About 3 weeks ago My dad who is the pastor of our church came asked me a question.
“What makes modern music Modern”
My answer was can’t you tell the difference? We both agreed we could but it really didn’t make much sense what made a song sound like 2007. Look at whats out there right now. Christina Aguilera has a CD out right now which is pretty much all 1920’s sounding music. It seems what makes something so called modern is in the production of the music. So what makes the worship music Modern or not modern?
An interesting post was done on the song Everlasting God, by Brenton Brown, on both my blog and on Ragamuffin Soul. Los over there said the song wasn’t very 2007 and wondered how he could fix that. I wrote a post on it myself and agreed but wrote that as worship leaders we need to play stuff we might not enjoy or even like for the sake of the worship of the congregation.
Los decided to play it and it has since grown on him and they have done it a bunch of times in church now. The congregation loves it. His church is a very “hip” church. So why do they love the song, a song that no matter how you play it (even his way) does not sound like it was written after the year 2000?
I thought about this a whole bunch. I realized that as musicians we are looking for modern worship. Music that gets our guitars crankin’ and amps to 11. This is ok but also as musicians we get bored quick while the congregation doesn’t. As worship leaders we shouldn’t think in the same way. We should be looking for music that is relevant. This is my new buzz word. I want relevant worship not modern worship. I love crankin guitars but that isn’t what gets people to worship. relevance does. The songs need to be relevant in sound, emotion, lyrics, and spirit to the culture in our towns and congregations. My worship team practiced there is no one like you by crowder. Killer song. Modern through and through. It’s a great song, but we aren’t doing it in church because it isn’t relevant to our church. We do other so called modern songs that are fast and crankin’ but they are relevant.
I urge the worship leaders who read this to take a good look at their catalog of music. Take stock in what is relevant and what is just done because it is cool or modern. There is a time for most styles and lyrics of worship, but understanding what is relevant to your congregation and what can help bring them into the throneroom is key.
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