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Over the past 50 years, many evangelical churches carefully made the decision to adapt to modern times. Their leaders sensed the need to attract more people by singing simpler choruses in the style of pop music, design new buildings to look more like theaters than cathedrals, and simplify the order of worship.

But worship leaders and scholars detect a growing hunger in American churches for the return of classical elements of worship, including the singing of hymns and ancient songs, the return of liturgical elements such as Communion and unison prayer, and the use of icons and crosses.

"I have been in probably six conversations in the past month in rooms full of people at conferences where this has been a recurring theme," says John Witvliet, director of the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

However, this is not a desire to turn the clock back to a time when sung worship was dominated by pianos, organs, choir, and hymns from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Rather, this move toward classical elements of worship is part of an "ancient-future" blend advocated by the late Robert Webber, which puts the entire history of the church into play when planning today's worship.

Webber wanted churches to get away from a rigid style of worship anchored in one particular, narrow time period and instead bring elements of the past forward into the present. He wanted churches to use music, architecture, and liturgy from the entire history of the church, and not to automatically rule out anything because it was "old" or "new."

These new developments could very well get the church toward a truly "blended" worship experience, using elements of old and new music played by a wide variety of instruments, and designed for participation by everyone in the congregation.

"Paul Baloche calls this a 'journey'—instead of just picking two fast songs and three slow ones, there is more thought being put into the process from beginning to end," says Kent Morris, a pastor and audiovisual systems designer with Cornerstone Media in Atlanta. "We can rely on ancient songs, classic songs, and modern ones as well. It's what everybody hoped blended worship would be years ago. The problem with 'blended' was that you threw in a little of this and a little of that with no theme. You tried to please everybody and only ended up making everybody equally mad."

If nostalgia isn't driving this trend, then what is? Observers see its origin as a thirst for worship that has significance, depth, and permanence. Greg Scheer, minister of worship at Church of the Servant, a Christian Reformed Church congregation in Grand Rapids, Michigan, thinks some of the motivation comes from younger people wanting an alternative to the praise and worship style of their Baby Boomer parents. They are more likely to embrace the depth and mystery that are conveyed by classical elements of worship. "They don't want church to look like Saturday Night Live," says Scheer. "They want it to look like church."

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