Rock Music Is Killing A Church

Les Anderson · From: The Great White North

The church band that I used to be a member of has lost all of their older musicians by being pushed out by the members of the church’s Young People's Christian rock band.

I played steel for the original band for almost a year but had to play without picks (they wanted the steel mostly for harmonics) which was alright with me. Our band, all in our forties and fifties & sixties, played old time contemporary Christian hymns and other church music as it was originally composed.

This past September, the church's fairly new and younger pastor started having the younger musicians sit in with our band; which was great by our regular band members. By the end of November, these young band members had taken over the drums and lead guitar. By the end of December, none of the old band members were around and church’s Sunday service band had headed into full Christian rock. Even the old standards were rocked up. Most of the church’s members are in their forties and older and the new music did not sit well with these long time church members.

Last week one of the church’s board members called two of the ex band members to get us oldies back together and to come down and do a Wed. evening, old time gospel hour sing along. I was even scheduled for two steel solos.

To our surprise the new church band showed up and took over the stage and all but killed the old time gospel music with their Christian rock music. Within twenty minutes the church was pretty much empty.

The Good Friday service, (yesterday) was down to a bout 25% of the regular congregation and many have vowed not to go back to the church until the pastor gets rid of the rock band for the Sunday services.

Maybe there is still a place where loud rock music is not being accepted and the old style of music is still what is wanted and demanded. We are not out yet guys!

Robert Harper · From: Alabama, USA

Pretty much the same at the church where I was attempting to play. except the Music Minister is 50 and the Minister is about 60. Not much meat for a steel guitar. I sure some of you more experienced playes could have made a way, but this inexperienced picker got tired of beng a round peg trying to fit a square hole
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"Oh what a tangled web we weave when we first begin to deceive" Someone Famous

Robert Harper · From: Alabama, USA

I'm sorry had another thought. The congregation full of mixed ages did not seem to get into the Christian Contempory, but let them play Just A Closer Walk With You or I Saw the light the congrgation was galvanized. The amazing thing was the music minister acknowledged this as a fact. Go Figure
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"Oh what a tangled web we weave when we first begin to deceive" Someone Famous

David Collins · From: Madison, North Carolina, USA

Hi Les,

Welcome to the fickled world of Church Music. I am the "praise team" leader and steel player in our Church. We also have a traditional choir, and a rock group in the Church.

After a few struggles such as you have described, we finally decided that each had it's own place and following.

We now have 2 Services each Sunday, one traditional, in which the Choir, Organ and Piano are the top musical dogs.

The second, the Praise Team provides the music which is primarily Hymns and 80s-90s contemporary with a country/pop flair.

The rock group plays mainly for the youth meetings and rallies.

It seems that most everyone is happy now.

Hopefully, your Pastor will realize this and make the necessary accomodations.

If I can be of more help, shoot me an e-mail.

Good Luck!
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David Collins
www.chjoyce.com

Les Anderson · From: The Great White North

Wow, it's already gone. Very Happy

Tommy Shown · From: Denham Springs, La.

Les, there's a church in Baton Rouge that has a band, they call "God's Country Band". They Christian Country music, and another local church, their style is more Contemporay Christian/Christian Rock.I've been to the latter and I have listened to them play.
and I've thought about talking to them about letting me set-in with them one Sunday. Because I 've found a couple of songs they play would sound even better with a steel added to them. But I wouldn't know how they'd take it.
Tommy

Lee Baucum · From: McAllen, Texas (Extreme South) The Final Frontier

If your church is like many, the younger ones don't "invest" as much financially. Usually, it's the older folks that support the church and keep it alive.

If enough of the older folks get fed up and leave, the church will fold, for lack of financial support. There needs to be something there to satisfy all members.

At our church we have an 8am service with no music. At 9am we play contemporary Christian music. At 11am they use the organ and choir and offer up traditional hymns. Since going to that schedule, the church has grown considerably.

Lee, from South Texas

Luke Morell · From: Ramsey Illinois, USA Hometown of Tex Williams

At our church,we do a mixture of tradition and contemporary and most everyone is happy. Depends on what songs we do, sometimes I play steel, and rest of the time I play straight rhythm guitar. We don't rock out, but if I'm playing steel, I'll play as country as you can get.

Jim Sliff · From: Lawndale California, USA

We have the opposite situation.

Our worship team has been, from the start about 18 years ago, a solid rock band. Rarely, we do a country version of something, but it's a contemporary worship group. We also have a wide mix of folks in the congregation, from kids programs to teens to senior citizens.

In all those years, we had one complaint about the music - a mother/daughter team of new attendees put weekly notes in the suggestion box that they wanted an organ and choir. Once we figured out who they were, the pastoral team got together with them, had a pleasant discussion - and they left, having discovered they were simply in the wrong church. Traditional churches around this area are losing attendees and ours and similar churches are growing.

