This article is the final part of our State of Christian Music series—what’s happening, how things are going, and what we can do about it.
We evangelicals are often anxious people. That might be because our genuine desire to be obedient to God sometimes curdles into a fear of anything we perceive as unknown or foreign. I believe that anxiety is at the heart of the artificial divide between sacred and secular music.
In my experience, each outdated idea attached to Christians who make music comes from anxiety. Sometimes we worry that new generations will fall away from God if they don’t carry on the same musical traditions that sustained us in our youth. Sometimes we fear what we view as provocative messages we’re seeing from artists, and we’re afraid of our children deconstructing their faith. Or on the flipside, we worry that if we can’t keep up with the new streams of music, we will become culturally irrelevant and therefore useless in the spiritual formation of the next generation. We worry that technological advances in music will arrest their creative development and stunt their character growth. We worry about potentially embarrassing ourselves or offending others in our efforts to cross racial and cultural divides in music, so instead we stay inside our safe comfort zones. Maybe we worry that our music will be judged as too Christian for outsiders or not Christian enough for insiders.
But what if we shifted from operating from a base of anxiety to operating from a base of discovery? Instead of lamenting what’s been lost, why not open our hearts to the new things of God? Instead of being afraid of technological advances, why not consider what new opportunities they might provide? Instead of being bound by our racialized American past, why not allow the Spirit to move us out of our cultural and ethnic comfort zones? Instead of getting hung up on labels like Christian or secular, why not look for elements of God’s truth, beauty, or wisdom in whatever form of music we encounter?
So in a spirit of holy discovery, I propose the following recommendations. These are not meant to be exhaustive or exclusive, but rather to jump-start your holy imagination.
Recommendations for Listeners
Pay attention to the music around you. Sometimes people will say, “I don’t really listen to music that much.” What they mean is that they don’t go out of their way to listen to specific bands or artists. But we all probably hear a lot of music without really thinking about what it is or where it’s coming from, because music is everywhere. It’s playing in grocery stores and dentist offices, in restaurants and at batting cages and driving ranges. If you’re one of those people who say they don’t listen to music, try this experiment. For one week, take note every time you hear a piece of music that you like. If you recognize it, write it down. If you don’t but you have a smartphone, find an app like Shazam or ask your phone’s AI assistant to identify it. If you’re watching a movie, find the soundtrack. The website TuneFind lists commercial music placements in television, movies, and video games.
If you do that for a week, guess what? You listen to music now.
Embrace a wider definition of music. Include a wide taxonomy of technological options in that definition. Singing a capella is music. Drill teams and HBCU-style step teams are rhythmic and therefore musical. Bell choirs and marimba solos are music. Chiptune melodies made with 8-bit video game processors are music. The theremin can be a delightfully weird musical experience. The cup game is a form of music. Maybe you remember the ’80s memory game Simon where you touched large colorful pads that emitted tones that you had to remember in sequence…guess what, that’s music.
Expand your musical diet. Try listening to new artists and new releases. Don’t settle for what corporate conglomerates like iHeartRadio or the algorithms for apps like YouTube or Spotify feed you. Find playlists by human curators. If it’s been years since you listened to the radio, give it a try. HD radio signals have increased the sound quality of AM and FM signals quite a bit. Listen to community radio stations, especially if they’re operated by local nonprofit organizations or educational institutions. (College radio is still a thing!) If you travel a lot in your car, consider investing in satellite radio. Don’t be afraid to mix it up. If you’ve spent your whole adult life listening to The Fish or WAY-FM and you want to experience a similar format but with more hip-hop, try the BOOST Radio app, or Holy Culture Radio on Sirius XM. Or ask a friend or family member what they’re listening to.
Worship with music in your everyday life. Worship music is not just for Sunday mornings. Create your own music on the fly with your own voice. You don’t need a guitar or a piano. After all, singing is simply breathing with pitch, rhythm, and intention. You may be thinking, “I’m not a musician, I’m not very musical. I don’t even sing karaoke.” Can you sing along to your favorite song on the radio? Then you can do this. Start by singing along to your favorite chorus while it plays—then keep singing it after the song is over. (Make sure you pause your phone before it starts playing something else.) Then start experimenting by singing different words over the same melody. Don’t worry about making it sound good, just make it authentic. Sing what you feel, what you want, or what you see. Sing to God in prayer. Sing a victorious rejoice. Sing a heavy lament. Sing an average, medium, okay kind of tune. Just keep singing and see what happens.
