapism has been put to the challenge by realism. Sacred vs Secular dualism by a more integrated approach to life. Status quo by social activism. Judgmentalism by compassion. Exclusion by inclusion. Patriarchy by gender equality. Hierarchy by egalitarianism. Racism by the flourishing of BIPOC leadership. Colonization by the rise of former colonies, both geographic and spiritual. The building and the leveraging of ‘spiritual brands’ for mass-influence by a call to return to the way of Jesus, the way of servanthood.

On the opposite end of the spectrum we are witnessing the brash doubling down of White Christian Nationalism, its misrepresentation of the teachings of Jesus, its rabid pursuit of political power, and the polarity that it has created in our world. In all of this, an emerging generation of forward-thinking songwriters, artists and thought leaders have been experiencing an increasing disconnect from the religious industrial complex, the ‘overground’, and been finding respite in what we call the ‘spiritual underground’. They’ve concluded that it is not going to be possible to rewrite the narrative using the existing operating system, and have been digging deep in search of a theological imagination that could prevent Empire from being replaced with yet another version of Empire. Despite the challenges, their voices are crucial, with the potential to help us grab a hold of the future and drag it into the present.

Virtual Library

With all of this in mind, Common Hymnal was created as a digital hymnal - a virtual library to help people navigate uncertain times, offering safe passage into the future through insightful content from the spiritual underground. It was the first step forward, the seed that has since grown into a constellation of partner ventures under the wider ‘common’ banner.

We started off by treasure-hunting the periphery of the Christian world for displaced creatives whose voices had been overlooked or silenced. When we invited some of them into a series of songwriting camps, strangers soon became collaborators, conversations became songs, and songs became shared experiences. In the warmth of those gatherings, a new creative ecosystem began to take root - reshaping how art, faith, and justice could intersect.

That spark gave birth to this site: part hymnal, part storytelling hub. While the songs lit the way, the ideas and cross-currents among these creatives were too rich not to blog.

As the movement grew, the music needed a broader container. This led to the launch of Common Exchange, our record label, and the distribution of our catalog across a wider array of digital platforms. Still, this site remains the central archive, charting the journey from those first get togethers to a fully realized platform where the work can live, evolve, and keep speaking to the world.

Along the way, we’ve been able to curate a catalog that centers life, justice, and spirituality; embodies love, joy, dignity, honesty, and empathy; comforts the disheartened and emboldens the courageous; and carries both praise and protest. To be clear, we see protest as love-driven resistance that exposes and disrupts injustice, and not the petty hostility of online discourse. True justice work requires depth, maturity and a vision that seeks transformation and dignity for everyone, including those who cause harm.

Our contributors are not only attuned to the work of justice, restoration, and reparation, but they also hold to the conviction that activism should aim for a world where people can truly flourish - not merely survive. In this regard, celebrating joy, hope, and love is just as essential to this anthology as naming what is broken.

Spiritual Underground

To conceptualize the spiritual underground, it’s helpful to first envision the overground: the prominent network of churches, ministries, and institutions that define the public face of Christianity. In contrast, the underground occupies the margins - less visible, less formal - where unconventional and unlikely candidates live and serve together, finding common ground outside the mainstream.

Historically, these misfits have been pioneers - champions of authenticity, honesty, and original thought. Though their efforts have often seemed scrappy, they have been remarkably consequential, catalyzing new ideas and initiatives that have ultimately found their way into the overground.

In recent history, the term ‘underground’ has been used to describe the unregistered church in China, where believers must choose between joining the state-sanctioned church or building community outside that closely monitored system to avoid being forced into a constant state of compromise. More broadly, the distinction between overground and underground often hinges on how communities negotiate with power.

For most of the last two thousand years, the overground has been shaped by theology. In a surprising turn in recent years, dogma has given way to personality and production. By contrast, the underground resists both rigid doctrine and flashy pop religion, leaning instead into the sociology of how people gather, relate, and create together.

Like athletics where you can run track or play team sports, creativity can be solo or collaborative. In the underground’s collaborative culture, most of our contributors are team players, fostering a vibrant community and an infectious, irrepressible ‘party spirit.’

As with everything human, few matters are purely black and white - nuance, contradiction, and compromise abound. Many who serve in the overground identify with the underground, and they are welcome here. That said, their involvement carries a potential vulnerability: with all the goodwill in the world, we cannot risk being drawn into a tug of war with them if their involvement with us creates relational tension for them with their home communities.

Construct And Culture

A great deal of thought has gone into the building of this enterprise, and it usually takes time, proximity, and curiosity to fully comprehend the quirks and idiosyncrasies of our culture. We’ve spelled out as much as we can in this backstory, but some things are simply better ‘felt than telt.’ Hence our resolve to build new relationships slowly and carefully.

