The Greatest CCM Christmas Albums — CR2: Various Artists, New Young Messiah (1993)

Intro

Arriving at CR2 in The Greatest CCM Christmas Albums, New Young Messiah (1993) captures a moment when collaboration, ambition, and deep reverence converged. It remains a landmark in how classic sacred works can be translated for contemporary audiences without losing their weight.

The Album in Context

Building on the earlier success of The Young Messiah tours, Sparrow Records assembled a who’s‑who roster of CCM talent—Sandi Patty, Twila Paris, Larnelle Harris, Michael English, and more—to revisit Handel’s masterpiece through a modern lens. The result is part worship service, part concert event, and part history lesson set to drum machines and electric guitars.

Arrangers and producers leaned into rhythmic drive, updated harmonic language, and vocal showcases tailored to each artist’s strengths. While the text remains rooted in Scripture and the original libretto, the musical clothing feels decidedly early‑’90s: big snares, bold synths, and key changes designed to raise both decibel levels and goosebumps.

Within the CCM ecosystem, New Young Messiah underscored the power of large‑scale collaborative projects and demonstrated that classic sacred repertoire could thrive outside traditional classical spaces. The companion tours turned Christmas concerts into full‑blown cultural events for churches and arenas alike.

Standout Songs

• “For Unto Us a Child Is Born” (BeBe and CeCe Winans) — A jubilant, hook‑laden take on Handel that marries intricate vocal lines to pop‑era energy.
• “Every Valley Shall Be Exalted” (Larnelle Harris) — A dynamic performance that highlights both Harris’s agility and the arrangement’s clever weaving of old and new.
• “ Worthy Is The Lamb That Was Slain / Hallelujah” (Twila Paris & The Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir Featuring Sandi Patti, Steve Green, Michael English, Larnelle Harris & Wayne Watson) — A climactic, choir‑driven finale that feels like a worship service bursting at the seams.

Why It Matters

Artistically, the project walks a delicate line between honoring a towering classical work and fearlessly recasting it for a very different musical moment. When it works—and it often does—the result is thrilling, a reminder that Scripture and great melodies can wear many cultural outfits.

Historically, New Young Messiah stands as one of the signature collaborative statements of ’90s CCM. It modeled how labels, artists, and promoters could pool resources to create something bigger than any one artist’s brand while still serving the church.

For listeners, the album opened doors into Handel’s world that might otherwise have stayed closed. Countless teens and young adults first encountered Messiah not in a concert hall, but through these electrified arrangements—and some of them followed the trail back to choirs, orchestras, and deeper engagement with the original work.

What’s Next

Tomorrow in The Greatest CCM Christmas Albums countdown, we reach the top with CR1 — Amy Grant, A Christmas Album (1983). On the podcast, we’ll explore how one project helped rewrite the rules for what a Christian Christmas record could be.

Soli Deo Gloria!

This post is part of the series The 100 Greatest Albums in Christian Music, celebrating the artists and recordings that defined a generation of faith-filled creativity.

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