Maybe it's geography, but choir-and-hymnal churches in our area of southern California just aren't drawing people, and contemporary worship is packing them in.

Our group (which I don't play in as much as I used to due to time constraints) even has a splinter group - a bar band.

Different things work in different places.
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No chops, but great tone
1930's/40's Rickenbacher/Rickenbacker 6&8 string lap steels
1921 Weissenborn Style 2; Hilo&Schireson hollownecks
Appalachian, Regal & Dobro squarenecks
1959 Fender 400 9+2 B6;1960's Fender 800 3+3+2; 1948 Fender Dual-8 Professional

Jody Sanders · From: Magnolia,Texas, R.I.P.

The BIBLE speaks of false prophets. Jody.

Clyde Mattocks · From: Kinston, North Carolina, USA

An area TV station did a story on a similar situation awhile back. The end result was they split into two churches, one traditional with the old music and an older pastor and one with the new music and a younger pastor. I expect this will be the norm in a lot of locations.
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LeGrande II, Nash. 112, Fender Twin Tone Master, Session 400, Harlow Dobro, R.Q.Jones Dobro

Charles Davidson · From: Phenix City Alabama, USA

So true Jody,and there's a LOT of them around today. MOST of them in DC. The foreign terrorist is not hurting our great nation as much as the far left Godless media such as MSNBC and anti American groups such as the ACLU,they are the ones to worry about.DYKBC.
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Hard headed, opinionated old geezer. BAMA CHARLIE. GOD BLESS AMERICA. ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVIST. SUPPORT LIVE MUSIC !

Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

I reckon I'm a right poor Christian, but I'll say this about that. Older (traditional) Christians just wanna sing and share in the LORD. The younger (contemporary) Christians just seem to want to be rock stars. They say they just want to sing praise, but it seems to me they obviously are getting most of their "high" from the attention, rather than having the attention going to the "ON HIGH".

Charles Davidson · From: Phenix City Alabama, USA

Donny,Maybe they just want to make a joyful NOISE. DYKBC.
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Hard headed, opinionated old geezer. BAMA CHARLIE. GOD BLESS AMERICA. ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVIST. SUPPORT LIVE MUSIC !

Larry King · From: Watts, Oklahoma, USA

I totally agree with Donny...I see it happening at my church. This has birthed a group of 'performers" and these players are extremely limited in their musicianship....i.e. the pastor kept them on stage when he wanted the congregation to sing How Great Thou Art and the numbnuts on the keyboard never did find the 2 minor. Also , they're doing Come Holy Spirit with a ton of chord changes omitted or played wrong. This is my "thorn in the flesh"...rock players with no christian roots but they have every screaming effects pedal on the market and the facial contortions look like heavy metal rock musicians. Double yuck !! I'll say this in closing...there's a minister in Louisiana who had a very public moral failure , yet he has the absolute best music on T V and you can bet your sweet bippy that it's worshipful.

Mark Edwards · From: Weatherford,Texas, USA

This thread couldn't have come at a better time, we went to a friend of ours church yesterday (Easter Sunday) 30 minutes of straight rock & roll (I think it was Christian Music?) and then 30 minutes of the message. As I sat there I ran hotter and hotter thinking there was supposed to be a reverence, respect and dignity. Now don't get me wrong I'm all about praise and worship but the stuff I heard yesterday (3 lead guitar players, 1 bass player, 1 acoustic guitar player, drummer, keyboard player, and bongo player oh and singer (boy and girl)and back up singers) too much, just way way to much, too loud and I truly believe the message was lost in all the hype... My wife could see my disgust and asked me what was wrong, I whispered (actually yelling in her ear) this is sacrilegious. She looked at me like I was crazy. Anyway after the service we talked on the way home. I said am I getting to old for this new wave of Christian Music? She said that she really did not like it either but if you were trying to get a 14 or 15 year old kid into church this would be the music..I don't know guys but this just seemed to me to be way out there not the place for a rock band. I mean I get it that they are playing to the younger crowd but I swear it was so outlandish, and commercialized that I couldn't see the forest for the trees.....Okay I'm rambling but I do feel better....have a great day....

Lee Baucum · From: McAllen, Texas (Extreme South) The Final Frontier

In our Contemporary Christian Band we have a keyboard player/singer, electric bass, two acousic guitars, djembe drum, and some vocalists. No loud electric guitars. Six Bose speaker cabinets on the ceiling create a big sound, but not loud. We play at 9am to about 200 people, a mixture of young families with children, middle-aged couples, and older couples.

At our 11am traditional service, with a pipe organ and full choir, I do believe the sound level is much higher than ours. The pipe organ really pumps out the db's. That service has about 100 folks in the pews, mostly older couples.

Lee

Tom Quinn · Posted 13 Apr 2009 11:00 am

For myself...I'll say that again, for myself, I want peace and quiet from the world when I go to church. I don't need a choir or bells or whistles. Just a quiet place to ask the Lord to show me his will. All that racket is just feel-good stuff, same as a honky tonk. For myself...