We named the project a hymnal intentionally, rooted in its beginnings as a song initiative within the spiritual space. From the start, however, we never intended the name to confine us to worship music or any single genre. Our gaze has always been wider - on the full scope of life and struggle - and on the work required to honor it with heart, courage, and care.

That said, we do receive invitations to send teams to events, including to lead worship. While live events were not part of the original plan, they have become a vital extension of our work. We approach these invites seriously, aware that we steward a catalog of songs that can not only help people navigate life’s complexities but also help broaden the communal worship experience. From a song publisher’s perspective, there is no better way to share music than in person, where songs can be felt, breathed and experienced.

Our role as an aggregator is deliberately blurry. Think of us like any other curator in your life: your favorite coffee bar hosting a weekly open mic, your local library presenting a monthly reading, or a tastemaker compiling your favorite playlist.

The margins, too, are blurry, and often messy - just like life itself. Our contributors’ lives, art and interpretations of scripture do not always fit neatly within mainstream Christianity. They are all at different points in their faith journeys, lifestyles, and efforts to address the world’s injustices. Being a part of our community is not gated by orthodoxy, but by relationship, shared vision, and courage.

The conception of this project dates back to the 1980s South African anti-apartheid struggle, making anti-racism and anti-colonialism our guiding ‘true north’. Yet our contributors also engage a broader range of harms: xenophobia, homophobia, sexual abuse, war, gun violence, institutional oppression, exploitative capitalism, mass incarceration, capital punishment, and environmental destruction.

In any initiative like this, certain styles, genres, and emphases naturally rise to the surface. Over time, we have developed our own personality and subculture, shaped by our journeys, shared experiences, and collective taste. A quick browse of this site will make clear the kind of art we value.

Ethnology

The 1960s gave rise to two major spiritual movements in America: the Civil Rights movement and the Contemporary Worship movement. Both spread globally, yet largely ran along parallel tracks with very little meaningful integration. Common Hymnal was born from the conviction that the affirmation of God in worship will inevitably result in us being commissioned as agents of justice. The pursuit of God is inextricably linked to the pursuit of justice. Hence our slogan: Praise and Protest.

After all, when Jesus commissioned his followers to disciple the nations, the vision was a bottom-up movement shaped by the Sermon on the Mount. Yet in practice, the spread of Christianity often became entangled with empire, colonialism, and racism - a top-down dynamic that compromised the very message it carried.

To our surprise, our early efforts helped trigger a new trend in Christianity: multicultural worship collectives. Yet while we focused on supporting marginalized communities and advancing justice, many of these groups took a different path - leveraging celebrity connections, prioritizing spiritual intensity over social integrity, and sidelining justice altogether. Alarmingly, many of the leaders in these multiracial collectives had troubling records on racial equity, including public support for politicians marked by racist histories, rhetoric, and policies.

When Christianity promotes unity and diversity without confronting systemic inequity, it creates an unbearable dissonance for people of color and undermines the credibility of the faith. You will rarely hear us use words like unity and diversity; we are not pursuing a multicultural aesthetic but a just world.

Compounding this, white privilege - and its disregard for the history and weight of racial injustice - often pressures people of color to compromise deeply held convictions in order to access financially rewarding opportunities within white-led organizations. We are committed instead to cultivating spaces where we can thrive without needing to make these concessions.

Trajectory

From the start, we deliberately avoided the easy allure of commercial conventions, choosing a path free from gimmicks, clichés and contrived spirituality. We are driven by a belief in the transformative power of art that speaks truthfully and courageously, fully aware that speaking truth to power is not the way to secure quick financial success.

We are not pursuing influence in the Christian bubble. Neither are we revolting against the ‘overground’. We are simply aware of the growing demographic of Christ followers who no longer live in the echo chamber. Some have made their way to the outskirts because of prophetic insight, others pushed there by unfortunate experiences in the system that left them searching for a place of safety. Our vision is primarily rooted in these spaces, where thoughtfulness and authenticity thrive.

Underground believers are not really swayed by trends, including the narrow framing of communal worship as an emotional song set where every song is lyrically valiant, theatrical production is assumed, and the set list mirrors the current priority songs being promoted by well-branded church movements. Their commitment to thoughtfulness, honesty, and originality prevents them from functioning as a metaphorical Xerox machine for a karaoke franchise, especially when engaging something as weighty as the worship of God.

This hymnal, then, is less about promoting a genre and more about documenting an evolving culture - one that embraces a wide spectrum of ideas, values, convictions, disciplines, expressions, styles, anomalies, quirks, and production sensibilities.