Habitus Formation Through Contemporary Worship Music in Two Church Cases: Implications for Intergenerational Worship

Abstract

This article draws upon doctoral case study data from two Protestant Christian churches to examine how contemporary worship music-making practices can reinforce and solidify the musical tastes, dispositions, and tendencies of particular demographics. Drawing upon sociologist Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of the habitus, this article examines the religious musical habitus of musicians in relation to contemporary music repertoire. For some churches, contemporary worship music-making practices may “disrupt” the habitus of a particular subset of a demographic due to their musical preferences and positioning, while contemporary repertoire may affirm the habitus of other, often “young” worshippers due to their musical preferences. Further, the research analyzes each church’s positioning within the overarching musical and theological fields in place. Case study data affirm the notion that Contemporary Worship Music is generationally based in the way it engages with the habitus, which provides implications for worship leaders and those making musical decisions within Christian church contexts.

1. Introduction

Making music together in worship shapes and forms musicians, as well as the greater congregation. Music contributes to worshippers’ formation of the unconscious and to the shaping of emotions, which influences one’s perceptions of the world (Smith 2013; Wolterstorff 2015). Liturgical scholars have noted that music connects worshippers together, enlivening their emotional and relational convictions (Begbie 2011; Best 2003) while also facilitating the negotiation of personal and communal values (Porter 2016). The connective and formational properties of music are heightened with the weight of religious convictions in church settings, broadening the impact of music and its formational quality (Myrick 2021). Elements of worship, such as music, prayer, and gestures, contribute to worshippers’ religious habitus formation, as well as to their positioning in the overall social and religious field (Monnot 2018). Through strategic practices, such as music-making, the social field is shaped while contributing to the spiritual formation of congregants.

Contemporary Worship Music (CWM) is a prevalent genre of worship music based on Western popular music styles (Ingalls 2018). Some understand CWM to be more inclusive and accessible for congregants, through its popular musical elements, such as four-chord structures, the use of drums, keyboards, and guitars, as well as through the addition of a worship team (Benjamins 2019). CWM is a relatively new tradition of worship music that has expanded in North America and globally throughout the last half century (Justice 2022; Ruth and Lim 2021). Many mainline churches have incorporated CWM with the hope of attracting new members through its perceived diversity and compatibility with more worshippers (Justice 2022). While scholars recognize the significant impact of CWM on a significant number of the world’s Christians, minimal research has acknowledged the formative impact that contemporary worship music-making practices have on intergenerational musicians and congregants, as well as on their religious dispositions, tendencies, and behaviors, which can be described, from a sociological perspective, as the religious habitus.

This article presents findings from two worship teams’ contemporary worship music-making practices through case study research (Yin 2014). Using data from two churches, the purpose of this article is to explore how CWM music-making practices can reinforce and solidify the habitus formation of particular age demographics (“younger demographics”, approximately aged 30 and under; and “older demographics”, approximately above the age of 30) due to their musical tastes. In some cases, CWM music-making practices may also “disrupt” the habitus of certain demographics due to their musical preferences and positioning within the religious musical field. I posit that when there is an alignment of CWM music-making practices to the musical and theological fields in place, religious and musical habitus formation of intergenerational musicians and congregants can be reinforced and solidified. The data presented in this article are part of a larger interdisciplinary doctoral study that examined two churches’ music-making practices and their relation to the musical and theological fields in place. The study considered how worship leaders and musicians strategized their musical behaviors and “disrupted” or affirmed traditional norms of music-making in each CWM setting. It further explored whether such musical behaviors reflected and shaped habitus both institutionally and individually, and, if so, the ways in which the process occurred. Drawing upon sociologist Pierre Bourdieu’s (1977) Theory of Practice, I suggest that churches are situated within interlocking musical and theological fields. I therefore propose an increased awareness of the formative impact of CWM repertoire on the intergenerational congregation’s religious and musical habitus, in relation to their field positioning.

2. Literature Review

My research brings together theoretical perspectives from church music, theology, sociology of music education, and community music. For the purposes of this article, I will briefly address church music literature in conjunction with the research topic.

Theology and Philosophy of Church Worship. Within church worship, beliefs surrounding musical quality and musical leadership vary greatly according to specific contexts. Some studies in the literature suggest that ‘excellence’ in church music—in terms of musical quality—is needed to properly display the glory of God (DeMol 1992; Ratzinger 1985, 2008). As I also explore elsewhere (Benjamins 2022), there are two long-established philosophies of worship within church music literature, which can be summarized simplistically as vertical or horizontal; their applications to musical worship have been the source of much contention and debate (Best 1982; Flynn 2006). This tension surrounds notions of participatory and presentational music-making (Turino 2008) within worship music. Functionalism, or “utility music”, is directed towards a communal, “horizontal”, sanctification, and has a participatory focus. The other, which Ratzinger (2008) labels as “actual church music”, is one that suggests an exclusively “vertical” (doxological) organization of worship with a presentational focus. This philosophy places more emphasis on musical quality or excellence to express God’s glory and “lift” worshippers up to God.

