The idea of adding one musician at a time is great. Besides the wisdom in slow change is the added benefit of allowing us the time to find strong players with the right heart.

Your suggestion that drums be added last is strategic in maintaining the approval of the traditional crowd. But it also happens to be the best choice musically. It's especially important to have a bass player before adding drums.

There was one word in your article ("reaching" people) that triggered my memory of a recent conversation with a spiritual mentor. He's a very wise 76-year-old retired Southern Baptist preacher. He was talking about the difference between the church reaching people vs. winning people to Christ. He said that, in the SBC, baptisms are down from what they were 30-40 years ago, because the church has shifted its focus from winning souls to reaching people. Many growth-oriented churches have simply become head hunters.

While I'm equally comfortable playing either traditional or contemporary styles, my personal preference is contemporary. However, we need to remain focused on winning souls rather than think of our more "relevant" musical styles as a "tool" to merely fill seats. Madonna can fill seats.

Whatever our musical style, we should have only one goal: to bring people into the presence of the Lord. That way, while we're filling seats, the Lord can be filling hearts with the Holy Spirit.