Catching the
Next Wave of Music
by Charles Wear
Tastes and styles in church music always lag behind popular
music tastes and styles. Years ago I hosted a talk show on a campus radio station. One
weekend afternoon the discussion centered around what is truly "spiritual"
music. As one of the station staff responsible for selecting what music was appropriate
for air time on our essentially "religious" station, I had struggled about which
Ralph Carmichael arrangement was allowable for airing.
My position at the time (early in the
folk-rock era of
popular music) was that eventually, what was popular in the back seat of teenager’s
cars, would be popular in church services. I’ll never forget the indignant responses
I got to my position. Now, 30 years later, it turns out that I was right. Folk-rock music
such as that recorded by Vineyard Music Group is popular in hundreds of churches
throughout the world. Traditionalists still cling to pipe organs and choir anthems. But
drums, synthesizers and acoustic and electric guitars are the instruments in the
"contemporary" church.
What does all of this mean for the church in the postmodern
era? In other words, what joyful "noise" will the next generation be using for
worship and praise indigenous to their culture.
 Recently I had the opportunity to visit a church
targeted at teens-to-twenty somethings in the Central Coast area of California. Just about
two years ago, the senior pastor, Terry Page set out to reach the next generation. The
result is The Burn Service at Five Cities Vineyard in Arroyo Grande, CA. The music of
worship leaders, Darren Clarke, Ryan Delmore and Jessie Lane is captured on the latest
release from Vineyard Music’s Touching the Father’s Heart Series, "Your
Love Reaches Me." The album will soon be available in general release and can be
obtained through www.worshipmusic.com.
The Burn Service attracts between 200-300 attenders with an
average age of about 22. The worship music is a fresh sound of alternative rock with words
and a message birthed in the hearts and souls of the next generation. Excerpted words of
Ryan Delmore’s "Changed My Life" are particularly telling:
...."Hopeless and alone, an orphan with no home, you adopted
me"....."Crippled and afraid, a debt I could not pay, you adopted me".....
Reminiscent of the sounds of Martin Smith’s Delirious
group, and the music of worship leader Matt Redman, both from England, the music of The
Burn Service is sure to touch the postmodern population. And it is clear that it is doing
so as worshipers crowd the area in the front of the stage and stand, kneel, or dance as
they sing along with Clarke, Delmore and Lane. The edgy voice of Jessie Lane is
reminiscent of the woman balladeers of the 90s.
If
leather-clad, tongue-pierced, preachers sermonize and punk bands lead worship, can it
truly be church? |
While the music has been slightly-homogenized to make it
acceptable to the general Vineyard Worship audience, the essential soul of the music has
been left untouched.
When we gave permission for a group of teenagers to begin
to write and perform their own music last year, they chose "punk" music. Loud,
jarring, repetitive, I was hard-pressed to see the value of their choice. The group named
themselves, CIP, for Christ in Progress. And their songs were used in evangelistic
outreach in New Zealand last summer with some success. If leather-clad, tongue-pierced,
preachers sermonize and punk bands lead worship, can it truly be church?
This is a question that interests me profoundly. I hope to
be around to see the answer. In the meantime, less radical, but no less relevant is the
music of The Burn Service. Check it out.
 Charles
Wear is a lawyer in Southern
California. He has four children and one
grandchild and lives in Moreno Valley, CA, USA.
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