Some scholars, such as Joncas (2013) and Wolterstorff (2005), have slightly more balanced approaches to the topic. Joncas argues that worship moves “between its contemplative dimension (the ‘disinterested’ praise and adoration of God) and its pragmatic dimensions (evangelization, catechesis, moral conversion, building community, etc.)” (p. 327). He suggests that worship is ultimately adoration of the living God, and functions in worship, including music, should be ordered in that manner. Wolterstorff (2005) discusses church music in relation to its service to the liturgy. He argues that almost all music is composed or used in the service of some social function and that all music within the liturgy “should be in service of one and another liturgical action” (p. 12), where the character of the music should fit the liturgical action it services.

In reference to those who are educating church musicians, music educator Harold Best (1982) similarly addresses two main philosophies of church music that the church has struggled with, namely “absolute music” versus so-called “functional music”. These contrasting arguments surround a notion of music, or art, for its own sake versus music for a broader purpose. Best argues that church music cannot be divided between function and form and must ultimately consist of excellent church music training that starts with theological training.

Formation through Worship. One of the themes of this research is the concept of “formation” considered alongside Bourdieu’s concept of habitus. Formation is commonly understood as an element of Christian life, where individuals’ identities are re-oriented toward God (Smith 2016). Scholars explore the formative aspect of liturgy in worship, where formative rituals and liturgical language in CWM worship spaces can be seen to shape musicians’ spiritual formation (Benjamins 2021). Liturgical and practical theological studies have tended to evaluate formation—specifically in terms of character—in Christian worship through a narrative lens. When approaching worship as character formation, worship is understood as a consistent ritual that includes defined and explicit moral values (Myrick 2021) and the fulfillment of ethical responsibilities (Saliers et al. 1998). Character formation in worship has also been seen to establish worshippers’ perspectives and relationships with others, the world, and God (Müller 2006; Suggate 2002). When examining formation through the ritual of worship, theologians acknowledge that when ritual forms become the only focus, worshippers can fall into rote institutionalization. Without an emphasis on ritual formation, however, moral and theological relativism can result. Such a paradox, Kelman (2018) suggests, is central to definitions of worship “as both structured by ritual and intended to exceed ritual forms” (p. 25). This article places a strong emphasis on ritual and formation through worship, while acknowledging that ritual should not necessarily become the only focus of worship.

While the studies mentioned above address formation in worship, minimal research has considered intergenerational formation through worship and even fewer have examined CWM settings. The use of sociology of music education in this research illuminates the relationship between formation and societal institutions, as well as individual human agency within the structures in place.

3. Theoretical Framework

In this article, I bridge intergenerational faith formation with sociologist Bourdieu’s concept of habitus, along with capital and field, the main concepts in his Theory of Practice (Bourdieu 1977). Habitus is a system of dispositions; one’s past, that is understood in the present, changes according to the social structures and conditions in place. Individuals are situated in evolving social fields and are impacted by their evolving habitus. They use capital to occupy and maintain their positions in the social field. Extended to religious contexts, individuals’ religious habitus is their dimension within the religious field, which includes religious symbols, teachings, practices, and dispositions (Bourdieu 1987, [1971] 1991). Religious specialists produce religious capital within the religious field (Rey 2007).

Church worship is situated within a broader religious social field, where agents confront one another and contribute to the conserving or transforming of its structure (Rey 2007). Elements of worship, such as music, prayer, and gestures, position religious communities in the overall social field (Monnot 2018), while also impacting agents’ religious habitus formation. Participating in church worship includes the enactment of actions according to a “scripted” text, or a liturgy (Smith 2013; Wolterstorff 2015), representative of a social practice. Humans are “liturgical creatures” who are fundamentally formed by worship practices (Smith 2013, 2016). One’s worship practices, “embodied rhythms, rituals, and routines” (Smith 2013, p. 4), unconsciously and quietly shape desires, theology, and “rules of the field” over time. Behaviors can be musically enacted through repertoire, modes of performance, and participative choices, becoming strategies toward the realization of values (Phelan 2008). The worship leader has a particular role in directing music-making practices and the enactment of behaviors in worship. These behaviors can include perceptions of value, excellence, and musical participation, which vary according to specific religious fields.

4. Research Methodology

This research employed a qualitative approach, considering the problem and phenomena from the perspective of the church musicians involved (Cohen et al. 2018). Within a qualitative research paradigm, this study used a multiple case study design as the methodological approach. Multiple cases can help to increase the internal validity of a study; while an increased number of cases do not necessarily lead to generalization, they can contribute to a more detailed or robust understanding of what is being researched (Stake 1995).

