Should Your Church Band Sound Like a Cover Band?

Chris —  May 15, 2013

“Every church I’ve ever played for just wanted a Christian Radio cover band.”

I heard this statement at a recent lunch with a local musician. Like many in my city, Austin, he’s a working musician, playing behind artists and with multiple bands. The difference is that his gigs are all at churches and parachurch events.

The sad thing about his statement is that it shows how churches easily divorce music from mission. Like her role model, Jesus, the church is called to have an incarnational presence in its community. That means that the church learns and loves the local culture, and then tries to embody what it means to be a community of Jesus followers in that time and place.

So should your church band sound like a cover band, doing renditions of what ever is popular on the Christian radio station in the area?

Maybe.

If that is incarnational thing to do.

People everywhere love music, but in Austin, music is the lifeblood of the city. Imagine what it would be like if the music on Sunday sounded like the music people those same people listened to the rest of the week?

I asked on Facebook for people to name bands that capture the sound of Austin.  You can hear the answers here:

Who would you add? What does your city sound like?

 

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