Yale Journal of Music & Religion

Volume 6 Number 2 Sound and Secularity Article 3

2020

“Beer & Hymns” and Community: Religious Identity and Participatory Sing-alongs

Andrew Mall Northeastern University

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Recommended Citation Mall, Andrew (2020) "“Beer & Hymns” and Community: Religious Identity and Participatory Sing-alongs," Yale Journal of Music & Religion: Vol. 6: No. 2, Article 3. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17132/2377-231X.1178

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Cover Page Footnote I am grateful to the staff of Wild Goose 2017 and the organizers of Beer & Hymns for welcoming my fieldwork inquiries. This article has benefitted from feedback at the Sound and Secularity symposium (Stony Brook, NY, 2019) and the Christian Congregational Music conference (Oxford, UK, 2019), and I thank the organizers for including me. I benefitted from the insights of this journal's anonymous reviewers.

This article is available in Yale Journal of Music & Religion: https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/yjmr/vol6/iss2/3 Beer & Hymns and Community Religious Identity and Participatory Sing-alongs Andrew Mall

Beer & Hymns is a loose network of century.3 In contrast, Beer & Hymns is a local, participatory sing-along events relatively new phenomenon, only coalescing that are independently organized and run under that name in 2006, and thus reflects throughout the United Kingdom, the United twenty-first-century tensions surrounding States, and at festivals such as Greenbelt (in religious identity (in particular, evangelical the U.K.) and Wild Goose (in the U.S.). Christianity), as well as intersections Participants gather at bars, breweries, pubs, between sacred and secular domains in the and churches to sing Christian hymns, contemporary United Kingdom and United spirituals, and other songs together in a States. As such, while studies of Sacred group setting. Event leaders welcome both Harp and shape-note communities often regular churchgoers and those who do not emphasize their connectedness to tradition, attend church to Beer & Hymns, focusing not what distinguishes Beer & Hymns is its on the spiritual or worshipful dimensions divergence from tradition. of congregational singing but rather on its The tradition from which Beer & Hymns potential to form community—one that is, diverges is that of Christian congregational following Kay Shelemay, “a social entity, singing, which has become intertwined an outcome of a combination of social and (and conflated, as I discuss below) with musical processes, rendering those who worship practice during the late twentieth participate in making or listening to music and early twenty-first centuries. Aside aware of a connection among themselves.”1 from the music itself, Beer & Hymns events Like other participatory musical contexts, at lack other formal components common Beer & Hymns there is little to no emphasis to most Christian worship services: Bible on performing artists; instead, as Thomas readings, prayer, reflection, and a sermon or Turino notes, “the primary goal is to involve lesson. Furthermore, Beer & Hymns leaders, the maximum number of people in some most of whom are regular churchgoers performance role.”2 This characteristic themselves, frame the sing-alongs as events stands in stark contrast to the presentational other than or in addition to, but never instead performances that festival-goers typically of, worship services.4 Building on Monique encounter. Beer & Hymns, however, is not Ingalls’s definition of “congregation” as “a the only form of participatory singing rooted fluid, contingent social constellation that in religious repertoire that has deemphasized is actively performed into being through its religious connotations in favor of social a set of communal practices,” I argue and musical inclusion. Sacred Harp and that Beer & Hymns is best understood as shape-note singings in the United States, congregational singing for three reasons: for example, have welcomed participants (1) it is a participatory musical practice; from diverse religious and political (2) its repertoire is largely comprised of backgrounds to form community grounded religious hymns, spirituals, and praise and in musical practice since the mid-nineteenth worship songs (see Sidebar 1), and (3)

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 6, No. 2 (2020) 33 its practice and significance to individual within the context of Beer & Hymns events participants depend on their familiarity at Wild Goose Festival, an annual Christian with formal Christian worship, even if event that takes place in Hot Springs, North they are no longer practicing Christians.5 Carolina, and features music, speakers, In doing so I am not attempting to and workshops. In 2017, I conducted redefine congregations and congregational ethnographic fieldwork as a participant- singing as areligious phenomena; rather, observer at Wild Goose, where I also I am emphasizing their potential for an formally interviewed festival staff and Beer & ambivalent religiosity in postsecular Hymns leaders. I correlate my observations contexts.6 That is, I am more interested at Wild Goose with earlier ethnographic in describing and analyzing the shifting fieldwork at several Boston-area churches, norms of public culture within the secular whose branding and programming reflected than in addressing the transformation of an emphasis on experiencing community. religiosity and/or sacred spaces. My interpretations are grounded in these In this article I address three related necessarily subjective, qualitative data. I questions. First, how should we interpret address these questions through considering Beer & Hymns’ decoupling of congregational the goals of Beer & Hymns leaders and singing from Christian worship? Second, interpreting my observations of participants, how might these events contribute to the lived experience of this sing-along as a evolving definitions of congregation and participant myself, broader sociocultural congregating? Finally, in what ways does trends that have been accompanied by Beer & Hymns contribute to evangelical increasingly fractured social relations, and Christianity’s contested distinction between the event’s sonic environment—all situated the sacred and the secular, particularly in the within a context (the festival) that, by United States, where secularism has only ever definition, occurs outside the places and been aspirational? I turn to these questions routines of daily life and religious practice.7

Sidebar 1: Beer & Hymns Song Lists at Wild Goose 2017

At Wild Goose 2017, the Beer & Hymns indications are printed in the books; leaders provided songbooks for the to participate successfully, singers either participants. They were simple, consisting must be familiar with the songs already of lyrics to fifty-seven different songs or have a strong ear for the harmonic and printed double-sided on copy paper, melodic conventions of the genre(s). This collated, folded in half, and bound with a distinguishes the Beer & Hymns songbook single staple. The songbooks’ cover and from traditional hymnals used by many repertoire closely resemble those of the Protestant churches, but it would be familiar songbooks used by the Beer & Hymns to churchgoers who attend contemporary group that meets in Chicago’s western worship services that eschew hymnals in suburbs; Nate, one of Wild Goose’s Beer favor of lyrics projected on a screen at the & Hymns leaders, was an organizer of front of the church—a common practice Beer & Hymns Chicago at the time. No in the twenty-first century, both in the music notation, chord changes, or metrical mainline Protestant denominations and in continued on next page

