This article is also published in these languages
- Spanish: 9 Razones por las que las Personas No Cantan en la Alabanza
- Chinese: 会众在敬拜中不唱诗的九个原因
- Russian: 9 причин почему люди не поют на прославлении
- Ukranian: 9 причин, чому люди не співають під час прославлення
- Korean: 사람들이 예배에서 노래하지 않는 9 가지 이유
- Portuguese: NOVE RAZÕES PELAS QUAIS AS PESSOAS NÃO ESTÃO CANTANDO NA ADORAÇÃO
- Khmer: មូលហេតុចំនួនប្រាំបួនដែលមនុស្សមិនច្រៀង ក្នុងការថ្វាយបង្គំ
Worship leaders around the world are sadly changing their church’s worship (often unintentionally) into a spectator event, and people aren’t singing anymore.
Before discussing our present situation, let’s look back into history. Prior to the Reformation, worship was largely done for the people. The music was performed by professional musicians and sung in an unfamiliar language (Latin). The Reformation gave worship back to the people, including congregational singing which employed simple, attainable tunes with solid, scriptural lyrics in the language of the people. Worship once again became participatory. The evolution of the printed hymnal brought with it an explosion of congregational singing and the church’s love for singing increased. With the advent of new video technologies, churches began to project the lyrics of their songs on a screen, and the number of songs at a church’s disposal increased exponentially. [1] At first, this advance in technology led to more powerful congregational singing, but soon, a shift in worship leadership began to move the congregation back to pre-Reformation pew potatoes (spectators). What has occurred could be summed up as the re-professionalization of church music and the loss of a key goal of worship leading – enabling the people to sing their praises to God. Simply put, we are breeding a culture of spectators in our churches, changing what should be a participative worship environment to a concert event. Worship is moving to its pre-Reformation mess. Worship is moving to its pre-Reformation mess. Click To Tweet
I see nine reasons congregations aren’t singing anymore:
1. They don’t know the songs.
With the release of new songs weekly and the increased birthing of locally-written songs, worship leaders are providing a steady diet of the latest, greatest worship songs. Indeed, we should be singing new songs, but too high a rate of new song inclusion in worship can kill our participation rate and turn the congregation into spectators. I see this all the time. I advocate doing no more than one new song in a worship service, and then repeating the song on and off for several weeks until it becomes known by the congregation. People worship best with songs they know, so we need to teach and reinforce the new expressions of worship. (more)
2. We are singing songs not suitable for congregational singing.
There are lots of great, new worship songs today, but in the vast pool of new songs, many are not suitable for congregational singing by virtue of their rhythms (too difficult for the average singer) or too wide of a range (consider the average singer—not the vocal superstar on stage).
3. We are singing in keys too high for the average singer.
The people we are leading in worship generally have a limited range and do not have a high range. When we pitch songs in keys that are too high, the congregation will stop singing, tire out, and eventually quit, becoming spectators. Remember that our responsibility is to enable the congregation to sing their praises, not to showcase our great platform voices by pitching songs in our power ranges. The basic range of the average singer is an octave and a fourth from A to D (more).
4. The congregation can’t hear people around them singing.
If our music is too loud for people to hear each other singing, it is too loud. Conversely, if the music is too quiet, generally, the congregation will fail to sing out with power. Find the right balance—strong, but not over-bearing.
5. We have created worship services which are spectator events, building a performance environment.
I am a strong advocate of setting a great environment for worship including lighting, visuals, inclusion of the arts, and much more. However when our environments take things to a level that calls undue attention to those on stage or distracts from our worship of God, we have gone too far. Excellence – yes. Highly professional performance – no.
6. The congregation feels they are not expected to sing.
As worship leaders, we often get so involved in our professional production of worship that we fail to be authentic, invite the congregation into the journey of worship, and then do all we can to facilitate that experience in singing familiar songs, new songs introduced properly, and all sung in the proper congregational range. (more)
7. We fail to have a common body of hymnody.
With the availability of so many new songs, we often become haphazard in our worship planning, pulling songs from so many sources without reinforcing the songs and helping the congregation to take them on as a regular expression of their worship. In the old days, the hymnal was that repository. Today, we need to create song lists to use in planning our times of worship. (more)
8. Worship leaders ad lib too much.
Keep the melody clear and strong. The congregation is made up of sheep with limited ranges and limited musical ability. When we stray from the melody to ad lib, the sheep try to follow us and end up frustrated and quit singing. Some ad lib is nice and can enhance worship, but don’t let it lead your sheep astray.
9. Worship leaders are not connecting with the congregation
We often get caught up in our world of amazing music production and lose sight of our purpose of helping the congregation to voice their worship. Let them know you expect them to sing. Quote the Bible to promote their expressions of worship. Stay alert to how well the congregation is tracking with you and alter course as needed. (more)
Once worship leaders regain the vision of enabling the congregation to be participants in the journey of corporate worship, I believe we can return worship to the people once again.
Are you experiencing STYLE conflicts in worship? more
[1] see David Murrow’s excellent post, Why Men Have Stopped Singing in Church.
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I lead smaller congregations and groups in worship each week. I have noticed an incredible and intriguing phenomenon. As an artist, I often find myself singing short spontaneous choruses and experts from scripture (usually over the same chord progression of a familiar praise and worship song).
When I clearly lead the congregation down this adventurous road of ‘new song’ singing with simple bible phrases, it becomes obvious by the nearly unanimous increase in spirit, excitement, and volume in the sound of singing that people are very happy to be led into a simple chorus congregational chorus. The smiles on their faces say it all. Their closed eyes with open mouths say it all.
Have you also experienced this?
Sadly, I agree……
Greetings from Australia Kenny
Thank you for writing this article that has addressed an issue I have noted that has been a problem since the mid-late 90’s. Since my new birth in 1976 and given the fact that I have had a keen interest in music since the early 60’s and coupled with experiences since then, God has given to me an understanding into the area of music and in particular the area of corporate worship that has had some amazing “out of the ordinary” spiritual experiences with Him and the spiritual dimension on numerous occasions.
If you are interested in hearing them I would be only to happy to share them with you if you believe that they will be of benefit to others that you are ministering to.
GBU in what you are doing
Kindest Regards
You forgot the the actual reason. That is because people come to church to check the box. Church becomes a social club. IMO if Paul can since songs and worship while in jail not knowing what the outcome would be than why can’t we. Maybe that is because we are so wrapped up in ourselves and what we want and how we think church should be. To many hypocrites attend church service expecting everyone else to conform to what they think is the correct music. I hate to tell you people but at least in my bible the message has always been he who believes in Jesus is saved, not he who only sings hymns or he who only sings contemporary, or he who only allows piano music. You sit in your pews and the pastor talks about the empty seats next to you and that we are all disciples of Jesus and need to reach out to the world to bring in the lost. Then when they come you blast them because they don’t dress like you or don’t listen to the same music you do. Pathetic, stop whining and just worship like Paul did and just maybe the lost will see that you put Jesus as #1 not the music or color of the church walls.
#1 and 3 led to #5 and 6. I occasionally attend a fairly conservative Baptist church and I’m constantly frustrated with the lack of NOTES. It’s less frustrating to just come in AFTER the (improperly labelled) “worship” portion. Music MIGHT be worship but that is a “non sequiter”.
Perhaps if the service gad a sacrament at the heart of it rather than a guitar, music would be relegated back to its original purpose as an adornment rather than as a chief feature of the event. All the music in the cosmos cannot the sacrifice of the Eucharist.
Excellent!!
O totally agree with this as I go to one of the many churches in Humble TX namely, https://lhhouston.church/ . But what’s good about our church is that the first timers usually don’t sing in praise but are encouraged by the ambiance of sincerity and love during service! Then they really get into it and sing their hearts out for the Lord!
10. Some of the songs may be bad. There are songs where I see and hear people around me drop out. They feel silly singing the song or don’t like what it says. Conversely, on those rare occasions when we sing hymns, people who never sing start singing.
Music in the modern church has become a profitable commercial enterprise. People make their living at it. Some churches (such as Hillsong and Bethel) generate millions of dollars of revenue from their music. Most contemporary worship music is designed to be played in an rock format, with lyrics that appeal to the emotions. They are crafted with a highly amplified, beat-driven “worship experience” in mind. This has proven effective in helping to build attendance in churches.
If you were to look at a hymnal from 50 or 100 years ago, you would find that most hymns were written by theologians or pastors. But most songs that are now sung in our churches are written by professional entertainers, and most of them have little or no theological training. I would submit that the goals of these disparate groups are not necessarily the same.
Agreed. Number 1 reason I don’t sing in worship is song selection. Worship “leaders” choose songs with poor theology or worse because they sound good and make them feel good (entertainment and emotions). I won’t sing those songs.
Amen to Anthony
Amen
The words on the screen are not teaching you how to sing the songs! The words on the screen do not stay up with the song! Frustrating
I don’t like supporting Hillsong nor Bethel!
Too loud, to dark!
I like the hymnal songs, they tell a biblical story!
Thank you for this. I agree 1000%. It makes me sad. I’m glad you are speaking the truth in love regarding the issues of modern worship.
It is dismissive to think that no matter what music style is played , everyone should get on board because it’s singing about God. Let’s forget about preferences. It is about preference, the one who decides the songs to be sung. It’s not about the congregation but the leaders. That is the entire issue. Music is a very personal, cultural experience. And trying to make a one size fits all praise time just does not work unless the demographics in your congregation is all the same. I use to attend a church growing up that was multicultural, and had varying age groups from young to old. They were masters of the praise and worship experience because the music was never the same style/genre and the songs range from traditional to contemporary. And they would always have guest singers that sang from country to gospel , to contemporary, etc…. I have always had a love for all different types of music but am having problems with the new music / worship of today. It sounds the same to me and the repetition is irritating. They are looking to arouse emotions instead of having a true heartfelt experience. And they usually use scripture out of context to promote it. It’s interesting how the congregation was involved during times of gathering. Paul in Corinthians even questioned them about every time they come together everyone as a psalm, teaching, etc… He wanted to bring some order and limited them but my point was the congregation was involved. So if you are a worship “leader” look at the people, talk to the people to see what they prefer and not your own. Mix it up and you will have a true authentic worship experience. One more thing! Stop trying to move the people according to you4 skills and abilities.
Yes!!!! That what I have thought for years! What we see is the same style of songs (no melody and same volume) with no variety.
I agree. There are different types of music in the church. Some like to the old-style hymn books, while other like the more contemporary types. The point is, -there is room for both. There should be no “blended worship” and “modern worship” but only one where all types of music (including hymn books) should be use. But, the problem is, that what I’ve seen for the past 20 or so years is that the music leaders never consults with the congregation that supports them. Rather, the congregation is thrown particular types of music without any input from the people that tithe. I understand the need for new music in the church and certain songs to be updated. But no one has ever exclaimed to me why we needed to though out a 2,000-year tradition and history of hymn reading. Beautiful tunes and words are being thrown out in the name of progress in Church worship. If I can put up with Contemporary music (with it loud drums, and musical instruments) why can’t I sing more reverent music found in the old fashion hymns. We are missing the mark!
One additional point: Some pastors are very involved in the worship, even helping select music that relates to that morning’s teaching. Today, some seem to have abdicated any responsibility over that part of the service, which brings me to why I sometimes stop singing. Some of our contemporary young musicians write lyrics that seem based on secular humanism and are not scriptural. This is really dangerous. Many of these new songs are not that great, so they don’t stay with you, but some do. Song lyrics stick with you, more so than a statement in simple prose. I have found myself repeating statements that are not scriptural as part of a song with an “ear worm” melody. What makes it especially bad is people will repeat whatever statement over and over as they sing without question, especially since it’s in church. Then it becomes subconsciously incorporated into how they see themselves and the world in general. All new songs need to be vetted by the pastor, especially those by young Christians.
Sadly, some pastors (even some denominations) are not capable of vetting. They will approve and promote some pretty bad songs.
I TRUST JESUS AND BIBLE,WORLDLY OPINION I JUST IGNORE BECAUSE WE ARE JUST SINFUL WRETCHED SINNER. ALL OF US,SO NO REASON TO BE DISTURBED BY OPINION.I LOVE HYMN.IF YOU DON’T UP TO YOU,JUST REMEMBER IF YOU REJECT JESUS IN YOUR STATE OF DEATH YOU GO TO HELL.HEAVEN ONLY FOR THOSE WHO TRUST JESUS RECEIVE HIM AND BELONG TO HIM.
Jacky St Paul wrote in 2 Corinth 5v 17
if any man is in Christ Jesus he s a new creation
And Christ has redeem us from the law of sin and death
By his blood on the cross
Our church is guilty of a couple of these (and I wish we would make some changes). Yet our people sing. They sing easy songs, they sing hard songs. They sing songs out of their range and octave lower. Our music is loud, yet they sing. This article, with some valid points, sets up a straw man that doesn’t exist a lot of places.
Church just depresses me, and the songs depress me too. I choose not to sing because I hate my voice.
We don’t go to church anymore, and it doesn’t bother me. I’m already done with humanity anyways…
I’m sorry if the Church worship has been boring to you, maybe you remember the Church is called the house, and if and when you go no matter what everyone else is doing try using your time there to connect and talk with the Lord, Jesus Christ, be patience and assured if you call on him, He does answer listen for his answer but don’t rush the process. He talks with us all the time but sometimes we are just not turning in to listen when the Holy Spirit is talking. He is our guide in this life. There is an ever more beautiful life to come for eternal, don’t miss the life Jesus has promised, because of the life you have experienced in the past. Try the one True God Almighty and His Son, Jesus Christ. It may be hard right now but it gets easier and easier, you are and never were alone. I’m praying with you and for you. Be encouraged and stay blessed.
Correction: My House is called the house of Prayer. You can just come and prayer to yourself while you are in the house of God. He hears you, again be encouraged and blessed.
I don’t profess the Christian Faith myself; but when I started to attend a local church, I did so expecting to hear the Bible chanted or sung.
Baha’i events always start and almost always end with a scripture passage whether in speech, chant, or song.
At a Muslim Jum’at on a Friday, I can hear the congregation chanting passages directly from Muslim scripture.
I have found similar in other religious communities.
Yet when I attended a Christian service, to my surprise, though the congregation would spend an hour singing extra-scriptural hymns, I haven’t heard one scripture chant or song yet.
Ironically, that alone is losing my interest in continuing to attend that service.
I was a worship leader/pastor for over 25 years. The first 10 of my service was learning exactly the points discussed here. “Worship leaders” are exactly that, “leaders of others into worship”. Worship has, for the most part, turned into a modern day “rave”. One church we visited handed out ear plugs at the door. My question to the brother handing me the ear plugs was, “has God gone deaf that we need music so loud it hurts our ears?” He wasn’t amused. I loved this article as it has hit it right to the core. If you want to put on a concert, sell albums and get a pat on the back via online likes, then stick to venues outside a church service. Worship, whether music or the word, should be intended to encourage participants, not spectators.
People don’t sing in worship because 99% of the music is pure garbage. Whether it’s “praise music” (100% garbage) or stuff from the hymnal (98% garbage), the music just isn’t worth singing. A congregation that sings REAL music will actually…sing. I attended such a church until an insecure pastor fired the Director of Music — the director had exquisite taste in music. The choir was large (60 people) and the congregation loved to sing. Ever since the jealous pastor got his way, the choir has shrunk to 25 people and the singing in church is anemic, at best.
Hire professionals to do what professionals do — choose good music and lead that music in worship. Hire professional musicians, not a praise band or anything related to that sort of thing. Get a hymnal that contains well-chosen, well-written music. The Episcopal Hymnal is a good one. Some colleges have published hymnals as well that are very good. Avoid “common” hymnals like Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian.
Most of all, the pastor needs to get out of the way of good music. Pastors tend to be very immature in their musical knowledge and taste. Let the professional musicians do their jobs. Let the singers do their jobs. Let the organist and/or orchestra players do their jobs.
Exactly. No one wants to sing music from 150 years ago that sounds silly and inorganic to today’s ear. I also believe this music keeps Church out of tech for the youth, slowly corroding the future of the community from within.
Most of the songs (that I think you are referring to) with weak, sentimental, sometimes eccentric, or just plain cooky, are “camp toons.” They were really just modern praise songs of the late 19th and early 20th-century era. They are just as bad (many of them) as our contemporary church music. They deserve to be shelved. The same goes for our modern era’s music. I have noticed that words are so poorly chosen that they are just a skeleton to hang a chorus. They do not present the Gospel, nor do they even tell a story. You see, it’s not the age of a song, it’s the content. Most of our songs written today will hang with one generation and be gone. Or, if persecution comes to the church they will be gone immediately as they offer no hope to the singer. They are not grounded on the finished work of Christ.
So, my point is that the age of a song means nothing if the song is no good. But, for songs and hymns that have stood the test of time and were loved by many generations; they should not be ignored. There is a reason for their longevity. “How Can it Be that I Should Gain” is as beautiful and worshipful to any generation. It’s also healthy for any church, even the “Willow Creek” megachurch culture, to have a grounding in historical music. For, there is only one Church.
Exactly!
Absolutely! A book of a thousand hymns has maybe a hundred good ones, everyone knows what they are and every church sings them with passion. Whether new or old the rest will pass on…
That depends on the church. Episcopal Church hymnal? I totally agree. Baptist and/or Methodist Church? I totally disagree. I think people need to keep in mind their own personal experiences when trying to paint with a very broad brush the entire Christian church regarding music.
I personally have experience in many denominations including a Jewish Synagogue.
Sorry your experience has been a bad one it seems. Not all have had that experience. So much depends on the church and it’s’ singers. And so much depends on the experience and qualifications of the director. Local church just hired a choir member as their new choir director. This person has zero years of experience in church music. She couldn’t conduct her way out of a fermata in the middle of a hymn sung by the choir. People don’t seem to understand that the different music specialities are similar to different medical specialties. I don’t want my cardiologist operating on my brain nor my neurosurgeon operating on my heart. Just because someone has a “music degree” doesn’t mean they are going to be great in a church music position.
I would sit for a six hour sermon if the pastor was preaching the Word of God and had it in him to carry on that long. I love sound preaching. I adore Godly music as well. It’s one of the things I consistently thank God the most for.
I dread going to church now. The music is terrible. They all want to be rock star entertainers. It’s so loud that I have all I can do to not run up to the sound booth, throw them out, and turn it down. If you as a parishioner can’t hear the congregation singing then the body of Christ is not being edified. Godly music is just as much for us as it is for Him.
Speaking of Godly music, why is the trend to only sing newer songs for three years and then lock them away with all the rest of the music we’ve locked away, silenced?
Rock of ages! Cleft for me! Let me hide myself in Thee! Let me sore to worlds unknown! AND BEHOLD YOU ON THY THRONE!
I will serve thee because I love thee you have given life to me,
I had nothing before you found me, you have given life to me,
HEARTACHE! Broken pieces! Ruined lives are why you died on Calvary!
YOUR TOUCH IS ALL I LONG FOR! You have given life to me.
There’s a name above all others,
Wonderful to hear
Bringing joy and cheer
It’s the lovely name of Jesus
Let the world proclaim;
He’s evermore the same,
What a lovely name
Sing the wonderous love of Jesus
SING OF HIS MERCY AND HIS ENDLESS GRACE
…
Let us then be true and faithful,
Trusting, serving every day;
Just one glimpse of Him in glory
Will the toils of life repay.
