When does style overtake substance? This is one of the perennial issues in youth ministry. Our aim must be to ensure that our ministry is consistent with God's revelation of who he is and who we are. Just because our target audience has a unique form of clothing, language or other cultural quality, we are not at liberty to change the core of God's ministry.

Yet, within the bounds of orthodox ministry, we have enormous scope for creativity and imagination. Provided we are essentially word-based in our ministry, then we can proclaim that word in many different places and in various styles.

It is probably in the area of music that styles and taste are most clearly evident. Whilst it is true that there is no one youth style, it is usually clear when music is "youthy' and when it is not. Within the parameters of a youth radio station, for example, one can expect to hear many different genres of music. Music programmers make decisions about which songs fit their youth market and which ones stand outside that demographic.

So, to take the principle of movable style but static substance, it is important for us to ask whether there are any styles of music that will alter the substance. Are there forms or genres of music that, by their very nature, disfigure the message?

It was necessary for me to confront this issue when I liaised with a band we were using for a youth event. The musicians had decided to take the words and tune to some church songs and arrange them in a "heavier' (let the reader understand) style.

Yet, the difficulty was that after we sang the song, it felt like the intention of proclaiming Christ was somehow distorted - in more ways than one! Because the tune was sung at a much-increased tempo, and the intensity of the arrangement was greater than normal, it seemed to distract from the songs.

Now I recognise that speaking this way does little to give me youth ministry street-cred (or whatever it's called these days). I am at great risk of being labelled out-of-touch, over-the-hill, geriatric, or whatever term of endearment the younger folk might care to give me. But I wonder whether or not there are certain tempos and vocal styles that are incompatible with congregational singing, even for a group of people who are regular listeners of heavy metal?

There are two things that influence my thinking. The first is that there is research that suggests that certain tempos (i.e. the speed of the beat of the music) will have different physiological impacts upon the human body. In his book "The Mind Map Book', Tony Buzan suggests that listening to baroque music, such as Vivaldi, whilst reading will have an improved effect on memory. He claimed that music at 60 beats per minute will enhance brain function.

I'm not suggesting that all our music should sound like The Four Seasons, but if Buzan is correct, then playing our songs at 200 b.p.m. may create an effect in the listeners that is in dissonance with the intent of congregational singing.

Secondly, if people sing lyrics in a style that resembles aggressive shouting, then I suspect that this will add an emotion to the words that may change the substance of the lyrics. So, if we sing "you give and take away" (from "Blessed be the name of the Lord' by Matt Redman), then doing this in an angry voice may communicate a feeling that is foreign to the intention of the song, and indeed, the theology of the scriptures which underpin it.

I recognise that I am at risk of sounding like a grumpy old man who likes his music to be nice and civilised. Perhaps that's unavoidable. But, as is the case with all ministry, we must be active in ensuring the substance of our ministry is not distorted by the style.

Jodie McNeill is Director of the Youthworks Year 13 Gospel Gap Year. This is an excerpt from his upcoming "Music in Youth Ministry' workshop at the TWIST Music Conference.