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We're all familiar with the worship wars: the church-by-church battle over what style of music will carry the Sunday morning service—traditional or contemporary. In many churches, contemporary worship music has won. Keyboards have replaced the organ. Overhead projections have replaced hymnals. Names such as Matt Redman, Paul Baloche, and Darlene Zschech are well known as congregants sing, clap, and raise their hands on Sunday mornings.

Names such as George Frideric Handel and Johann Sebastian Bach are no longer familiar. Yet these composers were at the center of the worship wars of their day.

Whatever type of worship music you prefer, Handel and Bach are two "worship artists" worth knowing. To this day, the music both men created is glorifying God and edifying the church.

It is often said that The Messiah saved George Frideric Handel's career. After making a few less-than-strategic career choices, Handel found himself penniless and threatened with debtor's prison. A group of charities rescued Handel's fading music career when, interested in holding a fundraiser, they asked Handel to write them a piece of music for the occasion. The Messiah was born.

Many Christians have found listening to Handel's Messiah to be a transforming experience. Phillip Yancey describes one such performance: "The event became not just a performance but a kind of epiphany, a striking revelation of Christian theology. I felt able to see beyond the music to the soul of the piece." Indeed, The Messiah is chock full of theology. Handel's friend, Charles Jennens, compiled the entire text from Scripture verses and intended the oratorio to "challenge the deists who denied the divinity of Jesus." The powerful words and music affect even those who do not share the Christian faith, writes Garth Bolinder. "Music reaches the depths of human personality in ways mere words never can," he says.

If you associate The Messiah with Christmastime, you're not alone. Each year churches and choirs—from city symphonies to amateur sing-alongs—celebrate the holidays with Handel's most famous piece. For many listeners, the "Hallelujah Chorus" is the highlight of the performance. Tradition tells us that, upon hearing the first notes of the "Hallelujah Chorus," King George I rose to his feet. We're not quite sure why the king decided to stand, to stretch his legs or to express his passion for the music. But anyone who has experienced the "Hallelujah Chorus" knows the excitement of hearing its message.

Mary Ellen Rothrock heard The Messiah performed every year at Christmastime as a child, but it wasn't until someone shared the gospel with her that the joy of the "Hallelujah Chorus" became her own. "As I heard the words from the Bible, the words from the musical score made sense. The Holy Spirit convinced me of the truth: the God I'd hungered for, the personal God, loved me. 'Hallelujah! for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth.'"

Johann Sebastian Bach once said, "Music's only purpose should be the glory of God and the recreation of the human spirit." This month, as we remember Bach's death (he died July 28, 1750), we are reminded of the humble witness of his life and the powerful influence his music has had on Christians for more than 250 years.

Bach's life and work were characterized by humble beginnings. Patrick Kavanaugh notes "Bach was virtually unknown as a composer, at least outside of the German towns where he quietly lived and worked." Born in Eisenach, where Luther was schooled, Bach showed great talent from an early age. Yet, instead of becoming a concert musician, Bach pursued a less glamorous career in church music. During his lifetime he served the church as organist, choirmaster, music director, and church schoolteacher. Mark Galli writes that even after Bach's death, "he was remembered less as a composer than as an organist and harpsichordist."

In these unassuming vocations, Bach created arguably some of the most beautiful music the church has ever known. A "theologian who just happened to work with a keyboard," Bach wrote cantatas for each week of the church year, with libretto anchored firmly in the Bible. David Martin calls Bach's cantatas "the greatest corpus of sacred music ever written … evangelical to the core." Pieces like his The Passion of St. John and The Passion of St. Matthew were written for worship, and Mark Galli says that Bach regularly signed his compositions "S.D.G." (Soli Deo Gloria is Latin for "To God alone be the glory.")

For both Handel and Bach, music was more than entertainment. These composers created music to direct listeners' hearts and minds toward God. Though the tunes and instruments may have differed, Handel and Bach share much in common with those in our churches today who lead worshippers to God's throne.