IT WILL BE WORTH IT ALL
WHEN WE SEE JESUS
ALL TRIALS WILL BE SO SMALL
WHEN WE SEE CHRIST
ONE GLIMPSE OF HIS DEAR FACE
ALL SORROWS WILL ERASE
HE’ll HELP YOU WIN THE RACE
WE SHALL SEE CHRIST
There are several great and powerful songs of sound doctrine written in the last twenty years but there are also many written with unbiblical doctrines;
Jars of Clay wrote a monster of a song that swept evangelical churches across the nation a few years ago
“In the shelter of EACH OTHER
We will live, we will live” what? That’s an Irish proverb, not one of the Word. The Word tells us Psa 91:1 One who dwells in the shelter of the Most High Will lodge in the shadow of the Almighty.
READ YOUR BIBLES PEOPLE!
I totally agree with the points discussed here. As a member of one of the Christian Churches in Houston, I really think that there is a need to inspire others during worship. Singing is an honest way of showing devotion and respect to God. Our efforts here is really important so we can pour our hears into prayer.
I agree with this article. When you attend service, you really have to worship wholeheartedly. I give my effort each time I visit black churches in Houston and really get caught in the moment and in the presence of God. There’s no such thing as giving half of your attention and effort, It’s either none or 100%!
Look to Solomon’s Temple, and there you will find a house of worship that has the perfect balance between music and speech. Hundreds of churches have learned about this and those churches are mostly healthy and growing. Solomon’s Temple is a building the Jesus designed with God. Solomon’s Temple was not just a monument or relic of the past. Rather, it is a template that modern churches should follow, but they don’t. When it comes to sound and acoustics, we should follow what the Bible teaches and stop building structures as the secular community has been designing them for us for years.
Church sound has a huge impact on the church and that impact has been a contributing cause of church attendance decline. Of the 400 plus churches that have upgraded their acoustics as it would have been in Solomon’s Temple, 95% of them have realized an 8 to 25% increase in church attendance. How many times has a pastor said one thing, people heard something else and the fighting begins. The acoustics as is Solomon’s Temple reduces such mistakes.
King David said that the Hand of God was upon him when designing the temple. 1 Ch 28:19. What was so important about this design for God to get involved. If the temple was so sacred, then why did God allow it to be destroyed? Perhaps it was because there was a second purpose for it. Why are there so many details about it, which if they had no purpose, how did they get preserved all this time?
Every part of Solomon’s Temple had a purpose. All we had to do was put it all together. here is a flow chart that explains some of it.
Blessings,
Joe
If the songs are supposed to be a method of worship of Heavenly Father and/or thanking and praising Him and His Only Begotten son. People are quite often worshiping and/or praising the singers of the songs. That’s not new at all. It was learned behavior and viewed as a form of encouragement. I wonder how my Heavenly Father views it?
“Worship leaders” are NOT worship leaders. The pastor is the worship leader, for music and singing are only part of what worship is. The opening words of the worship service are worship, so are the Bible readings (there has to be at least one), the prayers, the offering, and when possible, the sacraments. These are not the only possible elements of worship.
Hymns and psalms and spiritual songs are important – and they are important chiefly as a way for the people to praise, thank, honor, and submit to the Lord. The task of those who lead worship is to direct the thoughts and hearts of the congregation to the living God – who he is and what he has done. It is not the task of those who lead worship – and especially not the task of those who lead the musical aspect of worship – to engender in the people a particular emotion. If the Lord is expounded through his Word and sacraments, through the prayers and music, then the Lord will enable the people to do business with him in a real way.
Seeking to engender an emotion in the congregation is not leading worship; it is manipulation.
I agree with everything you have said except for the first sentence. Try to prove it from Scripture and you will find in the OT that the priests led worship (the qualified ones), and in the NT Paul invites anyone who brings a new song to make sure that they have worshipful content. Let’s not elevate the Pastors too much; it’s not fair to them, nor is it fair to the congregation. When I was in seminary we had one class on church music, and today, students probably get nothing at all. I don’t know. But this I do know: God gives gifts to His congregation and the gifted ones should lead the worship. It may be that the pastor needs to be involved in song selection, but often pastors are not qualified even for that. Now, if the pastor is faithfully preaching the Gospel, the congregation will quickly request, or even beg for songs with more doctrinal messages.
10. Individuals present don’t like singing or are uncomfortable singing in a group. I went to a great church growing up until I moved after college. To this day 30 year old me will not sing in church. I also wont do karaoke in front of a crowd if that means anything to the subject.
So very true.
Praise is the best form of worship
A few months ago the Lord strongly impressed upon me the distinct difference between the terms PRAISE and WORSHIP. Scripture (in Hebrew and Greek) and in English clearly illustrate that these have separate and distinctly different meanings. The church of today confuses the two, and this confusion only leads to more confusion. Praise is basically a celebration, and is more ‘enjoyable’ for us. Worship is actually surrender, and surrender is never fun.
When we substitute praise for worship, we loose. I invite you to research this, and you will see.
Totally agree!
Thank you for this distinction. When a contemporary worship service was added at the local church, my sense was it is something totally different from liturgical worship and that the two should not be viewed as interchangeable.
I’m convinced that my comments are driven by personal preference but here goes.. The newer songs sound as if someone was in such a hurry to publish, they didn’t take the time to come up with a good song. I like songs where the author took the time to make the words rhyme. Many of the new songs seem like stream of consciousness. I don’t like songs which are monotonous and repeat the same verse 4 times. My 8 year old makes up songs where she’s strung random sentences of praise together and they sound better. The music also sounds as if not much effort was invested in coming up with it. Music needs to be catchy, so that we find ourselves singing it throughout the day.
In response to Charles comment, coming from a worship leader perspective, all I can say is as leaders we try to make the music easy to remember in order to sing along and participate as a whole in the congregation. There are lyrical and musical master pieces that will move you to tear up or fall on your knees and praise God from the likes of Casting Crowns, Chris Tomlin and such. Although music, just like social economic status is all relative to the individuals own perception. Not everyone is musical, but they are capable of following hymns that repeat themselves. We are not on the stage to bring attention to ourselves but to help facilitate the congregation to sing and praise together as one from the heart. God bless, and may you find the beauty in music that shakes your soul, tears you up, and moves you to understand the power and glory that is Jesus Christ.
I appreciate what you wrote. I am a 76 year old lady who grew up in the church and played piano and organ for years. I love the old hymns. But I also love many of the new worship songs. My husband and I mentor young adults and this is their kind of music. I love that they can worship and praise God with the way they are comfortable . I also love old hymns because they are familiar to me. Music should unite not divide the church yet that is usually not the case. When I commented on a song I strongly disliked my husband said to me, it’s not about you, it’s about God when you worship and praise Him.
Exactly! An awful lot of what is released sounds to me as if the lyricist just dashed off a series of thoughts, usually stringing together some Christian catchphrases, and then the composer wrote something that sort of fit the rhythm of the words. Third rate poetry set to second rate music.
And, it can be worse than that! Often it takes three or four lyricists credited to a song of religious cliches. I think this because the songwriters are under contract to record companies to push out quantity over quality.
10. Because you’ve turned the corporate worship experience into a self-serving, at times creepy ecstasy focused rave assuming that all people, in their love for God, should feel comfortable worshiping that way and that if they don’t they must not be very “spiritual” or that interested in what you call “true” worship.
11. Because all we can hear is you and your guitar blaring because you have forgotten that this is not all about you, how you look and your performance on stage.
12. Because you’re trying to evoke or force a certain kind of response from people and as a result the worship experience seems inauthentic. Songs will absolutely bring tears to people’s eyes, but not every song and not every time.
I took my family to a church that touted itself as NOT being a Word of Faith type church, which I fled from after the real Jesus set me free of their false theology, which is witchcraft. So I was excited to attend this tiny neighborhood church, I was so hungry for fellowship. Not only was the rock music deafening, but the 10 “worship” singers were SCREAMING the SAME song into their MICROPHONES for 30 min. I kid you NOT!!! Apparently they were led by “the Spirit” to torture us? By the time the guest pastor finally got up to give his “Do you want to be a millionaire?” message that “God” told him to give us (wink, wink) our little family literally RAN out of that GODAWFUL church! I HATE, DESPISE, AND OTHERWISE DETEST “modern” worship with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength! How I long for acapella hymn based worship, but I don’t see that happening in the Harlot of Babylon church, which is most of the churches of these last days.
Kenny,
Thanks so much for this post; it really hit a nerve. Having been a professional who has played music and attended churches all over the world I think we have entered a weird age.
I believe we are witnessing the end of Christianity and entering an age of “anything goes”.
I remember back in the 1970s I saw a movie called “Tommy” by the rock group called “The Who?” In the movie, there is a scene that takes place in a church and this particular place of worship had a rock band playing music about how Jesus could heal you.
I often wonder how the producers of the movie knew what modern-day Christianity would look like.
The worship hymnals have been dumped by hip and cool career ministers who act as if they’ve never really suffered a day in their lives. I’ve seen young girls jumping up and down with torn-up blue jeans to hypnotic rock music as ministers with paisley jackets and earrings dispense the latest “Purpose Driven Life” dreck.
But hey, anything goes, right?
Gone are the calls to repentance and commitment to doing what is right. Gone is calling out sin and taking a stand FOR ANYTHING.
I guess you could label me as old fashioned. Fine. But l had to teach history for 15 years and when I did research on the hymns from the good old days, I found out why there was so much depth to that music.
The people that wrote a lot of it suffered greatly. They were not snowflakes that melted under pressure, I’ll tell you that much. The torment, repentance, and hardships they endured were reflected in the music they composed.
If music is supposed to prepare hearts for worship and get people to reflect on their lives spiritually, why in the world are we doing listening to rock music?
KLOVE has great music. It’s great ON THE STINKING RADIO. What miss-guided genius decided that it should become the main staple of praise teams on the stage of the church? (Notice I didn’t say pulpit or altar because that has been replaced by something cool too.)
And speaking of the ego-centric praise teams, quite frankly, they are a big turn off. In most churches, there are usually more than seven people who have musical talent to display. So why not let someone else who has the ability to sing or play a musical instrument just as much of an opportunity?
In the church my wife and I are currently attending, nobody claims center stage every week. One week it’s two young girls with acoustical guitars, the next week, it could be several flute players or a handbell choir. Nobody is more important than anyone else because in this church, everyone has a voice.
When you make the worship experience an exclusive event for just the cool people, you’re going to lose. In the 20 years of living in two connected cities and I’ve seen so many churches shut down of every Christian denomination, you wouldn’t believe it.
(I’m not suggesting that the rock music was the cause, but it has been a distraction from bigger problems brewing within the ministry.)
The church isn’t just a preprogrammed show, it’s a time for Christians to come together as a body of believers to pray, encourage, sing and personally connect to God’s merciful love.
It’s definitely not supposed to be American Idol.
Awesome, Oh my GOD, I have thought it was just me feeling this way. This article was so well put together and your response to it it right on point, GOD’s point!
When I was a teenager, an elderly gentleman in the church I attended was indignant at the idea of leading worship with a rock music accompanyment – he said that it was Satan’s music and had no place in the church. He was politely ushered out and his opinion ignored. 50 years later, having seen the effect that rock-music worship has had on the church, I entirely agree with him.
Certainly not suitable for Christian worship.
This would be better if you didn’t call the congregation sheep that follow you. They’re your equals.
I agree. People have intellect and opinions, “sheep” don’t.
Heart over head will help — and singing acapella is a great prescription for that; no annoying distractions coming from any kinds of instruments. Not possible to be a spectator if no one is PERFORMING/ENTERTAINING. Give it a try — simply the pure, unadulterated voices of angels! Your HEARTS will be lifted and God will be pleased and glorified!
I completely agree. Amazing that I also do not see the use of instruments in the NT. Maybe there were, I haven’t seen scripture on it.
There weren’t air conditioners either
Heh
Nor Hymnals
Uh, you might check with Chronicles and the Psalms.
Let’s think about what Paul said In 1st Corinthians 11:29 when speaking of the Lords Supper. “For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgement on himself”. I understand that he is not speaking of music or “singing” as I call it, because I believe that music is not all that is a part of “worship”. In fact there are several acts of worship (singing, preaching, giving, communion, praying). However when you consider that Paul states that we must discern the body (the body of Christ), how do we do that? I think he means to put everyone on an equal plane. No one is above another, no one lower, no one higher. The best way to do that is with a-capella praise music. Now I don’t know if God cares about 4 part harmony, but when a song is arranged for congregational 4 part harmony, everyone has a range and every one has a part to sing. When all of those voice parts are being sung together to make a chord in praise to God I do not believe that it gets more beautiful than that. I believe it is the best way to encourage 100% participation.
And here is a bit of history, I pulled this definition from the Online Etymology Dictionary.
a cappella
1868, earlier alla capella (1824), from Italian, “in the style of Church music, in the manner of the chapel,” literally “according to the chapel,” from cappella “chapel” (see chapel). Originally in reference to older church music (pre-1600) which was written for unaccompanied voices; applied 20c. to unaccompanied vocal music generally. Italian a is from Latin ad “to, toward; for; according to” (see ad-); alla is a la “to the.” Sometimes in the Latin form a capella.
Most people don’t know that the word we use to mean without musical accompaniment literally means to sing in the style of the church! In fact for the first several hundred years of Christian history all church music was sung a capella. I wonder if they knew something we don’t?
When looking at the multiple verses In the New Testament that mention singing I do not see one that mentions musical accompaniment at all. I’m not saying that it says not to because that would be going further than the Bible goes. However I am saying that the command/example for singing is clear. If I ask you to go to the store and get milk do I have to tell you not to buy a bunch of other things too. Or did the request to get milk exclude everything else?
You must be convinced in your own mind, Just some food for thought!
Even so, referring to Paul and his instructions to the Corinthians, in what a millennium after came to be known as “Chapter 14.” The coming Protestants loved to guffaw about those unruly southern Greeks, but Paul HAPPILY spent two years among them! They didn’t just sing; they WORSHIPED in the Holy Spirit. They were ALL born-again, and Jesus manifested Himself in their meetings. There wasn’t just a praise team; there wasn’t ONLY a preacher. ALL the gifts of the Holy Spirit were present in their membership, as He would so choose. Paul even published a first century version of Roberts-Rules-of-Order to keep things moving profitably at church. Read it and weep – no, really – weep for what passes as worship in modern-day churches; the bread-crumbs we exchange for the Love Feast! Like Jesus promised, “Ask and it shall be given you!” Ask Him to fix it. It’s HIS church.
Greetings in Christ Jesus, Fellow Believers! I see a number of encouragements and recommendations for a capella singing in public worship in our churches. I love a capella music, and of course have no objections whatever. I am a semi-“retired” conservative Baptist preacher and pastor, whose leadership and duties have been curtailed for many years due to chronic health issues after battling 3 kinds of cancer at once. I have no complaints, as the Lord will heal me in His way in His time by His grace. But I really enjoyed this article and the comments. I stumbled across this well over a year after it was written. But I only wish to add that a capella singing may look like it is implied in the New Testament due to the absence of the mention of musical instruments in the Gospels and Epistles. But keep in mind that the Bible that Jesus and the Apostles used was initially the Hebrew Scriptures or “Old Testament”, and their “Hymn” book (or “Him” book!) was primarily the Psalms. The Book of Psalms contained more than one type of musical or poetic offering to God. As Paul said, “Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord” (Eph. 5:19). The Book of Psalms wasn’t the only Scriptures used in worship, but it did contain “psalms”—which, by definition, basically are songs to be sung to the plucking of harp music (so already we have some songs that were inspired by the Holy Spirit to originally be written for more than just voices); Psalms also contains “hymns”, which are odes or anthems of praise; and Psalms contain “spiritual songs”, which sort of define themselves as a song about anything spiritual, from the perspective of the authority and exclusiveness of God’s Holy Word. And many of the Psalms (meaning the chapters, regardless of what type of music) were specifically set to various instruments, and often to an accompanying choir. In one famous battle, the Hebrew King put the Lord’s singers at the advance of the army through a place of ambush—yes, the choir took the point! If you really want an education, get a good Bible dictionary or a good study Bible with a thorough index, and look up “musical instruments in the Bible”—lots of them listed, and many in regard to Biblical, godly worship. Remember, our New Testament worship was simple, reverent, but Jewish in its tone and culture—probably even in Gentile lands—which meant it was mournful over sin and joyful over God. It was rich, deep, emotional, praiseful, celebratory, and sometimes loud. Very often the Hebrew word we translate as “praise” is the word “yadah”, which in the more typical context means basically to raise the hands in worship. David danced before the Lord in worship. I am not saying all this was brought forward simply because the Old Testament was the Bible of the early New Testament churches. I am not justifying pagan-style music or behavior or anything of the sort, nor turning our church worship into a so-called “seeker” friendly display of nonsense and irreverent, frankly ridiculous behavior in our choice of music. I prefer “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs” that have great words, sound theology, and that point all of us to Jesus—it helps if the tune is also catchy, and worthy of Christ. We read that the music in Heaven is often loud, and the worship there certainly must be of a style that passes muster. But I still must return to Kenny Lamm’s salient points. We’re not King David, we’re not in Heaven’s choir, we’re here trying to make our corporate worship experience as glorifying to the Lord and as participatory to the congregation as possible, and really, our Bible should be our guide even more than our personal preferences. We can also seek counsel from past experiences and the wisdom of pastors and worship leaders through the centuries who seemed to strike the right note of balance when it comes to church worship. Well…I guess I’ve thrown in my two cents worth. Maybe somebody will read this and be directed back to the Scriptures, where the Lord will enlighten, and where His Word will not return unto Him void.
Couldn’t that definition be referring to the chanting in the Catholic church or whatever that singing is that the monks do? You are making reference to Italian and Latin; and the Catholic church claims to be the head of Christianity.
Acapella can be very nice, indeed, however, the problem is not with the use of instruments, as the voice itself is an instrument. The problem is principally one of the heart, as was mentioned initially. It is VERY possible for even acapella to go very wrong, because there are those who do try to upstage each other even as others around them are trying to praise the Lord from the heart. I have witnessed this on more than one occasion in different locations. The choice of music, the musical instruments, the voices, the congregation, the pastor, the music directors are all important with the parts that they play, and can greatly influence the results of the music. Their are many who tout acapella as the answer, when it is really a preference. Avoidance is NOT the answer; it neither solves nor even helps the problem, merely exacerbates the problem. God gave us voices that can be used to praise Him, but He also gave us talents to play instruments to His glory, as well. God never indicated anywhere in His Word that He was any more pleased by acapella singing than by singing with music, but, sadly, this fallacy is taught in many churches. ALL of our praise talents should be used to bring honor and glory to the Lord, and should be encouraged, not discouraged.
Good points all, thanks for the inspiration.
Many stated what’s missing in Worship….all with valid reasons.
I find it to be something else… we are missing the silence. The moments in church where we had a balance of song and silence, silence so powerful It needed nothing, yet it allowed everything we long for today. A place for us to worship needs less noise, less versions…its over complicated. With less silence it seems song must fill every void and we have cantors and “instrument players“ not musicians making more noise then musical song. it’s in small group (not choir) where we need musicians so music can serve. Music moves and supports the foundation of the good word. Yet too often it distracts and does the opposite….enough said.
Imagine This: More space, less noise. Less sounds. Take out vrs add in. Yet most do the opposite.
.Space is peace, individuals can reflect…it feels good and brings balance to Worship. If that’s not possible then beautiful instrumental music. Music, meant made for reflection and the next best choice. Of course we need music in our worship services. I’m just asking for some space we’ve lost it. Think of your favorite movies; it’s the music bringing the emotion, and at the same time it stays out of the way where you don’t even notice it. Sunday Worship….
Worship leaders don’t know the music by heart and they don’t know the words by heart, they’re singing to people ( performing) instead of to God. The people they’re singing to are focused on reading often complicated lyrics from a screen. So hardly anyone is familiar with anything during what is commonly called worship. Leading worship doesn’t mean to lead the songs, it means to lead people into the presence of God but if the worship leaders aren’t focused on getting into the presence of God and/or don’t know how to get there because they’ve never been taught and have never learned that’s the entire purpose….how can they lead people somewhere they’ve never gone.
