In this talk from CBC Revive 2026, O’Neil Dennis, founder of Step FWD and the driving force behind the UK Christian Charts, shares the story of a decade spent building platforms for British Christian and gospel artists, and reflects on a landmark new partnership with the Official Charts Company.
Why is UK gospel and Christian music suddenly having a moment, and what does it mean for the church’s voice in wider culture?
Over the past decade, since 2015, the UK has seen a 64 per cent rise in demand for faith based music, according to the Official Charts Company. Spotify streams of gospel music in the UK are up 119 per cent since 2020, and TikTok posts using gospel and Christian music hashtags doubled globally in a single year, from 2 million to 4 million. Drawing on these numbers from streaming platforms and the charts themselves, O’Neil makes the case that creative arts, music, media and culture are where the next generation’s imagination will be won, and issues a challenge to the room to move from awareness into action.
In this talk you’ll discover:
- The story behind Step FWD, the UK Christian Charts and their historic partnership with the Official Charts Company
- Fresh data on the rise in demand for faith based and gospel music in the UK over the past decade
- Why O’Neil believes creative arts are the new battleground for the minds of a generation
- The three shifts he believes the Christian media and music world needs to make right now
- A vision for UK Christian music moving from local success stories to national and global influence
Whether you work in music, media, church leadership or the wider creative arts, this talk offers an energetic and data driven look at where UK Christian culture is heading next. Watch the video with O’Neil Dennis below or read the edited transcript.
O’Neil Dennis: Thank you so much, it’s an absolute pleasure to be here. I know some people have mentioned their surprise, because they’ve always known me as Dennis, and now they’re hearing people refer to me as O’Neil. They’re like, what is going on with this guy, is this an impersonation? My name is O’Neil Dennis, apparently two Irish surnames. So every time I introduce myself to somebody, they end up turning it back around, and I’m in PR and marketing, so you understand the power of an icebreaker, 10 years later I’m still saying the same thing.
Thank you so much to CBC for having me today. I’m going to whizz through a few things, I get bored very easily, so there are a number of activities we get involved in. Step FWD, our main website, is a multimedia organisation set up in 2014. We also run the Step FWD Awards, which have become one of the bigger Christian and gospel awards in the UK, kind of like the Dove Awards meets the Stellar Awards, gospel and CCM all merged into one.
We have the UK Christian Charts, which I’ll speak about a little more. We have the Impact Conference, a music and media conference we started, and we also run the Poetic World Tour, which has put on the biggest poetry and spoken word event in the United Kingdom. We had around 1,400 people turn up for a poetry event, which was significant. We do dance as well, because I used to breakdance, believe it or not. Christmas Live is another activity we initiated, and then there is The Paradox.
Here are some statistics, just so you can see some of the work we’ve been doing. We’ve been around for 12 years, and as you can see the impact is pretty significant. The number in our artist database has now gone beyond 700 British Christian and gospel artists. More than a million people have been reached through our website. We also have quite a number of volunteers, some of whom are with us today, and our mission and vision are there as well.
The UK Christian Chart started in 2014, and when we began it was one big melting pot. Then the pandemic came, and suddenly we were seeing three or four times as much music coming through. We had to diversify, we had to break it down because it was simply too much to process, and we ended up creating 12 different categories, or subgenres if you will. As God would have it, that was the right thing to do, because suddenly all those subgenres were receiving individual support. Little did we know that this would enable us to enter into this partnership with Official Charts. Only looking back now do I realise God’s hand was at work through it all.
We had to diversify and broaden, but also allow for more depth, and that depth has enabled us to be recognised alongside the Official Charts Company. There is no higher accolade in the United Kingdom for music than being listed by the Official Charts Company. Our partnership was launched in this very room, actually, with Premier and the team. It was launched on 6 March. When you move from running a monthly chart to running it weekly, by the time you release one chart you’re already counting down to the next one. I haven’t quite got used to that yet, but the chart system is going really, really well, and the Official Charts team are pretty pleased with the work we’ve been doing, so we’re really grateful for that.
That leads me on to what I wanted to reflect on today. I’m very biased, perhaps a little godly bias. The statement there is, creative arts are the new battleground for the minds of our people. I might have a debate with Justin at some point, because I feel strongly that this is right. When you consider Genesis one, in the beginning God created, creativity is the first thing we learn about God. It is not only about what He did, it is actually who He is. So when you translate that into my world, which is the creative arts, you can understand why I say that creative arts are the new battleground for the minds of our people.
When you consider what we’ve been hearing about the reports, and if you put the reports aside for a moment and look at the reality on the ground, I think everybody knew that, irrespective of whatever transpired afterwards, we are in a very significant period of time. Should we be surprised that the fight intensifies now, when music and media often reach people before doctrine does? Music and media reach people first, how significant is that.
So I thought I’d highlight a few front lines, if you will. Music, media, arts and culture, who will seize the imagination of the next generation? That is why gatherings like this are so important to us. Having a strong presence in all those areas should not simply be a wise strategy, it should be a kingdom building responsibility for all of us.
I thought I’d include a few statistics, because I’m a bit of a nerd or a geek, or whatever the correct terminology is, I like facts and figures, show me a spreadsheet and I’m happy, show me a spreadsheet with colours and I’m happpier still. So here are some statistics.
