Does it look like a church? Sound like a church?

I tried out a new church yesterday, and learned a few things about what I like a church to look and sound like.  I agreed with much of the service: they used a Bible, they referred to God the Father without getting tripped up in “the great energy force above all” or some such language, and they seemed to have the care of others at heart.

But I definitely had some issues with their musical style and the image they were projecting. When service started there were some young guys onstage with a trap set, guitars, and a keyboard, fronted by a set of five miked singers. The music was incredibly loud; I couldn’t actually tell when the congregation was supposed to sing without watching the mouths of those around me. Forget about actually hearing them!

Alright, now the question is: why did this make my spine stiffen? I grew up with rock and still like it. But my gut reaction was that this simply wasn’t church. I was tempted to try head banging and see if anyone thought it was inappropriate, hoping to find some boundaries.  Most of us identify church by what it looks, smells, and sounds like, and for me this just wasn’t it.

That gut reaction got me thinking, and then I started putting my finger on issues that weren’t quite as easy to dismiss.  Though I like the music, I like it in the kind of rush-filled, head-banging sort of way I’ve known from being a metal fan as a kid. It’s the kind of feeling you get from hearing a blast of another person’s voice, but not at all the same kind of rush you get from singing and feeling part of a large congregation, lifting voices up in celebration. Although I really like to sing and will do it given half a chance, I didn’t feel at all compelled to sing today; I couldn’t even hear myself when I did (given how loud I am, quite a feat). Why would I sing when those five amplified voices can easily blow all the rest of us away with their stellar sound system? To put it as crudely as possible, I was getting the sense that it was the opinion of this church that God only wanted the best music, and so they had procured good singers for that purpose.  Coming from the other direction, singing no longer seemed like something one had to or should do in church, a part of one’s churchly responsibilities like praying and reading and such.  In a weird kind of way, those people up front had turned from song leaders to entertainment for the congregation, and I have a difficult time seeing how that is productive for the church body.  We get entertainment everywhere else in our lives; is that what we’re supposed to get from church?

I also couldn’t help but notice that there was definitely a celebration of youth and youth culture going on, from the music choice to the clothes everyone wore onstage.  I can’t fathom why any of the elderly people would attend such a church.  To be quite honest, it was a bit creepy that the people up front made me feel old. Capris, tans, blond hair that was spiky or flipped out, jeans and T-shirts or polos–there was a lot of emphasis on being and looking young. I get a bit tired of the media bombardment that is so outrageously youth-focused, and it was startling to get the same thing in a church.

Alright, now you know that Sydney and I deserve each other, with our four-part hymns in one hand and old-fashioned dress clothes in the other. I just thought I would put this out there, even though I’m now running off for a week of extended family time in Oklahoma and won’t get to read comments for awhile.  Still feeling pretty new to church, leaning heavily on my memories from childhood, this just seems to be a very different animal from the church that I knew as a kid, and I’m having a hard time understanding how both can be church.

Erin