34 Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 6, No. 2 (2020) Sidebar 1 continued nondenominational evangelical churches. primarily not as religious songs but The book’s song list is diverse, representing rather in secular popular culture. These several eras and genres, although songs by include Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, Hank white composers clearly outnumber those Williams’s I Saw the Light, The Beatles’ Let from Black origins, and a plurality date to It Be, and Wagon Wheel, first recorded by the nineteenth century. Old Crow Medicine Show (with verses Of the fifty-seven songs, over half written to an unreleased Bob Dylan consist of hymns, largely composed in the chorus) in 2004 and popularized by 1800s and early 1900s. A handful are older: Darius Rucker’s 2013 recorded version. Amazing Grace, for example, was written in Such songs are typically not sung in the late 1700s, and the origins of Be Thou worship services, and their inclusion in the My Vision can be traced to the sixth century songbook resists normative taxonomies or earlier. Five others are praise or praise of congregational repertoire. I attended and worship songs composed by white all three nights of Beer & Hymns at Wild songwriters, such as Bill and Gloria Gaither’s Goose 2017, noting the songs we sang on Because He Lives (written in 1970) and the Friday and Saturday nights (see below). more recent In Christ Alone, by Keith Getty We sang seventeen songs on Friday and and Stuart Townend (written in 2001; the sixteen on Saturday, of which eleven songbook also includes Townend’s How were repeated. Hymns account for over Deep the Father’s Love for Us). Songs with 56 percent of the songs in the book, and African American origins account for almost on Friday almost 65 percent of the songs 23 percent of the repertoire: eight spirituals we sang were hymns; on Saturday the (including Swing Low, Sweet Chariot and ratio was lower, at 56 percent. On each Were You There When They Crucified My night we sang three songs with African Lord) and five gospel pieces. Notably, of American origins (repeating Soon and Very those gospel songs, two are by Andraé Soon). On both nights we sang Wagon Crouch (Can’t Nobody Do Me Like Jesus Wheel about two-thirds of the way into and Soon and Very Soon) and a third is the the set and closed with All of the Hard Days arrangement of Oh Happy Day popularized Are Gone, a song composed by the U.S. by the Edwin Hawkins Singers in 1968–69. folk singer/songwriter Kevin McKrell but Many songs in the Beer & Hymns often misattributed as a traditional Irish songbook—over 12 percent—have circulated folk tune.

Beer & Hymns open-minded, participatory and generous Beer & Hymns started in 2006 at The in spirit.”9 Greenbelt attendees returning Jesus Arms, the pub tent at Greenbelt, an home to the United States were inspired annual “festival of arts, faith and justice” to launch their own Beer & Hymns events. held in England since 1974.8 Counting In Denver, Colorado, the House for All members of the Jesus People Movement Sinners and Saints, a Lutheran congregation counterculture among its founders, in the founded by Rev. Nadia Bolz-Weber, has twenty-first century Greenbelt promotes held Beer & Carols since at least 2009 and itself as “energised by a progressive continues to host regular Beer & Hymns Christian worldview . . . that is inclusive, gatherings at a local Irish pub.10 In Portland,

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 6, No. 2 (2020) 35 Oregon, Rev. Karen Ward started holding denomination at all, instead relying on the Beer & Hymns gatherings in 2012 with organizational energy (and musicianship) the assistance of Todd and Angie Fadel, of independent local volunteers. Beer & although they later divided their energies: Hymns events are not worship services, Reverend Ward continued at the Portland Bible studies, or religious retreats. The Abbey and the Fadels at the First Christian events’ leaders do not normally preach or Church (Disciples of Christ) in downtown pray, nor do they witness to attendees in an Portland for several years. But it was Todd attempt to convert them or invite them to and Angie Fadel bringing Beer & Hymns church. Instead, the focus of Beer & Hymns— to the first Wild Goose Festival in North like most gatherings at bars and pubs—is Carolina in 2011, where Todd was “curator primarily social: creating and sustaining of sound,” and leading it for three years community while providing something fun that catalyzed the growth of Beer & Hymns for people to do. As participants, we raise throughout the United States. our pint glasses and lift our voices to sing Today, there are dozens of Beer & hymns, spirituals, praise songs, and folk Hymns organized throughout the United songs together. Leaders accompany on States, including regular gatherings whatever instruments are available, provide (monthly, bimonthly, or quarterly) in songbooks, and lead the singing, but are Atlanta, Georgia; Charlotte, North Carolina; quickly subsumed by the larger group: Chicago, Illinois; Nashville, Tennessee; the sonic emphasis is on the participatory Orange County, California; Raleigh, North nature of the sing-along, and not necessarily Carolina; Washington, D.C.; and elsewhere. on proper intonation, rhythmic precision, or Although several are sponsored by a local vocal blend (see Sidebar 2). At Wild Goose church or even take place at a church (but Festival it takes place every night: starting at usually not in the sanctuary), most are 11 p.m., we gather in the pub tent, beers in not affiliated with a church or Christian hand, ready to sing (see Fig. 1).

Figure 1: Beer & Hymns at Wild Goose Festival 2017. Photograph by the author.

36 Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 6, No. 2 (2020) First Ethnographic Encounter at not on a stage or otherwise in front of the crowd Wild Goose 2017 but centrally located inside the tent, include Thursday evening, July 13, 2017: Rev. two or three guys on acoustic guitar, two more Nadia Bolz-Weber’s talk on the opening on banjo and mandolin, another playing a night of Wild Goose Festival 2017 is highly single snare drum with brushes, and a woman anticipated. As the Main Stage speaker playing tambourine. None are amplified and this first evening, she sets the festival’s tone there are no microphones; the whole thing for the entire weekend. Bolz-Weber holds feels somewhat haphazard, guerilla, almost the entire audience’s attention for about an disorganized—as if we have repurposed hour, delivering an empowering and well- an official festival venue for a spontaneous received message of finding the grace to know sing-along gathering whose size snowballs as that God accepts us as we are—that choosing curious passersby drop in. faith and coming to God is not conditional on But Beer & Hymns is not a guerilla event; perfecting oneself first. After she finishes, Jeff rather, it is a planned Wild Goose session, Clark, the festival’s director and Main Stage an officially scheduled component since the emcee, announces that Bolz-Weber is heading festival’s founding in 2011, and an expected to the bookstore tent to sign books. Clark then highlight of many attendees’ experience. I introduces the night’s headline band: Big Ray learn later that in 2017, the event’s nightly and Chicago’s Most Wanted, with special guest leaders include members of teams who lead Melissa Greene. From where I am standing, in Beer & Hymns events in California’s Orange the rear of the audience on the right side of the County, Nashville, and the Chicago suburbs. stage, I see many attendees streaming toward They circulate a box of songbooks from which the bookstore tent on the opposite side, and only we sing over the next hour or so. The songs are a fraction of the audience stays to listen to this a varied mix of Christian hymns, spirituals, energetic Chicago blues band. and a few more contemporary pieces (see Because the town of Hot Springs, North Sidebar 1). The whole crowd sings loudly Carolina, where Wild Goose takes place, has enough that the leaders’ voices are barely a strict 11 p.m. noise curfew, the amplified audible. The guitarists dance around the Main Stage music ends precisely on time. As center of the tent, pausing only between songs Big Ray and Chicago’s Most Wanted leave the to field shouted requests and decide what to stage and the remaining audience members play next. I spy festival director Jeff Clark pack up their camp chairs, Beer & Hymns shaking a maraca and nipping off of a flask. starts almost immediately in the nearby pub Many others, but definitely not all, are also tent. I buy an IPA from the beer tent to the openly drinking alcohol, either purchased at right of the Main Stage; on my way to the the beer tent (like my IPA) or brought with pub tent I pass someone headed in the opposite them (like Clark’s flask). These people are direction who exclaims enthusiastically about clearly having fun singing together, and I find Beer & Hymns, “This is how church should this participatory event to be very moving. be!” I am surprised to see the very excited crowd; I had expected a small gathering, like Congregational Singing and/as Worship most of the festival’s workshops and sessions At Wild Goose 2017, Beer & Hymns is throughout the day, but the tent is full and clearly a time of congregational singing— more people continue to arrive. The leaders, perhaps the only such formal singing-

