It is clear to every pastor, church musician, and theologian that we lose young people after high school, when they entertain the notions of sin for a while, then finally finding a job, settling down, finding a spouse and getting married. When they have their first child, they start listening to their parents and find a church. So what happens in those 15 years in between?

I find myself in a region of the country that is, to my eyes, either atheist or fundamentalist, and much heavier in the former. I have no problem with fundamentalism, socially, either, I just don’t enjoy their patterns of worship as much as I enjoy the liturgy of my youth. I still love Setting 2 (in the Lutheran Book of Worship) the most. I grew up with it.

I see the only reason that the youth do not join churches, attend worship, or anything else in those 15 years, is that the church loses them in their youth. We teach them the wrong things! We teach them to value praise music with its empty theology and great beat, and when they first experience suffering, and when they outgrow their childhood faith, they find God and religion uncomfortably restricting, and they embrace the ‘reality’ of our new world on the internet, in chatrooms and in clubs…

How do we, as composers, liturgists, creative pastors, etc., connect to kids who are into hip-hop, alternative, pop, country, when forming new worship resources for the church?

Do we write a liturgy in each style, and pray that congregations will choose one genre and stick with it? I think the solution is in the congregations themselves. If you give a child a chance to have input, they will work themselves on finding new music. If you tell them to be in a praise band, that is what they will do. If they like country, why not encourage the students to work on that. Or if they like jazz, to work jazz into worship?…

The problem is, how do you INTEGRATE old and young within the church, WHILE still having worship that the young like?…

There are many issues involved:

1) Church musicians — traditionally, there are organists, and in ‘modern’ congregations, there is a band. What about the under-disclosed talent in the church? I guarantee, in every church, there is a banjo player. I’m not saying that the banjo belongs in every church, but why not?…

2) The ‘traditions’ — because of such strict traditions in the church, the only modern music allowed in most congregations is the music called ‘contemporary’ by Baby-Boomers. It is from the 1970s, hardly contemporary any longer! And when those churches realize that, they form a band, hoping that the band will amuse itself, and not disturb the ‘contemporary’ or ‘traditional’ services…

3) The liturgies/music available — more modern music is simply not available from any centralized source. Augsburg hasn’t opened its doors to independent artists and composers yet. They stick with the tried ‘contemporary’ of the 1970s. I have heard that they are trying to change that… We will see in the coming months/years…

I think the reason that so many people connect emotionally to two elements in their lives: music and liturgy (or ‘church’) is that those two practices make us exposed, naked and vulnerable, though safe in the context of the congregation.

My music tears me open at the seams, and shows everything I’ve got! That’s also why it’s intensely emotional for me to take praise and criticism both — this is the filet of my soul waiting for the spices of judgment!

I think youth connect better than any of us to things like music and faith, but we don’t trust them to think for themselves, so we often closet the doors they discover. I had many doors closed, as a child — in school, in church, all over… Luckily, I had parents and art/music teachers that taught me to look out the window when the door was closed!…

And even so, I didn’t feel comfortable stepping into the shoes of an artist until I was halfway through with college — it’s an exposed, difficult path (with little monetary reward:)…

The newest American Roots Music Podcast is about my own special brand of roots music! Check it out for a sample from my upcoming album Troublin’ Mind: a secret window into the ways of working in the studio with the raw track I bring in!

Listen here: www.kentgustavson.com/podcast

 Kent Podcast [6:08m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

A capella version of And Am I Born to Die (Idumea) from the lead singer of Stolen Shack (me), my album featured on NPR’s All Songs Considered. I learned this tune from my good buddy Micah, who learned it off of Doc Watson’s first solo album…

This hymn means a lot to me, and in my mind is a political and religious statement. “And am I born to die, to lay this body down, or must my trembling spirit fly into a world unknown…” That is the cry of the oppressed, the cry of the scared soldier, the prayer of the terrified soul… Are certain people ‘destined’ to die, or can we help to create a world where children are safe from harm?

My response within a discussion for Dr. Gilson Waldkoenig’s Music and Culture class at the Lutheran Theologial Seminary at Gettysburg, about authenticity in worship:

On Authenticity in Worship: Are we being “Authentic” when we reach out to new kinds of music?

With all this talk of Authenticity, I had another idea…

______’s points are fantastic, and I have had very similar experiences… We have all taken part in an all-white service that was a bit jerky when moving to the beat of an African-American spiritual!…

But I wonder what is on the other side of that?… I know that my parents, for example, don’t cringe, as I do, when their organist launches into another rendition of some spiritual at dirge pace, with the intensity of Wagner on a bad day… They love it! And they love the contemporary services that put that gospel feel into the music that doesn’t really deserve it, and where it doesn’t quite belong!

Why do we white Swedes and other pales of European descent like singing African songs, African-American songs, as well as all kinds of other odd musics from around the world, etc?… I think there’s an element of praise sneaking back up on us from afar. We are creeping back towards those Great Awakening singings where people would faint and shout… But just a little… Not too much:)

Worship should be diverse — there should be two sides to the coin… There should be the liturgy/music that is comfortable, and that that is uncomfortable…, but exciting, and stimulating. Something that brings us back to calm, to home, to peace. And something that stirs up the waters!

We Lutherans tend to prefer the placid keyboard sound of Marty Haugen, and not the fiery sound of the steel drum worship band in NYC. We prefer just using the green and blue books, soon the ‘new’ red book, because it’s safe. It’s what the others are doing…

I think we should all stay safe. Wear our helmet… tie a rope around our waists… Make sure someone is spotting for us. And then jump! Knowing that we will come safely back home in a few minutes…

I teach German at the university here — and last week I, again, decided to pull a Robin Williams (you know, where he made the kids stand on their desks, and rip pages out of their books in Dead Poet’s Society…) — and I did the following:

I first scared the Dickens out of the students, by telling them how the test would be really really hard, but that the whole goal was learning — and if they learned on the test, they would ultimately be fulfilling my goals for them… And then I had these poor students, only 6 weeks into German 111, write 5 pages of essays, conjugate 20 verbs fully (enough to make any hand tired), along with several other ridiculously hard tasks… And, when they were all terrified of the results, and exhausted from the effort, I told them to rip up the test. And they did. Immediately, the tension was broken, and the room erupted in laughter and smiles. All of the students went home happy that evening.

It’s the same with our church body. We need to break that code that locks our wrists… ‘Shock’ people with something new (and terrifying), and watch them learn… They will be disgruntled, upset. ‘We’ll never do this again’ they say… And many churches won’t.

But we need to tear up the exam at that point. Let them leave with their pants on — tell them it was all a joke. It didn’t really hurt, now did it? It wasn’t for keeps — we don’t need to change forever… They will return to their comfort zone… But, each time the reistant congregation ventures out, it will be less afraid…

And each time, they can be reassured that the tradition is still there when they return… It’s like going away to camp — at first, the homesickness sets in, but soon, the joy of the woods takes over!

But eventually, there must be a place where tradition and modernity in liturgy meet. That’s what I’m working on finding in my own music:), and I think many others are as well…