AMEN !
I think another reason why white congregants are more willing to sing during a service with a loud sound system is because they feel like they can sing without being overheard or without any censure. Maybe all churches should install a sound system that allows everyone to participate without feeling self-conscious. Personally, I think it would help me a lot.
That’s a good point that the music played in church sometimes doesn’t click with the congregation. At my church, we started changing up the music a bit and it seems to help people sing more. I feel like if people hear music that they enjoy more they are more likely to sing.
I am still fairly young — in my thirties. I don’t listen to KLOVE, don’t care for pop music, and don’t enjoy leaving church with a headache/dizzy feeling from the over-stimulating concert. Your flashing lights and fog machine may be your act of worship, but for some of us it’s a literal, physical headache. I know some younger than me, even teenagers, who feel the same way. It’s a myth that all young people are happy with the current system. It’s amazing how the people who rail against “preference” are the ones who conveniently get their preference and block out everything else. This hasn’t gone unnoticed.
I agree with you. My husband and I stopped going to church because we have super sensitive systems. One church told me to use ear plugs and sit in the back. Didn’t work. I could still hear it too loud and also feel it in my chest, making me feeling like something was wrong with my heart. It’s so loud it hurts my ears and my head. Same with my husband. I hope someone in the congregation is investing in hearing aid companies, because soon they will be making a fortune from the entire congregation. I was born and raised in church. It didn’t sound anything like the way churches sound today. I have not been able to find a church that plays hymns anymore in my little town. I do understand that there has been a shortage of organists, which is unfortunate, but I would rather sing solid hymns, either acapella or with pre-recorded accompaniment music than rock style music and songs with words I don’t know and that are not very deep. With the invasion of this other type of music in church, there has been an invasion of other things that were never in the church before; such as improper church attire, which is distracting and I believe can interfere with proper worship, especially for men having to see women unapologetically showing so much skin. The reverence seems to be gone. It just doesn’t seem or feel like true worship. It feels like compromising with the world. There’s a Christian church down the block from me, and it is so loud and I cannot tell the difference between that and the music that the thugs blare from their car stereos. I would never have known it was church music. If it was approaching the very last day and I heard music such as that from far away, I would not run toward it, I would run away from it, thinking it is some kind of music that is glorifying things in the world. Maybe this music from the church is glorifying things of the world. I can’t hear the words all I hear is the loud pounding bass that can be heard for blocks away. So much for being considerate of your neighbor; which I thought was a Christian quality. Anyway, when I go to church, I want to be able to tell the difference whether I am in a church or a club. They should not sound nor look the same. They say they are attracting young people, but if their music sounds just like a dance club, eventually they won’t come to church, they’ll just stay at the club all the time and say “What’s the difference?” There won’t be a true conversion. What’s next for the church? Happy hour with alcohol? Pot? Stay tuned. I think I’ll stay home.
Agree with you completely. I had a similar experience at a large church I (very temporarily) attended a few years back. I’m 23, and the pop star performance atmosphere is honestly disgusting to me. I feel like it’s a symptom of a bigger disease in our churches. The focus is no longer on Jesus Christ, but is now on self (the church I attended is a massive church, yet the sermon was largely about loving yourself; no mention of Jesus. It came across as a motivational self help speech) and being “relevant.” Ironically, there’s been a shift in people my age who have taken to going to mass at Catholic churches, because the experience there feels authentic compared to what many mega churches are pushing.
On a side note, the fact that these churches are blasting music so loudly is practically criminal. They’re causing permanent hearing damage.
Aman a thousand times!!! But don’t stop going to church if possible. Find one that’s standing in the old paths,(Jer.6:16). You sound like a true born again Christian to me and God bless you. I feel the same way, like their a club. You know as well as I do, that’s not Holy Ghost power,that’s the world! We hear preachers saying all the time, “we need to get with the times.” God help them. That’s just what we don’t need. And they wonder why our churches are closing their doors for good. There’s too much of the world and it makes me sick. Yes I am an evangelist and got saved when I was 6 years old. So I’ve been a Christian for over 50 years, I’m 57 now, and I have seen our churches going to hell! Sad,sad,sad. It takes the Holy Spirit to keep people wanting to go and come back to church, the ” world” can’t do it. This we have already seen for years. Pray, pray, PRAY !!!
I agree. I don’t go any more. I can’t find a church that doesn’t have a live band, loud speakers that blast people out of their seats, even with one person singing alone accompanied by a piano. the singer has a mic, the piano has a mic, the organ has a mic, and so does any other instrument that was played. When the piano is played it overwhelms the small congregation’s voices. More often than not what I see is entertainment. It’s not worship. It’s not fellowship. It’s not anything like what we see in Scripture. And it made my head hurt.
i”m no fan of worhip teams (i tease a nephew about being part of a worship squad), but your comment reflects a worse problem to me…..i..e. reducing something you (and I!) dislike to something that makes an easy target. I dislike my nephew’s music and would never join his church. But i would not dare judge their motives. And socializing with them, i think they are genuine believers. Try Romans 14:4….see if it doesn’t fit the situation. Blessings.
Thank you JP. I am not a young person. I just turned 60
And my husband, a minister and music minister have been in several different styles
Of churches during our lifetimes. We’re seen good and bad in all of them because they are made up of human beings….. AKA ……. sinners saved by grace if they have accepted Jesus as their Savior. Whether the church music style is contemporary or traditional,
With or without instruments and sound systems, with soloists, singing teams, choirs, or spoken text, with stage lighting or candlelight, with grape juice or wine sacrament, with carpet or dirt floors, with air conditioning or open windows…………. one thing remains the same……. Jesus loves every person, died for each one and desires a personal relationship with each person God created. Christians should be loving all people and serving the Lord together. The hateful spewing and name
Calling based on personal
Preferences and bias conceptions of what the church should be only serve the devil’s plans and break our Lord Jesus’ heart. We need to confess our own selfishness and start loving people like Jesus told us to. 😢
Very well said! I hope everyone heads this sage advice!
You have essentially added nothing to the conversation but, you have displayed an attitude that is part of the problem in the House of God and Body of Christ. I wish you well. I also wish you a biblical backbone. ;^)-
Please, don’t stop going and don’t give up on prayer and faith for God to lead you where to go. I believe it and will pray for you!
In our 30’s as well and feel the same. I don’t think we’re alone, more of us and even younger are desiring something more real, authentic and simple-Just God.
Second that. Sometimes the instruments are so loud that it is physically painful. Never mind hearing the person next to you or even hearing your self. There are churches that have good teaching that I would not attend because of this. I also wonder about long term effects on hearing for those present, especially children.
I left a church because the contemporary worship team composed of 3 women sang songs no one knew….danced and it looked more like they were getting their performance fix on more than edifying the congregation or Jesus. Christian Karaoke
I think a lot of people now days on worship teams are just trying to live out their rock and roll fantasy through the worship team.
The reason that the { Worship Service }, has deteriorated, is that Most churches have Allowed { Contemporary } so called music to take over ……… The older generation – { if they are Honest with themselves }, do NOT care for that Imitation music… It does NOT sound good…. It is NOT a joy singing, nor making music for, and most sound the Same……….. It does NOT have TRUE Anointing…….. Therefore, the people sing from their MOUTH, Not from their HEART…… { Thus, No True WORSHIP }…………… Most members would Never say anything, because they do not want to hurt anyone’s feelings…………. It is TIME for the people to rise up and tell the leaders to get back to the Original music Inspired by God, and put in the Books, for congregational singing, if they want the Spirit to Really move again……………… I am 66 years old, and have been playing music, and singing in church – { for God } – { Not to put on a show } , all my life…………… I have NEVER felt any anointing from that contemporary stuff…………………. If I visit a church, { trying to find somewhere to go }, I am disappointed, and frustrated, when I have to Endure the – { so-called song service }, and I am NOT really wanting to stay to hear the preacher………………….. Everywhere I visit, has that Junk…………………… That is the REAL reason why people are NOT singing in church anymore !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! P.S. If anyone know of a church in the Ark/La/Tex area, that does NOT have contemporary music, PLEASE let Me know…………………… If someone contacts you, it is Ok to provide My email with that person……………. Thank You……
That is really biased. How can you say that God is not in it. I can tell you what I listen to contemperary and that is often how God speaks to me. I am sorry that you have hardened your heart with religion and tradition, God wants to reach the lost as well. You know that the old hymns actually come from bars and the people that got saved from bars brought that music because that is what they knew and loved. So it made it a smooth transition in worship. Btw, worship is a personal thing, I get very little if anything at all from hymns, they make me bored and think that God is boring. But I also know that is only my opinion and many get fed from hymns, so I say whatever feeds your Spirit and brings you to prause and worship God is powerful. I play guitar in a Celebrate Recovery band. A 12 step group and the contemperary we play has the whole room singing in unison and its beautiful, teens to the elderly and everyone in between. I’ve heard many testimonies of God touching people there and some are in total desperation, like actively addicted heroine addicts finding grace and love through intimate worship. The form doesn’t matter its all about in Spirit and Truth. One if the reasons I believe this small room is anojnted is because of the brokeness and the love for God, everyone in this room I am speaking of is or was an addict or extremely tha kful for the grace that we walk in daily.
Well put Carlson! I agree whole heartedly with you but understands Jordans point of view. What he really have a problem with is the change in church culture over decades. Ive been in church a long time and have noticed lots of diminishing of old values in the church. We must change with the change but stay holy. God is the same God as he was yesterday and will be forever more. We need to be open to Gods plan in our lives for the future not in the past endeavors and experiences. Seasons change and so does the generations. We can’t get stuck in time because Jesus wasn’t stuck on the cross. We shouldn’t judge others salvation because the bible says implicitly that ,”who are you to judge another man’s servant.” It also says work out your own salvation with fear and trembling not your brothers. Besides we cannot read our brothers hearts the bible says. Its much better minding your own salvation than others it will bring you much peace in the lord. Its great to see young people praising the lord however they praise. I bet God aint complaining about how the praise him even if they pants hanging low as long as they praise. God meets us where we are God bless us all
I am a worship leader and professional musician. I’ve been leading contemporary worship for over twenty-five years. Before you pick one song for your worship set, you should know the main focus of your church. Does your church have more of an evangelistic emphasis or do you focus on discipleship and deeper life? In most cases, it’s some percentage of both. I love a deeper worship experience myself and can handle many new worship songs, but what does it communicate to the unbeliever that may have wandered into your service? This question really needs to be addressed at the highest level of leadership in your church before you play one note. You may find that your worship philosophy is totally out of line with what your particular church is trying to accomplish during the “worship time”. As a worship leader, you may find out that you have been trying to accomplish a level of participation that the leadership doesn’t even care about.
I’m not talking about style, volume, quality, or A/V support. All of those decisions should be decided after the “alignment” of your individual church’s direction and philosophy of ministry happen.
First we need to ask ourselves this:
What is worship and why do we need a “team” to show us how to do it?
Good point
A “worship team’s” only purpose is to (a) provide entertainment; (b) be impressed with itself. I wonder what Gawdah thinks of this “worshipful” clanging of cymbals and racket.
Would love a copy of this with the comments.
One reason not stated is that most worship music these days is not all that good; while the music is done @ my church, I read my Bible unless a good song is being sung.
That’s what I did too. I found it a great time to allow Holy Spirit guide me through the Bible. Holy Spirit taught me much in that environment.
I think one major reason (thee main reason?) people don’t sing in church is lack of desire to worship God.
If God asked me to sing gangster rap (my least favorite form of “music”), would I do it? Yes, because God asked me to.
If God asked me to lay down my life to bring the news of Jesus to the next person, would I do it? Yes, because God asked me to.
I appreciate all of the reasons given above. Many of them are probably true. But the deeper problem is when people don’t love God with all their heart, with all their soul, with all their heart and with all their strength, they find many “reasons” not to do the things God commands us to do. And even though the reasons are true….we’re still disobeying God’s command.
In the end, who cares if the music is loud, or high pitch, he worship leader “ad libs too much” or whatever…. ??? Nail your excuse to the cross of Christ and worship him with all your might, as King David danced before the Lord with all his strength.
Side note: I’m sure the martyrs who were executed for their faith were not particularly happy about having their guts carved out of their living bodies and being burned alive either….but rather than write “9 Reasons Why People Won’t Martyr Themselves”….they just DID IT. Does that make any sense?
I really agree with u. The reasons stated seem more like excuses for not having a desire to worship
We need songs that cause people to praise and thank the Lord between songs, not just a bunch of people that only know how to clap. Good songs cause us to rejoice and be happy
Boom!! That’s it right there!!
I love this viewpoint. I think you’ve hit it on the head.
Of course it is very important that we worship the Lord with our whole heart. Paul also said that worship should be orderly. And it should not be offensive. Perhaps occasionally young folks could be reminded that the elderly and people with various diseases have difficulty with loud music as well as flashing lights. My husbands ear were damaged in Vietnam and he has had to leave services in severe pain. I have lupus and the loud music and lights trigger the Lupus and can cause seizures. We have disabled young people in our church that can not tolerate the loud music either. We have heard the example of David’s dancing in the street while playing the cymbals and being so wrapped up that he became necked. This was NOT in church. It was a war Victory parade. In today’s world it would be like General Ike in the front of the Victory parade after WWII in New York breaking out in song and dancing as he removes all of his clothes. I am not sure how that would be helpful to the cause of Christ. Perhaps we could consider the whole body – all ages and take their needs in to account. Leviticus 19:32 Rise in the presence of the aged, show respect for the elderly and revere your God. I am the Lord.”
Spot on! Nothing worse that the WL asking everyone to stand “to worship his/her singing” and then nothing happening that the common person can sing oor even knows! Why are we standing? No hymns, no anthems of faith. NOTHING that matters! Might as well sing “We are the Champions” as a so called worship song. Every tenth song mentions satan or the enemy. You cannot worship the one true living GOD and mention the evil one in the same song!
10. Develop a theology of worship. The Bible actually tells us to do that.
As a corollary, 11. Quit equating singing with worship. (This means quit calling the person(s) leading singing, “worship leaders.” Prayer, the reading of Scripture, preaching, confessing, and giving are all worship too.
Couldn’t agree more. The first time I heard someone described as “worship leader “I expected him to do just that and was confused when someone else led the Worship and the WL led the music!
“Worship in spirit and in truth”?
Congregants will follow anointed worship leaders and their team when he/she/they sincerefully worship God and not just perform while they are on the podium. Pastors have a lot to do with true worship, he/she should be a visual example and teach atlest few times per year on worship. The congregation is not to be blamed.
Amen! I have been involved in worship ministry for almost 50 years. Those responsible for the musical portion of praise and worship and are deeply in love with Jesus tend to lead better then those who are putting on a production. The congregation can sense where your heart is, and they will follow where you are leading. if you are truly seeking the face of God and coming before the Throne to praise and worship Him, the people will go there with you. If, instead, your goal is to put on a fancy show, you will end up with a bunch of spectators. I personally know worship leaders who are nowhere near as musically talented as others, but their congregation doesn’t seem to care because these people love Jesus so deeply that you can’t help but worship when you’re around them. Worship isn’t just singing or what happens on the platform. It is a lifestyle and an attitude. You can spot a true worshipper a mile away because they’re not as concerned with what the other people in the room think as they are about getting intimate with God. While I don’t mind using some contemporary music in the worship service, we need to not totally limit ourselves to what is popular on the radio today. Many old hymns are heavily anointed and were written during Dark and Dangerous times. They speak to the hearts of people. We need to not totally abandon the older songs in favor of catchy tunes that most average singers can’t follow, anyway, because of the range required and the complexity of the lyrics. The songs that tend to stick with us are the simple ones, both in melody and lyrics. they are the ones we find ourselves humming as we go through the day, often not even realizing it. Lately I have struggled to find a church that isn’t so consumed with doing the latest and greatest hits and doing it as loudly as humanly possible that they forget about the people they are supposed to be leading into the presence of God. If the music is so loud you can’t even hear yourself sing, more often than not you’re not going to put forth the effort to participate. There is nothing like the voices of 200 people raced together in worship, with all the harrmony, devotion, and love for God mingling together. if your ears are ringing because the volume is so loud it’s making the building shake, and you can’t breathe because of the fog machine, and the “worship team,” many dressed like they just rolled out of bed and threw on whatever was laying on the floor next to them, is more interested in performance and putting on a show than bringing people into God’s presence, you’re going to have a harder time worshipping. It’s a distraction. It takes away from the Holiness of God and turns it into a concert. It becomes more about the people “leading” than about Jesus, what He has done for us, and who He is. Unfortunately, in this area as well as in many others in the church, we have become so influenced by current society that we have forgotten our purpose. We don’t preach on sin any more because we’re afraid to offend people. most new churches don’t have crosses because they don’t want to offend anybody. We tell people to come as they are, and then we neglect to tell them that in a personal relationship with Jesus, you can’t stay the way you are. The very nature of God changes us if we are intimate with Him. Our goals are different. The way we live is different. The way we relate to other people is different. Church has become just another social club. We aren’t any different than the world. We embrace homosexuality, transgenderism, fornication, living to excess, greed, consumerism and materialism instead of preaching the Word and educating people on why God calls us not to live that way. I personally know people who call themselves pastors but have divorced their spouses simply because, “we grew apart.” Commitment doesn’t mean anything any more.
The problem with contemporary worship is only another symptom of the illness pervading today’s Church — you cannot serve God and continue to do the same things you always did, but the church isn’t preaching that any more. They are so concerned with numbers and dollar signs they have forgotten we are supposed to be different. You get lost in enormous megachurches where you could literally fall off the face of the Earth and nobody would know…..where pastors live in multimillion-dollar houses in gated communities, drive Bentleys, and own private jets, while members of their own congregation can’t pay their rent or feed their kids. We have lost sight of our first love. We need to return to the basics.
Sorry for the typos. I missed a few speech-to-text errors when proofreading my reply.
B Thank you so much for your input. I attend a church that got rid of the choir and only have a praise team. I appreciated the choir because there were people that may not have the greatest voice but they were anointed. This praise team is made up of the pastor”s relatives and friends. They never extend an invitation for anyone to join their little clique. We retired a great choir director that had given his life and time to the church and the choir. He did not retire but was forced to retire. If you’re not related to certain families in the church than you are forgotten. The church I attend ignores the elderly completely as if they are dead. I thought the Bible said the old were to teach the young. Very few of the young people show the elderly any respect. If you are a engineer or an attorney you will get quite a bit of attention. Don’t get me wrong about attention. I simply mean that a person that does not belong in the clique can do something great for the church and nothing is mentioned, but let one of great ones on the clique break a nail and you will hear it mentioned from the platform. A’s the two songs I love the most says We need to get back to the basics of life and the is Let us all go back to the old landmark. Praying that one day we will have our choir again.
This is the same thing that happened in my church. It was so heart rending when the “minister of music” personally decided to disband the choir in favor of a “worship team.” The choir was much enjoyed by the majority of the church, and caused a lot of needless discord when this happened. I am not against having praise teams, but they should have been something INCLUDED in the repertoire of praise, not a REPLACEMENT for the choir! We also used to have a LOT of solos, duets, trios, etc. singing specials in almost every service, but that came to and end as well, replaced completely with more time for the “worship team.” The moving of the Holy Spirit has been diminished greatly. This is not said from a perspective of my personal preference, it is from a perspective of watching one man allowed to enter a church and systematically arrange things to suit HIS personal preferences, not caring what might happen to the people and God’s purposes for them. It is just so baffling how this happened in the face of so many voices that spoke out against these changes! I am truly for whatever God wants, but when you see the numbers diminishing for those giving their lives to Jesus and fewer and fewer people attending and new membership on the decline, one has to seriously question these changes.