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 6, No. 2 (2020) 37 together on the festival’s program. But if than others. For example, in my own it is congregational singing, then what research at the Anchor Fellowship, a is its congregation’s purpose, and how small nondenominational evangelical does singing (and socializing, including church in Nashville, the worship pastor drinking alcohol) contribute to its found that his congregants tended to efficacy? I suggest that Beer & Hymns experience fewer moments of spiritual events exemplify “modes of congregating,” transcendence in worship services when a term that Ingalls has coined to describe he consciously changed the worship “the active creation of various evangelical band’s style by programming new songs social formations that have gathered for or altering how his musicians approached the express purpose of worship.”11 She dynamics or modulations.14 If worship examines congregational singing in church and congregational singing have become but also at concerts, praise marches, synonymous for many evangelical worship conferences, and online. In her Christians, then modes of worship are study of contemporary worship music learned and conditioned responses to repertoire and practice, Ingalls shows how particular song repertoires and musical the expectations, meanings, and salience styles in specific contexts, as the Anchor’s of congregating and worship vary in these worship pastor discovered. several different modes. Congregating, But what happens when we decouple singing, worshipping—each of these modes of congregating from singing actions is simultaneously distinct from and from worshipping? To put it another interrelated to the others in Ingalls’s modes way, what do we make of congregational of congregating. singing that is not worship, or of modes For many evangelical Christians, of congregating that are less about singing congregational singing and worship have worship songs together than they are about become inextricably conflated; events creating congregational cohesion and such as Beer & Hymns contend with this community, or of congregations that are association and thus risk offending some ephemeral by nature? If worship is taken as contradictions in terms. As Joshua out of the equation, what distinguishes Busman notes, over the last several congregational singing from other forms decades “worship became a category of participatory musicking?15 As we try of experience that was increasingly to disentangle these components, what indistinguishable from music.”12 Within does doing so reveal about the concept religious institutions and contexts, this of worship itself? It is important to note conflation presents a challenge for that worship has purposes other than the worship leaders and ministers; as Ingalls spiritual transcendence that the Anchor’s explains, “the felt need of so many leaders congregation craved and expected through to insist continually that ‘worship is more their encounter with and participation than singing’ evidences how widespread in congregational singing. Worship the conflation is.”13 This conflation often facilitates the God-encounter, but it also extends to musical style, in which certain (re)inscribes ritual and tradition, enables musical characteristics and sonic elements participants to stake both individual are more appropriate for worship contexts and collective claims to (religious)

38 Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 6, No. 2 (2020) identity, and strengthens congregational describe their emphasis as “progressive cohesion. Importantly, these objectives Christianity”: a Bible-centered and faith- usually take place within the structure inspired commitment to social justice of a religious belief system shared by and compassion for the marginalized and participants, whether formalized within a oppressed.16 Inasmuch as this approach religious institution or not. Thus, shared aligns with progressive politics and causes beliefs structure most congregational in the United States, the mainstream of formations; at churches and other places white U.S. evangelicalism perceives it to of worship, the congregants’ faith and be in diametric opposition; progressive their embodiment of that faith constitute Christianity, they argue, reflects ethics of shared beliefs. cultural pluralism and secular humanism At Wild Goose’s Beer & Hymns, that are at odds with evangelicalism’s however, I found that a shared frustration faith-centered moral universalism and with evangelicalism, not a shared faith, belief in absolute truth.17 In the United provided participants pathways to States, progressive Christianity overlaps rapprochement: attendees experienced and intersects with what observers have a unity through congregational singing called the “Evangelical Left,” a movement similar to that experienced in church and that predates the rise of Trumpism but at other worship events—rooted, indeed, has been increasingly visible and vocal in the experience of worship, even if only since 2016, and is also often more as memory—but which was not grounded multicultural and diverse in makeup in a shared religious identity or belief than white conservative evangelicalism. system. (Importantly, attendees also do According to the event’s organizers, Wild not share an antibelief faith, as many Goose’s audience is diverse in several do indeed identify as Christians and/or respects: gender identity, race and continue to attend church regularly.) As ethnicity, religious affiliation (including I discovered, Beer & Hymns is a mode the unaffiliated, agnostics, and atheists), of congregating in which the spiritual sexuality, and many other characteristics. transcendence of worship does not figure Progressive Christian speakers like Rev. but which nonetheless fulfills other Nadia Bolz-Weber resonate very strongly objectives of congregations, particularly among Wild Goose’s diverse crowd. that of community. In short, community, Bolz-Weber is an ordained Evangelical not worship, explains the salience of Beer Lutheran minister who writes and speaks & Hymns to its leaders and participants at of Christians’ ability to shame fellow Wild Goose Festival. believers and nonbelievers alike for their human imperfections, outright sin, or Wild Goose Festival: Context divergent lifestyle choices—for being Wild Goose Festival takes place in Hot both in the world and of the world. In Springs, located in the Appalachians of doing so she is shifting the conversation western North Carolina, northwest of within evangelical Christianity from Asheville. Elsewhere, I have discussed how perceiving opposition everywhere to the festival’s organizers (like Greenbelt’s) practicing convergence.

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 6, No. 2 (2020) 39 The Sound of Beer & Hymns through it kicks into a double-time feel that (Second Encounter) similarly doubles the energy in the tent. I’ll Fly Friday evening, July 14, 2017: The second late- Away segues directly into When the Saints Go night Beer & Hymns session of Wild Goose 2017 Marching In, and then—after a flubbed start— begins shortly after Saturday’s final artist, The into I’ve Got Peace Like a River. The night Collection, leaves the Main Stage. About 200 ends with the Irish folk song All of the Hard people crowd the pub tent area directly behind Days Are Gone sung through wide grins, as the lawn seating, about twice as many people as this community of singers anticipates one more last night. Last night’s song leaders are joined evening together tomorrow night. halfway into the set by a random attendee who brought his string bass to Wild Goose (see Fig. Beer & Hymns and Resilience 1). The sing-along starts up-tempo: we sing Do On Saturday afternoon at Wild Goose, Lord, Soon and Very Soon, and Nothing But following my second encounter with Beer the Blood in the first seven minutes; the slower & Hymns, I shared a lunchtime picnic table song Holy, Holy, Holy takes up the next four with a woman named Julie, an amateur minutes. This is not an elaborate production: filmmaker from Charlotte, North Carolina; songs start with the leaders strumming a few she had stood near me at Beer & Hymns the chords unamplified and singing the opening night before and had even offered to help verses unmiked; the song then ripples through hold my recording equipment. At lunch the crowd from its center to the periphery as she asked me why I was recording, and I singers gradually find their place and join in. told her about my fieldwork researching This is also not proper “church” singing: it is Christian music festivals. Julie told me that sloppy and fun and messy and not particularly she is Catholic, listens to contemporary precious; the choir (if you can call us that) Christian music, and attends Christian reveals a broad spectrum of intonation as well rock concerts; her husband is from an as rhythmic asynchronization; and throughout, evangelical background, but as an adult people are talking and drinking and sometimes has distanced himself from evangelical even singing the wrong lyrics altogether. During Christianity. I told her that one of the things pauses between each piece, participants shout I was finding meaningful about Beer & out requests by page number from the songbooks Hymns was that, as a participatory event, it while the musicians retune, reset their capos, and empowers attendees to lay claim over their agree on the chord changes before announcing festival experiences, both individually and and then launching into the next selection. collectively. Julie agreed, replying that she As the sing-along progresses, it ebbs and found last night’s rendition of It Is Well with flows, with the leaders demonstrating a strong My Soul especially moving: no matter how feel for moving from energetic songs to more much the church and organized religion reflective pieces and back. Singing like this is might exclude or minimize us and our fun—there is no judgment, and the transitions concerns—no matter the damage to our can be surprising and also very satisfying. It Is faith perpetrated by other Christians—we Well with My Soul, the most affecting song of remain strong in, and at peace with, our the night, transitions almost immediately into beliefs and values. In this context, the hymn Wagon Wheel (see Sidebar 2). Amazing and its participatory singing are a communal Grace starts off slowly enough, but halfway expression of resilience and resistance.