Data were gathered from two Protestant Reformed churches in southwestern Ontario, Canada from May to July 2021 using semi-structured interviews, questionnaires, non-participant observation of praise band and choir rehearsals, as well as document analysis. Due to the timing of the data collection during the COVID-19 pandemic, this research is quite narrow in its scope, as only two churches served as data sets. Further, all elements of data collection occurred online, a setting that contributed to significant blurring of the lines between sacred and secular spaces for many church congregants (Bryson and Davies 2020). Online music-making during the pandemic shifted the religious habitus of worship music more generally, increasing the prevalence of virtual ensembles and virtual church services. Virtual ensembles are still being used in spaces of worship, consisting of digital musical products that use multiple, individually recorded vocal lines layered on top of each other (Cayari 2021). I observed online Zoom rehearsals and virtual ensemble creations as a main component of my data collection.

In total, twenty-two church musicians and two worship leaders participated in the study. I define a worship leader as the lead vocalist or instrumentalist and facilitator in a worship musical ensemble. Worship leaders in this study were understood to be musical leaders of specific rotating worship teams in each church. I chose the two church cases through my initial contact with the worship leaders. The churches were contacted based on their ability to meet the criteria that guided the case.

The study received approval from Western University’s Research Ethics Board. Study processes and procedures ensured that consent from each church was sought in a proper order and that participants’ anonymity was preserved throughout the study. Because I was conducting research in a cultural context that is seen as “familiar”, I sought to follow Ingalls’s (2018) ethnographic methodological considerations in negotiating her shifting relationship with evangelical Christianity. Butler (2005, 2008) and Summit (2000, 2016) provided two helpful ethnomusicological models of reflexive religious subjectivity that were beneficial in framing my research methodology and negotiating my complex subject position. I worked to establish honest, trustworthy relationships with participants while clearly acknowledging and reflecting upon my own subjectivities, positionalities, agenda, and thinking throughout the research process.

Church Cases. Both church cases are situated in the same city in southwestern Ontario. The first church, Redeemer Christian Reformed Church,1 is part of the greater Christian Reformed Church denomination of North America. The church consists of a diverse multi-generational congregation with diverse ages and backgrounds. Redeemer focuses on the Reformed confessions and a “blended” view of worship, with both contemporary and traditional repertoire.

The second church case, Calvin Presbyterian Church2, is a multi-generational church that is part of the greater Presbyterian Church in Canada denomination. Their worship services typically have a mix of contemporary and traditional musical repertoire, led by the praise band consisting of drums, guitar, keyboard, and vocalists, as well as the church choir. The changes to online rehearsals for both groups due to the COVID-19 pandemic meant that members rehearsed and recorded their musical parts individually on Zoom and the choir director edited and compiled audio recordings to be used during online church services.

In the following paragraphs, I present data that compare the two cases to analyze the religious musical habitus and field positioning of each church case through a cross-case analysis (Miles et al. 2014). These cases inform my findings and allow me to discuss possible implications of Bourdieu’s theory for intergenerational formation within the church. For the purposes of this article, I draw upon both church cases to discuss the relationship between CWM music-making practices and their reflection of, and response to, musical and theological fields within each church setting. I suggest that CWM music-making practices reinforce the religious musical habitus formation of particular demographics while disrupting others. I argue that CWM is generationally based in the way it engages with habitus, and discuss the various implications that this may have for church habitus, perceptions of worship, and the role of the worship leader.

5. Relationship Between CWM Music-Making Practices and Musical/Theological Fields

Wolterstorff (2015) writes of the importance of examining the construction of liturgy, making “explicit [what is] implicit in the liturgy” (p. 18). While Wolterstorff is distinctly referring to an understanding of God, the concept connects directly to the intention behind Bourdieu’s Theory of Practice (Bourdieu 1977) which was to unveil what was commonly accepted as “normal” or “legitimate” within society. In a sense, Bourdieu was making the “implicit explicit” as the key elements of his theory—habitus, capital, and field—intended to expose individuals’ social positioning and order in society.

Within church music-making settings, multiple fields are involved within each church’s production of worship. The data presented below consider the musical and theological fields within which Redeemer Christian Reformed Church and Calvin Presbyterian Church are located, including the doxa3 of these fields. I consider both churches to be subfields, operating according to rules that exist in its given religious field as well as within the greater religious, ecumenical Protestant field, among other fields in society.

5.1. Church Case 1: *Redeemer Christian Reformed Church

When analyzing the relationship between CWM music-making practices and their reflection of, and response to, the musical and theological fields in place, I focused on each church’s musical repertoire selection, approach to worship, and ideas surrounding musical participation. These sub-themes will be briefly discussed.

Redeemer Church maintains a balanced approach to musical repertoire, with traditional and contemporary songs. The worship team that I observed tended to select more contemporary songs; however, the church did have a policy that required the implementation of “blended worship”. Within conversations surrounding “blended worship”, it was notable that there were common assumptions in place surrounding musical taste: contemporary songs were more likely to resonate with young people, while the older generation gravitated toward hymns. Redeemer’s emphasis on a balanced approach to musical repertoire spoke to CWM being generationally based in the way it engages with habitus, as adolescents and young adults were described as “resonating” with the repertoire.

