When churches plug in

The blue hymnal is nestled in the pew rack, its binding loose from having its spine cracked and pages flipped too many times to count. Now, as technology drives the culture, more and more Mennonite churches are shelving Hymnal: A Worship Book and rolling down screens.

In Altona (Man.) Mennonite Church, where I grew up, the church has firmly stuck to traditional hymns, with the song leader conducting the congregation in four-part harmony from the blue hymnal. It is a rich experience to be immersed in voices around you knitting together to express inspiring words.

Singing from a hymnal is a communal action, says Marilyn Houser Hamm, a contributor to the Hymnal: A Worship Book supplements, Sing the Journey and Sing the Story. “Holding and reading music from a book symbolizes a person’s identity,” she says. “The screen is a tool which is, first, convenient, and has the greatest benefit of being ecological to some degree. The screen is a product of our technological age, creating instant accessibility to words and images.”

Why this trend of churches to lay down their hymnals and pull down screens instead? What does the shift mean to church identity? Is there a place where both the book and the screen can engage all ages?

My curiosity to answer these questions increased one Sunday morning when I attended a friend’s baptism and discovered the church used a screen for lyrics and a band that played electric instruments. No song leader. I had left an “unplugged” culture and entered a sanctuary that relied on electricity to produce community.

The pristine screen hung over the worship band with bold words and serene nature scenes displayed while the congregation sang, mouths moving to the voices of the band. Meanwhile, the blue hymnals collect dust in the pews, replaced by a modern medium more accessible to the masses. I was reminded of those televised sing-a-longs that follow the Mickey Mouse head bouncing onto each word that needs to be sung.

I was lost in how easy it was to gaze up at a screen and regurgitate the lyrics sung by the band. While other worshippers were swaying and feeling the music, I was stuck mumbling the words. With no book in hand, or conductor for guidance, I felt disconnected from the music being amplified .

Darryl Neustadter Barg, Mennonite Church Manitoba’s associate director of communications, believes the wide variety of musical styles emerging in the church today calls for respect and understanding. As one actively involved in music ministry, Barg is passionate about engaging those who have not grown up singing four-part harmony in the blue-hymnal generation.

“Worship is a communications event,” he says. Whether people are communicating through a screen or through a hymnal, they are still communicating and essentially fostering a community of believers. People shouldn’t simply dismiss chorus or hymn-sing music because they are unfamiliar with the format, he says.

With new musical variations emerging, it’s important that people used to different styles be more gracious than ever. “There is a lot of baggage that is being put into the worship bag,” says Barg, who fears that styles of music are becoming less about expressing a relationship with God and more about personal preference.

The danger is that worship music can become idolatrous. Church attendance can depend more on the external presentation of music and less on the internal integrity of worship. As different genres of music grow within the church, Barg hopes for greater respect and a mature approach to musical language.

Whether you belong with a book in your hands, or a screen to look at, what matters is the connections that you are creating.

Rebekah Krahn is a communications student at Canadian Mennonite University, Winnipeg.