Recommendations for Worship Leaders
Build on what works. Take an inventory of the five dimensions of worship music, and figure out which ones you naturally do well. Celebrate that! Acknowledge the good things that are happening. Then identify one or two areas you can begin to strengthen.
Try writing your own songs. For a long time, I felt like writing and performing my own songs was unnecessary, because so many great songs already exist. But gradually, as I started doing more worship planning, I started to recognize the need for certain kinds of songs that I didn’t have in my repertoire. If your pastor needs a particular kind of song for a specific ministry purpose and you don’t know one that fits, consider that an invitation to write something.
Diversify your song selection processes. If you normally rely on whatever is trending on CCLI, the Billboard charts, or Instagram or TikTok, try branching out a little. Ask other worship musicians what they’re doing in their ministries. Don’t be afraid to listen to suggestions from people who aren’t musicians; even if few of their suggestions are feasible, you might find one or two that work and you’ll generate good will by showing you’re willing to listen to feedback.
Let relationships guide you across cultures. If you want to start experimenting with a language or a style that doesn’t feel native to you, develop a relationship with someone who is native to it. Don’t just sing a song in Spanish because you think it’s the right thing to do; do it because you have Spanish-speaking members in or proximate to your congregation. If possible, invite them to sing it—first for you (so you hear how they do it), then with you (so you can sing it as an expression of solidarity).
Learn the skill of the DJ. Many live musicians scorn DJs because they think it doesn’t take skill to be successful. In a sense, they are right; mostly DJs play other people’s music. But DJing is not just about the techniques of blending music; it’s about connecting with people. Good DJs see their profiles ascend when they can read the mood of the room and change it through the pace and variety of the tracks they select. These skills transfer to worship music. Also, you might find that using a turntable controller can augment the effectiveness of traditional instruments like guitars or pianos if they are no longer the default sound heard during a service. Depending on the size of your congregation, you might need to consider copyright issues if you’re spinning really popular tunes, but if you remix something enough times, it becomes something different altogether.
Recommendations for Recording Artists (Even Aspiring Ones)
Expand your creative palette. The quickest way to infuse creativity into your music is by finding new tools or techniques. If you have the budget, consider upgrading your instrument or the hardware or software you use to record. If you don’t, you can still find ways to take the same musical ingredients and put them in new, interesting configurations. (This is what Taco Bell does with food, and they’re still going strong.) Scour YouTube to learn new scales, patterns, drills, or études that will help you level up in skill. Figure out what you do well and lean even harder in that direction.
Steal from the best. An oft-repeated maxim in music is that good artists borrow, but great artists steal. Take the time to learn from the masters of the craft in whatever genre or style you are studying. Learn to play your favorite songs, not only for the joy of being able to play them, but because it will help you to understand what makes them great. Only when you’ve been able to fully understand what typifies the sounds or techniques of great artists can you then use them as inspiration to craft your own sound. (Another reason to learn some DJ skills!)
Stand out by providing contrast. If everyone you know is doing covers of their favorite worship songs, write original songs. If everyone is writing original songs, dust off some underrated covers. If you’re a naturally loud, extroverted person, take the time to plumb the depths of your consciousness and let people into your inner world. If you’re a naturally shy person, invent a musical persona that allows you to tap into a side of yourself that you don’t typically show people. Maybe that turns into an alter ego, and you start wearing fun costume wigs.
Turn your disadvantage into an advantage. If you live in a small town that doesn’t have much of a music scene, you might feel like that’s a disadvantage. But with some effort and organization, you can turn that to your advantage, because maybe that means there aren’t many live musicians in your area clamoring for space. You can be one of the few people serving music to your whole area. Conversely, if you serve in a bigger place where there are a lot of other musicians, that might feel like a disadvantage because there are more people to compete with for stage time and resources. But if the field is crowded, that means more opportunities for collaboration. Even if you don’t start a band, maybe you can meet for mutual encouragement and to workshop songwriting ideas. If you feel discouraged because only fifty people have ever streamed your song, make some educated guesses about who those fifty people might be, then write with them in mind. If you can’t go global, go hyper-local.
