Which single issue has the greatest potential for conflict in a church?
The amount of a pastor’s salary?
The color of the ladies’ bathroom?
The temperature in the worship center?
How about the style of music played on Sundays?
I don’t know if that’s the big issue now, but it sure used to be.
In one church I served in the late 1970s, the youth planned to put on a musical by John Fischer called The New Covenant. Based on 2 Corinthians 3, the musical was contemporary but hardly edgy.
One Saturday afternoon, after the youth practiced for the musical, a couple of men walked into the worship center and found a student playing drums. The men immediately ordered the youth to leave the worship center. They weren’t going to have drums in their church!
Wow, we’ve really come a long way since then, haven’t we?
Let me share three thoughts about resolving conflict involving church music styles:
First, choose a target group before settling on a music style. If a congregation is filled with octogenerians who are sensitive to loud sounds, rock isn’t going to work. But if a church is primarily composed of young families, rock may be the only style that works.
A music style is a language. Styles are not inherently right or wrong. While rock was once considered to be rebellious, everyone under 65 has grown up with it as the language of their generation.
When I attended Biola College (now University), someone in student leadership invited The Resurrection Band to play in chapel. (Their motto was, “Music to wake the dead.”) The band played uncompromisingly fast and hard. While it wasn’t my style of music, some students walked out during their performance. (I can still see the red face of a school administrator during the band’s set.)
There wasn’t anything wrong with Rez Band. Their style worked great in certain venues. But did it work that day in chapel? Rather than foist that style on everyone, it might have been better for the planners to ask, “What kind of music do most of our students listen to? Knowing that, who should we invite for chapel?”
Rather than start with a band or a style, it’s better to start with the target group and work backwards.
Second, determine a style and stick with it. Every weekend at my church, I know which musical style to expect.
Rock.
Not classical. Not jazz. Not gospel. Not hip hop. Not show tunes. Not folk.
Rock.
I don’t know when Pastor Don and his music leaders made that decision. It may have been twenty years ago. I’m sure when they made it, some people left the church. When Saddleback Church changed their music years ago, Rick Warren said they lost hundreds but gained thousands.
If a church’s leaders don’t settle on one style, then people will lobby for the style they want behind the scenes. And if that happens, conflict will break out, and it may not be controllable.
The style chosen should not be the pastor’s preference, or that of the worship leader, or the board, or the biggest donors, or the loudest complainers.
Instead, a style should be chosen that best speaks the language of the target group.
That’s not music – that’s missions.
Finally, make provision for those that prefer another style. The builder generation grew up on gospel songs and hymns sung to piano and organ accompaniment. When rock came along, it slowly wiped out gospel songs and most hymns.
When this happened, attendees had five choices:
*sit at home on Sundays and stew.
*watch Charles Stanley, Robert Schuller, or the Crouches on TV on Sundays.
*find a church where you liked the music style.
*threaten to stop attending and giving while recalling the board and firing the pastor.
*try and adapt to the style as much as possible.
I don’t like the “take it or leave it” approach. There is something inherently selfish about it. If you’ve been attending a church for years, and you love the church and its mission and its people, but you can’t stomach the new music, should you be forced to leave?
I don’t think so.
Imagine that you love rock, but that this Sunday, the worship music is done in a hip hop style. It’s done that way the next Sunday … and the next … and the next …
You’d probably ask, “Hey, aren’t we switching back to rock on Sundays?” If the answer was, “No, we’re a hip hop church now,” what would you do?
That’s how many churchgoers felt when hymns were exchanged for rock.
That’s why I’m a big advocate of the multi-venue approach on Sundays. Everyone hears the same sermon – live or via a DVD – but people can choose the music they prefer from several different styles.
At the very least, a church can offer one or two contemporary services along with a more traditional one.
When people have:
*attended a church faithfully for years
*served the Lord with their gifts
*donated thousands of dollars, and
*prayed consistently for its leaders …
how can church leaders force those people to leave because they don’t like a church’s new musical direction?
Let me suggest a truce:
Church leaders can freely choose the musical style they believe will best reach their target group without interference,
and in exchange,
church leaders make provision for those who don’t like the new music to enjoy their old music in another venue.
Your thoughts?
Another interesting turn of events has been the “re-tooled” hymns, which retain the basic melody and words, but alter the musical style to be more contemporary. I find that singing the words from a screen is actually MORE meaningful than from the hymnbook, where the words are broken up by the musical notation and I am often distracted by the joy of sight-reading the harmony. It saddens me when hymns are discarded altogether, as there is great spiritual depth and poetry in many of them. The simplistic and often me-centered content of some modern worship songs leave much to be desired.
My current church offers a smorgabord of instrumentation, combining at one time an orchestra, percussion, drummer, electric guitars, and various modern music styles along with the choir. Our outreach Christmas program deliberately included musical presentations of Gaither Vocal Band-style music, hip-hop, country, mainstream worship, traditional Christmas carols, and even a song using iPads to make the music. The variety was refreshing and fun.
What I don’t like is the trend of churches to present worhip music that participants can’t sing. I have visited churches where the congregation stood motionless and silent as the rock band “performed” worship for them. I consider worship a participation activity, and watching someone else do it just misses the point.