Along with the habitus element, there was a process for selecting the new congregational song repertoire that was indicative of the musical and theological fields, as well as the “rules of the game” or doxa in place. Redeemer Church has a worship committee where leaders would bring forward new songs to add to the repertoire list. Music-making practices and musical repertoire are meant to reflect the theological and musical positioning of Redeemer Church. If there were differing opinions regarding the theological “correctness” of repertoire, the pastor would point out theological inaccuracies according to Redeemer’s positioning. From a Bourdieusian lens, the pastor was perceived as the mediator of right belief and doctrine—as the chief interpreter.

When examining the “rules of the field” in terms of Redeemer’s general approach to worship, Redeemer’s “balanced” approach to worship provided worshippers with multiple musical genres to engage with throughout a worship service. The specific worship team I observed used instruments, such as the piano, guitar, and drums, to add more of a “contemporary flair” to hymns. These instruments are typically associated with a younger demographic’s musical preferences and their musical habitus, or dispositions and tendencies (Green 2002) and are, at times, perceived as being more diverse and accessible (Justice 2022). The church’s musical repertoire was one element among others, such as prayers, litanies, and various rituals, that I did not observe, and that characterized their religious community and contributed to a shared sense of collusio4 or “feel for the game” and “social know how” among musicians. The worship leaders and their overall approach to worship appeared to have a direct impact on the “social know how” among musicians and the church culture. As one worship leader, Paul, stated:

We’re here to lead the congregation, we’re not here to perform; it’s not how well we do—obviously as musicians and singers you want to do well. You’re not doing, worshipping, that well, shall we say, if you’re not doing your best, but you’re not doing it to perform, you’re not doing it to glorify yourself… you have to try and meet everybody where they’re at and you can’t just be all one flavor, shall we say, because other people will get nothing out of it, right?

(Worship Leader Interview, Redeemer)

Here, Paul was referring to a tension between “doing well” and “doing your best” musically in worship for the glory of God rather than for human recognition. He equated worshiping “well” with pursuing musical excellence according to one’s skillset while simultaneously avoiding a performance mindset. When asked about repertoire and performance in worship, Paul explained,

Sometimes I really like [certain] songs and sometimes it’s interesting because… it’s like yeah, that’s a nice song, we tried it, it’s not congregational, it’s not a group singing song. It’s a solo song. It’s a performance song.

(Worship Leader Interview, Redeemer)

A different musician echoed the necessity of facilitating congregational worship and participation within a service rather than performing “at” the congregation:

And the purpose [of the praise team] is, well, it’s not a musical performance. The purpose is to be there as part of a worship service where a congregation is coming together for a service, and so the role is really about facilitating that participation from everybody.

(Musician Interview, Redeemer)

What appeared to be most prevalent in the data findings when addressing congregational participation through musical leadership was the directional focus of the music-making. Music-making within worship was linked to the congregation’s ability to join in. When the focus was not on the musicians themselves and their “performance”, it was considered participatory. However, this is a difficult middle ground to achieve, as participants still needed to “do their best” to glorify God.

Ian, however, was the only respondent who indicated that there is always a part of worship that involves the musician themselves and their preferences. He explained,

Like just to be perfectly honest about it, there’s always an element that is about yourself too, right? Like I’m there playing music because I like it, and I play it a certain way because I like the way that sounds. And there’s a bit of a tension between that and also knowing that the purpose here is not to be a performance. It’s to facilitate worship from the congregation as well, right? But it’s all tied in together… the congregation also responds to the inspiration that the musicians or the praise team are putting into it.

(Musician Interview, Redeemer)

I found Ian’s response fascinating because he articulated the tension between wanting to play music with a strong musical quality and striving towards sounds that he enjoyed, while also understanding that his music-making was not a performance. As Ian acknowledged, there is a need to pursue excellence in music-making, not only as an offering to God, but also to inspire the congregation, which they then respond to in their worship to God. Most musicians approached music-making in their church similarly.

The religious habitus is the religious aspect of one’s habitus; congregants tend to generate dispositions that are consistent with the norms of a church’s religious understanding of the world. I understand religious habitus to include a philosophical stance regarding one’s approach to worship, and more specifically musical components, which influence musicians’ approaches to worship. Redeemer Church musicians’ religious habitus varied in slight ways; however, musicians generally maintained similar beliefs in conceptualizing the purpose of their role, which was to lead and facilitate congregants’ worship of God. However, the ways in which this was enacted in terms of the perceptions of, and discourse surrounding, CWM, is of note. It appears that, in order to pursue congregational participation and a “balanced” approach to worship music, it was necessary for some form of CWM to be incorporated to engage young people at Redeemer Church. CWM was a central component of young adults’ religious musical habitus. The way in which worship leaders and musicians were approaching worship in a blended manner, selecting a balance of CWM repertoire and hymns, was reinforcing Redeemer’s positioning within the religious musical field while also solidifying congregants’ individual musical habitus—their tastes, dispositions, and tendencies.