40 Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 6, No. 2 (2020) Sidebar 2: Sound and Singing It Is Well with My Soul at Beer & Hymns Even though the emphasis at Beer & Soul, as sung during Friday evening’s Beer & Hymns is on participatory singing, not Hymns at Wild Goose 2017, excerpted from everyone sings the entire time. Much like my field recording (see AV Ex. 1 on article at concerts, attendees chat with each other, download page). There is no conductor at interject loudly, shout out requests, and Beer & Hymns directing the singers. As applaud and cheer in addition to singing such, not everyone is aware that the song along. This distinguishes Beer & Hymns has started: at the beginning of the clip the from many other congregational contexts singers are drowned out by the crowd noise in which communal and individual acts following the previous song (In the Sweet of worship command attendees’ attention. By and By), but that gradually dissipates At Beer & Hymns, the chatting and crowd and is largely overtaken by the singing of noise, however distracting it is to the the first refrain (at 0:51). The song starts production of musical sound, evinces a accompanied with strummed acoustic central goal of welcoming, building, and guitar, bowed string bass (doubling the sustaining community, even at ephemeral vocal melody), and slow tambourine, but events like Wild Goose Festival.18 In other the guitar and tambourine mostly drop out words, sounds other than music itself after the first verse and refrain. Throughout contribute significantly to the sonic realms the four verses over six minutes, the singing in which music-making takes place, and of It Is Well gradually becomes more intense paying attention to the sounds of social and affective. Because the Beer & Hymns spaces for participatory practices like Beer songbook lacks musical notation, successful & Hymns is essential to comprehending participation depends on singers’ familiarity their effectiveness and affect for leaders with these songs, especially those with and attendees. Examining the sounds of responsorial sections, heard during each participatory musicking goes beyond an refrain in this example. The applause after analysis of the song, its lyrics, layers of the final verse and refrain (5:50) is the accompaniment, and the voice, but also loudest of the evening, and I interpret it as demands an awareness of (for example) celebrating the participatory, affective, and the audible cues for the work of leading a ultimately resistant nature of the song’s sing-along (exhortations, lined-out key performance. Following It Is Well, the song lyrics to orient the singers) and clues to the leaders transition almost immediately into work that singing along accomplishes for the secular rock song Wagon Wheel (6:25). those participants who choose to be there— They take up this song without lengthy that is, in articulating congregational negotiation, uniquely for the evening as the belonging.19 If, through decoupling the interstitial time between songs is typically practice of congregational singing from filled with participants shouting requests that of Christian worshipping, Beer & to the leaders. The flow from one song to Hymns contributes to evolving definitions the other feels natural, but it is a clearly of congregation and congregating, then divergent moment, as the singers shift from in its material practices we can hear traces an emotionally affective song to the most of these trajectories and better understand playful and fun selection of the evening. individuals’ relationships to religion via 0:00: Verse 1 (“When peace, like a participatory musicking. river, attendeth my way . . .”); the singing is As an example, listen to a performance practically inaudible under the crowd noise of the Christian hymn It Is Well with My until around 0:12. continued on next page

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 6, No. 2 (2020) 41 Sidebar 2 continued 0:26: It is not until partway through verse, the singing is at its loudest and verse 1 that the singing is finally louder than most sincere, particularly leading up to the crowd noise; the bowed string bass is and during the third line (4:49): “The prominent, doubling the vocal melody. trump shall resound, and the Lord 0:51: The refrain (“It is well / With shall descend.” We can also clearly hear my soul”) is sung responsorially but is not the singers harmonizing in this verse. notated as such in the songbook that the 5:19: We can hear attention given leaders have distributed to participants; nor to dynamic variation clearly: after the is there a conductor to direct the singers’ singing reaches its loudest during verse 4, entrances. The responsorial singing here it gradually becomes softer; the fourth and reflects the participants’ familiarity with the final refrain (“It is well . . .”) starts softly but song and their enjoyment of its appropriate gradually builds. Loud cheers and applause performance. follow the end of the song; importantly, this 1:21: Verse 2 (“Though Satan should is not applause directed outward toward buffet, though trials should come . . .”) presentational performers, as at a concert, is introduced by one of the song leaders but rather inward toward the participants shouting out “Though Satan.” themselves. 2:19: Participants’ cheers announce the 6:10: Light guitar strumming, barely second responsorial refrain (“It is well . . .”). audible underneath the interstitial crowd 2:50: Verse 3 (“My sin, o the bliss noise, indicates the next song. of this glorious thought . . .”), like verse 6:25: Verse 1 of Wagon Wheel 2, is introduced by a different song leader (“Heading down south to the land of the shouting out “My sin.” pines . . .”), like It Is Well, starts quietly, 3:49: During the third refrain (“It but singers gradually recognize the song is well . . .”), the absence of the guitar and join in. The guitar accompaniment is accompaniment and percussion is joined by string bass (plucked, not bowed), particularly noticeable, although the bass is tambourine, and maracas. still present. 6:54: Wagon Wheel’s first chorus (“So 4:20: One of the song leaders shouts rock me momma like a wagon wheel . . .”) out “And Lord, haste the day” to introduce elicits cheers and the crowd noise dissipates Verse 4 (“And Lord, haste the day when almost fully. my faith shall be sight . . .”). During this

White U.S. Evangelicalism out over lunch, however, leaders and and the Secular participants do not use the sing-alongs At Wild Goose, Beer & Hymns is meaningful to nostalgize and return to those simpler to its leaders and participants in part times. Instead, song leaders and singers because the singing-together recalls both alike articulate resistance through Beer & a common repertoire and a shared (or Hymns: they reclaim and recontextualize similar) history of enjoying singing these the songs for their present-day selves and songs in seemingly simpler times, before beliefs, which are increasingly lived in social doing so was complicated by ambivalent realms more identified with the secular than or even negative experiences with churches with the sacred. Contextualized within a or Christian communities. As Julie pointed longer history of white U.S. evangelicalism’s