Over the past decade the UK has seen a 64 per cent rise in demand for faith based music, that’s since 2015, and the figure comes from the Official Charts Company. Another statistic for you, according to Spotify, streams of gospel music in the UK have risen by 119 per cent since 2020.
Hearing from all the presenters this morning has made this a really fascinating day. When we launched the Official Christian and Gospel Albums Chart, I said to somebody this morning, I’ve had more BBC interviews in the last two months than I had in the previous 10 years. There is something significant happening now, and we’ve been talking about something happening, now is the time.
When we launched the chart the BBC interviewed us and produced a full write up. BBC Newsbeat spoke with TikTok while researching the piece, and TikTok revealed that posts using the hashtags for gospel music and Christian music had doubled globally over the previous year, from 2 million to 4 million. These are the current statistics, ladies and gentlemen,
Christian music, media, arts and culture. When I was thinking about this presentation I thought, actually, let me rephrase that, because I want to be respectful of the room and of the strength and foundation on which we stand. It is not that we never had a voice, there has always been a voice, and we have seen that through the work of CBC, Premier and all the other amazing organisations. What we perhaps lacked, in my humble opinion, was greater visibility, and that is what we are seeing now. What we need, with this greater and stronger voice and even more visibility, is better alignment.
Forgive me as well, I’m only 12 years in, so I’m still a baby, right, I’m still catching up with much of what happened before, I’m still learning, which is why I’m so excited to be here today. Greater alignment will certainly enable us to do greater things together. That is why it was so significant when I was asked to help with this project, because suddenly I had to do my research again. As we have seen this morning, there is a wealth of talent, intervention and work that has gone into the past 40 years, and many more years before I came on board. You have to recognise that.
I see some amazing people in this room with whom I have interacted and engaged over time. CBC and Revive 2026 are significant to me because this is the first time I have come across this history in my 12 years. Having to research it, and seeing its depth, has been remarkable. I want to commend the organisers and the organisation for the work you are doing, the work you have done and the work you will continue to do, because I think this is one of the pillars we needed, and one I would have wanted to see 12 years ago.
Another spotlight for me is the Elevate Conference, which happened recently, and that was significant. I see Juliet Fletcher, a legend, in the room, she was there as well and recognised the importance of it. Christian Music Alliance and the Gospel Music Industry Alliance, two different organisations with a shared vision, a shared purpose and, therefore, alignment. What they did recently was significant and historic, both organisations came together for the betterment of the Christian and gospel music industry in the UK.
I learned from the Americans that if you don’t shout about yourself, why should anybody else. So the Official Charts partnership, in my humble opinion, is significant when you consider that it had never been done before. Yes, we had an album chart from 2012, which some very significant people helped to establish, but that was an album chart, and we are now, as I see it, in a singles economy where music is concerned. Having a singles chart here and now means this is the right thing at the right moment. For me, this is another significant way to build forward.
A lot of us who work in this space recognise, from the people we have experienced on our shores, that the UK has never had a problem with talent. If we go back through the eras before us, we have never had a problem with talent, access and infrastructure were the areas that needed a little more work. This kingdom mindset will not grow through isolated success stories alone. I shared this at the conference as well, because I think it is important. Again, speaking as somebody who is still learning about the space, I remember in my own journey in terms of access and infrastructure, or the lack of them, that was always the greatest impediment to the work we were doing.
12 years in, I can look back, and I’m also trying to be a bridge for the younger generation, or for a generation that has an interest in these areas, because I don’t want them to make the same mistakes. In this particular time, because I believe the time is now, I don’t think they should have to travel the same route that I did.
This is very important to me. I was blitzing through the presentation and thought I would land on three simple takeaways that I want us to keep in mind. My heart’s desire is to see us continue to move beyond awareness, because, as I said, I, like some of you, may be hearing about some of these things for the first time. But what does that awareness trigger, what then, what next? We need to move from awareness to action, understanding that the thing we have been praying for is happening here and now, therefore action is required of us right now.
As I mentioned before, individual success stories, as great as they are, will not move us as far as we need to go. So it is about alignment. It is about standing with one another, irrespective at times of our personal situations. We have to hold the bigger vision, we have to understand the move of God that is happening and truly sow into it. It is so much bigger than our individual organisations, projects or intentions. Shared infrastructure and shared mechanisms will enable us to be properly represented and heard here and now, with a voice that resonates, a voice that does not merely follow society but actually leads it.
I would love to see us move from local thinking to national and global positioning. I have never had as many people from the United States calling me as I have in the past two months, something exciting is happening. If you remember back in the day, the strength of the UK was that UK worship spread globally, in my humble opinion. We had that, God deposited it in us, and we are seeing that movement again. When you see things such as the Jesus March with roots going back 39 years, you understand that something is happening which we did not start, but of which we are a part. What part will you play?
My bias is music, all in and all day and I want us to understand the strength of music. There is not a church represented here that does not use this creative art form. There are people out there who are constantly harnessing the power of creativity, music, arts, media and culture. Can you help us to do even more? Can you stand with us to ensure that the word, the message, especially the message, continues to be shared and continues to resonate?
Ladies and gentlemen, that’s all from me. Thank you so much.
Click to find out more about O’Neil Dennis and Step FWD in the CBC UK Directory. Also, read more about the CBC Revive 2026 conference.
