With Beer & Hymns starting back this week, I’ve been reflecting on an experience I had while serving as a youth minister in Tampa.

Back at Bayshore Baptist Church, I worked alongside an exceptional group of young musicians. Driven by guitar and drums with several accomplished vocalists, the band acquired the name “Holy Daze,” and their music became a fixture of our Wednesday night gatherings. In addition to sounding great, the members of Holy Daze also crafted set lists, kept track of sheet music and equipment, and helped me fine-tune my teaching style to better suit the space. I was continually impressed by their organizational ability and spiritual maturity; every member of Holy Daze was a leader, and everyone always had a say. There was only one thing these students and I really clashed over: hymns.

Holy Daze played contemporary Christian music almost exclusively. These teens had a keen awareness of modern worship music, and their choices were always spot on, but with every song being less than a decade old, there was something missing. During my second year at the church, I asked the leaders of Holy Daze to start including a couple of hymns in every worship set. This instruction initially frustrated the group, and looking back, I’m sure I didn’t present it well at the time. (In my mid-20s, I was far better at talking about listening than actually listening.) The band members pulled me aside one evening and compassionately explained their objection:

We want music that already feels familiar to first-time visitors, so we’re picking songs that actually get played around our school. Also, because so many who attend our group are transplants from other contemporary-driven churches, these guests have heard these songs before. The old hymns are just so alien by comparison, and our music selection is a huge part of helping people feel welcome.

It was solid logic, and their language of familiar and alien and welcome struck a chord with me. The Holy Daze team wanted to make sure students found a hospitable setting in the here and now, but I had only been thinking longterm. You see, modern church-based youth ministry is driven by one daunting statistic: after high school, approximately 2/3 of Christian teens will leave church, and the majority will never return. With this in mind, I shared my reasoning with this team of young leaders:

Most of the people who attend our ministry will separate from church community at some point following high school, but my hope is that they’ll give church another shot later on. By that time though, the music we’re playing here will be long out of style. I don’t want us to play hymns just because of the deeper words or more intricate melodies. The main reason is because the hymns are a few hundred years old and known across denominations, so if someone in our group were to walk into a different church a decade from now, there’s a good chance that person would hear these hymns.

The Holy Daze members were sympathetic, and we reached a compromise.

Years later, my experiences in bar chaplaincy would give weight to what was only a theory back then. I’ve encountered so many people who haven’t been to a church in years but still know every word of their childhood hymns. As such, Beer & Hymns gives people a judgment-free environment in which to reconnect with their roots and revisit the experiences and beliefs that shaped them. Whenever I get into that space and pull out my guitar, I always think back to what my students said four years ago: Our music selection is a huge part of making people feel welcome. I hope we always fulfill that goal.

Beer & Hymns starts back this Thursday at 7:30pm at Bold City Brewery’s Rosselle Street location and will continue on the first Thursday of every month throughout the school year. See you there!