42 Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 6, No. 2 (2020) relationships with the secular, the salience retreating or otherwise disengaging both of Beer & Hymns carries added weight, from public culture and also from mainline indexing recurring processes of convergence Protestant denominations, which were and divergence between the secular and more liberal and navigated between distinct sacred realms. sacred and secular spheres more fluidly, Jeffers Engelhardt describes “the secular” integrating the two. as “the conditions of modernity in which The emergence of what religious religion is a limited, differentiated realm of scholars have called “new evangelicalism” belief and spiritual practice distinct from in the 1940s paved the way for a other realms of social life, experience, and mediating position between separational knowledge.”20 Relationships between the fundamentalism and integrational mainline sacred and the secular realms are necessarily white Protestantism.22 Although it was plural: the intersections between white U.S. certainly more culturally accommodating evangelicalism and the secular over the last than fundamentalism, new evangelicalism 100 years or so are complicated by differing attracted theological conservatives who theological interpretations and orientations, disapproved of an increasing liberalism which in turn reflect understandings and hierarchism within the mainline of the sacred that shift between being denominations. The emergence of new rooted in institutions and centered within evangelicalism was followed, among individualized religious practices. The other things, by the rise of youth and dominant narrative of these intersections campus ministries and other parachurch positions white U.S. evangelicals in organizations in the 1940s and 1950s, the opposition to an increasingly secular public growth of nondenominational and new culture throughout the twentieth and early paradigm churches in the 1950s and 1960s, twenty-first centuries.21 In some contexts, the stylistic mediations of the Jesus People evangelicals have practiced their faith (or Movement in the 1960s and 1970s, and lived faith-based lives) in moments and the integration of these elements back into spaces distinct, discrete, and divergent mainline U.S. Protestantism in the 1970s.23 from the secular; in others, evangelicals By the 1970s, the choice between cultural have exerted control and claimed power separation or integration within white U.S. over the secular in an attempt to shape it in evangelicalism, represented by the division their image—a process of convergence that between Christian fundamentalism and presumes an a priori differentiation. In the mainline Protestantism in the 1920s and United States, this differentiation correlated 1930s, had become overshadowed by a with the rise of Christian fundamentalism theology of transformation in both private in the late nineteenth century, followed by and public spheres.24 In private domains, its acceleration and formalization starting transformational evangelicals increasingly in the 1920s. These periods—themselves approached all aspects of their daily lives dovetailing with successive periods of with religious intent and meaning, instead of religious revival in the United States, as distinguishing between the religious and the well as reactions against social and cultural nonreligious. And in public domains, white changes—laid the groundwork for a U.S. evangelicals increasingly organized to separational fundamentalist theology of seek political and cultural influence.

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 6, No. 2 (2020) 43 Engelhardt observes that “the secular societies, public culture and social life is made and remade relative to religion,” increasingly (and implicitly) include and during and following the 1970s, religion and religious values. Today, in other secular public culture and discourse in words, Christianity cannot be understood the United States increasingly reflected as a category of difference separate from the the concerns and values of politically secular in the United States, if it ever could and socially conservative white U.S. have been. Nonetheless, one interpretation evangelicals who subscribed to this of the subculturalization of white U.S. transformational theology.25 But such evangelicalism is that it is a result of a transformational approach presumes evangelical leaders seeking to establish differentiation: evangelicals can only be and maintain power over their members motivated to transform the secular if they by perpetuating and strengthening a believe it does not already represent and perception of oppositionality from (or reflect their individual and collective needs persecution by) the secular, no matter the and values. And indeed, from the 1980s, actual degree of differentiation between white U.S. evangelicalism increasingly Christian beliefs and secular values. This resembled a classic Hebdigian subculture, problem, a kind of manufactured crisis, explicitly opposing dominant (secular) has only worsened as many evangelical culture and repurposing elements of style, leaders in the United States appear to be communication, and material culture to suit more concerned with maintaining a stable its own needs and articulate resistance.26 membership base than with reaching those As with other subcultures, evangelicalism’s who do not already share the same beliefs opposition is significant and meaningful in an era of intensely polarized electoral to individual participants who find politics and a constituency of regular belongingness (and sometimes affinity) churchgoers that is declining relative to in the shared experiences of resisting and the overall U.S. population.29 Within the persevering in the face of encroaching sec- white U.S. evangelical (sub)culture, as in ularism.27 The evangelicalism-as-subculture U.S. politics, moderating and mediating narrative is thus one way to explain the voices and initiatives are loudly denounced accelerating growth of Christian media (by both the political Right and the Left) industries and infrastructures in the 1980s for undermining absolute, intractable, and 1990s: during those decades, the long- or unmovable values. When everything established U.S. Christian publishing and is in opposition, there is no appetite bookstore sectors were joined by profitable for cooperation. The secular remains so businesses producing and selling (for because it strengthens the sacred. example) Christian music, which today’s listeners can hear on local affiliates of Urban Evangelical Churches and Christian radio conglomerates K-LOVE and Community in the United States Salem, and Christian films and television The Beer & Hymns movement and series, which viewers today can stream on Wild Goose Festival complicate these Pureflix, the Christian equivalent to Netflix.28 narratives, partly by illustrating that they Theories of the postsecular argue that, conflate what is in fact a more diverse set in the United States and other “secular” of evangelical orientations to the secular,

44 Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 6, No. 2 (2020) and partly by demonstrating that white worship services at several Boston-area U.S. evangelicalism itself is being remade (mostly white) evangelical churches as an through its participants’ engagement with— ethnographic participant-observer. My main and passion and concern for—the secular. goal was to form an initial understanding of In other words, the secular is not (only) evangelical Christianity and worship practice some distant, distinct realm in opposition in Boston, a northeastern U.S. city steeped to the sacred that can either be avoided or in history and known for its thriving health conquered; rather, it is also a (postsecular) care, higher education, and technology construct within which evangelicals define sectors. These visits were, in many ways, their theology and practice their faith. For entirely unremarkable and yielded what I many evangelicals, especially those who expected to find: contemporary worship identify with progressive Christianity or songs, live bands, culturally relevant and the Evangelical Left, aligning themselves aware sermons, and welcome committees with social justice issues that have become eager to chat with newcomers. But I had associated with political progressivism and not anticipated just how integral the liberalism reflects their theology. For others concept of community would be to these from an evangelical background but who churches’ identities: I was repeatedly struck have since dissociated from Christianity, by ministers, leaders, and congregants Beer & Hymns is a source of fun, nostalgia, speaking of their church as a place to connect and reflection. It is also a very clear example not only to God but also to each other. At of how congregational singing can facilitate times, the latter seemed to supersede the community based on shared experiences, former; as a first-time visitor, one could which I explore further below. Indeed, easily mistake these churches principally as given the diverse faith identities of Beer & places of social encounter and networking Hymns participants (at Wild Goose and and not as houses of worship. I did not elsewhere), I argue that community through return to any of the four churches I visited, singing is the events’ central feature.30 This but I nonetheless received several follow- observation aligns Beer & Hymns with up emails and phone calls from pastors and many evangelical churches whose leaders welcome committees encouraging me not emphasize the value of their churches’ only to return to worship but also to meet up communities as constituent components with other churchgoers in my neighborhood (and benefits) of congregating, on par with informally and learn more about what their that of their religious identities (which are church community has to offer. never erased). To illustrate this I return to Online, through their websites and church, which has become a primary site of Facebook accounts, these churches utilize community in urban areas such as Boston, photography, text, and graphic design Massachusetts, where I live, and where to present themselves as cosmopolitan, the middle class is increasingly comprised inclusive, responsive, and unique. Their of transient students and workers as well positioning statements do this explicitly: as more permanent residents who have “For Boston. Connecting Boston to Christ.” relocated from elsewhere. “A community to call home.” “Gospel. During four successive weeks in the Community. Mission.” “Discovering the spring of 2016, I attended Sunday morning love of God, the joy of living, and the gift of