WOW! After reading your view of the ills of all the churches, it supports a reason or the desires as to not go to church at all. Who wants to attend church at all with all those problems!? However, there are some really God-fearing churches in existents. Can you point to that and win some of the readers to that hope. 🙂 Peace
I’m so grateful God simply tells us to worship Him and not HOW to worship Him. No where is it defined. It is simply “worship the Lord your God”.
Isn’t that what all of those who have commented are actually expressing. I love all these comments. It is so encouraging to see the passion. Who says The Church is dying?
Great post. Lots of food for thought. Thank you for the inspiration.
do you worship God with christian rap songs?Bible didnt tell me how,might as well i do it and rap to God,why not right?
Good one. As long as your theology is sound and you’re doing it from the heart.
My prior church in Lake Mary, Florida had the whole WorshipMusic thing, down to a science. At the 8 am service, the older folks or traditional worshipers could sing the older hymns and worship tradionally. At 9:30, the young families with Sunday School kids, had a more modern mixed service. Then at 11:00am, the full band and contemporary singers came out and did mostly VERY heartfelt songs! I was a “young at heart” age 60 at the time, and loved every type of service. Many Lutheran churches follow this pattern now. It was a very spiritual church and I have yet to seen a match to it’s sincerity.
Other churches should try this-it works and everyone is happy, not perfect, but holy and happy.
Rest in peace Pastor Paul.
First let say that I love God with my all, but I have to say I dread going to “church” on Sunday mornings. I believe we have taken worship and made it about us and not God. We worship self with personal preferences, comfort and security. We spend more time standing and sitting than kneeling and going. Most folks believe worship starts and ends in the sanctuary, but truly our worship must be never ending. It must continue beyond the walls wherever we may be.
Church leaders concentrate on attraction or even preservation so much that much of our resources and energy are so depleted that appropriate discipleship and loving our neighbor as we love ourselves is neglected. We use the worship service to practice these two things that we honestly believe we have done our do diligence for yhe Kingdom and our effort is complete. Jesus never told us to build His Church or a church, but His Kingdom and He will build His Church.
I truly believe our worship, whether in song, sermon, praise, prayer, fellowship, food, to mention just a few, must be done in away that not only engages the Church, but encourages them to seek more of God and to take it beyond the walls. I hear many share their church, denomination, does and don’t’s, but not God Himself. Maybe we assume that’s what we’re doing, but I believe this is one of the reasons why we have folks jumping from church to church and our churches are weak in their walk and worship.
We as the Church need to take back worship and make it about God, not the tools of worship (i.e. music, band, lighting, Pastor, sermon, building, programs, etc.). Make corporate worship simple and about what pleases God. Let’s refocus what corporate worship should be and design our worship time around God and not our preferences, comfort and security. Sorry to say, but sometimes I wonder if God doesn’t sleep in on Sundays.
why would God want to get up early on sunday?
wow am so amazed but you made a very strong point “We as the church need to take back worship and make it about God not the tools of worship” thanks steve
I agree, I have been a Christian for 46 years and in the beginning we sang from the scripture in song books. Simple songs like “Happy Happy Happy happy in the Lord etc,” Everybody sang them and we clapped as well.
Now Churches seem to be obsessed with Hillsong style music. Copyrighted crap music. Too hard to sing and too ME focused.
I could never understand why worship music has a copyright on it. Worship is something we give to God out of adoration and respect, not to mention the fact that it is a prerequisite for God giving us eternal life. So why do people want to make money from something that is demanded of us from God. Joel Huston and the like seem to think that their worship to God has a money value, when it should be given freely.
I am sick to death of it, in fact when I go to church now I agonize over having to stand up and sing this junk and wish I could just sit down and hear the sermon.
The church I attend is new and they in their wisdom built a church with no windows. It relies on stage lighting, there in lies the problem,STAGE…. performance based worship has killed any meaningful worship and killed the very reason for going to church.
AMEN to this article a thousand times.
The bottom line is there is no real passion for God from lukewarm congregations but let them attend a football game or other sports and the passion comes alive. Jesus died to pay our sin debts and football saves or sports is enjoyable but saves no one! Very Shameful.
I feel like this article is completely once sided. Therefore, as I talk about this is some sweeping generalizations, please have a little grace with what I’m talking about. That being said;
I’ve been a worship leader for 10 years in both black and white churches… and this is mainly a white American cultural problem… The reason “white people” don’t sing in church is because they don’t sing anywhere else in life as a response. Conversely, in African American culture, there is a ton more singing in church, and a ton more singing in every day life. I’ve been having this argument for years, and if any of the arguments in this article were right, there’d be a shift back to printed music, or quieter music, or one of the litany of things this and a million other articles have written about.
It is not in the execution at all: its all cultural. Example of white culture singing… the hymnal is filled with drinking songs turned into church hymns; everyone knew them, they used them in daily life, and singing was culturally acceptable. Today, it’s not… and if you listen to any birthday celebration, the singing of happy birthday is in 20 different keys, sad sounding, and generally disdained by most people. White American culture does not corporately sing…
Now place that same “white” congregant that stands and does not sing at all in your service, into a black service, where the sound system is deafening, the songs are completely unfamiliar, and the male worship leader ad-libs the song in a range that goes from bass to contralto… that same congregant, more often then not, engages in worship because the culture is accepting and expected.
Its a cultural thing. And until “white” culture starts corporately singing in the home, at the bar, on dates, at graduation, at funerals, etc; you will not see people singing in church.
I disagree. I am white, and sang for 8 years on a worship team. The church sang, period. The music was intended to be sung by the congregation, was not too loud, and was very worshipful. I do not find that in my present church. It is deafening, no one seems to sing (not a good key for the congregation usually) so we don’t have the experience of hearing others singing. It is totally different from what I experienced a mere 2 years ago in my city 2 hours from here. I wonder if this change is to appeal to the younger people.
I agree with much of what you are saying sir! Having been in the ministry since the late 70’s and being involved with leading, singing and/or playing for worship AND having been the pastor of a few churches [conservative and Pentecostal] for most of the time I agree wholeheartedly with what you say.
In addition I served as the assistant pastor/worship leader and then the senior pastor of a church in Louisiana that was ½ White and ½ African American, what you say about culture is very true.
There is a freedom of singing expression in churches that are of mixed cultures – the church we now attend [I sing in the worship team Sundays and lead on Wednesdays] has white, black, Hispanic, Philippine, and several other cultures involved. Many of those cultures incorporate singing in daily life so when we gather to sing and praise we can “raise the roof”!
I encourage the people within the congregation [via email and through a new members class I am privileged to teach] to sing the scriptures! There are many, many songs, hymns and psalms that incorporate the Word and it is a great way to praise the Lord.
I would see all people in every situation, every station of life, every culture [let us endeavor to change the “white” culture so that we do not feel shy about singing!] singing whenever and wherever they can!
As the Word says, “Making Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;”
Ephesians 5:19
This article was originally about the pros and cons of the “new age” church music but somehow it turned into a “White folks don’t know how to sing” forum. I respectively beg your pardon, but I do not see any need whatsoever for us to “…change the white culture…”. I sing Classic Country, Gospel and Rock n’ Roll. I guarantee you I have no problem getting the “WHITE” people (young and old) to sing along in all 3 genres.
Those same caucasian people have no problem raising their voices during a sports event. Perhaps the worship experience requires a very personal expression from an intimate relationship with God. American caucasian men, as a rule, seem to have difficulty exposing their inmost feelings. My sons were taught by their peers in the youth group it wasn’t macho to sing. Sad.
Well, while I respect your experience as a worship leader, I cannot fully agree. It IS in the execution and NOT all about culture. In the African American musical tradition, singing has always been part of our culture; we sang at church, at home, in the fields while working, and we sang to communicate. White people DO sing in their churches, but it isn’t as deeply rooted as in the African-American tradition. And the worship styles vary between the two cultures.
Now to execution: it doesn’t matter whether the church is Black or white. If the Worship Leader doesn’t engage the congregation and let them know it’s okay to sing, it’s okay to participate, and they are invited to partipate in the worship experience, then they will think they are just supposed to sit and enjoy (or not) a Sunday morning concert. Invite them to sing, provide the lyrics, and play songs in a key that makes it easier for them to participate, and they will.
ive never seen drinking songs in a church hymnal, if they are in yours youre in a bar not church
I have read that some hymns from many hymnals were adapted (perhaps the melody) from drinking songs. Can’t vouch for the veracity of this. I think you would have to go back and check out the origin of each hymn. However, can’t imagine Amazing Grace being sung in a bar. Not all hymns have good theology…nor do all the modern worship music which I find to be very “it’s all about me” in nature instead of giving praise to God.
Tunes for many songs used in worship did come from a variety of sources. The tunes were popular songs at the time and lyrics were easily changed. One of the most striking examples of this is the “Passion” hymn, “O Sacred Head Now Wounded.” Bach harmonized and used it in his “Passion According to St. Matthew.” It was not new at that time, however. The original song was titled “My peace of mind is shattered by a tender maiden’s charms.” That is just one example. There are others. Since we don’t know most of the originals, this makes little difference as we worship today.
Let’s see what Bach can do for our worship experience now.
Many of the older hymns were adapted from drinking songs of 100-200 years ago. No wonder you’ve never heard them.
It’s very true. I sing medieval music in a historical reenactment/education group. Way back then, there were certain tunes that everyone knew, whether drinking songs, traditional songs or children’s songs. It was very common practice to put new words to those songs to solve the exact problem we are discussing here-to get the congregation to sing, enjoy it, and feel closer to God. It’s much easier to sing something when you already know the tune. We still use old tunes to write new songs in my group, as it is a very old, accepted practice.
Our own national anthem that was once a British drinking song. Everyone already knew the tune, so in order to get it out to the masses, it was easiest to send the words out (to those who could read) and say it was to be sung “to the tune of X.” Imagine how amazing it was to travel to a different city or state back then, hear your new National anthem, and be able to join in. It would certainly give everyone music to make them feel united.
And you have to remember that many people did not know how to read, let alone how to read music. It’s quite ingenious, really.
So, yes, some of the songs in our hymn books are absolutely based on old drinking tunes. But that is nothing to disparage. Why not take something that might be considered sinful and make it into something beautiful?
I could’ve written this myself. Thanks!
Churches who provide a less “entertaining”
form of worship are few but they are sometimes overflowing with those who want
to sing together as one and have had their home churches runover by those who want what they want and want it now.
Yes, it’s pretty obvious how we we’ve allowed
this “spiritual” manipulation to consume
the congregations leaving nothing for those who have a different opinion. STOP feeling guilty when you don’t agree!!! By the way, music is NOT evangelism!
Know what you mean about evangelicals losing young people to Anglican, Catholic and other
more structural forms of worship. I have heard their “testimonies” and though I don’t agree, I can definitely understand why they feel they can no longer worship in most evangelical services.
By the way, the analogy to torture is pretty
good!
I wish you could attend our little fundamental baptist church, solid preaching, mostly just the old hymns, never anything that wouldn’t glorify God, no applauding, its a hymn to God, not to entertain us. Why is America in such dire straights? we can blame the revolting ”modern” churches so afraid to offend members, so willing to compromise the Word.
Sorry to disagree. I have been singing for several years. I am a baritone/bass singer and have played in 3 different bands. I was raised on the Baptist Hymnal and I do agree that a lot of those songs were in a high key, but a lot of them were not. I really do not agree with the old Country Gospel Hymns being bar songs turned into church songs line of thinking. That is what our song leader says about the real gospel music that came from the hills of VA, TN, KY, etc.. I tried my level best to be a part of my church’s choir (I tried for 3 years), but the music has ALL gotten to the point that they are rock songs, with a rock praise team on the forefront of the stage (usually the pet pick of the families with the most money) and the choir is just a backup singer. With these rock band mentalities the church does not even need a choir because you CAN’T HEAR for the volumes of the praise team. I do not even care to get to church on time to be involved in the praise music. It is a 100% accurate assessment in saying that the people do not even sing anymore. It is nothing but a 3 to 4 song rock performance. Most of the music comes from Hillsong and their musicians and they are strictly rock bands trying to appease the young crowd into attending church. I do my singing in other places and I stick with the good ole gospel songs and newer country gospel and I guarantee you that people (young and old) sing along with the songs.
I get your point. It’s not necessarily a “black” and “white” thing, but I can certainly see where that is the general situation. It is cultural and based upon what your initial exposures were. The culture you grew up in matters too. Did your family and the people you were around sing and enjoy music outside of the church? It comes down to the culture of your church to be willing “to go with it”. You can’t “learn” to sing or learn a new song if you’re unwilling to try to lift your voice no matter what the song or the accompanying instruments. As a worshiper in the pews you have to realize it doesn’t matter if you don’t sing the right note or rhythm initially – JUST LIFT YOUR VOICE!
Worship shouldn’t be portrayed as singing loudly or even well! Worship is about the intimacy with God, connecting to Heaven and drawing down his presence. I do not think that there should be fancy lighting or visual masterpieces as they are simply not needed. If you are focused on how nice the lights look, you are not worshiping. My church in Manchester, UK, doesn’t have fancy lights or expert musicians, in fact the worship team is crammed into a tiny corner to the side of the church not on the stage at all. Worship shouldn’t be a spectacle to admire, I don’t think that you need music or to even sing at all to worship properly. I am training to become a worship leader and I hope to bring people into God’s presence using the tools that are necessary, whether that be new or old songs, scriptures, and the Holy Spirit guiding me where do direct the congregation.
Amen, Daniel. Well-said! It isn’t about great music; it’s about the manifest presence of God.
Please cite your evidence for your statement that people aren’t singing any more. That has been my impression but I am wondering if you have any data. thank you
Sorry, no empirical data,just lots of observation by me and many others.
I’ve found the best worship team simply disappears and leaves you talking to God. I think prayerlessness is at the heart of this issue.
These comments let me know that I’m not alone in my hopelessness over the state of the church today. At a time when we need the peace and comfort that a reverent and holy church environment could offer, we get chaos and noise. Just like the world. Our teens are drowning in the mixed up and disconnected culture of today’s world, depressed, anxious, lonely and confused. While the adults have turned the church over to the spiritually ignorant. I’m truly at the end of my rope. There is so much more I could say, but for what? Maybe I should stop praying for a church famiiy and just pray for peace to live without one.
I have stopped attending church altogether solely because of the music, and I know many others who feel the same way. In addition to the reasons listed above, how many timse can you chant “you are my king” before it becomes a vain repetition?
Of course I could sneak in after the music portion to hear the excellent sermons, but I’d feel like a creep. So I just stay home.
Sara,
I would encourage you not to let the music keep you away from a beautiful time of worshiping the Lord and growing in your knowledge of Him. Also, let it not keep you away from fellowship with other believers. Look for ways to encourage and love others in Christ and let them encourage and love you. You are not a creep to just go to hear the sermon – it is good to grow in our knowledge of God and be changed by Him and His Word. If possible, in love, make a few song recommendations to the song leaders and pray that they would consider them. Pray for your fellow believers. The Lord is strong and mighty. Ephesians 3:20-21 (ESV)
20 “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”
While out of town a couple weeks ago, we attended a well known church (large also) and the music was so loud and strong, I felt dirty all over and we actually started to leave. I prayed God would give me enough “Grace” to endure until the message. I had never in my 50 some years of being a Worship Leader had this feeling in church. Their music was so repetitive and non-sense I could hardly stay there. I wondered “Is this what churches are coming to?” I hardly ever get to be out of pocket to attend any other church. This was unusual for me and my wife. Terrible experience. God help us if this is what’s out there for our coming generations.
My sister and husband are pastors in Missouri. Their congregation is small. Their worship music comes from Christian radio top 40. They love the music, I find it distracting. There was nothing familiar in their choices, the words were projected in beautiful scenic photos on the screen, but there was no musical notation to show me where my voice needed to go next. The songs presented were certainly heartfelt when written, but very repetitive. I long for “A Mighty Fortress” or “Amazing Grace” to raise the hearts and voices of His people.
Worship isn’t just about singing: you can use silence powerfully to worship,prayer is a form of worship, the Lord’s supper is a powerful form of worship etc.
This COULD be more anti-Catholic, but it would probably have to have a picture of people burning Pope Francis in effigy to get there.
“Pre-Reformation pew potatoes”? This shows both a startling lack of knowledge about the church in the late medieval period, as well as a total buy-in of all of the protestant propaganda that’s been spewed at Roman Catholicism in the last five hundred years.
Your assumptions about singing are in many cases correct – it is your underlying assumption that singing equals “good” worship that I find problematic. I have participated in worship services that were completely silent, in worship services that were all music, and in worship services that focused entirely on the spoken word. And I have felt the Divine Presence in all of them.
Make a case for singing – as a professional singer, I applaud such efforts. But please, don’t tell people why their worship is “wrong” simply because it doesn’t fit your taste, or because others are uncomfortable singing the tripe (okay, here’s my bias at work) that passes for worship music today. And don’t make the case based on centuries of anti-Catholic bias.
I was coming here to make much the same comment.
Worship before the Reformation was definitely not a “mess”; that’s a very poor (not to mention offensive to Catholics) choice of wording. The emphasis in the Mass is on a different act of worship, so naturally singing was not so emphasised before the Reformation.
There are a lot of good points in this article. I think that this applies really well to European-rooted churches, who have been somewhat trained generationally this way. The whole cultural expectation is, “Show me exactly what I need to do to participate in this congregational form of worship”. I think the rules change a bit for some of the predominantly Hispanic, African, or black American-rooted churches. It is a completely different culture of expectation. A congregation member doesn’t necessarily need to know a melody, or specific rhythm, or the words of the song to participate in a time of corporate praise, adoration, and worship. They just know that “This is the time to Praise Jesus, and I am going to join in the throng because He is worthy, and nothing is going to stop me from getting my praise on.” You just open up your mouth and speak, shout or sing praises to Jesus, and lift a joyful noise – clapping your hands, dancing or whatever. Could reason #10 for not singing be that they don’t have the gumption or training to express praise to Christ in the assembly of the saints due to ancestral/cultural nurture?
Many people (including myself) don’t like singing.
And since so many new choruses have “Jesus is my boyfriend” lyrics–wrap me in your warn embrace, etc.–or just stupid lyrics like the river is flowing as the fountain wells up and I’m drowning in the sea of your love as the Spirit rains on me,” etc., I suspect even those who like to sing have a hard time voicing such foolishness.
Way more fundamental, it seems you all tend to limit “worship” to singing in a congregation. Worship encompasses the believer’s entire life. A believer in Christ worships as he or she works, drives, shops, gardens, paints, teaches, sells cars, or prays. Defining worship so narrowly tends to raise “worship leaders” to a sort of status that seems too self-important. I thoroughly appreciate and admire the people who lead God’s people in corporate musical worship, and I sing (though not so skillfully); and I appreciate the points made in the article, but I encourage my brothers and sisters to have a broader view of what constitutes worship of our Savior and Lord.
Yes, and yes! Might I add that even this article shows some of the problems found in worshiptainment. They still refer to music leaders as “worship leaders.” While music is PART of worship, too many think music is the SOLE aspect of worship. So we worship when we sing… so they are worship leaders. Many church goers now think that we turn on and off this “mode” of worship based on whether we are singing or not. Every part of the service, and even before and after the service, is worship! Taking the offering, delving into God’s word, communion, prayer, bearing one another’s burdens…. this is all worship. The music leader is not leading in these things.
So true! Thank you for voicing the opinion of a majority of us!
I agree. I feel very uncomfortable singing a song to Father God that has lyrics I would sing to my husband or boyfriend.
