Binning the church's musical heritage

What happens when a church isolates itself from history; when in its desire to be uber relevant, it cuts all ties to the history of the Christian church, to its doctrine and worship? These thoughts were prompted by a local church publishing its playlist of worship songs on the streaming service Spotify. Of the twenty four songs that were sung in its services from September to November only one song was more than two years old, with that particular song, 'Sinking Deep' by Hillsong Young and Free, being released just five years ago. At five years old it is hardly outdated, yet in the world of seeker sensitive churches it is likely to be on the verge of becoming so. Of the twenty three other songs on the list eight were released this year, seven last year, and a further eight in 2016. A similar trend was evident in August; of the thirty songs on their playlist at that time, only five had been released more than two years ago (ranging from 2013 to 2015). In both playlists the groups behind the songs would cause great concern, with the like of Hillsong and Bethel Music featuring prominently, however our focus here is rather on the issue of exclusively singing newly released songs in public worship.

Should a church be seeker sensitive?

A popular model for many churches today is the 'seeker sensitive' approach to evangelism and conducting church services. One of the most high profile exponents of this is Rick Warren, whose book The Purpose Driven Church was released almost 20 years ago. The seeker sensitive advocated by Warren and many other involves changing church to something which is more friendly, culturally sensitive and appealing to the unchurched, a church experience which is non threatening and which will give them what they want from church. Old style hymns and worship will be replaced with a more modern worldly style of music, including pop, rock and rap. Long expository sermons will be diluted down into a shorter story based talk that meets the perceived needs of the hearers, with biblical doctrines such as sin and repentance being rarely mentioned. The focus of the message will instead be light on doctrine, centred on man and with the Lord Jesus Christ presented as the means of you improving yourself and filling that void in your life. Essentially it is church done the way the unsaved want it to be done, a way that does not cause them to feel uncomfortable or threatened. The seeker sensitive church will also provide for the social needs of the area with numerous programs aimed at improving the lives of those living in the community. These churches have been very successful in seeing large congregations built up very quickly, with thousands of people in attendance and multi-million pound programs being run by the congregation. The question is whether the seeker sensitive approach to doing church is one that we should adopt, and whether it can be supported by scripture.