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 6, No. 2 (2020) 45 community.” In addition to formal worship the gradual erosion of labor unions’ power services and Bible studies, they plan small and influence. The on-demand “gig economy” group meetings at members’ homes and has surged in the 2010s and beyond: this social events at bars, baseball games, includes both workers stringing together restaurants, and playgrounds. Elsewhere I multiple “jobs” through websites and mobile have argued that individual churches invest apps such as Uber and TaskRabbit, and in worship capital to attract and retain also workers using online social networking members, but in this targeted fieldwork I to solicit freelance work (for which they found that many churches are intentionally might have been employed full-time in the investing in their social capital as well.31 past). Middle-class laborers and artists have If, as Ingalls and others show, Christians worked as entrepreneurs and independent can worship God in a variety of nonchurch contractors for generations, running their modes, then church leaders must articulate own businesses; the newer gig economy other raisons d’être if they are to remain resembles this older model on its surface only, relevant and useful to congregants; in as it lacks a level of financial compensation Boston, I learned that many churches high enough to outweigh the inherent risks frame their importance largely as a locus of and instability of entrepreneurship. community and social relations. Like many parts of the United States, This trajectory is due not only to the eastern Massachusetts is home to many increasingly varied modes of congregating residents whose families have lived in their and worshipping available to Christians towns and neighborhoods for generations. but also to the nature of social relations in But because higher education and other Boston and other urban areas in the United white-collar industries have long been States in the early twenty-first century, which central to the region’s economy, the Boston is changing rapidly as a result of the increas- area is also home to many individuals and ing precarity of labor and employment.32 families who move here from elsewhere for The nature and conditions of work for school or work. Some relocate more or less working-class laborers in the United States permanently, while others move for what have been changing for decades. In the are, by nature, temporary periods of their last forty years, regions that have relied lives: for example, for college or graduate on factories and manufacturing industries study; term-limited, nonrenewable teaching have experienced declining employment or research positions; medical residencies, prospects for workers, due in part to fellowship programs, work co-ops, or globalized supply chains and automation. internships; or jobs at entrepreneurial The deindustrialization of the U.S. Midwest startups. While working-class and blue- has prompted many communities and collar workers have experienced changes individuals to invest in retraining programs to the nature and types of employment that enable laborers to switch careers. readily available to them, the conditions Natural resource extraction industries, such facing college graduates and white-collar as mining and oil, are by nature cyclical as workers have also changed dramatically, older reserves and mines are exhausted and especially following the 2008 financial new ones exploited. What few full-time jobs crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic in remain for these workers are less stable due to 2020–21. In short, “permanent” full-time

46 Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 6, No. 2 (2020) jobs for college graduates and white-collar many people, a condition further clarified workers are declining. This is partly because by the isolation caused by the COVID-19 of the changing economic conditions pandemic. As the nature of employment of white-collar industries (including has become less stable, many laborers (no automation, corporate consolidation, and matter their class) choose not to move globalization). But it also reflects the fact elsewhere to look for work, opting for the that many younger workers now enter the stability of family and existing community workforce not expecting to stay at a single over the instability and uncertainty of company, firm, or institution for their entire a new town or region, where the stress careers. Employers both compel and expect of precarious labor conditions would be worker turnover; employees anticipate and compounded by the lack of community thus reinforce this condition. In industries and family support. But not everyone can such as health care, higher education, and afford to make that choice, or sometimes technology in the United States, these the incentives a new job offers outweigh employees comprise a class of highly the disincentives (including the material, compensated migrant workers. U.S. cities emotional, and social costs) of moving. In that have been growing in the second and these cases, the precarity of labor correlates third decades of the twenty-first century, to the weakening of real-life social ties and including Boston, are growing partly networks that online connectivity to friends because of an influx of these workers, of and loved ones cannot fully ameliorate. which I am one: relatively highly educated, Regular church attendance in the United well paid, and without an existing local States may be declining, but many churches community or support network. that are thriving are doing so because they In his book Bowling Alone, published have reoriented their missions to prioritize in 2000, the political scientist Robert strong social relations, partly in response Putnam bemoaned the decline of social to these broader trends. If Boston-area life in the United States at the end of white evangelical churches publicize their the twentieth century, particularly those communities as strongly as, or stronger relationships undergirded by participating than, their abilities to foster religious in civic, fraternal, hereditary, and social edification and spiritual growth, then this organizations, such as American Legion is partly because they are catering to a posts and bowling leagues.33 In the decades population of churchgoers and potential since the book appeared, many observers attendees for whom community formation have rightly pointed to new technologies and cohesion are just as important as—or that connect individuals and communities, more important than—growing in their building and reinforcing relationships and faith. Community and congregational social networks in ways that Putnam did cohesion have certainly been important not foresee. But the cheerleaders of these components of what churches provided to new technologies—many of them futurists, their members and attendees in the past. In technocrats, and technologists themselves— prior generations, these components served failed to foresee that technologically the larger purpose of worshipping God mediated relationships could not fully and pursuing God’s calling. What is new, supplant live, in-person communities for however, is that community is often what

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 6, No. 2 (2020) 47 sets these churches apart from other modes and singing can provide sustenance and of congregating when worship itself is no support for individuals who otherwise feel longer the exclusive domain of churches. unmoored from a local community. Not everyone finds singing Christian Beer & Hymns and the Secular songs to be fun or meaningful, of course. Some Beer & Hymns groups are affiliated Many people who might stumble across Beer with churches whose leaders promote it as & Hymns in a public venue by happenstance yet another ministry meant to attract and do not have a Christian background and retain younger or newer members to their would not be familiar with the songs. Others churches. Like services with contemporary might have a negative or critical perspective worship music, Bible studies and small group of Christianity and take offense at religious meetings held at local bars, or incorporating songs invading secular spaces. Beer & secular rock and pop music into worship Hymns helps to reinforce a casual acceptance services, at these churches Beer & Hymns of Christianity as the public religion and is one of many initiatives meant to make faith identity in the postsecular United individual churches more culturally relevant— States and United Kingdom, displacing and thus more comfortable and attractive— other identities in what many idealize as to newcomers.34 There is indeed a subset religiously plural, secular societies. Even of Beer & Hymns chapters that strategically though Beer & Hymns leaders do their best promote belongingness to a church and hip to strip the religious connotations from evangelicalism, and, for better or worse, their events’ contexts, they cannot strip these initiatives are the ones that attract the religious connotations or individuals’ media attention.35 Many unfamiliar with associations from the songs themselves. One Beer & Hymns might associate it with these effect of Beer & Hymns then, intentional initiatives and think “church in a bar” (or or not, is to normalize the presence of even “bar in a church”), which certainly exists. Christian congregational singing outside of But this is not the objective of most Beer & explicitly religious contexts. At Wild Goose, Hymns leaders and groups. At the “How however, that process is inverted. If white to Do Beer & Hymns” roundtable session U.S. evangelical culture has emphasized at Wild Goose 2017, the speakers—each of the potential to transform the secular with whom leads Beer & Hymns events around the sacred, at Wild Goose I observed a the country—explained that most groups progressive Christianity in which organizers are not affiliated with a church and hope to and participants used secular values of recontextualize congregational singing as affirming disparate identities and beliefs a participatory event not necessarily tied to to transform the sacred. Beer & Hymns is worship contexts. Instead of imposing the a constituent part of this process, in which sacred onto the secular, their goal is to make religion is made and remade relative to these events as welcoming as possible, and the secular. Its leaders enable sing-along in doing so to recognize that faith identities participants to reimagine and reclaim their are multivalent and problematic, and that religious identities on their own terms, no matter your religious beliefs, baggage, or choosing to position faith as a practice that lack thereof, singing hymns can be fun—that can both improve and be improved by being is, that social relations rooted in congregating both in the world and of it.

