My church is steady. We haven't gained or lost a significant amount but what we are losing is youth. The youth only come to what they have to at my church, then refuse to come to anything else.
Their reason? "Church is boring" and "It's the same every week so I won't miss anything."
Yet the mega churches nearby and the churches that have either a mix of traditional and contemporary services are flourishing with youth. My Pastor was already doing two services, one at 8:15 and the other at 10:45, both traditional. By the second service he is exhausted.
So during the school year we experimented with an evening worship service that was held twice a month at 6. (Known as Sundays at 6.) They featured some members in the congregation who could play other instruments that they normally don't get to use during the services, like drums and guitars. And we would have a mini lesson along with songs that were more contemporary. At first I loved this idea. The goal was to try and attract youth back by doing something that would appeal more to them and then slowly find other ways to coax them back to church without pressuring them or feeling forced. (If that makes sense.)
I had always been a fan of strictly traditional but now I enjoy both. Contemporary worship is something that is and can be more of a personal level with Christ, and there's nothing wrong with that. Diversity in worship is what makes all of us unique as Christians, and that is a beautiful thing. To me though, sometimes, not all the time, but sometimes certain contemporary worship replaces God with Entertainment, so that was one of the reasons I liked this nightly worship service. It was separate from the traditional ones in the morning.
But several things backfired in making this a success. One, my church places emphasis that faith is a communial thing and is shared with everyone. They believe that there is no "I" in church or faith, just "we" so all the songs we sang were changed.
For example, take a song like "Trading my Sorrows" which is a popular worship song. The first three lines go "I'm trading my sorrow, I'm trading my shame, I'm laying it down for the joy of the Lord." My Pastor would take the lyrics and change it to "We're trading our sorrow, we're trading our shame, we're laying them down for the joy of the Lord.." First of all, I think that was a bit disrespectful to the person who produced that song because it's supposed to be a worship song based on a personal level with God, but depending on the song, changing the lyrics can throw off the beat and confuse someone, especially if they are used to hearing it the way it's supposed to be sung. This happened a few times when I went and frankly, I wasn't too happy.
This also turned off on the youth who knew the songs the way I did. Eventually, now all that come are a few young adults, older adults and a few elderly folks. A handful of youth attended the first few sessions and stopped. For the last two years, no youth have attended, except me, but I'm technically considered a young adult, and no offense to anyone but I feel a bit awkward being the only person under 40 attending them.
I agree with TCat that music works as a church drawling factor in some cases. It did for me. My taste is about even. I love traditional and contemporary music, but I prefer traditional in church. Sadly, most people my age around here don't see it the way I do. We made a requirement in my church for those in confirmation classes to also be a part of the teen choir. We have over a dozen teenagers in the choir and confirmation program, and not one of them has attended church in I don't know how long. They attend what they have to and then they don't go to anything else. We haven't had a real youth program in about 6 or 7 years. Most kids in my church stop attending after middle school.
Unrelated to music, another thing I was discussing with one member a few months ago was the formation of our services. At least in my church, if someone, who has either never gone to church before or never to one related to a Lutheran service, they would be completely lost. Many of the songs we sing are right on cue, and are normally unannounced unless you look in the bulletin. Like "Create in me a Clean Heart" or the beginning Kyrie. The members I talked to admit that for some, if the walked into this church, it would feel like they are walking into a secret society group and throughout the service, they spend more time trying to catch up and figure out what to do next or what they missed and why we did what, rather than worshiping. Apparently, this was the case for some visitors in the past, and I really didn't think about that until now.
I joined my church when I was 15 and had no church background, but then, I had friends to lead me through it all. Unless you know someone at my church, I would assume you would feel pretty lost and frustrated, like you don't belong.
Those are just a few examples. Everyone has their own way of worshiping either traditional or contemporary, and others sometimes would like to worship not by themselves but with others, and others are more individual when it comes to church and worship. I prefer both styles and with others, and since no one in my church is around my age, it's slightly awkward at times. So in a sense, I can understand how these youth feel.