I was recently reading a dialogue in a Facebook group I’m a part of that basically said that folks under 35 only want to sing worship music in church like Passion/Bethel/Hillsong, to name a few, while folks over 65 only wanted to sing traditional hymnody in a traditional four-part way—forget any creativity in hymn arrangements. The folks in the conversation then agreed that if all church members were of Generation X age, there wouldn’t be this polarizing disparity in congregational song. Obviously, these comments are not scientific and exceptions abound, but it sounded like something I would agree with. This conversation got me to thinking, “are folks in Generation X more tolerant of varying types of music for musical worship? If they are, why is that?”
I can personally speak to my own experience as someone who falls on the lower end of the 38-62 year old range. I remember as a teen in the late 80s and early 90s, the incorporation of new praise songs in corporate worship joined together with familiar hymnody. Back then, I don’t remember knowing any churches that had multiple services that were altogether different musically. But, by the mid 90s and early 2000s, I knew of many. Could this worship service polarization shift be a major reason why those older as well as those younger than those of us in Generation X feel so passionately about specific types of music for worship? Let’s explore further…
My church musical experiences up to the late 90s, and many of my generational cohort, was more than likely one of musical fluidity in church worship services—all types of music were used in each service (however lame or overly repetitive they might’ve been). Those of us in Generation X who’ve grown up in the church can remember when churches were unified in their music approach yet had different musical styles. Sure, during this time there were churches that used more traditional or contemporary music (and instrumentation), but by and large, each church had a similar hymnody and basically one style of service.
Why is it that it seems those of us in Generation X are more tolerant of varying kinds of music? Do you believe this to be true as well?
Worship services, during the formative years of many Gen Xers, included lots of musical styles. So, when churches (in the late 1990s and 2000s) decided to segregate into music-specific worship services, many from Generation X were comfortable in any worship scenario. I believe we of Generation X are not as firmly stuck in our “old ways,” as the over 65 crowd. Remember, most Boomers were at least 40 years old during this shift. Being over 40 myself, I can tell you–change its much harder at this age! Likewise, I believe many of our younger Millennials and Generation Z (especially those born since the advent of segregated services) have yet to see passed their own limited experience, which may include internet-based or concert-based worship services. So, much more could be said here, but I think you get the idea.
Without proper research, these questions will remain. What I do believe to be true is people resonant with familiarity. Given to our own devices, all humans default to their comfort zone. Without exposure to multiple types of musical worship, we humans will always resort to the familiar or our preferences. That being the case, I hope that people under my care as worship leader will sing truth with as many available musical types of worship with strong texts. The key is exposure!
I’d love to hear your opinions on why Generation X seems to be more tolerant with music in the church?
Having just finished a lecture on the so called Alphabetical generations list, I could only determine that the entire concept, setting aside worship music for a moment, is a marketing nightmare. It has been since the artificial separation of age groups. Marketing became more successful when the various groups began to be further subdivided. Taking that systematic subdivision into the church the setting might prove more effective but to what end? How many sets of musical styles would it take to satisfy every musico-spiritual need of a selection of congregants. Frankly, it isn’t possible. Inevitably, people will begin to discover the paucity of the “real meat” of music as a vehicle to communicating spiritual truth in all its richness. It would be too difficult to explain this in a simple response, but suffice to say the church cannot and is not in the business of satisfying musical tastes. It is in the business of presenting The Good News. If one becomes substituted for the other, the church will have lost it’s way. As a musician in Contemporary Gospel Music and a performer on the Classical stage I see the foreboding signs in some of the churchs’ apparent need to “keep up” with the change in styles. A dead end if e er there was one.