Worship Music: The Latest Research

A lot of attention has been given to the rise of contemporary worship music in the church over the past decade. However, according to the latest Your Church poll in an 8-year series of surveys the biggest change in church worship music is not the switch to contemporary music, but the incorporation of contemporary music into traditional services. The predominant worship style in U.S. churches is now a blend of traditional and contemporary worship music as shown here:

Church Worship Music Style

Traditional	24
Blended	43
Contemporary	22

Blending Takes The Lead

In 1993, traditional music was the primary style found in American church worship services. Half of all churches classified themselves as traditional just eight years ago. Today 43 percent of church worship services are a combination of traditional and contemporary music (from three-quarters traditional music to three-quarters contemporary music). Only a third (35%) of churches say the vast majority of their worship music is traditional. The remaining fifth (22%) primarily utilize contemporary worship music.

Style Of Choice

More American churchgoers prefer attending blended worship services to purely contemporary or traditional ones, the survey revealed. Though the average worship attendance for a contemporary music church is 80% greater than the average blended music church (505 vs. 282, respectively), approximately 2.8 million more people attend a blended worship service each week than a contemporary one (36.4 million vs. 33.6 million, respectively). This is due to the fact that there are nearly twice as many blended music churches as contemporary churches.

Just 20 percent of churchgoers attend a traditional church, even though these churches represent 35 percent of all churches. Lower worship attendance averaging 166 explains this discrepancy among traditional churches.

Distinctives By Music Style

Blended music churches have become more prepared to perform contemporary music by purchasing the necessary instruments and projection equipment. However, they are not as likely to use the equipment on a regular basis as contemporary churches.

The majority (61 percent) of worship music played in blended churches remains traditional. This explains why 9 in 10 blended music churches still use hymnals during worship, while only 3 in 10 contemporary churches regularly use hymnals. About a fourth of blended music churches use a chorus book for times the congregation sings contemporary songs. In contrast, 8 in 10 contemporary churches utilize a large projection screen with a video projector during worship compared to 44 percent of blended music churches. Just 9 percent of traditional churches use a projection screen during worship.

Leading Instruments

As a result of the growing popularity of blended music services, churches are using a greater variety of musical instruments. Regular use of digital pianos/keyboards, drums, and brass/woodwinds increased about 150 percent each since 1993, as seen here:

Instruments That Have Doubled In Use

(Used monthly or more often)

	1993	1996	1999	2001
Digital piano/keyboard	19	38	46	52
Drums	16	28	44	37
Brass/woodwind	11	21	20	27

The Studies

In each of the studies (1993, 1996, 1999, and 2001), Your Church mailed approximately 1,000 surveys to a random selection of U.S. churches. Previous studies have had an average response rate of 42 percent. For the most recent study, 264 were returned, for a response rate of 27 percent. With these samples, results are considered accurate to within plus or minus 6 and 4 percentage points.

John C. LaRue, Jr., is vice-president of Internet research and development for Christianity Today International, in Carol Stream, Illinois. Previous Special Reports can be found online.

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