Now you know what Charles is always playing in those headphones of his… If you don’t spend the next week singing Meat Loaf and Celine Dion songs, I will truly feel like a failure.  My biggest regret is that I couldn’t figure out how to add “Hot Patootie, Bless My Soul” into this comic.

If you belong to one of the many, many churches that has arguments over the style of music in your worship services, you know how passionate people can get about their music preferences.  If music speaks to our soul, it makes sense we would have enthusiastic opinions about the type of music used in church.  So-called “traditional” services were actually white contemporary services in the 1950’s, singing hymns that were contemporary to the Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th centuries.  So-called “contemporary” services tend to get stuck in the ruts of whatever Christian radio songs the worship leader listened to most in college, becoming a new tradition.

For about a decade we’ve been able to completely cater our own music through iTunes, Sirius radio, and more recently through media streaming.  In other words, it is going to be impossible for your music program to be relevant to everyone.  If relevant music is what’s driving your worship conversations, maybe you’re focused on the wrong things.

In Overflow, by Lovett Weems and Tom Berlin, the authors write what should now be common knowledge about how church growth works:

“Thriving congregations focus outwardly on their contexts while declining congregations increasingly turn their primary attention inward toward current member preferences rather than what might be needed to make their church more welcoming for those who need its message and ministry.  Nowhere is this more evident than in worship. …The goal should always be to develop worship practices that bring together historical, theological, and pastoral considerations in a way that builds current disciples and reaches those who most need the power of God’s love in Christ.”   –Overflow, 31.

So what sort of worship reaches those people in your town who most need the power of God’s love in Christ?  How is your music inspiring people a deeper community and deeper faith?  How is your worship grounded in the faith of the past, while evolving with the people God has placed in your community? These questions might inspire you to decide on one musical style over another.  As we learn to lose our lives, our preferences, even our favorite style of music, we may just find our true life as we see new souls connect to Christ.