Praise the Lord!!! There is someone on the planet like me who has major issues with this issue!! Only yesterday I was chatting with a pastor and I told him the same thing! Rarely do we sing about the blood, the cross or hear the name of Jesus in songs. I am a worship leader and I am grieved at the nonsense my pastors have allowed to permeate our worship. I wonder how God feels.
I believe all of church has changed. Besides our congregations singing becoming unsingable, pastors are starting to talk in a points system speech, such as 10 points to a better life, 5 points to realize your potential. Nothing has changed about the way we are going to Heaven or hell and people still need to be told how to get to Heaven. I actually miss the hell fire and damnation preachers and the old convention songs.
“Church” is no longer what it’s supposed to be. As I read comments, at least there still remains some folks with common sense about music in churches. I agree, we have become a “Spectator” attending church people. The so-called ‘Music” isn’t music at all. Same stuff you’ll get at a rock concert. No difference.
I agree Paula! This is exactly how I feel about this issue!
Be the change. If not you, then who?
agreed, glenn
Totally agree with you, Paula.
My guess is that he is blessed by any and all worship. Be it by the mouth, foot, or arm of the body.
It’s amazing how many songs are put up there with no scriptural basis. And I can walk into a Baptist church, pull out a hymnal, and sing whatever is sung. In many of the “slap the music up with no notes” services, I have to hear a few verses before the tune catches on enough to sing it. (That is, if you can hear the tune over the throbbing bass and drums.) Here’s an intersting site for evaluating lyrics: http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/worshipsongratings.html
Re the throbbing bass and drums. My husband and I actually wait til the singing is over because we get awful headaches from the music that is way too loud. I have sung in church for years in a choir then on a worship team and the off the chart volume is so unnecessary, along with the smoke and flashing lights. Rather than drawing people into worship, I think this stuff is a turn-off……unless perhaps one is way younger than I. When they offer earplugs you have to know the music is too loud.
Many of the songs in a large church where I have attended, are what we call “contemporary.” They are sung with 4 to 8 singers on the platform; the congregation is encouraged to stand (for approximately 45 minutes). The lyrics are projected on big screens, some having about a verse and a half, which repeated over, and over, and over, at times for as long as 15 minutes. (LET ME QUICKLY EMPHASIZE HERE, if the Holy Spirit is in THE music service, this is an awesome reason, and we are most blessed. Please know that I am just asking for a few familiar gospel songs, included with the contemporary ones. However, I do look forward to familiar gospel songs with a soulful message, and easily sung.. God bless our church services meant only to honor and praise HIS PRECIOUS NAME!!!
Right on and the thing that makes me want to put a gun to my head is the repetition of the same lines over and over again, and again, and again (fade to nothing)
exactly right– too many Jesus is my lover songs for men to participate in.
There is a chorus that sings “Jesus is my boyfriend”???? A new low
Just in case you’re concerned about “voicing foolishness” let’s take a good look at the psalms – especially the one she to do with longing and fountains and water. In many Psalms David seems to passionately “long” for God. Let’s not be scared of intimacy with God – it’s scriptural “As the deer pants for the water so my soul longs after you,…” Just because kids are using today’s language doesn’t make it less meaningful than it was when the Psalms were written. Many kids desperately want to draw close to their Creator God and Savior Jesus and he is ok with them crying tears at His feet like the woman who did while Pharisees looked on in disgust. Is it ok to desire your Creator with desperation? YES because He is worthy and he knows our hearts – when we are silent and when we sing “foolish Psalms of longing”.
Joy, you are right. If that’s how people feel why can’t they declare it. Many (But not all…) worship songs come out of the outpouring of the creators heart so why should we be criticizing their god given inspiration.
#11 Many contemporary songs — and some older ones as well — are not written for group singing. They are instead structured like pop songs to be performed by a band, while the spectators are invited to sing along if they choose. Good congregational hymns are essentially folk songs, with easily vocalized intervals and rhythms. The late, great Pete Seeger was the master of teaching a thousand people to sing they didn’t know, and within minutes had them singing in multiple part harmonies. The Scottish church musician John Bell does a similar thing when he conducts a music workshop. My observation is that many “worship leaders” really have no clue how to lead a congregation — they may sing lead, but they can’t teach and expand the music they’re performing. Here’s the test: figure out what would have been different about the worship service had there been no congregation present. If the answer is little or nothing, well, Houston, we have a problem.
We need to go Back to swinging the old hymns that had meaning and you could follow the words,and understand!!!!
AAAMMMEEEENNNN
Of course, those only count AFTER the first two (so those are actually #3 through #11)…
Here are the actual #1 & #2:
1.) The average person in your congregation doesn’t really love Jesus enough to want to sing. They’re simply “religious”, & not “in love”.
2.) Proper Biblical expressions of worship are not taught or modeled regularly by leadership.
Now, if those two points AREN’T relevant, & people aren’t singing, then your points apply. But usually it’s one of these 2.
Are you being sarcastic in your “#1”? If not, you’re being awfully judgemental, “Saint”! That statement is just ridiculous, stupid and very non -Christian! Maybe you don’t love Jesus enough!?
Well, judgemental or not, he has a good point. We like to point to the songs or the leadership, but the truth of the matter is… to participate in worship you have to be willing to actually PARTICIPATE. It’s been my experience as a worship leader of 20 years, that, in general, people don’t come to worship really ready to worship. A lot of times they come because that’s what they do on Sunday mornings. But they don’t necessarily anticipate worship of an almighty God. Let alone, prepare their hearts to engage in that type of interaction. I’ve heard it said this way: “there are 3 things in life that near impossible – you can’t climb a fence that’s leaning toward you, you can’t kiss a girl who’s leaning away from you, and you can’t speak to one another in Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs if you don’t open your mouth.”
I AGREE..I’M ALMOST 90 YEARS OLD AND HAVE SUNG IN CHOIRS SINCE I WAS ALLOWED TO.I ALWAYS GO TO WORSHIP THE LORD WITH ALL MY HEART, SOUL AND MIND AND OF COURSE, MY VOICE. I SING WHEN OTHERS DO NOT. I SING TO THE LORD IN COMMUNITY AND WHEN ALONE.AND I GATHER STRENGTH FRO M Y CHURCH FAMILY AS WE SING GOD’S PRAISES TOGETHER, “IN ONE ACCORD” THERE IS POWER IN THAT !
AMEN
Amen Amen. AMEN
Thank You❤️
I don’t sing well. I would sing to my children. They would say, “Mommy, please don’t sing.” Then I sang to my granddaughter. She would say, “Grandma, please don’t sing.”
I feel intimidated by others singing in church. I sing when I am alone in the car. It’s funny, because I sang alto in an a capella group in high school. I can read music. Hymns in church often make me sad because they often choose ones that nobody knows and the singing is thin. On those Sundays that we have traditional well-known hymns, you can tell the difference. The singing is with gusto and much more emotional.
Also, I am Episcopalian and similar to Roman Catholic in the liturgy. We sing chants that have been sung for hundreds of years and everyone knows them. I don’t think Protestant churches have these beautiful songs of worship. We have services where there is no singing at all. Our evening services are musicless and I love the solemnity of those services. So many beautiful ways to worship the Lord. But it should be all participating and not a show put on while the majority just sits passively.
Right on Jeremy !
Reason #10: Most new songs are just stupid–singing about self in a boring pattern that repeats to infinity. I don’t sing songs I don’t like because my heart is anything but worshipful at that point.
Our church had a choir with matching robes and it was awesome. Then they went to a worship team of four to eight singers.. Now they have a band (which I am a part of) because the pastor wanted to move the singing from the stage to the congregation. It has worked out well. We have around 500 each Sunday and the singing is real worship. I love it. And did I mention it was awesome?
Worship at many churches today has turned from worship to entertainment.
I want to add a comment. To stare at a screen and not have the music and words in front of you doesn’t give a person much of a desire to sing. The reason for that is because the lack of music doesn’t let a person know when to go up or down. Also, to have words flashed on a screen seems so haphazard. I also agree with the nine statements that have been posted in this article.
I used to be of the same mind, until we put the music on the screen. We soon realized that the dots and lines may as well have been Greek as few in the congregation read music and you can fit only very little on each slide. (The up and down argument doesn’t stand up because the melodies occur in *time*, not vertical space alone. The non-reader can’t quantify duration often so whether they see a pitch higher or lower on the staff, they have know idea when to move. ) Thus the worship leader needs to be clear about the melody so the tunes may be well-learned over time by rote. I should point out too that the vast number of hymnals published prior to the 20th century did *not * have printed notation. They only had hymns ( by definition, the text only) and the title of tunes to which the hymn text could be sung too. (which is why today’s hymnals contain a metrical index.) The singer didn’t need the mission, only the tune name, i. e. HYFRYDOL, to know what melody to sing the text with put before him/her. Further, let’s not forget our magnificent repertoire of the African-American Spiritual. This body of work was certainly passed down from generation to generation by oral tradition. Eventually it was transcribed but not without several variations depending on which hymnbook you were using and in what part of the country.
So- text only on the screens? Works if executed properly.
Note I’m an organist by trade with post-graduate training as well as a published choral composer. I’ve spent my life and church music, but I realize that there are different methods for obtaining the same goal. It just requires good musicianship.
I have hymnal song books written before 20th century and they have both words and music on the same page . The worship leader job wouldn’t be so hard if they let those few in congregation who can read music know where to go lead others around them .
The fact that there were people who were able to function musically with only a hymn tune tells us that they had in their culture an expectation that people PREPARE so they know what they are doing at worship time.
The approach we have today is almost passive, as if worship is something that happens to you. We are just simply wrong. We need to return.
Most people can’t read music either, so I’m not sure that having sheet music or hymnals is the solution either. Not having any musical training myself, when I have sung from a hymnal having the notes above didn’t help me a bit.
Exactly Melissa.
I agree that not having the notes in front of you makes it difficult to learn a new song. I am a music teacher so I DO read music. The church was the birthplace of many people learning the fundamentals of reading music. The argument that people don’t understand the notation so we don’t need it, is like saying they can’t read so we don’t need the words. You neeed to look at it and practice. BUT, even if you don’t give the congregation the written notation, the song needs to be TAUGHT to the congregation by rote before you expect them to join in. AND if you are going to project the words on the screen, please know to change the words to the next phrase in a timely manner, NOT TO WAIT UNTIL YOU HAVE COMPLETED SINGING THE FIRST PHRASE UNTIL CHANGING TO TGE NEXT!
You are so right,Annette!
The article seems to paint a dim view of the musical ability of the congregation, but the truth is that congregations are different. Some have built a culture of singing well, and reading music… or at least knowing their part.
When a leader strays from the hymnbook with words of music, it means that these strong singers have to “dial it back” a bit as they figure out the unfamiliar words and pick through the harmonies in the new arrangement.
While I agree with your comments about contemporary music and the lack of congregational singing, I disagree with your statements about chant in the church. As a Roman Catholic, I remember chanting at mass – every one knew the words and one only had to look at a missal to read the easy translation. Even modern Catholics know some basic chants, (the Our Father) and the Catholic Bishops in the US are encouraging a return to chant because it is a part of our heritage.
Chant actually solves some of the problems you mention in this article: Everyone in the congregation knew the chants – in fact they were familiar world wide, they were very suitable for congregations and large groups, they weren’t too high and they even set a mood for worship instead of entertainment. You might want to listen to some chant CDs before you discount them so readily!
I am Episcopalian and we also use chants. You can go to any Episcopal or Roman Catholic church worldwide and know those tunes. I went to a parish school and my favorite memories are being in chapel with my little white veil on, singing the chants. It is truly beautiful.
This is absolutely true on all points!! It amazing how the atmosphere of the worship shifts when we insert a hymn that everybody knows well into a string of contemporary worship music. People relax & sink into the melody like the arms of an old, beloved friend! People sing with confidence & passion like you never hear with even the most beloved contemporary worship song.
His point about singable keys is also apt. As the music librarian, who is responsible for setting up the worship music for the worship teams from week to week, I struggle to get worship leaders to understand this. It works both ways. Not only do people struggle to sing in keys that are too high, they often struggle with keys that are too low.
It depends greatly on the range of the leader. Most leaders give littel thought to how the key they choose will affect the congregation they’re leading. As long as it work for them, they’re good. The truth is depending on your range, you can count on at least half the congregation to be of the opposite range persuassion from you. Your sopranos & tenors will bottom out around the A below middle C. Your altos & basses, will top out around the second D above middle C. You need to watch both your highs & your lows. Stay as much as you can between that high D & the low A, & everybody will be much happier. But getting worship leaders to be that considerate of those they’re leading is proving to be a challenge I’ve nearly given up on.
The other thing I’ve wondered about is this:
What would happen if our worship teams functioned like small groups? What if they became part of each other’s faith journey & they coloborated on the music they choose to lead from week to week. Rather than the worship leader just throwing a list together, & everybody gettting together for an couple hours on Saturday to work it out. What it their song choices came out of their journey with God & with each other. What if the worship leaders job was to nurture the gifts on his team & use all the people he has available to him to their fullest potential?
Furthermore, I am not a pop music fan at all. I never listen to the radio. I hate just getting up the there & playing the top 6-8 worship songs because they’re the “in” songs right now. I think great music is great music whether it’s 5 minutes old, or 500 hundrend years old. I want to say something specific with the music we choose to use. Not just entertain or tickle the people’s ears with pretty sounds. But I’m just the keyboardist. I just fill in the string/pads or whatever the “in” term for the position is. I never have a voice in the song selection. It’s like that worship leader is the star of the show & I’m just there to back him up.
Amen! A song leader needs to be familiar enough with music in order to pitch a song correctly; most of the time that is the key in which it was written. The congregation we last attended, before we moved to another state, the leadership stated that only one no more than 2 pop songs could be used in one worship assembly. That was great.
Sadly, not everyone who has a good voice is a goo song leader.
Just want today I agree with you 100 percent. I hit every point. I try very hard to plan and direct meaningful music services that everyone can participate in and truly lead in praise and worship. But it’s easy to become discouraged when others don’t seem to “get” your passion for worship music. It seems they just as soon randomly sing a verses 1,2 and 4 of a familiar song or two then get on with the preaching so they can go home and eat lunch. I pray people can again learn to worship God who is do worthy of our praise. Thanks for your comments.
Preach it! : ) I was for years on a praise team that did indeed function much like a “small group”. Your assumptions about the resulting unity and cohesiveness are exactly correct. We actively studied leading congregational worship, closely observed what did and did not work on Sunday morning, prayed together, laughed together, cried together, and then worshiped together. It made a huge difference.
Tracy, I don’t know you but reading your response was difficult because it sounds like you are struggling with the leadership of your team. Please, let me encourage you to pray about your feelings of being the “backup” to your worship leader. There is a seed of resentment there that is not good for you or your team and will cause problems if not dealt with soon.
In Christ.
Amen
Wow Tracey I heard your heart in this reply… I wish you were in Greensboro…We could you a true praise and worship keyboardist RIGHT NOW!!!! Lol God bless you and I pray for your church worship experience to change into a sweet fragrance that God will accept!!!
This is so very spoteth oneth! Thanks for articulating this so very well! I was blessed to read it, be reminded and be affirmed in the direction and vision for worship in our church. I was also blessed to have one of my team members send this article to me to affirm their appreciation that we are paying attention to these things. Thanks again for your voice of encouragement and challenge!
I agree with so many of these! I think in order to combat them, its important to understand at least some of the reasons why they happened.
From my perspective a huge reason modern worship has taken the direction it has is what happened behind the scenes in the music industry in the late 90s and ’00s. Prior to that, congregational worship resources were written and recorded with the church in mind. The production of CDs was a byproduct of these resources.
There was a clear separation between inspirational performance artists like Michael W Smith, DC Talk, Steve Green, Sandi Patty, Steven Curtis Chapman, the entirety of what we labeled CCM, really, and worship leaders and worship songwriters (and the organizations who published their music). People like Paul Baloche and Ron Kenoly, and organizations like Integrity Music, Maranatha music and the various choral companies existed for a different purpose than their inspirational counterparts.
That demarcation no longer exists. During the music industry’s massive mergers, all of these companies were gobbled up by Sony/BMG, EMI, Universal and Warner. So, instead of a small company with a mission to resource the church, these publishing companies and distributors were now divisions of large, global multimedia companies with the same mission as any other division; making money for shareholders. What these companies brought in in income supported their small staff and roster of talent just fine; now that pie had to be sliced 10,000 extra times. That change in reality led to finding worship songwriters who could function as artists, and arrangements and recordings that made the artist sound as good as possible, so more people would buy the CD. This all was happening during a major disruption in the entire music industry, with digital downloads becoming a reality, and margins per CD sale decreasing by an alarming amount. Resourcing worship in the church became one small part of a marketing strategy to promote the artist and sell records, instead of being the primary function of these companies.
That being said, there are MORE resources than ever being produced for us to use. But we need to be more mindful about a) what we choose and b) how we adapt them for congregational use. We used to just be able to take a song and do it exactly as the worship company released it. It was designed with the congregation in mind. That is no longer the case in almost every single instance. As was pointed out in the OP, songs are arranged and written to showcase the artist’s talents. The vast majority of the congregation is not talented enough to sing the song as it is on the radio. High keys are only one symptom of that particular problem.
I’ve heard a number of defenses of higher keys and volume over the years. I’ve even given some defenses for them, especially volume. I had one worship leader tell me he didn’t understand why his congregation wasn’t singing along, and I brought up volume and songs being too high. His defense was “I was just at a Tomlin concert last week, and it was louder and higher than anything we do, and everyone sang along and worshipped!” I asked him how many people in his congregation he thought would attend a Chris Tomlin concert. Maybe 20%? Worship concerts are filled to overflowing with worship leaders, worship team singers, and other musicians. The average person at a Tomlin concert is far more musically inclined than the average congregational member. Many of them can harmonize by ear, so if its too high, so what? They’ll sing something lower. They came to a rock concert, so guess what? They are completely prepared for volume. They’re also younger than the average congregational member by about 25 years.
The other defense I hear is that there are plenty of hymns that are just as high and the melody is just as complicated as anything modern worship gives us today. And this is very, very true. Just look at the 1991 Baptist Hymnal and compare the keys to the 2008 Baptist Hymnal. Many, many songs have been lowered a half step, or even a whole step. But that misses the point. Our culture was more musically literate for the vast majority of the time when hymnal singing was common. People could read music and sing the lower, simpler parts if a song was too high, leaving the melody for the really good singers. That’s not the case anymore.
Tony Pero
Minister of Music
Sandy Plains Baptist Church
I just wanted to tell you that the people really sing at my church, Free Chapel, in Gainesville, Georgia! It was one of the things that really drew me there! It’s a large church – we have 1500 children per service alone in KidPac, but it’s the most hugging church you’ve ever seen. We have an awesome pastor, Jentezen Franklin, who still uses the KJV. We have three other campuses that are also almost as large as this one, and we go to 125 countries around the world each week. But in our hearts, we’re still just sinners saved by grace who are happy to have found the Lord. Come see us sometime. http://www.freechapel.org.
I disagree with the comment about the Chris Tomlin concert attendees. I would say the majority of attendees at his concerts aren’t involved in music ministry. He’s a well known artist who’s played often on Christian radio. My kids even sing his songs in children’s church. I’ve been to his concerts and the majority of attendees are younger than 50. The reason less than 20% of my church would be in attendance is because 80-90% of them are over age 60. That percentage might be true in a lot of other churches, too.
‘Concert culture’ is also a reason. Worship leaders attend popular concerts or watch DVDs and try to mimic them in Sunday worship. There are actual sessions where the only components are music and song, the worship leader doesn’t utter a word in between!
Church worship is different, worship leaders need to connect and engage more to encourage people to sing along and participate.
