Music Sacred and Profane: Exploring the Use of Popular Music in Evangelical Worship Services

This paper focuses on the use of what I call popular-secular music in contemporary American evangelical church worship services. I explore why some of these American churches are using mainstream music in their worship service that is not identified with Christian religious culture and/or has no overt religious references. Evangelical congregations often employ popular-secular music to find and proclaim their identity as Christian communities. Given the role of music in identifying social location and preserving identity, it is curious that some congregations opt to adopt popular music and secular lyrics. The following research and interviews show that the ways in which the evangelical congregations are using music demonstrates their particular understandings of the line between the sacred world and the secular world—as well as how they negotiate the boundary between sacred and secular music.