YMMVYMMVYMMVYMMVYMMV

Ray Minich · From: Bradford, Pa. Frozen Tundra

To think I spent all that time learning Gregorian Chant....

Randy Koenen · From: Grand Forks North Dakota, USA

I play one weekend a month at one of the larger churches in Fargo. Our praise team is the only one playing country but there are two other contemporary rock teams that divide up the other Sundays. The music and worship director makes sure the entire focus is on the worship experience for the congregation. No leads... unless its during the prelude or postlude. Again the entire focus is on leading worship. The pastors and music team discussed this at great length when we started.
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1984 E9/B6 ZUM; Pre RP E9/B6 Mullen

Les Anderson · From: The Great White North

I have received two E-mails asking me to explain what I mean by contemporary being different from Christian rock.

Answer; What we used to do is play quiet, contemporary Christian mixed with traditional Christian during the prelude and gathering of the congregation. During the singing portion of the service, we more or less played backup to the congregation's singing. We kept the music backup as simple as possible.

Usually, after the service, we would play old time and traditional gospel music and 95% of the time, people would hang around and sing along with us for a half hour or more. We never quit playing as long as the people wanted to sing.

That has all changed now.

Erv Niehaus · From: Litchfield, MN, USA

I think that in many of the churches that have adopted a "contemporary" service, there is a real hunger for the more traditional gospel songs.
I am working with a lot of steelers who are introducing this type of music back into their worship services.
Too many churches are catering to the youth, and there isn't anything wrong with that, but they are forgetting about the older worshipers who are the backbone of the church and really keeping it going.
If you want to hear loud and distorted music, all you have to do is turn on the radio and it will be right up in your face. I sure don't want it when I go to the house of the Lord.
It's very fortunate when a church gets large enough to be able to have two worship services: a traditional and a contemporary.
I attend a conservative church and any time they might elect to bring in the "head bangers", I'm out of there. Whoa!

Joel Meredith · From: Portland,Oregon, USA

When I went to church, I found that the newer, choruses or "christian rock" songs that were sung lacked a certain amount of soul and sounded very bland and, well, dorky....and I'm 23, so I was probably in the demographic that those more modern songs were trying to attract....that's just my opinion.

I've always liked those old hymns and southern gospel numbers because of the song structures and simple poetry that they had...and I'm not even religious!

Rick Campbell · From: Sneedville, TN, USA

Churches, Country Music Industry, Grand Ole Opry, Walmart, etc... everybody is trying to attract the youth. The video game and cell phone text messaging people are winning hands down.

I treat the church thing the same as I do any other public establishment, such as a store. If I don't like the way they do business, I go somewhere else.

Darvin Willhoite · From: Roxton, Tx. USA

I guess some of the music we play at our church could be classed as Rock, as I use distortion and other effects with my guitars. We play mostly Contemporary Praise & Worship music, which I would say is closer to Pop style music. We do throw in an oldie or a Country style song occasionally. But, it is all done in a spirit of worship. We don't have any singers or musicians that are trying to be stars, and our music appeals to young and old alike. We are not a young band, four of us are over 50, the music minister and a keyboardist are around 40, the drummer is in his mid 30's, and one guitar player is in his mid 20's.

I've been going to this church for 12 years now, and when I started we were running around 300 on Sunday morning, and last Sunday we had over 1800 in attendance. We have three identical services on Sunday morning, at 8:00, 9:45, and 11:30. We have only had the early service since the first of the year, but we have 150 - 175 in attendance. We can only seat around 700 comfortably, and the second and third services are packed.

So, our music is definitely not killing our church, it is growing by leaps and bounds, and young and old alike are coming. I know of several people that came at first just to hear the music, but liked the spirit they felt, and decided to stay. I believe our worship music is a big contributor to this growth.

One other thing, we have all become better musicians because the kind of music we play is way beyond 3 chords and standard progressions. We learn at least 2 new song per month, sometimes more. We've had to stretch out and work a lot harder, but it's worth all the hard work when we see church growth like we've seen.

If you're ever in the Austin area on Sunday morning, come and check it out for yourself. You probably won't find a friendlier church anywhere, and you'll probably like the spirit you feel.

www.christianlifeaustin.com
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Darvin Willhoite
MSA Millennium, Legend, and Studio Pro, Reese's restored Universal Direction guitar, a restored MSA Classic SS, several amps, new and old, and a Kemper Powerhead that I am really liking. Also a Zum D10, a Mullen RP, and a restored Rose S10, named the "Blue Bird". Also, I have acquired and restored the plexiglass D10 MSA Classic that was built as a demo in the early '70s. I also have a '74 lacquer P/P, with wood necks, and a showroom condition Sho-Bud Super Pro.