Wednesday, August 27, 2025

It is the 27th of August 2025. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis. 

There is something telling, and appropriate, and maybe even a little tragic that this program- especially on the Weekend Edition has collected some of the biographies of the giants of the CCM- Contemporary Christian Music- movement. Larry Norman, Keith Green, Rich Mullins, and Amy Grant, to name a few… and there was always a name floating around amongst those luminaries as one of the “founders” of the movement- a man whose name has recently been in the news as he died this month, just shy of what would have been today his 82nd birthday. He was what CCM historian Mark Allan Powell has called  “without question one of the most important people in the history of Contemporary Christian Music”- he was Chuck Girard, the man behind Love Song, a solo career, and the transition from Jesus people music to the full-fledged industry that CCM would become.

Chuck was born on this, the 27th of August in 1943, the son of Clarance and Dorothea in California, one of four and the only boy.

In his autobiography Rock and Roll Preacher, he tells the story of his childhood with an abusive father, a lapsed Catholic mother, and most of all, a love of the doo-wop sound. He formed a band- the Castell- and scored two top 40 hits.

This got him in touch with the budding California sound of the early 60s- he moved to Los Angeles, where he would work with Gary Usher, famed California producer of groups like the Beach Boys. Girard would record with both Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys and Glen Campbell. He was in a band, the Hondells, that scored a hit with the Wilson-penned “Little Honda”.

[a song covered by Yo La Tengo on their 1997 I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One]

Like many stories of the early Jesus People, there are plenty of psychedelic drugs and other substances at first. Girard acknowledged a substance abuse issue- a lifelong issue for him- and was, for a time, a member of a bible commune that moved to Hawaii. It left him searching for more- he would move back to California in the late 60s and would form Love Song. They were Christians, but not yet a Christian Band. I was invited to Calvary Chapel, where Chuck had his breakthrough.

Love Song would start writing songs about Jesus and become the “house band” for Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa. There had been “Jesus People Music” but Girard, having worked with the Beach Boys and the emerging California sound, was able to blend folk rock and Christian themes with the then state-of-the-art production.

The next turning point was the first album from Marantha! Music- produced in part by Girard- the “Everlasting Living Jesus Music Concert” became the foundation of the new movement, and the first track on the album, Love Song’s “Little Country Church”.

Love Song’s debut album came out in 1972, and they would be at Explo 72- we’ve discussed the “Christian Woodstock” before, and Love Song and Girard were marquee names.

After 3 years with Love Song, Girard struck out on his own- his 1978 self-titled album was perhaps his most critically acclaimed, with the three hit tracks “Sometimes Alleluia”, “Lay Your Burden Down”, and “Slow Down”.

Into the 80s and 90s, Girard remained a key figure in the CCM movement- but as an elder statesman, not so much as a trailblazer. He would continue to have substance issues, but in the 1980s, he was able to refocus his life and ministry. He would spend the rest of his life as much as a minister as a musician, according to family and friends. His last album would be 2024’s Moonlight Serenade- he released it as he made known his diagnosis of stage IV lung cancer that ultimately took him from this life and into his eternal reward earlier this month. He has been remembered by just about every living CCM legend since. If you want to dig deeper, I always recommend my man John J Thompson at True Tunes- THE CCM podcast.

Next month, Amazon will be releasing a three-part docu-series on Love Song, and you can bet they will get the CHA Weekend Edition treatment sooner than later. Yesterday, a service was held for Chuck in Tennessee- next month, there will be another here in California at the Diamond Bar Calvary Chapel. Chuck Girard- father of CCM and giant of the movement would have been 82 on this, the anniversary of his birth in 1943.

 The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and Luke 6:

6 On another Sabbath he went into the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was shriveled. 7 The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath. 8 But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Get up and stand in front of everyone.” So he got up and stood there.

9 Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?”

10 He looked around at them all, and then said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so, and his hand was completely restored. 11 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 27th of August 2025, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who knows that, like Maranatha! Music, everything is better with exclamation points- he is Christopher Gillespie!

The show is written! and read! by Dan van Voorhis!

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.