One of the easiest fights in church is over worship music. Everyone has an opinion and feels comfortable sharing it.

Another is liturgical style: how we worship and the tools we use in our worship.

For centuries we heard snide remarks that “smells and bells” in church was “papish” and “Roman”, spitting these claims like an insult. I have even heard these claims with the same inflection in the last few years.

Music and the liturgy aren’t influencing the church half as much as we think they are. People aren’t racing to join your “contemporary” service because you’re being relevant or flocking to your “traditional” worship in hordes because you are standing firm to your traditions. People aren’t really making decisions like that as much as it is a feeling of comfort and participation, which is a big part of V.R. Marianne Zahn’s case for traditional worship.

Rather, it is our longing for something deeper and our need to find meaning that is making a difference. Something that worship style is struggling to do all by itself. Without our effort, our work and our style bring nothing to the table.

If you are one searching for meaning, then keep looking! You’ll certainly find it in those places that take that pursuit seriously.

If you are one called to enable someone else’s search, then maybe spend less time appealing to style and spend more time fostering genuine relationships and opportunities to worship and learn with greater integrity. Chances are that they will be more likely to find what they are looking for: the very thing the church is supposed to be offering.