Bethel Music is an American worship collective founded in 2001 in Redding, California, by Brian and Jenn Johnson, within Bethel Church. It brings together songwriters and singers like Jenn Johnson, Kristene DiMarco, and Josh Baldwin, and has made songs like Goodness of God and No Longer Slaves widely known.
Bethel Music was born in 2001 in Redding, California, as the music ministry of Bethel Church, an evangelical and charismatic church. Brian and Jenn Johnson laid its foundations with a simple idea: to form worshippers seeking real intimacy with God rather than a stage performance. Between 2009 and 2013, this local ministry grew into a label and publishing house, before becoming, in February 2015, a collective in its own right, the Bethel Music Artist Collective, open to artists from other ministries such as Cory Asbury and Jonathan and Melissa Helser.
The collective operates without a single leader: several songwriters and singers, including Jenn Johnson, Kristene DiMarco, Josh Baldwin, Paul and Hannah McClure, and Naomi Raine, take turns on live albums recorded in Redding in front of the local congregation. This way of writing music together, within a church setting rather than an isolated studio, has produced songs that have become staples in evangelical churches around the world, such as Goodness of God, No Longer Slaves, and What A Beautiful Name.
- Origin
- Redding, California, USA
- Style
- Contemporary worship
- Active since
- 2001
- Good to know
- Goodness of God (Jenn Johnson, 2019), Dove Award for Song of the Year in 2023
- Discography
- More than twenty live and studio albums, from Here Is Love (2010) to We Must Respond (2025)
How did Bethel Music get started?
It all starts with Bethel Church, a non-denominational church in Redding led by Bill Johnson. Brian and Jenn Johnson launched a local music ministry there in 2001, with the conviction that worship is not a performance but a way of seeking God's presence. The ministry grew slowly, until between 2009 and 2013 it built up its own label and publishing house.
In February 2015, this label became the Bethel Music Artist Collective: rather than remaining a local team, it opened up to artists from other movements, such as Cory Asbury and the duo Jonathan and Melissa Helser, based in North Carolina. It is this expanded collective that now produces most of the label's live albums.
What makes Bethel Music stand out?
Bethel Music is not a band in the traditional sense but a family of songwriters and singers who take turns from one album to the next. The albums are recorded live, often directly during the church's gatherings in Redding, giving the songs a sense of collective worship rather than studio production. Several of these songs, such as Goodness of God and What A Beautiful Name, have become standards sung by hundreds of churches and covered by other artists, including CeCe Winans.
Where should you start with Bethel Music?
Start with Goodness of God, led by Jenn Johnson, a testimony to God's faithfulness that has become one of the most widely sung worship songs of the past decade. Continue with the other songs below, led by different members of the collective, to get a sense of the range of voices that make up Bethel Music.
songs
Goodness Of God
Written by Jenn and Brian Johnson with Ed Cash, Ben Fielding, and Jason Ingram, this song about God's faithfulness won the Dove Award for Song of the Year in 2023 and was successfully covered by CeCe Winans.
The Blood
Led by Naomi Raine, a member of the collective, this song centered on the sacrifice of Jesus illustrates the room Bethel Music gives each artist to bring their own vocal color.
No One Like The Lord
A declaration of worship led by John Wilds, one of the collective's more recent singers, in the tradition of the live albums recorded in Redding.
Discography
- 2025We Must Respond
- 2022Simple
- 2021Homecoming
- 2020Peace
- 2019Victory
- 2018Moments: Mighty Sound
- 2017Starlight
- 2016Have It All
- 2014You Make Me Brave
- 2013Tides
- 2011Be Lifted High
- 2010Here Is Love
Read also
Frequently asked questions
Who is Bethel Music?
Bethel Music is an American worship collective founded in 2001 in Redding, California, as the music ministry of Bethel Church. It brings together songwriters and singers like Jenn Johnson, Kristene DiMarco, and Josh Baldwin, and releases live albums recorded in front of the congregation.
Is Bethel Music a band or a collective?
Bethel Music has no fixed lineup: it is a collective of songwriters and singers who take turns from one album to the next, united around the same worship ministry born at Bethel Church.
What is Bethel Music's most famous song?
Goodness of God, led by Jenn Johnson and released in 2019, is Bethel Music's most widely sung song. It won the Dove Award for Song of the Year in 2023 and found a second life through CeCe Winans' version.
Is Bethel Music Christian?
Yes. Bethel Music is the music ministry of Bethel Church, an evangelical and charismatic church in Redding, California, and all of its songs are Christian worship songs.
Where can you listen to Bethel Music in French?
The French speaking group Nouvelle Génération recorded a French version of Goodness of God, available on TopChrétien Musique. Bethel Music's original songs otherwise remain available on YouTube and streaming platforms.
Since when has Bethel Music existed?
Bethel Music has existed since 2001, the year Brian and Jenn Johnson launched this music ministry within Bethel Church. It became an expanded collective in 2015 and continues to release albums, such as We Must Respond in 2025.