The Rev. Kempton Baldridge grew up wondering why people looked "as if they were going to the gallows" when they walked up to the communion rail, and looked no different when they returned. Church seemed humorless and joyless, offering no "encounter with the holy."

Now he is a campus chaplain specializing in "busting out of paradigms" by bringing the chapel to the people and Christian rock and roll to the University of Delaware.

Fr. Baldridge is also associate rector of St. Thomas's Parish in Newark (pronounced "New Ark," in contrast to New Jersey), which he describes as "traditional but real," where "laughing in church is acceptable."

Popular music, says Fr. Baldridge, is an enormous influence upon today's young people. "Generation X kids go nowhere without a Walkman. Much of what they listen to is ribald, nihilistic, hedonistic and hopeless - look at Kurt Cobain." He saw an opportunity to use "the totems of the culture" by introducing music that "lifts up and affirms" while having "commercial qualities. You can find theology in C.S. Lewis or in Kings Ex."

The campus concerts are sponsored by an ecumenical group of chaplains: Episcopal, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic, United Methodist and Baptist. He said the campus ministers were looking for something to do together. "I did the Anglican thing. I said, 'Let's have a party!'"

In March 1994 Christian singer and songwriter Margaret Becker and the acoustic-rock duo Out of the Grey performed at UD's Mitchell Hall, a 700-seat auditorium. Later concerts had to move to the 2,000-seat basketball arena, and featured five-time Grammy nominee Steve Taylor, surfer group Dakota Motor Company, and Peter King ("the bald guy, a nut, on MTV").

Fr. Baldridge is also known for his rock and roll Bible Study. He began the sessions as a Navy chaplain aboard the USS Thomas S. Gates, a guided missile cruiser, during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. "We deconflicted aircraft - identified friend or foe," he said. "We had 400 blips on an average night. It was Stress Central.

"I'd never been a chaplain before, especially in battle. I took a duffel bag full of Christian music and videos to war." He started inviting sailors to Bible study using the music as a preaching tool.

His rock and roll hours are frequently thematic; "for example, gossip, hurtful words. We listen to a relevant song, and read the words." The group reads the scriptural passage referred to, or perhaps paraphrased, in the song. Then they form small groups, "three or four people, self-led. They just turn their chairs and share their own stories." Finally the large group reforms to pray for each other. "An hour - four elements: rock and roll, the Bible, sharing, caring."

Fr. Baldridge came to Christian rock by way of a personal tragedy. "My first daughter died in infancy," he said. "I felt helplessness, anger, sadness which I had no means to express or even name. And I was in training for the priesthood at the time, and it was hard to let down."

A friend suggested a change in music-listening from his habitual "Top 40," the same sort of nihilistic, hopeless songs he now decries. He heard Amy Grant's "The Prodigal."

"It spoke to me," he said. "[It had a] timeless message, and told the story of the Prodigal Son from the father's viewpoint." He later learned that Ms. Grant and her husband had also lost an infant.

He decided that if Christian rock "could reach cynical old Yale-educated me, I can use it to reach the kids."

One of Fr. Baldridge's favorite Christian performers is Margaret Becker. The recipient of several Grammy nominations, songwriter and female singer of the year awards, she has performed at the university both solo and in a trio with Susan Ashton and Christine Dente of Out of the Grey. The campus newspaper gave the concerts rave reviews.

Ms. Becker was raised a Roman Catholic in Long Island, and was studying music, with thoughts of a career in opera, when "the record company interrupted my education." Now she uses her music as ministry, writing songs that are "prayers of the soul, cries of the heart." The title cut on her album "Grace" speaks of hard work and many possessions being worth little when grace is freely given, while "Deep Calling Deep" cries to Jesus to "pull me closer in."

"I generally do non-denominational events [such as the campus concerts], not mainstream churches," she said. "I appreciate [the students'] cynicism. Faith is not threatened by cynicism."

Fr. Baldridge used to perform in a rock band, too. "I sang lead vocals," he said. "Now I just sing the Sursum Corda."

Some of the students who come to the rock and roll concerts, and to his 10 p.m. fellowship and Eucharist on Wednesday nights, are moving toward more traditional Christianity. "Kids from the parachurch groups are coming to the liturgical church," he said. "And liking it."