To Be Contemporary, Or Not To Be? That, Apparently, is the Question...

I recently read this article about the Anglican church and music.  It's an interesting read about music choices in the Anglican Church, and I think a lot of good things are said in the article.  

Two years ago, I probably would have said a heart-felt "amen" to this article, then closed the tab in my browser and continued on my day. But two years ago, I also wasn't in any church, and didn't think it was important, so take that with a grain of salt...  

Today, I'm not so sure.  I think there's something deeper going on here.  It's true, having grown up in the Anglican church, I can attest to the fact that there aren't a lot of young people who stick around.  Even in college towns or areas where there are a ton of young, single people (i.e. Washington, D.C.), the Anglican church (most of the Church) is distinctly full of older people, and sometimes just no people at all.  

*As an aside:  I recognize that my church is almost entirely under 50.  I recognize that this, too, is a problem, and that there should be old, young, and every in-between age at churches.  But this is not a post about why older folk aren't adorning our pews.  That is a something for another time.*

On one hand, I understand not wanting old, "churchy", detached music to be a stumbling block to younger people.  But what you create a hunger for, you have to feed.  And if you create a hunger for good, fun, rockin' music that gives you that warm fuzzy feeling, well then you're distorting the gospel and creating a need for something else.  The Gospel is not about a warm fuzzy feeling.  Our salvation had better not be dependent on that warm, fuzzy feeling, because if it is, I'm in trouble.  And sometimes, church does us the most good when we do not have that feeling.

The reason young people are leaving churches (including, and perhaps especially, the Anglican church) is that they are not being fed the Gospel.  They are not being fed truth.  They see too much hypocrisy, too much legalism, and not enough teaching or gospel-centered community.  There isn't enough discipleship, there isn't enough solid theology, and there isn't enough vulnerability in relationships to make it distinct from anything else in the world.

There are too many sermons being preached from the pulpit that a Buddhist, Agnostic, "spiritual-but-not-religious", or Moralist could agree with, and there is too much comfort and too much condemnation.  There are not enough questions being asked, and even less being answered.  There is too much teaching about self, and not enough teaching about God.  There is too much programming, too many nameless faces, too many drifters and church-daters,* too little evangelism, too many comfortable and glossed-over sermons, too much political commentary, and too many places that ask you to check your brain at the door.

The church is supposed to be a place of people gathered who recognize that they are not qualified to be called a church.  They are not worthy of being called righteous.  They are gathered because of something entirely outside of themselves - salvation through faith alone, by grace alone, in Christ alone.   It has nothing - absolutely nothing - to do with them.  The church should be a place of intellectual, spiritual, emotional engagement, a place of honesty and messiness.  A place of joy, pleasure, and deep, abiding love for one another.  It should make you uncomfortable sometimes, but always welcome.  There should never be condemnation, but there should be loving reprimands and compassion.  It should be a place where self disappears into thinking of others as better, into a place of natural, holistic service that is driven by the passions and the needs of the church and it's members. 

Somehow, I don't think that music is the root of the issue here.  I get that some people just don't like organ music - and that's fine!  You're entitled to your own tastes.  Some people don't like electric guitars or drums, either.  But the type of music being sung is not what should draw people to a church, and I don't think its what's driving them away, either.  If my church started playing organ music and singing from the old hymnals, I'd still stick around even though it's not my favorite kind of worship.  Because the theology is good, because the Gospel is clear, and because the community is genuinely centered on Christ and nothing else, I'd stick around.

I think we need to re-evaluate what kind of church we want to build, not what kind of music we want to sing.   When we start evaluating churches based on music, we are making music more important than the word of God, more important than the Gospel, and more important than what scripture tells us a church should be. 

This is a criticism against the church as a whole, not just the Anglican community (the article that prompted this just happened to come from an Anglican group).  Please do not read this as a personal or denominational attack - it is not.  I think some churches do some things well, and other churches do other things well - no one church is perfect.  I think there are strengths and weaknesses to hierarchy, to liturgy, and to ritual.  I think every denomination has some unhealthy and dying churches, and I think the American Christian community as a whole is seeing a mass exodus of young people.  This is partly the fault of parents, partly the fault of youth ministers, partly the fault of pastors, partly the fault of the youth themselves, partly the fault of the strong pull that culture has, and partly just an unhappy, unfortunate circumstance that comes from the Gospel being unpopular.  Everyone bears some responsibility. 

But the music is not the problem.  The heart is the problem.  When youth are not being fed the hard truth of the Gospel, and being asked to believe it and live it out, having other believers come alongside them and walk through life with them, they aren't going to stick around, even if we start singing Lady Gaga or Beyonce or Usher.  The music does not matter.  This push for contemporary music, thinking that will draw youth in, its absurd.  The Gospel matters.  Without the Gospel, churches die. 



*as in, people who date the church instead of treating it as a type of marriage covenant with a specific people and with Christ.  I don't mean people who date other people at church...