Leverage technology for your benefit. If AI slop proliferates, don’t simply rail against the evils of AI. Rather, use AI tools to speed up your production processes and make more high-quality music. If music tools make it easier for more people to make music, find more specific applications for songs. Make songs about topics that aren’t being explored, write songs for specific events or situations in mind, or about topics or situations you might have difficulty expressing in a regular conversation. You can use automated tools to create songs quickly, so you can react to current events in song.
Recommendations for Pastors and Church Leaders
Expand the musical experiences in your church to build the culture you want. Obviously, you need to work with your musicians to improve the worship music. But music is useful for more than just Sunday services. Hire a DJ to do your larger events. (A real DJ, not just somebody with a phone playlist and an aux cord.) Team up with a local music program for more musical events. Check with nearby schools or local nonprofits and host musical recitals or musical theater events in your sanctuary. (Especially if you have a grand piano or a pipe organ.)
Find ways to support recording artists in your church or local community. Attend their local performances, or host their shows in your church. If you’re concerned that their content might not be appropriate for your church members, don’t cut off the relationship. Find mentors for them. Connect them with other, more seasoned artists who can help them develop. Investing in relationships is a long-term strategy for evangelism.
Embrace the sound of youth. If a bunch of kids, teens, or young adults in your church really dig a particular band or artist, consider pooling funds with a few other churches to bring them to your town. You’d be surprised how far a group of 20- to 25-year-olds will drive when they are expressly invited to be there. If you don’t have a lot of money to pay them, make sure you can house and feed them while they’re in town, and receive an offering to bless them. Or if that’s not logistically feasible, consider pooling resources to send your students to a larger concert that’s further away. Also, solicit favorite songs from the youth in your church…even if one of their favorite songs isn’t appropriate for corporate worship, that doesn’t mean you can’t quote it in a sermon, reference it in a Bible study, or use a brief it in an Instagram post.
Normalize dancing in church. Back in the ’90s, there was a popular worship song called “I Could Sing of Your Love Forever,” and in the bridge, there was a line that said, “Oh, I feel like dancing…it’s foolishness, I know.” Really? Sure, not every kind of dance is conducive to holiness, but plenty are. Don’t just let dancing become a metaphor that people reference in the psalms but never actually experience. Remember John Lithgow’s reverend character from the ’80s Kevin Bacon movie Footloose? Don’t be that guy. Every once in a while, people need to see you get up and shake it.
Recommendations for Young People
Play the long game. If you’re a young person and you really like a particular artist, find out which artists influenced them and listen to those artists as well. Depending on what style of music you like, find the best artists in that genre who represent that style over several decades. Learn how it evolved into what it is today, and use your tastes as a gateway into studying music history.
Decouple music from social media. Cultivate your own musical style and taste apart from what your friends like, apart from what TikTok is pushing on its for-you page. If you mostly use streaming platforms, listen to songs with millions of plays, but also look for songs with only thousands, hundreds, or even (gasp) tens of spins. Figure out what makes a song good, as a separate question from what makes it go viral.
Listen to albums as well as singles. Songs can be interpreted differently when you hear them as part of a broader collection. When you listen to a great album, you can sometimes glean a story of what that artist was going through during that particular time or season.
Cultivate the skill of intentional listening. Find time to listen to music as its own activity, apart from playing video games, scrolling on your phone, or doing chores or homework. As you listen to your favorite songs, close your eyes and concentrate on what you’re hearing. Notice the feelings that stir up in you. Notice how your body moves. Practice being fully present as you listen.
So this is the state of music today, as experienced by and for followers of Jesus. I hope you’ve been enriched by this exploration of music and that you have experienced at least some sense of renewed hope. The death of Christian music as we know it contains the very seeds that are catalyzing its rebirth. Even as we maintain a grateful awareness of our past, let’s also embrace the future of musical divinity, so that God may once again, as Mary Mary so famously sang, take the shackles off our feet.
