Tony Morgan had a fascinating post this week about the genres of music we play in church. Here are the results of his informal poll.
The question I asked was this: “Consider the worship music at your church. What genre of music would best describe the style?”
Here are the results of the poll:
- Rock 49%
- Pop 32%
- Alternative 12%
- R&B/Soul 4%
- Country 3%
- Hip-Hop/Rap 0%
By comparison, I thought you might be interested in seeing the same results from the current top 100 songs on iTunes.
- Pop 29%
- Hip-Hop/Rap 22%
- Rock 14%
- Alternative 11%
- Country 11%
- R&B/Soul 10%
So if we’re trying to reach people where they’re at, shouldn’t we leverage the type of music they’re used to?
On the other hand, if there are two types of music that people love to hate, it’s Rap and Country. So, it’s kind of a fine line… do you utilize the type of music that a large percentage of people like at the cost of turning off a lot of people who can’t stand it?
It all depends upon your demographic. If you’re trying to reach young, urban African-Americans, then Hip-Hop should probably be an integral part of your worship experience. But even if that’s not your demographic (unless you’re trying to reach 83 year old white ladies), then I think a healthy influx of hip-hop/rap music in a worship experience can be a useful tool to bring people closer to God.
Then again, my brother gave his life to Christ listening to Christian rap, so I guess I’m biased.
May 17, 2008 at 11:16 am
So you appear to say two things: 1)the highest purpose of music in church is to give people what they want and 2) the most important function of church is to reach the widest audience possible?
Is this the case?
May 17, 2008 at 11:16 am
This is T-hop, by the way.
May 17, 2008 at 3:09 pm
By no means am I saying that the “highest purpose” of music in church is to give people what they want.” But let me start at #2.
I think the church should want to reach as large of an audience as possible with the gospel. I also think we can do that by bringing people to church (in addition to the church “going out” to evangelize).
Therefore, I think the church should give people what they want, to a degree. We want people to come to church, but we also want them to come back. Among young outsiders (those who don’t attend church), 78% consider the church to be old-fashioned. 72% say church is out of touch with reality. 68% say church is boring.*
If the church wants to be relevant in people’s lives then I believe it has to reach them (at least at first) where they are. So if playing Christian hip-hop or rap opens up a door or lets down someone’s defenses to hearing the truth, then by all means the church should use it.
If there’s Christian hip-hop and Christian rock, and people like hip-hop music, then why isn’t the church using it? If you can scratch people where they itch with the truth, then by all means, do!
*According to data in UnChristian by David Kinnaman
May 20, 2008 at 2:16 pm
Thanks for the response, Pat.