This is not your granddaddy’s rock ‘n’ roll and it’s not your grandma’s gospel.
In a free concert set up by the Billy Graham Evangelical Association, Britannia Park will come alive with the sounds of Christian rock music on Sept. 29 and 30. The concert has one main goal – to get young people to accept God in their lives, says Dylan Fox-Altherr, a leader with the Carleton Christian group Power to Change.
But it will take more than a rock show to make church-goers out of the concert-goers, Fox-Altherr said. There has to be a personal touch if Rock the River is going to knock the average age of congregations down a few years.
“I think the main reason people will go to church is because a friend invited them,” Fox-Altherr says. “If they come alone, I’m not sure how much they’ll be interested in going (to church) on their own initiative.”
He’s volunteered as a councillor for Rock the River and will be there to help people who want to start going to church find one in their neighbourhood.
Two potential recipients of Rock the River’s evangelism are Centretown churches St. Theresa Roman Catholic Church and St. Luke’s Anglican Church. Both have seen a rise in youth attendance, but for different reasons.
When Rev.Vincent Pereira arrived at St. Theresa seven years ago, he says he expected a lot of Catholic students from the University of Ottawa.
Instead, he found what he called “a dead parish.”
The worship service was a spectator sport: the parish’s hymn books were often missing and only the choir sang, backed by an organ. Now, there are violins and guitars, flutes and keyboards – mostly played by university-aged parishioners.
“The people were at first critical, but now they are used to it and more inviting of young people in the church and choir,” Pereira says. “Now, it has come alive.”
It makes the churches more accessible to youth, says Fox-Altherr, when the worship service breaks away from the traditional choir-and-organ set-up.
It isn’t a strategy all churches are willing to adopt, however.
Robert Jones has been leading worship at St. Luke’s on a 75-year-old pipe organ for more than a decade and doesn’t plan to swap it for an electric keyboard any time soon.
“If I want rock music, I’ll go to a rock concert or go to a bar,” Jones says. “I just don’t find it helpful in church.”
His choir of 20 is hardly ancient, though, despite the traditional format and older hymns.
St. Luke’s has seen a lot more young people over the last few years, but not because it rocks and rolls. Instead, they rely on the advertising they do in the city.
Granted, having a reverend who stands on the front steps every Sunday inviting passer-bys to join the service doesn’t hurt.
“(Rev. Gregor Sneddon) made it very clear at the very beginning that we have a motto – everyone is welcome, without exception,” says Jones.
The organist says he doesn’t doubt that Christian events such as Rock the River do help young people discover church, he just doesn’t think they’re vital. If people want to go, they will find a way, and they will find something that suits them.
“They may come here and say, ‘Okay, that’s not for me,’ and go to a different church,” Jones said. “They may end up at a rock church.”
But if they’re going to end up anywhere, Fox-Altherr, Pereira, and Jones both agree on one thing: it’ll take more than jamming to the gospel to get them there.