Church Culture Change -- What Can We Do About It?

5 Factors that can make or break the modern church!

Change happens, it happens every day. What does this mean for the church? What can the church do about it? What should we do about it?

The world is changing, for better or worse, it is changing. As Christians, navigating change can be confusing and conflicting. It’s important to recognize that no matter how much we do or do not like the state of the world we are not told to participate in it or like it. But we are called to be kind and loving to the world. We are called to reach out to the world with Christ’s love. While we don’t have to like certain aspects, we also cannot just ignore progress and changes in culture. This is extremely true when it comes to the church and worship music. 

There is a great debate within the church on how to balance following Jesus' teachings and having an unworldly worship lifestyle but utilizing progress to better our reach into the world that doesn’t feel the same way. It’s a tricky dance. People that don’t believe or don’t know better look at Christianity and see it as boring, uptight, and even hateful because of how we can be towards the world and our, what can seem conservative, lifestyle choices.

Musical worship is a place where people can unite. God created music to be special, a way of bringing people together, and an elevated form of worship that is indescribably beautiful. I think sometimes though we get anxious and cautious about how much of our modern day progress we should take advantage of in our worship.

I approach this topic carefully, knowing that each of these factors should be taken on a case to case, church to church situation. On the other side though, don’t be afraid of progress, don’t be afraid to find ways these advancements can benefit the church, not hurt it. 

1. Technology 

Phones, sound boards, microphones, tablets, computers, electric instruments are just a few examples technology that make music so easy to access and create. In 100 years we have made leaps and bounds in technology. Music is easier to find, listen to, save for later and recreate. We have recording and distributing devices in our pockets now. The possibilities continue to grow, and this is great! A wider range of individuals can express themselves. This can also apply within the church and among Christians. We can now all have a platform to speak our faith. It also allows us to enhance our worship experience, no matter your church’s style of worship, the size of your church, technology has provided more options. The simple invention of a microphone allows worship leaders to better be heard, better engage with their congregations. The technology to livestream and video conference has helped the church reach into the community and also to have a wider reach when needing new leadership.

This certainly came in handy for my husband and I. We were found by a church across the country, never heard of them, never would have found it on our own. I appreciate that God can work through any means to get us where we need to go. Technology is not something to avoid, but instead to educate ourselves on, learn how it can be helpful.

2. Musical Skills 

Musical skill levels have changed. The skills needed to be a successful musician have changed. While the music field will always be popular, there are fewer people pursuing an older/ formal/ traditional style of musical education. With all of the available technology today an 11 year old can listen to a song, dozens of songs, instantly on a device. They can learn it, find a karaoke track, record it themselves, put it out in social media, and then if lucky it goes viral in hours, none of this requiring much aside from being able to listen and copy and use a phone. 

That still just blows my mind! The need/pursuit for professional training is becoming less and less necessary to thrive in the music world. Even audio and visual tech, while getting more advanced, is also constantly being modified to be simpler to operate and learn. We strive to make things easier, make living more convenient.

3. The Infinite Amount of Material

We literally have the world at our fingertips now. We have laptops, tablets, and phones with the ability to connect to endless sources of information. New material is always popping up and from there it grows and changes. Finding new music can be easy, but overwhelming when there are thousands of songs to choose from. This can have pros and cons of course, but how we approach it is how we make it beneficial. Creativity has never increased so quickly in human history. Within the church we have thousands of worship songs to choose from, and that can be a daunting task, but what a wonderful problem to have, right? We can find music that speaks into our specific culture changes and needs.

4. Lifestyles 

This will never stop changing, with every new advancement, our way of life changes again. The way our world works is different. We have grown from being a more rural manual labor based society, to an ever growing urban and suburban lifestyle with more intellectual and digital based work. This has changed the family dynamic, the work/life balance, and education. Our working class is growing and slowly creating equality between genders, race, ethnicity, etc. It isn’t perfect, but think about how we have grown! Something I have appreciated about worship artists is that they are also embracing lifestyle changes, they write songs that will speak to people in a way that clicks with them, new culture has created new music. This is why it is important, that while traditional music is still beautiful, people need Jesus spoken into their struggles and pains.

5. Social Media 

The creation of the internet and growing popularity of social media has drastically in good and bad ways changed how we connect with people. We can share any part of our life at any moment and have total strangers from all over the world see it and react to it. We also have the ability to connect with a wider variety of people in general, people have online friendships, groups, sometimes with people of other countries, people they may never meet in person. This provides a tremendous opportunity to spread kindness and radical faithful love with the world. I mean, if you’re reading this then you can see the benefit of social media. 

There was a time when I thought having no social media was the better option.  I would scroll through feeds and see violence and hatred. For awhile I deleted all my accounts and had nothing to do with it. It felt so toxic, I felt more drained after scrolling than I did when I opened it. It is easy to see how social media has spiked depressions and anxiety. For some the choice to not engage with it is understandable. But I have also seen the good social media can do. There are still beautiful and inspirational messages of God’s love being spread. The best way we can battle the evil is with the good, with God’s message of everlasting love.

Everyone approaches social media differently. My one request -- Please be careful on social media. Your mental health is important. It's ok to step away, it's ok to walk away from it. Everyone is different, you don't need to sacrifice your mental health for social media.

I’m sure there are people all over the spectrum about how these changes can and should affect the church. We are skeptical to step out of our traditional comfort zone, to try learning new styles and genres of worship music. We compare the world to the word and it can leave us unsure of what to do. When it comes to musical worship -- I would encourage you take a step back and individually reassess your opinions and beliefs. Compare them with scripture, then take a look again at the possibilities modern music can provide.

It may not fit your specific style and even I will admit there are certain genres that are really hard to sing, and are not necessarily Sunday morning service songs. That doesn’t mean they aren’t worship. Give them a try, listen to a few of them. There are some amazingly impactful artists out there, they are bringing worship to the 21st century and reaching people where they are. The genre or origin shouldn’t be our basis on its worship value. All music written with the intent of praising Jesus and spreading Jesus – just because it doesn’t match our view of what musical worship should be – does not mean it should be dismissed without taking a closer look.

Do any of these factors cause division or dwindling within your church? Change can be hard and it can bring resistance. My biggest suggestion is turn to scriptures and prayer when you reach a crossroads. There is no one right answer, but I pray God speaks to your situation and gives you clarity.

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Ministry of Joy

A Worship Arts Ministry Blog