Music and Religion

I grew up in the rural county of Fluvanna in Virginia, so as you can imagine 64% of the community that is religious is Baptist.  My mom and my sister and I are all musical people, so when I was little, maybe around five years old, about once a month or so my mom would pick out a song and she would play guitar and my sister and I would sing in church.  The church that we were members of at that time probably only had about thirty regular attenders and almost all of them were elders.  A typical church service consisted of...well I'm not really sure because at that point 11pm on the church pew leaning up against my dad was my nap time.  But really we always sang about four or five hymns during a church service while the pianist (who always played out of tune) would plunk out notes on the piano and the pastor would say the longest prayers and sometimes after the service we would even have a big potluck church lunch and boy do some of those people know how to cook!

The second church that I started to go to when I was about eight was also a Baptist church.  After I started going to this church they split the service into two different services.  The 8:30 service was the contemporary service and there was a band with drums, guitar, bass, piano and two vocalists (one of them being my mom) and they would play newer contemporary Christian songs.  We also had the choir who sang along and sometimes they would throw a hymn in there.  This service was typically loud and sometimes people would clap along or do the sign language motions to go along with the songs.  The ll o'clock service was the one that a lot of the elders went to and it was a traditional service with hymns and sermon.  This service was a lot quieter and a little more dressy.  In the contemporary service people would mostly wear jeans and whatever they wanted, whereas with the more traditional service, people would wear dresses and slacks and things of that sort.

I haven't had a lot of experience outside of the Baptist church except for when I have played gigs at churches.  I have played in quite a few churches and they all seem to be different, but similar at the same time.  At most churches that I've played in, people don't usually clap along and raise their hands in the air.  I guess it is a respect thing because what you are expected to do is dress nicely and behave well and use your inside voice.  I personally think that everyone has their own way of worshipping and that there is no wrong or right way to do it.  This is what I have observed in my many years of wisdom :)