WACO, Texas (ABP) – Trying to adapt to every trend in worship can become
disruptive and distracting to a church, said Tim Studstill, director of music and
worship for the Baptist General Convention of Texas.
Serving in a trend-driven congregation, Studstill said, can turn a worship leader
into a “barista” — someone who prepares coffee drinks — “blending a heritage of
hymns with a collection of … choruses, serving a perfectly satisfying selection of
worship to discriminating worshipers.”
Churches that focus too much on ever-changing worship trends can get distracted
from the real issues of the heart, Studstill said. Likewise, defining congregations by
their worship styles is dangerous.
Sometimes churches get caught up in definitions like traditional, contemporary,
postmodern, emerging and Western heritage that define churches.
“Denominations are identified according to [worship], and congregations spilt over
it, and ministers resign over it,” Studstill told a gathering of worship leaders.
Music ministers from across the nation came together July 21-25 at Baylor
University to examine worship trends and where they may be leading.
Approximately 250 people attended the Alleluia! conference, representing a variety
of denominations and states.
“All ideas of worship are here,” said Randall Bradley, director of Baylor’s Center
for Christian Music Studies. “It’s a place were people can come together and
dialogue about ideas.”
Studstill described several trends that are influencing worship: relaxing the dress
code, embracing a more contemporary approach to music, and using more
technology. Churches also have begun to throw out printed materials such as the
church bulletin and the order of worship.
Gary Chevalier, pastor of worship arts at The Avenue Church in Waxahachie,
Texas, said his church has done away with the order of worship.
“It just becomes a checklist,” he said.
Terry York, associate professor of Christian ministry and church music at Baylor's George
W. Truett Theological Seminary, helped attendees look to the future of the church
and what it might look like.
Attendees predicted denominations will no longer have significant meaning,
worship might become less performance-oriented and more participatory, and
churches may offer music therapy to individual members, in the same way they
offer counseling now.
During the Alleluia! conference, music-reading sessions where held to sing newly
published music given by Jubilate!, a music distributor and publisher. Other event
sponsors included the Baptist General Convention of Texas, Kyle Lake Center for
Effective Preaching at Truett Seminary, YouthCUE and Choristers Guild.
“When I hear 250 well-trained voices singing songs together, it just thrills my
heart,” said Joseph Martin, director of sacred publications for Shawnee Press.
Martin said the conference provides a glimpse of what heaven will sound like.
“Something dynamic happens when people with different cultures come together,”
Martin said.
-30-