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I love the idea of a church presenting a variety of styles because many of us listen to a variety of music all the time. However, it only works in a megachurch where the worship leaders (full-time, part-time, or one-time) are paid unless the church has volunteers who are extremely gifted. Our church – now one of America’s largest – has three worship leaders, but they all do only rock. We have mixed it up for Christmas Eve (a small orchestra in 2010, jazz in 2011), but a church can pay musicians and vocalists to do that.
Like you, I greatly enjoy hymns done in a contemporary style, and our church does the same, but they stick with about ten classics: “Great is Thy Faithfulness,” “How Great Thou Art,” “Jesus Paid it All,” and a few others.
As far as music volume, there has to be a balance. Many people want to FEEL the music, just like at a concert, but if it’s too loud, you’re right, nobody can sing over it.
Thanks for writing, Tricia! It’s always great to hear from you.
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Jim,
Serious flashback: listening to The New Covenant on LP. Great album.
Something our church did last year was “Year of Worship.” The first weekends were devoted to 1 and 2 Samuel, studying the lives of Samuel, Saul, David, and Solomon to see how they worshipped. On the last weekend of every month, we studied a psalm. For these services, we would introduce more variety. Sometimes a team from outside our church (e.g. local Messianic Jews, Polynesian Christians, etc.) would lead us in music and teaching, or we worshipped through activity (e.g. outreach, art, healing, prayer). It engaged the congregation in various worship styles and served to breakdown the notion of worship=music. Although we have a pretty standard rock/folk flavor to our music most weekends, enough variety is introduced to make it easier for people to actually worship, rather than just sing.
Cheers.
DCE
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David, I like what your church did. Many churches don’t have the talent to present so many different musical styles, so importing outside groups would be imperative. (And I agree with you totally: music does not equal worship!) But most churches settle down and present one primary style, as yours does, because (a) that’s the style the target likes, (b) that’s the style their personnel can present, and (c) that’s the style that works best for them. Some churches have the personnel to have an orchestra one Sunday and a band another, but it can become confusing.
Thanks for writing! Is Apple considering you for their board?
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You asked the question-should someone be forced to leave a church they love and serve in if they can’t stand the music? To a certain extent that’s up to the individual. Is the music alone worth leaving over? I remember when I first started attending BFCC the worship leader left for a period of time and the new music was terrible after he left. It was a step backward. I stayed because I had gone through so much just to find a church, and I had made friends, joined a small group, etc. I did express my disappointment with the music on a response card. My thought was, and still is, that worship doesn’t just happen on Sunday, and I am free to listen to any style of music I choose to the rest of the week. Our original worship leader eventually returned and all was well with the world. It was worth the wait.
But if he hadn’t returned, how long would I have stayed? I don’t know.
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Ce Ce, the advantage you had is that you were younger and therefore more flexible when it came to music styles. As people age, they become more rigid about many areas in their life, music included. Some Christians sincerely believe that certain musical styles are WRONG and that Christians shouldn’t listen to them even at home – so imagine how they feel when those styles are celebrated in a church service?
Some styles are inherently loud as well, so loud that they hurt people’s ears. If you’re used to a soft organ and piano, and suddenly you have to deal with clanging cymbals and bass notes, it can be pretty jarring to the nervous system. (I remember the first time I attended a Christian concert featuring Michael W. Smith and DC Talk. The bass was uncomfortably going straight through my insides – and I LIKED the music!)
And some people just long for the good old hymns, which are especially comforting when people are going through a crisis. They don’t HATE the new stuff – they just love the old stuff more.
My main point is that a church’s leaders SHOULD change the worship music to try and reach their target while being sensitive to those who prefer hymns and gospel songs. (Bob Logan, a prominent Christian leader, believed that a church wasn’t reaching its target group unless the older people hated the music.)
Thanks so much for your viewpoint!
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One church we used to pastor has had two distinct services for years. It has many excellent musicians, some professional and well-known in te community. One service is traditional with hymns, solos, quartets and occasionally, choir and piano/organ. Most of the attendees are over 70 years…the founders of the 45 yr old church. They miss seeing young people but generally have accepted that and are glad that their grandchildren are in the contemporary service which is held later in the morning. Ten years ago a liturgical service was begun and that is attended by people of all ages. It has very classy music and formality and is held in another area of the building while the contemporary service is in session. Each service has approx. 200 people regularly. On a long weekend, all three congregations come together for a combined service in the gym. An interesting thing is that the church has attracted people who don’t like their own church’s music, newcomers to the community, and those that prefer more formality/liturgy, yet are evangelical. The church has lost many people to death…about 200 in 12 years…but maintains its attendance and finances In large part due to its many options in worship plus warm fellowship. The numbers unfortunately do not change due to evangelism and new believers, which is one reason we moved on. Believers get so blessed but fail to fulfill the Great Commission. God isn’t going to ask us if we liked the music. Yes, He wants us to worship Him, but He also wants us to think of others and not our own needs. He will ask who we have brought to Heaven with us.
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Thanks for your article, Bev. I like the idea of offering different music for different groups. And as the baby boomers get older, some of those 70-year-olds actually like to rock out a bit – just so the music isn’t too LOUD! To me, though – just you like mentioned – it’s not about MY music style, but about reaching those who don’t know the Lord. Thanks so much for commenting!
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