48 Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 6, No. 2 (2020) Closing Beer & Hymns (Third Encounter) community, then my research into Saturday evening, July 15, 2017: The third Beer & Hymns and fieldwork at Wild and final Beer & Hymns session of Wild Goose Goose Festival complicate and expand 2017 starts as soon as the headline act, John this narrative, partly by illustrating that Mark McMillan, leaves the Main Stage with ephemeral spaces and places can be just his band. The pub tent is packed. The Beer & as significant to shared identities as the Hymns leaders have moved the picnic tables permanent structures and institutionalized from the center of the tent to its periphery; social formations of churches and their participants crowd the ground and tables alike. congregations, and partly by demonstrating There is little in the way of setup—unamplified that Christian festivals celebrate shared acoustic guitars, banjo, snare drum, string bass, community when celebrating a shared faith and vocals are all the accompaniment this crowd is fraught or problematic. Ingalls writes needs. Tonight we need little encouragement to about worship concerts at Creation Festival join in the singing. I recognize many faces from and worship festivals such as Passion and the two previous nights’ sessions, and few of us Urbana as modes of congregating, in are reading from the songbooks as we all sing Be which worship is an express purpose of 38 Thou My Vision, even as McMillan’s last song the events. At Beer & Hymns, however, hangs in the air.36 After four songs, McMillan what I found is that the absence of worship himself joins us for a rendition of his song How from congregating and congregational He Loves.37 singing does not diminish the significance Nate, a Beer & Hymns leader whom I of such singing for leaders and participants. interviewed earlier that afternoon at the beer tent, How should we interpret Beer & Hymns’ catches my eye after How Great Thou Art: he decoupling of congregational singing palms me a $5 bill, shouts “IPA,” and gestures from Christian worship? If congregational with his head to the beer tent. When I return singing is conceived as worship here, with his beer we are halfway through Wagon it may be that the object of worship is Wheel. Throughout the rest of the night we something other than God. Ingalls writes cheer, we drink, we clap, we hug; and we sing, that congregating often becomes its ending with a moving unaccompanied rendition own purpose—participants worshipping of It Is Well with My Soul that segues into Old worship itself—which can be fulfilling but Hundred, followed by All of the Hard Days also empty. Ari Kelman, in his recent book Are Gone sung shoulder-to-shoulder. No one on contemporary worship music, writes seems ready to leave and let the energy dissipate; of worship leaders and songwriters who many participants stick around to chat, while are concerned with becoming the object others peel off in small groups, heading to the of their congregants’ worship as being 39 late-night silent disco, drum circle, or smaller in a position of celebrity. If the express campfire sing-alongs back at their tents. purpose of modes of congregating is to worship God, then of course the shifting of attention in these ways is heretical. But If my excursions to white evangelical when we decouple these activities, we make churches revealed the degree to which space for other purposes of congregating Boston-area church leaders have reoriented that are nonetheless rooted in belief and their goals for congregating toward religious experience.

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 6, No. 2 (2020) 49 Beer & Hymns contributes to white environments; Beer & Hymns extends U.S. evangelical Christianity’s contested their religious practices and enables distinction between the sacred and the them to encounter God in a manner that secular. As a loose network of events, Beer other modes of congregating do not offer, & Hymns participates in the normalization potentially enriching that relationship. of Christianity in postsecular contexts, Certainly, a subset of these participants find refusing and resisting the sacred/secular the prospect of doing so at a bar or pub to dichotomy, and thus staking a claim for a be somewhat thrilling. For others, however public religious identity. At the local level, (including Julie’s husband), Christianity however, it enables individual leaders and plays a diminished role in their lives. The participants to reimagine and reclaim their songs may be familiar from childhood, for individual religious identities, navigating example, but the faith of which they speak and negotiating a relationship with has been damaged or has diminished over Christianity—indexed by its songs and the time. For these participants, Beer & Hymns act of participatory singing—that reflects is both a source of fun and a moment and substantiates their own values, goals, of resistance, where the participatory and objectives. The events also contribute musicking of congregational singing is to evolving definitions of congregation and simultaneously a bonding experience and congregating, both for individual leaders a period of reflection on shared belief and participants and for communities. systems past and present. Beer & Hymns Some participants (such as Julie, for provides participants the opportunity— example) are regular churchgoers, self- and tacitly grants them the permission—to identifying Christians, and welcome the reclaim and redeem these songs despite opportunity to express and perform their their affiliation with Christianity. religious identities in quotidian, banal

