Mike Day, singer and guitarist, gathered his rock band around him.<\/p>\n
Dressed in a faded black T-shirt, jeans and skateboard sneakers, he bent his shaved head. \u201cGod,\u201d\u009d he said, \u201cI hope these songs we sing will be much more than the music. I know it\u2019s so difficult at times when we\u2019re thinking about chords and lyrics and when to hit the right effect patch, but would you just help that to become second nature, so that we can truly worship you from our hearts?\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
A few minutes later the band broke into three songs of slightly funky, distorted rock with heaving choruses, and the room sang along: 1,500 or so congregants of High Desert Church here, where Mr. Day, 33, is a worship director. This was Sunday night worship for the young-adult subset of the church\u2019s congregation, but it was also very much a rock show, one that has helped create a vibrant social world in this otherwise quiet desert town.<\/p>\n
There has been enormous growth in the evangelical Protestant movement in America over the last 25 years, and bands in large, modern, nondenominational churches \u201d\u201d some would say megachurches \u201d\u201d like this one, 90 miles northeast of Los Angeles, now provide one of the major ways that Americans hear live music.<\/p>\n