Musical decisions were not the only aspect that reinforced Redeemer’s positioning; different churches’ approaches to space and place within worship can also be indicative of positioning (Justice 2022). Redeemer Church’s praise band situated themselves at the front of the church within a relatively traditional sanctuary, with a pulpit in the front middle. Redeemer did not necessarily resonate with a contemporary worshipping community that operates outside of institutional norms; again, it maintained a balanced approach where the praise band was “invited” into the traditional sanctuary, or worship space, without being “too contemporary”. I found this indicative of the demographics of Redeemer’s congregation and their overall balanced approach to church music. Redeemer Church musicians’ alignment with the theological/musical fields in place was quite different to Calvin Church musicians’ approaches to worship and overall alignment, as discussed next.

5.2. Church Case Two: *Calvin Presbyterian Church

Similar to Redeemer Church, I address Calvin Church’s repertoire selection, approach to worship, and musical participation as three sub-themes that all respond to the relationship between CWM music-making practices and their reflection of, and response to, the musical and theological fields in place.

Calvin Church, part of the Presbyterian Church in Canada denomination, appeared to maintain a balanced approach to repertoire in terms of traditional versus contemporary music. Since I observed Calvin’s musical practices during the pandemic, I was not able to observe the regular worship team who leads CWM at the church and observed the virtual church choir instead. Their music-making practices were “contemporary” in nature, reflecting elements of contemporary music in style and accompaniment and shifting more towards modern repertoire. In this setting, I framed the choir director’s role as a worship leader–facilitator, directing and leading the overall direction of the choir and their music-making.

It is important to note that the COVID-19 pandemic particularly affected the data results from Calvin Church. As I observed the virtual choir, lines between sacred and secular spaces blurred for many musicians (Bryson and Davies 2020). Their homes were transformed into interlinked “fields” through the application of “habitus”, or the rules associated with worship. Various “sacred” behaviors were enacted in the home, shifting the home into the religious field. This shift was complex in nature, as the church was “layered” on the home and social media experiences were “layered” onto religious services, all part of the religious field, which contributed to temporary new geographies of home.

Sophia, the choir director at Calvin Church, was relatively new in her position. When asked about her choice of contemporary repertoire, she responded with the following description of her process:

I’m very much about the thematics first, so there has to be a reason for us to sing whatever we’re singing and have it be meaningful. I choose the repertoire that I think… will be achievable for them, but that will be meaningful in worship as well. I’m primarily the person who chooses the rep, and I also feel like I’ve been slowly infusing my style into the rep as well. I still feel like I want to infuse some more contemporary stuff, some more justice pieces, some social justice equality… I feel really strongly about that as someone who’s… younger than a lot of them.

(Choir Director Interview, Calvin)

Language was a significant element in the repertoire selection for Sophia. In my non-participant observations of online choir rehearsals, Sophia was explicit about changing the language to be more inclusive and reflect more of a “social justice equality” direction. The theology expressed in Calvin Church’s repertoire generally reflected the denominational stance of the Presbyterian church and aligned with the doxa, or “rules of the game” of the field. The literature suggests that the Presbyterian Church in Canada denomination tends to focus significantly on the pursuit of justice through its concern with issues of inclusion, poverty, employment, and so on, with more of an external focus than many Reformed denominations in Canada (Evans 2017). The music-making practices that Sophia was implementing, however, were responding to the doxa of the field in a manner that some musicians felt uncomfortable with; the online environment of the choir rehearsals, along with the technology components, further perpetuated some of the musicians’ levels of discomfort. It was interesting how Sophia pointed out the difference in age demographics between herself, who had a taste for contemporary repertoire, and the majority of the choir members, who did not. It was evident that there were different habituses interacting with one another, prompting a “disjunct” between habitus and field.

Sophia’s practices were not too dialogical and responsive and responsive to the musicians in nature compared to the musicians’ levels of comfort and overall sense of musical ability. Certain choristers, such as Winona, were not particularly happy with the new direction of the “contemporary” repertoire:

I think we’re doing more upbeat songs. We do the odd classical, but… a lot of new Christian related [songs], they’re certainly not all in the hymn book. I like them but they were always singing the songs that went back to my childhood [in the past], and we’re not singing any of those… And it all feels like new songs that are just brand new.

(Musician Interview, Calvin)

I continued by asking Winona why she missed some of her old childhood songs. She responded,

Like when you hear a song that you’ve sang for years and years, [you can] just sort of sing out loud and enjoy it because you don’t even need to look at the words. But [now] we have to look at the words and continually learn how the tune goes etc. without the basics.