I am a member of our churches worship team. We mix traditional and contemporary music in our worship. And, we’re not about the people on the stage, we are about those in the congregation. Leading people into worship is far different than “performing” worship. God tells us to “make a joyful noise unto the Lord. ALL the earth”. God doesn’t expect “professional singers”, nothing is more pleasing to the Lord, then the worship of His people. He doesn’t care, if you can sing perfectly, or you can’t carry a tune in a bucket. All He wants is our Praise and Worship unto Him. “BE
THANKFUL unto the Lord and BLESS HIS NAME, for the Lord is GOOD.” That’s all it is, really, about. Blessing the Name of the Lord and being THANKFUL for every single breath, comes from HIM. Blessings and Peace to you all.
What if your church has a ton of old songs that the keep playing but, it’s a different set of old songs almost every week.
I feel like this church doesn’t want to do new music. The majority of the people in this church are in the worship band, that is, there are more people playing than there are in the pews.
I don’t sing in church because I don’t sing, period. Hymns are the reason I stopped going to church. Hell has few tortures worse than listening to dozens of untrained singers sounding out elevator music. I went till I couldn’t take it anymore, then left.
And let me repeat: I. Don’t. Sing. I don’t like it. I’m not good at it. If you expect me to sing at your church, don’t expect me to be there. Period.
You can still worship without singing. Praising Him and praying during the songs is worship too. I believe God would rather hear a voice in true worship than voices raised to be heard as great singers.
You would love evening services at my Episcopal church. They are lovely and solemn and no music. Much prayer and quiet praise. I don’t like to sing anymore so often go worship at these services.
I stopped going to church last year. I was going to the Mother Church of Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, CA. and I couldn’t help but wanting to stand up and scream ‘HE HEARD YOU THE FIRST 50 TIMES! HOW STUPID DO YOU THINK GOD IS?’ ‘LIFT HIM UP X 50’ …REALLY? i understand it depend on age, and/or what you know from your childhood. However, the congregation at Calvary is about 50% 45 year old plus.
One sunday morning the group on stage were playing contemporary praise music and the congregation of about 600 could barely be heard. I don’t remember why, but all of a sudden a different leader got up and led the congregation in an old fashion hymn, I wish I could remember the name. The entire congregation began to sing this hymn, load and joyously…young and old. What’s not to get here? OK youngaters, I get it, but the churches are ingnoring the blessings and traditions of ‘Love lifted me’ type songs.
Your pain is noted. Thank you for verbalizing my thoughts. Maybe there is a smaller church that would love to have to you that might not have the super worship going on and on and on. Sometimes the music in my church is so slow and want to yell, “hit it.’
It has become increasingly harder for me to worship in song at our church. When we first came to this church, they were singing off the wall with all the contemporary songs plus one hymn. With the changing of pastors, we sing all contemporary songs. We have hymnals in the pews but they are not getting used. We have a praise band and they play and sing loudly. There were complaints so they changed to ear pieces and at first it helped but now they are becoming louder. They did have worship leaders who were good singers. Now the worship leader does not sing as well and drones. Now they have recently turned down the lights in the sanctuary except the ones on stage. They gave the reason when asked so that people could read the words on the screen. Nope…I could read the words just fine with the lights up. I suppose they will take out the hymnals next and get rid of them saying we don’t need them.
Come on churches! Give us back our spiritually rich hymns that not only appeal to our emotions but to our spirits as well!
I can understand continued use of the hymnal, but you say it’s rich worship, and I disagree!! Songs like “Holy Spirit” and “Lord I lift your name on high” THOSE are worship songs. I just had this conversation with someone else in the church. He said if it’s not in the red back hymn it isn’t worship. I would never want to remove them completely, but I don’t understand how our older generational wants us to raise ours hands when we sing page 333, but sit there disgruntled and angry when we play Holy Spirit? I’m not saying you’re like this, but it just confuses me. I’m trying to lead worship at our church. Our first worship leader literally sang the hymns every service the key they are written!!! You know how high that is? Now I transpose it electronically and the piano player has a FIT every time. It’s been challenging and I cry about it plenty. It hurts when you can’t do anything right. I can’t play the hymns In a normal key, and if I play anything other than hymns it isn’t worship. Please don’t let your opinion get in the way of true worship. Do try and open up and listen to the words. Not saying you’re in the wrong, but you sure sound like one of those grumpy complainers I hear from every Sunday.
Lola, I say this in Christian love. You are saying that Judy may be letting her opinion get in the way of true worship, but it seems you may be doing the same thing. I agree with you that we should pay attention to the words of the songs/hymns. I will also say that very few of the contemporary songs teach as much as the older hymns about the character of God and what He has done for us in the atonement. Many of them are human centered rather than God-centered. And I’m not old.
AMEN!!
Okay I’m going to give my opinion. All I know is that the older members of our congregation don’t sing at all when contemporary music is sung. The comments I’ve heard from them is the music is too loud , seems more like a performance, and just ignoring all the hymnals in our pews. I’ve even asked the worship leader if we could do one traditional service a month with all hymns, but that’s been awhile back and I don’t even think he passed it along to the other worship leaders because I haven’t seen nor heard anything about it. Out of respect for the older members of our congregation, I think they could at least try it out. And I also get tired of having to repeat the same song over and over and over again. We heard you the first time!
Everyone just needs to attend church with an open heart and mind and knowing that times change but if you’re a Christian, it doesn’t matter as long as you go to church to worship the Lord. Isn’t this why we go to church? Please everyone please stop complaining and everyone will be so much happier.
I attempt to come into church late so I don’t have to worship with the singing. I find it so irreverent. For me, something is disturbing about seeing people up on stage—I feel like it becomes all about them…many times the women aren’t dressed modestly so I am embarassed when I bring a guest particularly if they are from another culture. I’m not a prude. It’s just very hard to be focused on Jesus when people are 1/2 unclothed. I also don’t like the hype that follows much of the music in evangelical circles. So, I’m one of those who actually has to fight against not wishing we had no singing. I find it hard to worship in a rock concert atmosphere. God seems silly for me in such an atmosphere. I remember as a child loving choirs and seeing adults in choir robes. Something seemed lofty, dignified, God-honoring about that. I’m not trying to be old fashioned either. Just voicing the views of someone who can’t relate to the current informality of worship. I also find many of the lyrics disturbing; plenty of words about humans, emotions, longings…almost like chanting some weird mantra…..very little about the attributes of God; his omniscience, omnipotence, grace, mercy, loving-kindness.
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I agree with you. When the worship leader shows up at a funeral with shirt and tie and then comes Sunday morning in his old jeans it tells you who has earned his respect more. It all comes down to respect. When you go to a hospital you can’t tell the nurses, who used to appear so sharp in uniform, from the visitors. They do not want to sing about the blood anymore either. I am fine with mixing hymns with chorus’s but they are starting to drop all hymns. I guess it shows that I am getting old. I am sure if they were to told Jesus is coming today they would dress fit to kill. Well, Jesus is coming today so………
Amen!
My first thought upon reading your post: Find a different church!!
Your pastor would probably love to hear your input. Before you consider departing, go see him and articulate your concerns. You shouldn’t have to feel embarrassed about your church.
DITTO!!!
many of the CCM songs are called the ‘7 11’ songs…7 lines repeated 11 times.
Have you ever listened to Handel’s Messiah? Talk about repetition. And his music has survived for centuries!
Maybe he’I’ll come do a workshop.
Frankly I do not like singing as an act of worship. I suck at singing. I would rather worship in other ways. As it has probably been stated I most enjoy the expositing of the Biblical Texts and the application and conviction of the Holy Spirit. I also feel this whole “singing thing” is probably being blown way out of proportion. I really wish talented folks who writes these articles would spend more time doing productive things within the body… sheesh.
Spot on Nick!!! I suck at singing too.
Nick, singing goes back to O.T. days…
So many comments are focused on music. Music is NOT worship. Music is part of worship, but it is only a small part.
Further more, it appears that many are focused on worship as some part of the Sunday experience inside a building. Worship is much bigger and should be part of our daily lives.
I encourage those of you who are pastors to refocus your Sunday services and teach your flock about worship, what it really means, what each person can do to worship even when no one else is around, etc.
Absolutely!!
I was fortunately raised in churches that included a broad variety of music, music styles, with participation of many, and all ages. Church was a great place to let kids perform in public and develop their God given talents. What a great way to worship God. I have visited several churches in recent years where the music is dominated by the Worship leader and/or the praise band. We sing pathetic droning song after non-musically inspired song, that go on for ever – as people go into a trance like state. And of course, these drone zones are often at churches that bought into the fad of changing your church name to supposedly a more relevant name. And often these churches have bought into other not so great fads. Thankfully, we were exposed to everything from opera singers, to barbershop quartets, to folk type music, classical, various contemporary styles and etc, at church. I have found something quite interesting in the past few years. I play in a brass group and perform in many different churches including many denominations. It seams that many liberal churches have the most enjoyable music, and have become more generally conservative, or so it seems, versus churches that were formerly conservative that have gone of the deep-end musically and are being sucked into every fad and “Christian” celebrity that comes along -and in my opinion the music reflects the falling away.
I was a former worship leader…a long time ago and boy, have things changed!
Worship is now performance or entertainment based and only the worship team- who practice the new songs- really get to know the songs.
I can add a few other reasons why people don’t sing as much:
1.Songs used to be direct quotes from scripture so it was a win-win situation. You sung scripture and it got inside of you where you remembered it easier than trying to memorize words..
2. Songs today are often based on love themes or emotion and may have the guise of relating to scripture but really are far from it, wordy, and impossible to memorize With the frequent “new” tunes coming in and so many songs sung, you never really get the words into your spirit.
3. A long time ago, even the one in the congregation with a terrible voice, if they were anointed at that particular time, could feel free to start singing out and the congregation would join in BECAUSE WE ALL KNEW THE WORDS!.
4. When only the “good singers” can lead with a song when under inspiration, it says to the congregation- don’t sing if you aren’t incredibly talented! That is a huge joy killer for many.
Today’s churches have people sitting in a theater atmosphere which gets people sleepy and lazy! Why stand if you can lounge and groove?
I think the churches today do not offer the freedom to have a song from here or there in the congregation. Years ago it was led more by the Holy Spirit and with far more reverence. That too sadly is missing.
Amen.
We (as musicians & song leaders) have to remember it’s make a joyful noise with our voices & play skillfully with our instruments.
I see the benefit of simple melodies with scripture in the worship services. At our church, everyone is in the worship service, from baby to senior.
(I play violin & sing, my husband is the main wotship leader at our church.)
Honestly I could not disagree with you more.. I don’t know how old you are, I am 19. I don’t think that the “older generation” understands that times are changing, and changing rapidly. Do you not think that it was different back when your parents and their parents were younger? To think it was the same is pretty absurd. Now just assuming the worship leader/team is worshipping truly and honestly, their sole purpose is to help guide the congregation into worship and lead them to the foot of the cross. What you may think is “just a show” to them may be “appealing and leading these people to christ”. And to be completely honest as a member of the congregation, your job isn’t to judge the leaders on stage about how they are doing. It is to come in and surrender your heart to God through praise and song.
email me if you would like to talk more. i love having conversations like these in general to help wrap my mind around everything as well. @ Cameronsmusic@hotmail.com
Cameron, you would be surprised how many young people like the traditional old hymns. One of the reasons stated is, ‘I heaqr this stuff all week. Godly music should be set apart, much more rverent.”
Mark, I can’t disagree more! What is Godly music? (vs. ungodly music)? All music is a gift from God, whether or not you or I like it is irrelevant! Don’t forget, once upon a time all these “Godly” hymns were “new”, people actually had to learn them.
Hollis, Rich Mulins once said CCM does not belong in church.
I hate going to a church where the are singing all NEW songs! There are hymnals in the pews, but the don’t use them! This is not a popularity contest to see who can come up with the most new songs! Church is a place to come and worship A God that is familiar with us! And if we can’t be familiar with Him through the music we sing, something is lost. I agree with the article, new songs need to be introduced slowly, over time, with the words AND music written and placed in the congregations hands, so that they can LEARN the song properly! Just to spring a new song on a congregation, with no musical notes to follow and learn, is wrong! I need to KNOW whether the song goes up, down, sideways, notes being held or sped up, whatever the case may be! I hate having to just stumble along! For visitors just coming to the church, they might like the song and wish to have a copy of the music to take with them! I am posting this in the general comments also!
I can’t say, “Amen” enough to your comment!!!
Double AMEN to Ardis’ comments.
Thank you for this article. Oh for a Reformation without all the excommunication and persecution.
There is no right and wrong way to worship. Worship is different for different congregations, cultures, ethnicities, and even sub-cultures within the local church. It’s amazing to me that any form of worship someone is not accustomed to is automatically labeled wrong. For 30 years as a pastor of large and small churches, ministering across the nation and around the globe, in every culture imaginable, this has been a constant argument. And always from those who do not like someone else worship. Mainly churches larger than theirs and predominately younger in demographics.
There is nothing wrong with people singing, there is nothing wrong if they don’t. If your church is growing, then you should always have a large group of people who do not know the songs and are not singing. They are called New Converts. The problem I have observed over 30 years is the people who complain one way or the other, usually have no interest in reaching people different than themselves. Thus justifying their laziness by complaining about the music because it might actually attract someone different than themselves. I am pretty sure Jesus doesn’t care what or how or when we sing as long as its worship.
What’s funny is, during the time of Jesus and the apostles, it was very common for people to vocally participate during the spoken word or preaching, yet most pastors would have the ushers remove anyone who verbally participated in their sermon other than to give them accolades. A growing New Testament Church should be full of people on any given Sunday who are not singing because they do not know the words. Or we could use secular music for them, if engagement and participation is the goal. Better yet how about finding music that is relevant to the culture your congregation fi ds itself established in. You might like it or you might not. Fact of the matter is its not about you or me. Its about using worship as a tool for discipleship and worship to Jesus.
Elder Christians love to complain about the churches catering to the unchurched, new disciples, or younger generation. But I have noticed that same generation of Elder Christians do not mind being the ones catered too. Maturity is more than just any generations traditions. It’s also, largely, most importantly about winning the lost and making disciples. Now that’s a conversation worth having. Nine Reasons No One Cares About Doing What Jesus Commands Us.
When I was a new convert, at 42, all I wanted to do was sing… It was a glorious way to honor the God and King I had always rejected. The Bible teaches that God’s people live covenantally, marry, raise children to be Converters, sing and worship in the way God designed, not whatever/however makes them “feel” good… Hymns of loudest praise and hymns reflecting the Church militant, always moving from infancy to maturity… Taking dominion for God.
“It’s ok for people not to sing.” Uh, no. It’s not ok for God’s people not to sing during worship. The purpose of worship is to worship. I’m not autocratically saying that everyone has to sing every word, but refusal to worship God is not ok with the Lord. We are commanded by God to worship Him. We must worship Him. He must be worshipped, and although He has angels who do so non-stop eternally, we are likewise to worship Him whether we feel like it or not. What you and so many modern christians fail to recognize is that worship is about God, and what He is rightfully due from us. Its not about how we feel, or what we get out of it. This article is very right on from a worship leaders’ perspective because it presumes that God should be worshipped by his people when they gather. That is correct and Biblical. “Jesus doesn’t care what we do or how we worship” is not Biblical. We have a Holy God, who is deserving of our reverence and attentive worship. He is worthy of our full attention, and worthy of whole-hearted, enthusiastic worship in song, and in word. When “worship” consists of people performing, showing off their vocal or instrumental prowess, trying to garner praise and attention for themselves instead of glorifying the One God, then they are glory-robbers, selfishly serving their own interests instead of looking to the interests of others, and not giving Almighty God his due. I think when you get to heaven you will discover that your laissez faire attitude toward worship will not be the norm in eternity. The purpose of the article is that worship leaders are to facilitate the corporate worship of God’s people. Pretending that the Word is silent about this, or leaves this open to whatever interpretation or practice the worship leader espouses, is definitely error. Take the time to do an in-depth study of worship in scripture, and I think you’ll draw some different conclusions than what you’ve stated.
Thank you!
Hi Ed,
In reading your response it appears to me that you presume to know far too much. You cannot know why one person is not singing. You cannot know that another person who is providing a brilliant musical offering is doing so for their own gratification. You are judging these people.
Your statement, “What you and so many modern Christians fail to recognize is that worship is about God…” is deeply offensive. Why do you presume to provide this instruction to people you have never met?
This statement, “It’s not ok for God’s people not to sing during worship” is far too sweeping. There may be a number of legitimate reasons why people aren’t singing including the best one, “I’ve never attended Christ’s church before.”
“I’m not autocratically saying that everyone has to sing every word, but refusal to worship God is not ok with the Lord.” You appear to believe not singing = refusing to worship God. There is a huge range of reasons why people don’t sing. Certainly one of them might be they refuse to worship God, but how many people attending church do you suppose fit that description? If they refuse to worship God, their church has a much bigger problem to solve than simply getting them to join in the singing.
Your response to Will Haddock was judgmental and un-loving, Ed.
I agree. Someone once said that we never lie more than when we sing in church. The last time I checked lying is still a sin. Would any Christian in his or her right mind purposely and knowingly sin while participating in a worship service? I certainly hope not. The popular worship song “Burn For You” has the lyrics “I’ll go anywhere, I’ll do anything, at any cost for you my King.” Really? Anywhere? Anything? At any cost? While I love my Savior how many of us are willing or even able to fly to Siberia on their own nickle to present the gospel to the Russian people there, for one thing who has that kind of $$$ and do you speak Russian. Another is “One Thing Remains” with the lyrics of “Your love never fails, never gives up, never runs out on me.” Repeated ad nauseum way too many times. Another is “Jesus, We Celebrate Your Victory” with the lyrics “And in his presence our problems disappear.” Oh how I wish that every time I come into His presence all my personal problems would vanish, my unsaved son would receive Christ, my neighbor’s cancer would vanish, my friends ALS would be cured but alas all stays the same. Lastly my favorite “How He Cares” with the line “So heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss . . . ” Ugg, I suggest a lyric change to that one!
What if someone has severe social anxiety/ self esteem issues? I struggle with social anxiety everyday. Sometimes its a struggle to go to church at all because I get anxiety being around large groups of people. It may sound silly to you but for some people its an actual psychological issue. I don’t usually sing in church because I’m self conscious and shy. Its just my personality. Should I just not even bother showing up to church at all? I may not sing in church but that doesn’t mean I don’t worship God. Sometimes I get on youtube and listen to Christian songs and will sing along when I’m by myself because I’m more comfortable that way. Does that mean that the way I worship is any less meaningful? I used to go to a church where it was common for people to sing/clap and even dance; One lady in particular, who was known for being very boisterous during worship, decided to get up in front of everybody one day and started to accuse people in the room of worshiping “halfheartedly”. Who is she to judge how anyone worships? She doesn’t know whats going on in someone’s mind and heart, only God does. Personally, I think people like that should spend less time looking around the room, looking for people to pick on and more time focusing on God. Hes the reason we are supposed to be there.
Could you defend your view on regimented singing as worship from the Scriptures? Please make sure that the context matches what you think it means. I’m just curious why you think that it’s not alright to abstain from singing.
From a former pastor;
You make a good point; err, great argument.
From experience ~ more folks would read your comments if they were more succinct. Your point can be made with less ink thereby enhancing the reader’s focus.
In Love, Retired pastor …..
…..and gospel artist in the 70’s with 371 solo concerts in Baptist Churches nation wide.
MAY THE LORD CONTINUE TO BLESS YOUR MINISTRY BROTHER!!!
