The Cultural & Entertainment Notebook: Churches make switch from hymns to contemporary

Trends come and go over the years -- from perms to skinny jeans -- but one fad you might recognize this weekend during Easter services is the sight of drums and electric guitars on-stage.

Worship pastor at Lynwood Baptist Church in Cape Girardeau Gabe Martinez and founder of Circleslide and StompTown Revival says worship leaders are busier than ever with Easter planning, and elaborated on the fact music continues to evolve within the church setting.

Martinez noticed the change in Christian music "somewhere in the '70s and '80s" with worship anthems written by performers such as Michael W. Smith and Amy Grant, and said different churches over the years have struggled to keep up with those newfound "production values."

"You'd have drums, bass and guitar, so churches that were more geared toward that kind of waited to flow with that musical direction," Martinez says.

He says more conservative or traditional churches with a piano and organ adapted during that time and did what they could.

"I think what you have now, instead of big, individual names leading the way in worship, it's that the local churches have taken it back," Martinez says.

La Croix United Methodist Church in Cape Girardeau worship leader Jordan Copeland said from 1970 through the 1990s there was a transitional, musical movement called the "worship wars." It encouraged the incorporation of drums and other instruments within the church setting rather than the traditional piano and organs.

The trend has increased over time, but for Copeland, he still loves the traditional hymns and says there are others in the congregation who love them as well.

He says La Croix has been able to straddle the line of traditional and contemporary, and if they lean any direction musically, it's normally the contemporary side.

"We want to be a church where anyone from any walk of life can walk in," Copeland says.

Copeland emphasized he and his team of musicians focus on serving the people -- through music -- who attend La Croix. He explained familiarity makes people feel welcome, and if they can connect with the music, they're more likely to connect with the message.

He says the church prays to seek out what God wants them to say and sing, and also what He wants in the mouths of the people who attend, which also plays into the stylistic side.

"We're real people. We love music, and we love what's going on sometimes in the culture," Copeland says.

He explained different styles of music ranging from multiple genres are what you'll hear during a service.

"A lot of churches will have a traditional and contemporary service. I've never seen that done well," Copeland says. "More often than not if you take that structure and go about 10 or 20 years down the road, it ends up being two different churches."

Copeland says division is sometimes created by the two groups which never see each other and never have community with each other, creating a "dividing line on something that's more of what they disagree with than what they agree with."

Cape First Church in Cape Girardeau worship pastor Eric Burton said he grew up in a "little bit more traditional church" with hymns.

He remembers the introduction of choruses as opposed to the "hymn-style." In the 2000's, bands such as Hillsong took the forefront of the worship music scene he says, with guitar-driven sound, a full band and very genre-dependent.

"We saw a big shift in lyrics around the 2000s," Burton says. "But you can't judge an entire genre by just a few songs here or there. There's so much out there that if you really try to, you can have the best of all."

Burton prefers to incorporate a "modern, guitar-driven full band sound," and he does that by finding music he likes that's also mixed with lyrics that are "biblically-sound."

When it comes to the hymns and older choruses Burton said he tries to blend in some of those as well.

"Probably the biggest thing we've seen a shift in is the style of music. And even technology has come so far," Burton says. "In the last couple decades you were really limited. Everything has just come so far to where you can really produce a really, almost CD-quality sound in a live setting, where before you couldn't do that."

Burton emphasized a worship service "is not a show," but the improved quality has increased the ability to do so much more.

"The styles have changed, so the music has changed," Burton says. �And when it comes to worshipping God, the style of music isn't necessarily the most important thing. Different people groups have different styles, but that's not the main thing."

Trends

When holidays collide

It's the first time in 62 years April Fools' Day and Easter have fallen on the same day, so be sure to keep an eye out for the pranksters -- they might try to pull one of these harmless tricks:

1) Foil-wrapped grapes

2) Fruit in plastic eggs

3) Dyed, uncooked Easter eggs

4) Chocolate-dipped Brussels sprouts

5) Easter basket full of cleaning supplies

Our top five Easter candies

1) Cadbury Crème Eggs

2) Reese's eggs

3) Jelly beans

4) Chocolate bunny

5) Peeps

She's back

In this image released by ABC, Roseanne Barr, left, and John Goodman appear in a scene from the reboot of "Roseanne."Adam Rose ~ ABC via Associated Press

For a TV sitcom that ended in 1997, Roseanne returned to primetime Tuesday with a lot of momentum, the same cast and more politics.

Roseanne Barr said she thought it was important to show how the Conner family deals with the same issues many American families face, according to a story from the Associated Press. Actor John Goodman -- who portrays the loud but lovable Dan Conner -- said all the politics is local, and ultimately it's all meant to crush the family. Relive the drama each Tuesday on ABC at 7 p.m.