(Musician Interview, Calvin)

Winona indicated a sense of feeling like all the songs were “brand new”, not knowing “the basics” of the repertoire in terms of where the tune would go and how the words would align with it. Hawn (2003) argues that through cyclical, repetitive structures in church music, a physical response is evoked, and worshippers can participate more easily in the liturgy. In some ways, the doxa of the field contributed to a reliance on repetitive tunes that musicians could associate and engage with due to their familiarity with the musical elements. They were not accustomed to regular shifts in the musical genre of the repertoire. Since the choir was typically comprised of middle-aged to senior members, the popular music elements of the repertoire were likely not an “easier” genre for musicians to create an association with, in comparison to other genres. In this way, the musicians’ religious musical habitus faced a tension with the contemporary repertoire, which affirms the notion that CWM—and more broadly the contemporary repertoire—is generationally based in the way it engages with habitus. Further, the virtual environment increased this tension and may have contributed to Sophia’s lack of response to the musicians’ religious musical habitus in place.

Calvin Church’s theological and philosophical approach to worship, as expressed in interviews and survey responses, impacted music-making practices and their reflections and responses to musical and theological fields in place. While Sophia expressed that some people in the choir appreciated the inclusive nature and the external, “horizontal” focus of worship at Calvin, others, such as George, had different opinions:

So singing is not a strong point in this church compared to the Mennonite churches or Christian Reformed Churches I’ve been to. And so… I find that the music is less prayerful than it could be sometimes. Sometimes I find that music’s done for music’s sake, as opposed to a worshipful sake at [Calvin].

(Musician Interview, Calvin)

I pressed George on this comment and asked how his idea of worship affected his participation and music-making at Calvin. He responded,

I don’t want to compare [another local choir] but I really have to. Because being in [the other choir] is a worship service in itself, both the practices and performances. And I don’t get that from [Calvin]. I get a sense of community, of people who want to be together to support, kind of broadly, the small ‘w’ worship of [Calvin], but with [another local choir] there’s a capital ‘W’ there, this is… we are making a change.

(Musician Interview, Calvin)

I found George’s response to be critical to my research findings regarding worship at Calvin, as he succinctly described his understanding of the role of music in worship, as well as what he believed the focus of worship should be. George made a distinction between participatory and presentational music-making (Turino 2008) when speaking about congregational participation, asserting that community and a focus on music alone should not necessarily be the primary focus of worship. George explained that singing at Calvin was not “strong” in comparison with other church denominations; music was “done” for music’s sake alone. I wonder if some of George’s comments are simply indicative of his religious musical habitus; if CWM is, indeed, generationally based in the way it engages with habitus, perhaps the demographics of the musical ensemble conflicted with the musical tastes and dispositions that would resonate with CWM. If there was more of an alignment between participants’ habituses and their taste for the musical genre, I wonder if he would have then equated their music-making with “real, capital ‘W’ worship”.

Calvin Church, as an individual religious field (that is also part of the greater social field) has embedded rules and norms. Dispositions are acquired through gradual processes of inculcation (Mills 2008) and the bodily participation—which I would connect to participation in Calvin’s choir—will, over time, imprint and encode a socialization process of “norms”. Musicians have developed an illusio and know which type of capital is valued within the church. Most of the participating church musicians are aware of the “norms” or “rules” of the game in the field, doxa in Bourdieu’s terms—and some of their habituses, or dispositions, have been iteratively shaped through the process. When Sophia, the new choir director, entered the field she brought a different musical habitus with her—her own dispositions, tendencies, and preferences, which were, in a way, generationally based. While she advocated for new contemporary music that she thought aligned well with the church’s positioning, others, perhaps, needed time for preferences and dispositions to continue to take shape and possibly shift. In a way, her push for a more “inclusive” contemporary repertoire that aligned with her religious musical habitus resulted in exclusive practices and was, in fact, anti-intergenerational.

6. Locating Both Churches

Few scholars have extended Bourdieu’s key religious concepts to specific, localized congregations. Monnot (2018) provides an interesting perspective on the production of culture within a space of Sunday worship that is applicable to this research. Monnot notes that music-making practices, in particular, can be understood to be representative of a congregation’s social positioning and the type of cultural capital that is often maintained. In this study, I conceptualize each church case as positioned within musical and theological fields, where worship leaders and musicians operate according to the rules that exist in each of their fields as well as those in the greater religious field.

Below, I attempt to locate both churches’ positioning in the religious musical field in relation to the data presented above (see Figure 1). I draw upon Monnot’s (2018) research to suggest that a church’s positioning can be understood to be enacted through cultural worship practices while also informing future practices and musical decision making. Each church is located in relation to the pursuit of musical excellence at one end, and participation/inclusivity at the other. The pursuit of musical excellence and participation/inclusivity are not mutually exclusive categories; however, certain denominations tend to emphasize one more than the other. This was highlighted in the philosophy of worship section in the literature review.