I hate going to a church where they are singing all NEW songs! There are hymnals in the pews, but the don’t use them! This is not a popularity contest to see who can come up with the most new songs! Church is a place to come and worship A God that is familiar with us! And if we can’t be familiar with Him through the music we sing, something is lost. I agree with the article, new songs need to be introduced slowly, over time, with the words AND music written and placed in the congregations hands, so that they can LEARN the song properly! Just to spring a new song on a congregation, with no musical notes to follow and learn, is wrong! I need to KNOW whether the song goes up, down, sideways, notes being held or sped up, whatever the case may be! I hate having to just stumble along! For visitors just coming to the church, they might like the song and wish to have a copy of the music to take with them! I am posting this in the general comments also!
The new music is in keys that are minor, more difficult to sing,
I disagree, there is a right and wrong way of worship. There definitely is a variation in worshiping the right way, and a variation in worshiping the wrong way across cultures, places etc. the point here is that the choice of songs and the way they are introduced does not promote the worshipful or praise spirit previously known. Music is a significant part of inviting the holy spirit into worship.it seems to me your 30 years as pastor taught you to be a very compromising , people-pleaser and i wouldn’t be surprised if you have a big church but with no spiritual growth because ANYTHING GOES IN YOUR CHURCH since you say there is no right or wrong way of worship. New converts hunger for the right way of worshiping and the trend at the moment is leaving a lot of people unfulfilled.
Bravo! I love your points.
Well said. Great points!
Spot on Will!! I feel the Church has missed the boat for centuries…..it’s not about us! It’s about reaching those who don’t know Jesus, however that may look. (And with Jesus it’s usually pretty messy).
First of all, we should be there SELFLESS. The point is to gather with like believers to worship our Creator. Why does everyone think they have to have a rock concert production with the big “look at me- how talented I am” attitude? Every church I have set foot in this past decade has blown my ears, bored me nearly to death, and kept me from looking to my Savior with worship! I am literally afraid to even try another one. What happened to singing the scriptures? What happened to singing songs we all had memorized? Nothing is as simple–no, sadly it all has to be a big showtime. I haven’t found the Spirit in this worldly rock show. If you want to blast your eardrums out, do it elsewhere! The last church I attended had earplugs available on the greeting table. Even with those in place, the volume level was so loud it was literally painful! I couldn’t stay in the building, and I had no problem hearing everything from outside the closed doors. Needless to say, I won’t be going there again!
Like most everything else–we need to live in a balance in the middle, not on the extremes.
Sadly, this is more than just an issue of the style of music and volume, it’s a spiritual problem. When the hearts are right with the Lord and seeking Him first, there will be worship led by the Spirit of God that needs no leader up front showing off. (Oh, to find such a church again!)
I totally agree
I hate live bands. Hate them hate them hate them. I always have. Probably because my granddad has been in the symphony for as long as I can remember and I grew up listening to classical music and attending wind symphony concerts. I also do not care for modern Christian music, among several other types of music. It’s dull. I know, I suck. That’s just my preference, and I choose to worship according to my preference and what makes me feel most connected to Christ. These rock concert church services and “worship teams” just don’t do it for me. And maybe that makes me a terrible Christian, to say that some church services are better than others. But I think you have to find a place that meets YOUR needs and allows YOU to grow spiritually, and not every church can do that.
Think this is a huge problem with our worship culture as well.. It’s al about me and what I want. I don’t like worship teams – I just want that Tomlin song from 2001 every Sunday – etc. Worship should be upward focused, not inward.. Vent done.
Singing in the bible was often a spontaneous act of praise. Singing in church services is a scheduled, rote activity. I don’t always sing in church just like I don’t always sing at other times when I want to worship and praise God. Because someone has picked a group of songs to sing during a worship service, does not make it necessary for all to sing. If we sing with just our lips are we not clanging bells.
You bring your life of worship to church.
If there is no worship of God outside of church there will be no worship of him inside church.
This is true and one of the most important things about worship or church that I have read today! Fully agree.
This my dear Petri is the crux of the whole matter. If you are not living a lifestyle of worship Monday to Saturday then it is virtually impossible to offer up true worship to God on Sunday. Singing, dancing playing musical instruments – these are all ways we outwardly demonstrate what is in our hearts. God alone knows when what we do lines up with who we really are.
The music is TOO LOUD!
It’s all about the amplifiers.
And the performers.
I think there can be a balance in praise music and hymns. I go to a church where it is all praise music and I deeply miss the great hymns of the faith. Many of the lyrics of modern music seem to have little meaning, it is all about the sound and the beat unfortunately. When we used to sing hymns the words were so meaningful and the power of the songs brought conviction. Many churches have sought to follow the world with more noise than understanding and appreciation of the words expressed.
Plus, what is it with singing the same stanzas over and over again. We sing songs 4 or 5 times before moving to the next song. What is the significance of doing that? It gets boring and I cease to even notice what I am singing after a couple of times.
I am absolutely with you on this one. It makes me feel so uncomfortable when words or lines are repeated over and over again.
As an interpreter for the deaf one must really think about the lyrics in order to properly interpret them. There have been many times a hymn would bring me to tears. However, I have yet to get any feelings at all from the lyrics of a modern praise song. But interpreting the same phrase over and over and over and over and over again begins to confuse the deaf person. Any day I prefer to interpret a classic hymn. So much thought and feeling went into writing those hymns, it’s a shame we seem to have abandoned them for volume, pop, and flash.
At my church which is VERY YOUNG, I believe everyone participates. We are loud, energetic, and very sincere. I am almost 60 and this is the best church I have ever been involved in. Our church teaches the importance of Praise and also Worship using the Bible. We also teach that a normal Christian is a radical Christian. We evangelize, live seperate from sin as much as possible, and we are a very big family loving and caring for each other. I love being a father and a leader to these young adults.
Colon, it’s awesome to hear what you are doing in your church. Great that you are attracting the young people, young people don’t have as much of a problem with the music as older people. I am 54 and pastor a small church in a small town in New Zealand. I have also been a worship leader for many years and I can attest to what Kenny is saying. As with Suzanne’s comment below – and Matt Redman’s classic song about it – we have redefined worship to mean ‘singing songs to Jesus (the quiet ones, ‘cos we all know the loud ones are praise and the quiet ones are worship). This is not Biblical worship. Thank God that there has been a change in the last few years in what we call ‘worship’ songs and they have come again to focus on our Lord and God and not what one Promise Keepers speaker used to call the Jesus-is-my-girlfriend songs. Biblical worship is to present our lives as a daily sacrifice. I would have a good look around next Sunday morning and see who is really singing, who is really ‘worshipping’. Many people can enjoy singing songs to Jesus and yet completely miss the point.
I know that worship leaders may not agree with this article but for the lay person standing with the rest of the congregation, I agree with what the author is stating. I have been in church services almost 50 years and the trend of worship, especially in large churches, is resulting in a very structured spectator event. I see that the Holy Spirit has no room to move while the worship is going on. The focus is on the stage presence of the worship team and worship leader. I’m not saying that this is fact for all churches but for the most part in the DFW area I believe this is exactly what is going on in churches. There was a time when the worship leader let the Holy Spirit lead and the worship was true and pure. Once the control is given back to the Lord and not held by man will this change.
I went to a church in Texas. It was led by men who understood that they were second and the Lord was first. The worship leader understood that the Holy Spirit may take the worship time in a different direction. The worship leader let the Holy Spirit lead and sometimes we would just have worship. It was powerful. The Holy Spirit flowed during that time. There were signs of Him in those services. Then a new man came to lead that congregation. This man took control and things changed. This new man grew the church. He changed the name of the church, he changed the location of the church, he changed the make-up of the church. The church grew from 800 to 3000. On paper it looks like this is a successful Holy Spirit driven church but in reality it is a man driven church. Sure there are great activities, a big stage, lots of colorful lights, very loud music, but the deep connection with our Lord Jesus Christ is lost for some.
Being a worship leader is a selfless job. You have to be flexible. They make way for the congregation to enter the Holy place. It is a very important job. So for a lay person talking to worship leaders. Take this article to heart. Sing songs that we know, Sing songs that are simple (we are not professional vocal performers), Sing songs that are in the majority range (dumb it down some), Turn that amplifier down (It’s not all about the amplifier), STOP performing, Engage with the people in front of you, Get out of the way and let the Holy Spirit lead.
I respect worship leaders. I would not want their job.
AMEN
I am the song leader without any instrumental backup in a very small church. I prayerfully choose the 3-5 songs for each week, according to: the minister’s sermon topic if known, the church season, which hymnal songs haven’t we done recently, which songs do I LIKE to sing, a song someone has requested, and which songs is God leading me to. Sometimes I am amazed how well a song will lead into the sermon, sometimes someone will tell me later how much they appreciated a particular song…it’s all God taking a hand in my job, and I love it!
I’n concerned that worshop as mentioned here is simply music. There are many things included in worship and music is just one. Also it’s insulting to 1500+ years of worship before the “reformation.” The word liturgy means “the work of the people,” so it’s obvious you didn’t really do your homework in researching. I wonder how the early church did it so effectively and the entire ancient world was converters?? Wonder how they did it without all the round, lighting, key changes, arts, and worship leaders?? Hm …maybe they actually relied on the Holy Spirit?
I was thinking the same thing. Well said.
I worship in a congregation that does not use instruments. We do not have any of the problems mentioned in this article. While there may be someone that does not sing for whatever reason, sore throat, cold. It is obvious that everyone is expected to sing. We sing old hymns and new contemporary songs. Some of the contemporary songs have been changed slightly to make them more appropriate for congregational singing. We once had a power outage during worship and the worship service continued without interruption because everyone knew the songs well enough to continue singing. Singing is not about how well the music sounds, it is about praising and worshiping God. However, the more you sing, the better it sounds. Because everyone sings and knows the songs, songs are sung in four part harmony which sounds beautiful even without all the instruments.
I also belong to a church where instruments are not allowed, but for my husband and I, who are both musicians, this is a problem, as the song leaders are not good song leaders, although they do their best of course. Often the song is started to high/low, phrases are shortened, etc. The congregations tries to follow, but basically the singing is poor. We find it difficult that, according to our church, musical instruments are not allowed during worship!!!
All you need is a piano/keyboard/organ so that ALL people can follow the music. We have tried going other churches, but then we end up with the big noise factor!! I am sorry to admit that this is making us hesitate going to church, but of course we can still worship (without being in a church=building)
I wish you could come to my church; we don’t have instruments because no one knows how to play!
I get it. There are times I don’t sing at church. Working for a gospel artist full time, I hear the songs. There are times I have to say, I wish the tempo was more upbeat. One slow song after another is not my thing. And before you jump me for it not being the tempo but the words. I agree. That brings me to the other reason I don’t sing, I get into the hymns of the past. Old Rugged Cross, When we all get to Heavan, on Christ the Solid Rock I Stand, songs that have a way to touch me. The new songs are now being written with meaning now. Before now, to me, the were 7-11 songs. Contemporary artist are writing meaningful and deep songs that are touching lives today.
As a church, as a Christian, we need to stop saying things like, if it’s not contemporary I don’t like it. If it’s not traditional I don’t like it. If it’s not southern gospel I don’t like it. What we need to do is support all Christian music. Just because we don’t sing it, doesn’t mean we don’t like it
I appreciate many of the ideas in this article, I would like to see a sister article about the responsibilities of the congregation in engaging and “trying”. This article lays the burden squarely on worship leaders and fails to account for the possibility that the people themselves might at times be resistant, prone to spectate, judgmental, overly analytical, hair-splitting, entertainment-oriented, etc. Paul and Silas worshipped in chains. Surely the members of our congregations can find a way to overcome such tribulations as not knowing the songs they’ve made no effort to listen to beforehand or such afflictions as the key of E major.
Many of the new songs are totally new to me and we have no tools with which to learn them. Words on a screen mean nothing without being able to see the printed notes, so I, along with 75% of the worshippers just stand there til the performance at the front is over. I, personally, have never seen anybody moved to shout in worship with a song that they don’t know the words.
I also find it hard to learn a song if I can’t see the notes. But we should both remember that the notes are meaningless to most people—including some of the musicians. And with some of the new songs, it is difficult to obtain sheet music. It might be convenient, though, if those who can sight-read were able to obtain sheets for the new songs that are planned.
It was in visually following the words with the notes while hearing the singing and instruments that I learned to “read” music. Something I would never be able to do today in churches with no hymnals. I see the present trend as a loss.
We have done a great disservice to all when we removed the hymnals, even a “non musical” (?) person can follow that notes go up and down, and see the idea of the timing.
I too learned about reading music from following along in the hymnbook. Now we have taken that learning away. It was an “extra” benefit!
After chemotherapy I found music gave me a very physical nervous
reaction. All music and PA systems. One day I was in a restaurant, enjoying the music. The manager came by to check how everything was. I smiled and said how much I was enjoying the music, and lately I just found it seemed to wreck havoc with my nervous system.
He replied “Ahhh . .Many who come here say that, for the music. . . . .it is my sound system. A good analogue one, and it is not digital” Bingo . . .I find that if a regular piano, organ, violin, guitar, anything that is NOT digital is being played I love the music and find it joyful. As soon as it is all digital my nervous system makes it very difficult to sit still and I can only think to “flee” From stores, churches, wherever. I can no longer shop or concentrate on anything but “flee”
Could some complaints here simply be a result of actual physical disabilities? I know younger people that wear ear plugs to church for this reason. They feel it affects their nervous system and want to leave, it is such a strong reaction. I can feel this in any store PA as well, it is not a spiritual thing, it is a physical thing.
So sad. Perhaps a mix of instruments would help. But I now understand that this is my problem, and so I don’t go to church anymore where there is electric piano, electric guitar, and sometimes more than one. It isn’t because I don’t like it, it is because I physically cannot take it. I stay home and listen to hymns where there is a grand piano (not digital) It has become my church. So sad. I long to be able to be a physical part of the church community. I too, as above, am thankful for You Tube and the Christian content I can get there. But, it isn’t the same as being in a building with all singing together!
Perhaps some research could be put into this. My hearing technician told me that they have people every day come in for the same reason, and that it is a measureable “sound tolerance” problem. Please don’t be too hard on the older folk in your congregation. Perhaps think of ways they too could be included. I am not saying that chemotherapy has this reaction on all, but I could enjoy the music more before I had to be taken off one of the drugs because of the effect it had on my nervous system. I just didn’t put the two together for awhile.
1 in about 5 or less will get cancer in their lifetime. How many folks in the churches are struggling and being blamed that they are grumpy and old and judgmental. Perhaps this is not at all the reason.
Would you say such a thing about someone who was disabled in any other way? Please be kind to your prayer warriors and often those who long to be a part of the entire church, and find themselves alone and don’t understand fully what could be wrong. I believe most everyone in the church would be appalled if they found out one day that there was a physical reason and would regret hurtful judgements from both sides of the matter. That said I do love the hymns that are singable, memorable, and concentrate on the attributes of God.
Right on.
Here’s the thing. If the music is too high – it doesn’t matter how willing, non-judgmental, etc…I CAN’T sing along.
If the “leaders” go off and do their own thing and I CAN’T follow, I can’t follow.
” Surely the members of our congregations can find a way to overcome such tribulations as not knowing the songs they’ve made no effort to listen to beforehand or such afflictions as the key of E major.”
Here’s the thing. If I’m not psychic and they haven’t told us what songs are going to be sung, it’s really hard to put the effort into listening beforehand to unknown song.
I think there is a lack of teaching in the Church about worship, and what it means. A Word study of the different meanings of praise and worship in the Bible would help the congregation a lot…then we would know the reason why God is worthy to be praised.
As I was reading this article, I was somewhat shocked that there has even been any type of study of a person or a mass of people’s Worship to the Lord. I love the Lord and I Praise Him in my car, I Praise Him here in my home. I know that my opinion isn’t anything important, but isn’t Praising and Worshipping the Lord about Him? Yet, He is so awesome that He blesses us while we Praise Him and it has been my experience that in the darkest times in my life, if I began to Praise Him He blessed me with Peace and so much more. And He moved in my situation. Which is a reminder of the Apostle Paul’s account of him and Silas praising the Lord while in prison and they were set free by the Lord’s angels. Which brings me to my opinion. Regardless of what type of lighting you have, what type of songs you sing, what type of technology is used, etc., that it is an individual decision to Praise and Worship Him. After all, we were created to Worship Him. Maybe there are some people who just aren’t comfortable displaying their affection to the Lord, or Praising Him in public. The Holy Spirit abides within us and leads and guides us. With all that I just wrote, I would like to end with this: We are to Worship Him PERIOD! And one more thing, He created us all with free will so if someone doesn’t want to Worship Him and Praise Him during a church service, then that is their choice and it shouldn’t be up to a church or any organization for that matter, to try and figure out what can be done to get people singing.
Your comments seem to be about your own view and experience of worship. What about those who need help and guidance into worship? Also, this article is about congregational worship, not individual, and in my opinion and experience as a,worship leader, it is absolutely correct in every point.
, I would like to see a sister article about the responsibilities of the congregation in engaging and “trying”. This article lays the burden squarely on worship leaders and fails to account for the possibility that the people themselves might at times be resistant, prone to spectate, judgmental, overly analytical, hair-splitting, entertainment-oriented, etc. Paul and Silas worshipped in chains Surely the members of our congregations can find a way to overcome such tribulations as not knowing the songs they’ve made no effort to listen to beforehand or such afflictions as the key of E major……Typical response from and egotistical arrogant narcissitic so called worship leader. There is no evidence in NT of any office called “worship leader” It is just a man made position where by one who thinks he or she is special can display their talent. What they are leading is not worship anyway, just a performance.A
Amen & Amen! I especially loathe the fact that worship has been turned into a “spectator” event, rather than a “participator” event. We forget that worship is something we do, and not something we view.
I grew up going to a Baptist church. When I was in junior high the music minister told me – in front of the whole youth choir – to simply lip sink the words and that my singing voice was truly a joyful noise. Now as an adult 1. I don’t sing EVER – 2. when I attend church, I arrive after all the music is finished (come just in time to give my offering and listen to the sermon). Yep, I pretty much hate all music now.
Aj, I was so sorry to here what that person did to you at a young age. First, they should have not spoke about something they didn’t understand, such as PEOPLE and voices evidently. Remember that God has given us all beautiful voices to sing his praises. And he blesses us with his understanding not the worlds understanding. Try again to sing for HIS GLORY and not for those around you and he will give you back the musical compassion which you had. God Loves You as you are! “Give all your worries and cares to God , for he cares about what happens to you” I Peter 5:7 NLT
AJ: This happened to me in public school and I never learned how to sing, and walked away from music. The tongue truly is a cutting sword!
AJ that was a terrible thing to be done to you or anyone. Just remeber a lot of us can’t sing (me included)
I had a worship leader that said GOD gave us the voice and when singing praises to him he makes people hear what he wants to hear and all the praises to him are beautiful and that includes mine and your voices. When we all stand with him in Heaven we will sing praises and guess what he will be the worship leader and everyone (me and you includer will make a beautiful sound.