50 Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 6, No. 2 (2020) NOTES

1 Kay Kaufman Shelemay, “Musical Resistance, Renewal, and Worship at the Anchor Communities: Rethinking the Collective in Music,” Fellowship,” in The Spirit of Praise: Music and Worship Journal of the American Musicological Society 64/2 in Global Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity, ed. (2011): 349–90. Monique M. Ingalls and Amos Yong (University Park: 2 Thomas Turino, Music as Social Life: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2015), 163–78. Politics of Participation (Chicago: University of Chicago 15 Christopher Small defines “musicking” as Press, 2008), 26. taking part in a musical performance in any capacity, 3 The first edition of The Sacred Harp songbook “whether by performing, by listening, by rehearsing was published in 1844. On shape-note singing or practicing, by providing material for performance communities in the United States, see Kiri Miller, (what is called composing), or by dancing.” For Small, Traveling Home: Sacred Harp Singing and American musical meaning lies not in the musical object but Pluralism (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2008). in the set of relationships that the act of musicking 4 In this respect, Beer & Hymns is different brings into being. Christopher Small, Musicking: The from other forms of Christian popular music in Meanings of Performing and Listening (Hanover, NH: which concert events can also function as church University Press of New England, 1998), 9, 13. services. See, e.g., Amy D. McDowell, “‘Christian But 16 Andrew Mall, “Music Business, Ethics, and Not Religious’: Being Church as Christian Hardcore Christian Festivals: Progressive Christianity at Wild Punk,” Sociology of Religion 79/1 (2018): 58–77 on Goose Festival,” in Ethics and Christian Musicking, Christian hardcore; and Alisha Lola Jones, Flaming?: ed. Nathan Myrick and Mark Porter (New York: The Peculiar Theopolitics of Fire and Desire in Black Male Routledge, 2021), 110–12. Gospel Performance (New York: Oxford University 17 There is also a “red scare” moral panic Press, 2020) on gospel go-go. component to this discourse, as conservative political 5 Monique M. Ingalls, Singing the Congregation: commenters link progressivism to socialism. How Contemporary Worship Music Forms Evangelical 18 In Mall, “Music Festivals, Ephemeral Places, Community (New York: Oxford University Press, and Scenes,” I argue that interdependence is key to 2018), 5. this process of constructing and participating in an 6 On secular and postsecular, see Charles Taylor, ephemeral yet sustainable festival community year A Secular Age (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of after year. Harvard University Press, 2007). 19 In addition to these characteristics, Joshua 7 On music festivals as coherent, interdependent Busman, drawing from Mark Butler’s analysis of scenes, see Andrew Mall, “Music Festivals, Ephemeral DJ sets in electronic dance music, argues for the Places, and Scenes: Interdependence at Cornerstone potential that a set-level analysis of worship music Festival,” Journal of the Society for American Music 14/1 performances has to reveal “larger musical and (2020): 51–69. spiritual trajectories”: “attention to the ways that a 8 Via https://beerandhymns.org/index.php/ multi-song set creates opportunities for an emergent, what/where-it-all-began/ (accessed Feb. 16, 2020). continuous, and dynamic musical whole,” he writes, 9 Via https://www.greenbelt.org.uk/greenbelt- “is crucial to understanding parishioners’ worship festival/ (accessed March 20, 2019). experiences.” Joshua Kalin Busman, “Worshipping 10 On Bolz-Weber and House for All, see Maren ‘With Everything’: Musical Analysis and Freudenberg, “Half-Ass Faith? Popular Culture in Congregational Worship,” in Studying Congregational Denver’s House for All Sinners and Saints,” Journal of Music: Key Issues, Methods, and Theoretical Perspectives, Religion and Popular Culture 30/1 (2018): 62–73. ed. Andrew Mall, Jeffers Engelhardt, and Monique 11 Ingalls, Singing the Congregation, 22. M. Ingalls (New York: Routledge, 2021), 36. See 12 Joshua Kalin Busman, “(Re)Sounding also Mark J. Butler, Unlocking the Groove: Rhythm, Passion: Listening to American Evangelical Worship Meter, and Musical Design in Electronic Dance Music, Music, 1997-2015” (Ph.D. diss., University of North Profiles in Popular Music (Bloomington: Indiana Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2015), 46; cited in Ingalls, University Press, 2006), 49. Singing the Congregation, 18. 20 Jeffers Engelhardt,Singing the Right Way: 13 Ingalls, Singing the Congregation, 18. Orthodox Christians and Secular Enchantment in Estonia 14 David Lim, interview with the author, May (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015), 14. 26, 2012; Andrew Mall, “‘We Can Be Renewed’:

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 6, No. 2 (2020) 51 21 See, e.g., Preston Shires, Hippies of the Changing Religious Landscape,” Oct. 17, 2019, Religious Right: From the Countercultures of Jerry Garcia https://www.pewforum.org/wp-content/uploads/ to the Subculture of Jerry Falwell (Waco, TX: Baylor sites/7/2019/10/Trends-in-Religious-Identity-and- University Press, 2007). Attendance-FOR-WEB-1.pdf. 22 Writers disagree on terminology, 30 Cf. Shelemay, “Musical Communities.” alternately referring to “new evangelicalism” as 31 Andrew Mall, “Worship Capital: On the “neoevangelicalism” or “establishment evangelicalism.” Political Economy of Worship Music,” American Music See Shires, Hippies of the Religious Right, 47. 36/3 (2018): 303–26. 23 Donald E. Miller, Reinventing American 32 Andrew Ross, Nice Work If You Can Get Protestantism: Christianity in the New Millennium It: Life and Labor in Precarious Times (New York: (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997); New York University Press, 2009); Alexandrea J. Shires, Hippies of the Religious Right; Larry Eskridge, Ravenelle, Hustle and Gig: Struggling and Surviving God’s Forever Family: The Jesus People Movement in in the Sharing Economy (Berkeley: University of America (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013). California Press, 2019). 24 In distinguishing among these three 33 Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone: The different evangelical approaches to navigating between Collapse and Revival of American Community (New spiritual and sacred realms, I am indebted to Howard York: Simon & Schuster, 2000). and Streck’s categorization of Christian music as 34 On incorporating pop music into separational, integrational, and transformational. See evangelical worship services, see April Stace, Secular Jay R. Howard and John M. Streck, Apostles of Rock: Music, Sacred Space: Evangelical Worship and Popular The Splintered World of Contemporary Christian Music Music (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2017). (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1999). 35 See, e.g., the National Public Radio report 25 Engelhardt, Singing the Right Way, 14; see “To Stave Off Decline, Churches Attract New Members also Shires, Hippies of the Religious Right. with Beer,” Weekend Edition Sunday (National Public 26 Dick Hebdige, Subculture: The Meaning of Radio, Nov. 3, 2013), https://www.npr.org/sections/ Style (London: Methuen, 1979); see also Randall thesalt/2013/11/03/242301642/to-stave-off- Herbert Balmer, Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: A decline-churches-attract-new-members-with-beer. Journey into the Evangelical Subculture in America, On hip evangelicalism, see Brett McCracken, Hipster 25th anniversary ed. (New York: Oxford University Christianity: When Church and Cool Collide (Grand Press, 2014). Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2010). 27 See, e.g., Peter Magolda and Kelsey Ebben 36 McMillan’s last song on Saturday evening Gross, It’s All about Jesus!: Faith as an Oppositional was Heart Won’t Stop, which he performed as a medley Collegiate Subculture (Sterling, VA: Stylus, 2009). with the first verse and chorus of Ben E. King’sStand 28 Colleen McDannell, Material Christianity: By Me (cowritten with Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller). Religion and Popular Culture in America (New 37 The modern worship songwriter and Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1995); Heather artist David Crowder covered How He Loves on his Hendershot, Shaking the World for Jesus: Media and 2009 album Church Music, introducing it to and Conservative Evangelical Culture (Chicago: University popularizing it among a large audience. In doing of Chicago Press, 2004); Eileen Luhr, Witnessing so, Crowder sanitized one phrase in McMillan’s Suburbia: Conservatives and Christian Youth Culture lyrics, replacing the line “Heaven meets Earth like a (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009). sloppy wet kiss” with “Heaven meets Earth like an 29 Surveys conducted by the Pew Research unforeseen kiss.” On Saturday night, when we get to Center show a steady decline both in the number of that line in the sing-along, the whole crowd shouts U.S. residents who held a specific religious identity “SLOPPY WET KISS” with exuberance. and in the number who attended church on a weekly 38 Ingalls, Singing the Congregation. basis in the years 2007–19. During this same period, 39 Ari Y. Kelman, Shout to the Lord: Making greater numbers identified as religiously unaffiliated Worship Music in Evangelical America (New York: New (what the report labels “religious nones”). See Pew York University Press, 2018). Research Center, “America’s Changing Religious Landscape,” May 12, 2015, http://www.pewforum. org/files/2015/05/RLS-08-26-full-report.pdf; Pew Research Center, “In U.S., Decline of Christianity Continues at Rapid Pace: An Update on America’s

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