When the Jesus People Movement of the late 1960s ushered in waves of college hippies and young evangelical Americans who spawned a revival in the contemporary Christian church, musicians discovered the sanctuary as a channel of expressing renewed spiritualism.
"People were trying alternate religions and all that sort of thing, and after a certain time, a lot of those people came back to Jesus, but they brought with them new music forms and created new worship styles in the evangelical movement," said the Rev. Daniel Shaw, pastor of The Covenant Church, one of three evangelical churches in Montclair.
The movement’s members faded out by the 1980s. But the impact of "Jesus music," along with the idea of implementing innovative sounds in church worship, had a lasting impact.
Shaw’s congregation is the latest in the township to take a tip from the Jesus Movement and develop a new, eclectic music program for Sunday worship.
The church is seeking musicians from Montclair to perform on Sundays and bring their music styles to the altar. "We value being a participant much higher than we value being a spectator," Shaw said.
Practically all music genres are welcome, including classical, jazz, world music, and the varied and latest forms of rock or Christian punk. "The basic focus is that it be centered on Jesus," Shaw said.
The change comes with the departure of the church’s longtime organist and music director, Frank Johnston, a Montclair resident who had performed mostly classical, traditional and contemporary Christian music at the church for about 10 years but moved to Georgia earlier this year.
"That left us needing to find a new approach," Shaw said. "Meanwhile, we have been developing a vision to do something whereby we would intentionally have different worship leaders and artists every week … and offer something a little different to the community."
Shaw is hoping the music program will help boost membership, which during the early 1900s reached more than 100 residents, mostly Swedish immigrants who founded the church in 1896. Today, his 20-member congregation meets during hour-long services on Sundays.
"They are looking to build their congregation, and this is certainly one means of doing that, by offering a high quality music program," said Mia Riker-Norrie, the church’s new music director and owner and director of the Montclair Voice Studio. She is also a professional opera singer with the Amato Opera, based in Manhattan’s East Village.
The latest shift in The Covenant Church "has the possibility of being the latest evangelical movement in Montclair," Shaw said. "Montclair is a city of diversity in a huge number of ways, and what we’re doing is bringing a diversity of musical styles."
About 26 percent of adults in the United States identify themselves as Evangelical Christians in the Protestant tradition – the largest group of American Christians, surpassing the number of Roman Catholics and mainline Protestants, according to the 2007 data of the U.S. Religious Landscape study by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
The appeal of the church, aside from its locale in one of the most religiously diverse townships in New Jersey, comes with its "unique environment that a small church offers," Shaw said.
As a Christ-centered, Bible-based and laid-back congregation, Shaw’s approach offers eclectic topics in his sermons, which sometimes stretch outside scripture and into the realities of daily living.
"I figure if you listen to me on Sunday, I want you to be able to use what I said on Monday morning," the pastor said.
But it also befits the shift in the church’s music program. "Music speaks the language of the heart and has the ability to uplift us and inpspire us in a way that simple words don’t," Shaw said.
"It’s one of the ways that God has given us to touch the transcendent."
For more information, call The Covenant Church at 973-746-8688.
