Christian singer Steve Camp, author of '107 Theses' calling for CCM reform, dies at 71
Contemporary Christian music singer Steve Camp, who spent years trying to reform the industry behind the genre, has died at 71.
Camp, whose work in music, ministry and preaching ran for five decades, had been ill with heart failure and died Wednesday, his family said in a statement.
Camp preached the Christian gospel in his songs, his sermons and his one-on-one work with people, the family wrote. His greatest wish, they said, was to honor Jesus Christ.
“Though our hearts are broken, we rejoice in knowing that Steve has finished his race,” the statement said.
The family named two Bible passages that guided his life and ministry, Acts 20:24 and 2 Corinthians 4:5, which speak of completing a ministry received from Jesus, and preaching Jesus Christ as Lord, respectively.
In the late 1990s, Camp issued a call to reform contemporary Christian music, or CCM, in a document he titled the “107 Theses.”
One of them read, “Satan’s number one assault on the church is to infiltrate with error. He doesn’t want to fight the church—he wants to join it.”
The document called on Christian musicians to keep their business dealings beyond reproach and to “reclaim Christian music for Christ.” It also told them to avoid partnerships with nonbelievers.
He also mailed copies, printed as 4-foot posters, to roughly 6,000 people in the Christian music business and among his fans, according to Baptist Press.
In lectures at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, Camp criticized what he called “God is my girlfriend” songs. He said such lyrics put words like “love” in place of God.
WORLD magazine reported in 1998 that the theses took special aim at the commercial side of CCM, in particular the fact that secular firms owned most of its studios. Camp urged a return to the five “solas” of the Protestant Reformation: Scripture alone, faith alone, grace alone, Christ alone and the glory of God alone.
He restated his case in 2013, when he posted the theses again on his blog, Camponthis. In an introduction, he wrote that money had become the first test for anyone entering ministry. He signed the post “Still Pounding on Wittenberg’s Door,” a nod to the German town where Martin Luther launched his protest against the Roman Catholic Church in 1517.
He also complained that secular companies owned many Christian radio stations, record labels, bookstore chains and publishers. Churches spoke against false teaching without acting against it, he wrote, and many people looked to politics to rescue a country in moral and spiritual decay.
Camp asked readers to pray for a revival like the Great Awakening, the 18th-century religious movement in the American colonies led in part by preacher Jonathan Edwards. He wrote of a “lukewarm Laodicean sleep” among evangelicals, a reference to the church in Laodicea that the Book of Revelation rebukes for being lukewarm.
Camp released 22 albums over his career. At least 15 of his songs reached No. 1, and more than 40 reached the Top 10, according to Cleveland.com. He received a Grammy nomination for “Love’s Not a Feeling,” a duet with Michele Pillar from his 1984 album “Fire and Ice.”
His songs included “Living in Laodicea,” “He Covers Me,” “Run to the Battle” and “He’s All You Need.” Another of his songs, “Stranger to Holiness,” appeared on his 1985 album “Shake Me to Wake Me.”
Camp later turned more of his attention to ministry, though he kept linking his music to his faith.