I placed Redeemer Church slightly to the left of Calvin Church. While Redeemer Church focused on participation and inclusivity, it was not seen as a final “end” in terms of letting anyone participate in the worship team. They focused on the pursuit of strong musicality, focusing on offering their best to God. Their music was “simple” and musical in nature, but not “excellent” in terms of musical quality. Calvin Church was positioned a bit more to the right of Redeemer Church, as their emphasis on participatory, functionalistic music prompted much of their decision making. Even though the choir led in a performance-oriented nature, implementing traditional pedagogical approaches, the data suggest that their religious musical field was dictated much more by a communal focus.

Overall, I suggest that positioning in relation to each of these axes are enacted through musical practices, while positioning also informs musical decision-making processes on behalf of the worship leaders and the church as a whole. CWM music-making practices may either reinforce or disrupt both institutional and individual habitus formation, depending on where churches and worshippers are situated in the field, as well as their generationally based musical tastes. It appears from my data findings that musical and theological alignment between the field and habitus occur in a generational context. More specifically, if a church was trying to introduce an increased contemporary repertoire, and the demographic of musician-worshippers was relatively young, there was an overall musical and theological alignment that matched the musical tastes of worshippers. However, when Calvin Church’s choir director, for example, introduced a repertoire that did not align with the musicians’ habituses, she did not display a thoughtful awareness of the religious musical field positioning of the church or the musicians’ habituses. Both musical and theological alignment are essential within churches, as well as a critical awareness of the overall church habitus and of what makes worship possible. I emphasize that churches should focus on how field and habitus reflect and respond to one another in order to function and serve congregants in a beneficial way, in which congregants can engage in worship.

7. Intergenerational Congregational Habitus Formation

According to Bourdieu’s Theory of Practice, practice is the product of one’s relationship between an individual’s habitus, or dispositions, and his/her position in a field, as defined by the amount of capital held in the field (Wright 2015). My research introduces the concept of a “religious musical habitus”, describing church musicians’ habituses in their totality, including musical bodily knowledge, social know-how, and the church’s socio-cultural nuances. I suggest that the physical body serves as a meeting point between the religious and musical habitus as well as between the mind—which the religious habitus is more significantly comprised of—and body, which the musical habitus influences through practice.

When considering religious musical habitus formation within the church, one may want to consider both the habitus’s reproductive function within the religious field as well as its transformative nature in relation to music-making in a worship context. The habitus (including one’s religious and musical habitus) is structured by past social experiences and beliefs surrounding religion, theology, and musicality. It structures current dispositions, religious practices, beliefs, and musical behaviors. In this way, the habitus continues to operate in a linear manner, shaping present and future actions, and contributing to the overall reproduction of habitus formation.

I suggest that the embodied nature of the habitus lends itself to habitus formation through performative, ritualistic practices directed towards an “end”, such as those within worship. Music-making performs values through a tacit knowledge of performance (Phelan 2008, 2017) and in an embodied manner, where the physical body acts as a meeting point between the mind and practice. Each church has an institutional “religious musical habitus” conveyed through doxa and illusio but also among individuals, enacted through practice. Musical bodily knowledge, along with religious social know-how, are brought together and enacted according to the socio-cultural positioning of the individual church.

Although the data presented focus on worship leaders and musicians rather than the entire congregation, the religious musical habitus of young adults seems to be comprised of dispositions and preferences towards elements of CWM, which can include beliefs surrounding religion, theology, and musicality as well. Similarly, hymns and more “traditional” styles of music-making may solidify the habitus of older generations. When extending data findings to the greater congregation, this research indicates that CWM is generationally based in the ways in which it engages with the habitus, based on the particular tastes of a subset of a demographic.

The role of CWM, which both churches loosely incorporated, can contribute to the formation of a religious musical habitus. Scholars recognize the repetitive nature—both musically and lyrically—of CWM, reflecting characteristics of popular music (Long 2001; Ruth 2015). Since the characteristics of CWM include its cyclical and repetitive nature, which can evoke a physical response within participants (Hawn 2003), its role as a musical genre in worship can be seen to have an even more significant impact on the religious musical habitus than other genres of church music. Lemley (2021) affirms that CWM can be understood to have popular musical associations, which I argue can be connected to the premise of Green’s (2002) argument for the inclusion of popular music in schools. Students connect with popular music as they associate it with the music they engage with in their everyday lives. There is an even more significant connection made when musical associations occur, and music aligns with a familiar “cultural liturgy”. Thus, in church worship contexts, I suggest that one’s religious musical habitus is particularly formative and fluid in nature when contemporary, popular musical sounds are involved, such as those within CWM, versus more traditional genres of church music.

It is necessary to note that while the data collected were quite narrow in scope, and the findings are similarly quite narrow, these implications for CWM and intergenerational formation can apply to a broader context. There is ample room for more research to be conducted on this topic; this study can be broadened to include a greater number of churches.

8. The Role of the Worship Leader

I posit that worship leaders’ dialogical, reflective practices are necessary for the solidification of one’s habitus, or perhaps the transformation of it. Through intentional, conversational engagement between acting agents (Akrivou and Di San Giorgio 2014), “rules of the field” may be critically accepted, or intentionally disrupted. Dialogical processes focus on inter-subjective ways of knowing; habitus is impacted in response to one’s context and other actors in a shared conversation.

When considering intergenerational congregational formation through worship, Bourdieu’s concept of the habitus and its formation/transformation is an excellent model to use. Ultimately, it points to the importance of the worship leader’s practices as they pastor a congregation, where actions have a formative impact on congregants’ journey of faith (Boer 2019; Hicks 2016). A worship leader is the principal figure in forming the worship culture of a congregation, challenging, forming, and negotiating the ethos of worship (Cowan 2017). Worship leaders perform and model a particular identity while disseminating doctrine and thus require an awareness of how their practices may align with the positioning of the church in the religious field.

When considering worship music, music in worship is understood to educate Christians through its pedagogic use about theology, doctrine, and what it means to be a Christian in contemporary society (Kelman 2018). Singing has the ability to shape individuals’ responses to God and understandings of him (Caccamo 2004; Hawn 2003). If liturgy, and more specifically music, is understood to have an impact on worshippers’ formation (Smith 2016; Wolterstorff 2015), the theology expressed in musical selections contains more influence than is often acknowledged, as it is central to intergenerational worshippers’ habitus formation.

Similarly, it is important for worship leaders to consider the formation of musical tastes and preferences through their repertoire selection and approach to worship, which all contribute to the musical habitus of worshippers. While CWM is seen at times to be more inclusive and participatory, research findings extended to the congregation indicate that it is generationally based in the way that it engages with the habitus of worshippers. In some ways, music-making can be intergenerational through its practices and the particular decisions that worship leaders are making surrounding participation, the use of musical instruments, approaches and opinions surrounding musical excellence, and so on. Thus, when worship leaders incorporate CWM in their services for the sake of it being “more participatory and accessible”, these practices can, in fact, be anti-intergenerational and exclusive in nature, reinforcing the “rules of the field” in place. How, then, do some churches’ perceived “need” to incorporate CWM in their services only serve the tastes of a subset of a demographic? And what implications does this have for worship and the possibility of an intergenerational congregation engaging in worship?

9. Concluding Thoughts

I have suggested that musical practices in worship are performative in nature and embody values—theological and musical—of the social field. In accordance with Phelan’s (2008) research, a community’s “intent” can be embodied in musical practices but can also be “completely transformed and subverted in the process” (p. 155). Music-making as an embodied, somatic experience (Phelan 2008), can promote and reinforce specific beliefs in place. Liturgical theological perspectives could be understood to affirm this in their conceptualization of formation through liturgy, where the unconscious is formed through participation in worship, understood as the enactment of liturgy (Myrick 2021; Smith 2013; Wolterstorff 2015).

I therefore posit that worship leaders intentionally consider the musical and theological values that they are embodying through their practices and the interfaces of the two. Through musical decisions and actions, including repertoire selection, they are determining the culture of the worship teams and are also influencing the theological truths that are sung. Worship leaders have a particular role in facilitating musicians’ engagement in relational music-making, entering into a space of dialogue with others and God (Benjamins 2021). I assert that worship leaders consider all three of the denominational, theological, and musical positionings of the specific church setting in which they are located in order to be intentional, discerning leaders. There should be relationships between the somatic and discursive aspects of worship that contribute to a church’s unified approach to understanding what worship is and that, therefore, serve the needs of its congregants (Kelman 2018).

In essence, I suggest that worship leaders consider the context and the culture of the church in which they are situated, making decisions and directing their actions towards the theological positioning of the church. Such decisions involve an awareness of the musical tastes of intergenerational worshippers within their congregations. As Justice (2022) points out, I further wonder if the Traditional–Contemporary dichotomy in worship has become too appealing to mainline Protestants. Have mainline Protestants embraced the musical tensions of the Worship Wars for an opportunity to feel relevant and diverse? If worship leaders desire to intentionally consider their embodiment of musical and theological values, a more musically unified service that is neither labelled as “Traditional” nor “Contemporary” may be most fruitful when considering intergenerational formation in worship while also properly representing the demographics of Protestant churches.

Musical practices in worship are immensely formative in nature; it is critical to understand why one is engaging in particular practices and the impact that these may have. Worship must consider the formation of the communal body of the church, considering the social embeddedness and experiential knowing of worshippers, rather than considering theoretical knowledge alone (Strawn and Brown 2013). It is my hope that church musicians will continue to understand the immense potential of music to shape and form musicians through practice.