I can so relate to being told don’t sing…I was told at age 9 I was tone deaf. When I got saved in 1987 I would sob during worship because I yearned to sing to my Lord of my love for him. My pastor found out about it lovingly told me SING ANYWAY that God gave me my voice and he loves ME AND MY VOICE I started out quietly singing but got braver as time went on . If music gets quiet I do single very quietly but I still sing. One day it hit me…they were wrong! I can’t be tone deaf for if I were then how come I can tell when others are off key or not. I learned in can’t carry a tune and that’s OK. Do I wish I had a singing voice? Of course I do for I’d love to be able to spontaneously sing out…I guess I said ALL that you say…SING! Let your expression of your love for him out… God inhabits the praises of his people and you ARE HIS PEOPLE
My problem is not knowing the song. Too many new songs I just do not know
I doesn’t matter what you sing, if you don’t have the anointing and glorified presence of God. Forget it. The days of not allowing the Holy Spirit be in control of worship is over. Churches will just be singing songs, and God will not be involved.
if you don’t have the anointing and glorified presence of God. Forget it. …Sounds good but what do you mean, Every born again child of God is annointed!!!! 2 Corinthians 1:20-22English Standard Version (ESV)
20 For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. 21 And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, 22 and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.[a]
Amen to most of what has been said. LOUD not automatically mean worship or engagement. Most church “professional” leadership in music and other areas assume that the “current style” is the only way to sing or express enthusiasm. (Loud, repeating constantly, with certain words yelled or thrown in) A congregation wants to appreciate participation and respect/decorum in any service. Contemporary “style”music often leaves two thirds of any congregation out in the cold. Traditional music can be blended but most “blending” today means eliminate the original tune, wording, and delivery. A variety of music can be achieved when all understand the motives of each other. Again, LOUD and jumping up and down does not mean that is the only way to worship, if that indeed is worship. Certain traditions are to be enhanced with enthusiasm added in full measure. “New” and “Different” are not necessarily “worship.” A good choir with a good director can introduce many variations and the congregation will follow if they are treated with respect and their “style” of music is also appreciated.
Charles’ contribution brings to mind something that I used to find very inspiring. It was an 80+ year old West Indian lady who used to shout out in worship, both in tongues and in English. Unfortunately for us we lost her to death, but she will be there in Heaven worshiping God!
Our church has two services … first is “Traditional” with music from the Hymnal. Mostly elderly attend this. Others attend first because of an activity or work coming along before second service is completed. Second is “Contemporary” with music on the screen and lead by a band. I am elderly but love this particular service. I love the songs from the Hymnal, but I love the spirit the Contemporary service seems to have over the Traditional. Never worry about your voice, good or bad. Our Pastor says the Lord loves to hear us sing His praises and thinks all of our voices are good.
Someone in the responses touched on the thing that is often missing in so-called worship music – the adoration of God! Many of the songs are more about the people who are singing than about God. Some of them leave me so frustrated, because they do not let me express the way that I feel about God. If we are to take on these new songs, they must express the greatness and love of God. One example from the past is ‘How Great Thou Art,’ and rather more recently, ‘How Great is our God.’ These two really touch the parts that many songs miss.
I am SO with you on this! I’ve been a vocalist/worship leader for most of my life. The church I’ve been attending for the past 16 years is contemporary and quite often pretty loud. While there are a myriad of viable discussion points in response to your excellent article, I agree that the too often focus is away from pure worship of God. I don’t really care to stand up and sing about my struggles, I can articulate that in my prayer journal or in the shower while singing. A song that has “i”, “me”, or “we” in the title is my first red flag. In saying that, I do understand that within a message series, there is generally a theme that needs to be address through the music and often those songs are speaking to those specifics. But at least one or more of the songs each service should be pure worship in nature. Besides the two you mentioned, one that always makes me want to drop to my knees is “The Great I AM”! When we’re in front of the congregation, leading others in worship, there is nothing more pure and beautiful than a song sung in complete and sincere worship of the King! I LOVE to imagine all our voices joining together with the angels in heaven and making a sound ‘as loud as rolling thunder’!
Just my 2 cents here. I began drum study in 1968-78. I was very lost at the time. I had high hopes of going pro and had the skills to make it in the world of secular music. Messy family situations caused me to give up playing/studying the drums. Jesus touched my spirit in 82 and His rescue of me was right on time. God opened a door of opportunity in 92 to drum for His glory & purpose. He taught me much about music both secular & spiritual. I did a major house cleaning and removed much of the music that I fed on when I was lost. 92-08 were awesome years of being blessed by God in allowing me to participate on 11 worship teams that presented pure worship. Pure being defined as being well focused about & towards God. Songs that invited/inspired the congregation to participate well in a true worship demonstration. Very sadly not seen to much these days. Bottom line is that there is not really any quality teaching going in most churches about music and or true/pure worship. I began teaching worship drumming in 94 to present along with teaching about media. Things really improve when wisdom is shared with others who really have no clue about a topic. God looks at the heart and desires that ALL who profess to be connected with His Son Jesus in a personal relationship to be fully surrendered in all areas of their walk. 2Timothy 2:19 is my favorite scripture that sets the standard for us to be following. There is no room for performance worship in a church setting either. All who are called to be true worship leaders and ministers need to be well focused on what God has to say about what we feed on. Garbage in garbage out. No room for the gray area. god spits that out. My advice is that a worship team must be well connected with each other and their lives transparent to each other as well. A worship leader NEEDS to really know his team members. God gave me a very simple and applicable system that works well to accomplish this task. WTC= worship team clean. Once a team and its leader are on the same sheet of music the power of the Holy Spirit will flow through each person on stage and then flow out to the audience offering encouragement and inspiration to all who are in that place of worship. I have seen this take place first hand when I was doing prison ministry. Beyond amazing. Prisoners being touched, healed and encouraged by God in many ways. Gods best to you all. JOHN 8:51
These are all valid points. Sometime though the reason is because praise time feels more like a funeral service than jubilant praise. In our church most of the hymns are from 60’s through 80’s and they are the slowest tempo songs in the book and they intentionally slow the tempo even more. It is highly frustrating. I love the old traditional hymns (Amazing Grace, etc) just pick up the tempo!!
I believe that the lyrics are simply not true of everyone there. Often, people are hesitant to admit it, but they just are not humble enough. More often than not, when I attend church, people are not “considering the lillies of the field,” but focusing more on the style and social aspects of their fellow attendee. This attitude tends to rub off on elements of the service itself. People are focused on the wrong reasons for being there in the first place. I believe that God is more concerned with our understanding of His word than whether or not we sing songs. Furthermore, in order to have a “personal relationship with Jesus Christ”, the ritual and schedule, not to mention, size and income of the church (note, income OF THE CHURCH, not the individual) are less important to Him than the solidity and validity of what is being taught.
I am a catechumen in the orthodox church. ALL we do is sing. And chant. Its beautiful.
We need to return to the Hymnal. I haven’t really sung since we abandoned, totally, the hymnal. I know a lot of people who feel the same way I do but don’t want to say anything. We really need to address this issue before it is too late. There is a lot to say about using it in our worship services. It teaches us to read music. The hymns have wonderful scriptural meaning. I am not saying you should abandon pop songs, but include hymns, sung in the traditional way, as well. I feel like I am going to a rock concert every Sunday. And I’m not that old.
I can appreciate you stance and I too like hymns, but isn’t that just picking one style over another? Saying I like hymns more is no different than a “younger” person saying they like contemporary worship music more. Or having a preference of guitars over organs/piano. That’s all style and it has it’s place. At one point hymns were contemporary and 50-100 years from now Chris Tomlin songs will be “hymns”. By definition a hymn is a religious song, completely devoid of musical style so technically modern worship songs are hymns.
The emphasis needs to be on the lyrical content of the music. Just because something is labeled Christian or Worship doesn’t mean it’s good…or true. There is a lot of lyrical fluff out there but there are some hymns that use terminology that people today would have no clue what it means. So how does that affect their worship? How can they be genuine if they don’t understand what they’re singing…modern or hymn?
I visited a church that used an ipod for worship songs b/c they had no band. The pastor’s view was if the congregation couldn’t worship with an ipod then they can’t worship. Again making it about style or the lack of band/piano/organ presence.
Will will whole hardheartedly 100% agree that there is a trend of rock show worship sessions. I’ve been a part of those on both sides and I don’t like it. If performance outweighs authenticity there’s a problem. Not to say I couldn’t worship to loud music, I am a metal guy at heart, but I don’t need guitar solos or tons of vocal ad libbing. The focus is changed at that point to a more “hey look at me!!” situation rather than looking for the Spirit. I am 35 and I think my generation and those coming up are seeing how disingenuous rock show musical worship is, or can be. There seems to be a movement to more muted musical worship sessions, a more trimmed down version. And again…that’s that not always the answer either.
The fact of the matter is this has always and will always be an issue. Different people lead to different approaches to worship and honestly no one….no one will get it right. The only hope is to be authentic in leadership and that will cultivate authentic worshipers.
Amen to Nathan. I have come the conclusion that if you can only worship the Lord with one type of music (within reason) it is your lack of spirit. The old hymns are beautiful and full of theology. The new contemporary music is uplifting and spirit filling. We use to have two distinct services at my church and it was awful and very divisive. We now have one service. Yes it leans contemporary but we sill have at least one hymn per week with the Worship Band and the organ always plays softly during communion on communion Sunday. It is the best feeling I have every had in worship.
Whoever entitled the new system? Worship is not just trying to follow instruments which are too loud trying to get people excited. Worship come from the heart, from the individual, not from some group on stage performing. true worship comes from more Bible and less non musical noise.
The presentation of a “new” song is one area I give a lot of attention, because our goal as Worship Leaders is to help lead our people to engaging in the worship experience. How can a congregation join in singing a song they don’t know? On a snow day recently, I watched a very well known ministry’s service. One of the Praise Team members said, “We have a new song for you. Stand and join with us as we sing.” Huh? I’ve found it helpful to use a “new” song in other than congregational settings first, such as having the choir (if you have one), Praise Team, ensembles or soloists sing the song as a “special”, offertory or something like that. Use it on several occasions so that when you put it in your set list, the folks will be more able to engage.
I worship in a congregation that only sings Accapella. So, the question you raise about how is a person going to sing a song that they don’t know really does not exist for us. We have never used any instrument other than our voices, our children learn from a very young age how to read music. We always sing 4 part harmony. It really does not take very long either for our new members to learn to sing, they get a lot of practice every week. This past Wednesday evening at meeting a new song was introduced that only 4 out of 25 people knew. It had 4 verses and by the third verse almost everyone was singing and carrying the tune. When the words and the musical notes are provided people do learn to sing.
It is sad that the singing portion of many worship services are nothing more than glorified karaoke. They sing words on a screen of songs they hear on Christian radio, which is really all that karaoke is. Reason 3 is also a biggie, especially when the worship leader himself can struggle with the high notes. My late mother, rest her soul in the arms of Jesus, kept saying that the people have to be able to sing it, and if it was too loud that she couldn’t even hear herself sing, let alone everyone else, that’s where she drew the line.
As a choir member since 1958 (!), my knowledge and love of the hymns has been my strength during horrible times. Another benefit of singing hymns introduced me to my neighbors – I love to sing hymns while I mow the lawn 🙂
I was uneasy but cooperative when successive choir directors increased the number of praise tunes, grudgingly putting in one hymn per sermon to appease the blue-haired set. When our last 20+ year old director began choir practice one evening by telling us we were worshipping incorrectly, then producing a textbook workbook page to prove it, I got up and left. He and I had a meeting about it, resolving the matter somewhat.
The last straw was watching the preacher’s wife doing figure 8s with her hips, eyes closed, and clapping her hands way above her head..
Lest you brand me old-fashioned, I am a former professional actress/dancer who has seen many forms of “normal and relevant”.. My point is that church should at least remain a sanctuary from all the societal stuff.
Something else not mentioned is that music leading has many times been handed over to the armature band guy who plays guitar and a handful of chords but doesn’t read music and has had no training on leading anything.
I find bands are alienating = too loud, they are the center of the focus (all about them), songs not appropriate or hard to sing, Songs that are full of LA LAs and whoa whoas and ooo ooo oos. Time for youth group and not Sunday morning.
At some point many churches stopped hiring professional musicians that can lead choir or an orchestra/band of the people in the church. Instead they found a guy who can sort of sing and knows a handful of guitar chords and a few musicians. Voila – a band is formed. Singing corporately has been turned into a concert and musician worship takes place instead of Jesus worship.
I have seen a new Christian who was on fire for God put in a place of leading singing but his lack of understanding of it all lead to really bad song choices lyrics wise, him singing everything in his key (high tenor) and it was a performance.
Just because it is on the radio does not mean it is congregational singing because it moved you personally nor is it some great inspiration from above. Sometimes it is just someones story – fine for a concert but not church.
In addition to all of these excellent reasons, with which I agree totally, even the position of the singer is all wrong. Being a singer, it’s difficult for me to “stretch” my neck to read the words projected on the screen, unless I want to sit way in the back of the church. We do, in our church, have printed sheets with the lyrics for those who either can’t see the screen or prefer having a copy to hold. I really agree with the “learning” the song first before including it regularly in worship. Our Praise Team has already rehearsed the songs and know them, so they’re ready on Sunday morning, but the congregation is getting them “cold turkey” and that makes it more difficult. Also, I know it’s important to attract young people to church, but it’s disrespectful and just plan rude to disregard the older members, who, after all, are the backbone and the founders of the church. Also, I’m not sure those more mature members aren’t that comfortable standing for three songs in a row. either. You can’t cater to one group and forget another.
I totally agree. They sure don’t care about us older folks anymore and it’s a bit disrespectful.
It is often assumed in churches with contemporary music that their congregation listens to the local CCM station where they play the new tunes, and thus they already know them. NOT necessarily so…where do you think the members get the political talking points they repeat in Sunday School???
In my experience worship leading for the last 15 years there have been many times when the congregation simply stares, like a congregation of mannequins. I think it would be beneficial to have an occasional sermon series on the importance or worship, the importance of praise. Pastors need to step up to the plate and teach the congregation. The Pastor is the primary worship leader whether he/she thinks so. The congregation takes their worship cues (engagement) from the pastor while the music is going on.
I am praying for you. Your words sound a bit prideful (I suffer from this sin myself, so I feel slightly justified in calling it as I see it) and somewhat resentful. Was the congregation like mannequins because it was a new song, or too high or too low, or a difficult rhythm? Sometimes I don’t sing along with our praise team/band simply because I’m just too busy enjoying the music and worshipping! Placing the blame on pastors alone is unreasonable. If you label yourself worship leader, it’s just as much your responsiblity. The importance is not on the act, but on Who we worship. Pastors and worship leaders are called to direct the people to Him, then worship and praise will naturally follow.
Dear DE, I think you should concentrate more on praying for yourself. You seem to be seeing your own vices in other people. That you are prideful does not make you an accurate judge of others’ pride. Joe is simply speaking from a worship leader’s perspective, just as you spoke from a congregation member’s perspective. I have been a worship leader, a pastor, and have also been part of the congregation. Several times the worship leader is left frustrated as the congregation just does not respond, even when they all know the songs. People often come to church with so much burden, and it may take time to tune in to worship, but sometimes the people just don’t cooperate with the worship leader. Even the pastor sometimes fails to respond. That is what Joe is saying and using the mannequins example is not abusive. It was meant to be humorous and I actually laughed when I read it. You mention that you don’t sing along with your worship leaders because you are busy enjoying the music. Just imagine if everyone in the congregation decides to do just that! And I can’t see how he is placing the blame on pastors alone. Did you really read his comment? He is just saying pastors should teach the congregation more on how to participate more. You started with saying that you are praying for him because he sounds prideful. That comes off as self-righteous. If you were praying for him, why would you tell him and let the whole world know? Just do it in private of you are sincere! I think you are projecting your own faults to Joe.
The sentiment “The Reformation gave worship back to the people” assumes several things, not least of which is the extremely popular but shallow modern notion that worship only happens when people sing songs.
Further, music is an art form. All art forms are culturally informed. Each generation or group brings its own cultural lenses to the table. This spells communication breakdown. No way around that. Church music will always be too loud or too quiet or too high or too low or too lame or too progressive or too old or too hipster for somebody. Such is art.
That said, the job of the worship leader/pastor is to lead/pastor the gathered church as best as he/she can by the power of the Spirit. This means relationships. I resontate with the #9 in the OP for sure. The rest feels like the venting of a recently frustrated reformed purist. We’ve all been there! (except for maybe the reformed part)
I would add a tenth reason. We are a culture that values expertise and delegates tasks to trained professionals. This has led to a population of self-conscious people who think if they can’t do something on a professional level then they shouldn’t do it in public. This also contributes to church members who think they can’t share the Gospel because they aren’t Bible scholars, so they leave evangelism to the paid professionals.
I agree 100 percent with those nine reasons. My key in planning a worship set is called something for everyone. I love the blended approach using CCLI’s top 100 songs and hymns. I feel if you are going to teach new songs to the congregation they must here the song at least twice prior to the week they learn it. Maybe it is a choir special or an opener then you teach it. Think about it.. The praise team has to go over it several times before they can effectively sing it with excellence and it is not fair if you pull it out of a hat and have them sing it first show. I believe it the becomes a distraction during the worship time and can come off as a concert. Remember, variety and style is a sign of a great blended service. I have been a worship leader for over 20 years now and have led all types of services. Traditional, contemporary, country, southern gospel, ext… Yes, blended is my favorite however repetition is the key in all those types of genres. Don’t think you burned out a song because you practiced it 50 times when they only sang it 5 times. Know your congregation!!! Keep record s, attempt to keep things thematic with the sermon, make sure your words and keys match correctly or make a tasteful transition between songs but Do Not preach a sermon! Mostly, listen to the Holy Spirit and ask God to speak to you on what song He would like you to worship Him with before you even start to plan. Use your gifts to the best off your ability so that you can give God your very best because He deserves nothing less! Last thing.. Make sure that all your band and singers smile, look at the congregation and train them the songs well enough so they can enjoy the presence of the Lord. Others will seen them worshipping and let’s face it. It is contagious! Be Blessed!
It’s really (sorry) larger then the professional worship arts, it’s the whole professional church leader, the professional leadership. The generic professional pastor for all departments. You somewhat qualify some as sheep, this is sad. Sheep should only be that for a time, but to be encouraged, and taught to serve, not to be served by a professional class. The professionalism in the church (“Church” which is a organism) has become a huge rut. Christian articles, and mag. have been overflowing with this same topic you now write. You have hit the nail on the head about the music I must say, it’s become to difficult for all.
Lord bless you.
“Worship” leader is a misnomer, and you argued it correctly, however, it is definitely NOT worship the way “worship leaders” are doing it. We need to add worship back in with our wonderful hymns. We don’t know everything in this present time, though we think we may be smarter than the church leaders of old. They in fact were obviously smarter, because they got results. We’re too busy entertaining.
I agree with the 9 reasons as to why people fail to sing and I feel it goes a lot deeper than that. Singing is a part of worship only, not the whole of worship. Worship is a lifestyle of the Christian who loves the Lord; who loves to commune with Him and be with His people. Worship ‘leaders’ are, in many cases, song leaders and music directors. They play/teach/lead the music part of worship today instead of leading the people into true worship in Spirit and Truth. The heart filled with the love of the Lord comes to worship with reverence for the Lord and none for men. S/he comes with an excess of joy or, even, travail, outpouring at times, for God while discerning those around them. They can’t really be lead like sheep. However, when that sort of leading is provided, unfortunately, I feel, the less mature or new children in Christ are taught to become reliant on that style of ‘worship’ and rarely participate… until they realise that worship is Life in Christ and not just music, no matter how important music may be in it’s right place.
I am blessed to have the opportunity to serve the church God called my husband to plant in many ways, among them as a member of our worship team. While I respect the author’s opinion, I agree wIth Scott Ivey’s comments. I grow weary of stylistic “worship wars”. When we build our churches upon the bedrock of prayer and create opportunity for the Holy Spirit to move in our midst, changing lives one by one, then we may actually become so overwhelmed by His weighty presence that we cannot utter a sound at all. 😉 Until then, as we worship, as “lead worshippers”, we encourage our congregation to do likewise. We are BLESSED at our church with a passionate, Jesus-chasing worship leader who by God’s gifting actually embodies the ideal of the author’s article. Thank you, Scott, for reading between the lines as you did to paint the bigger picture. It was freeing!
This is an interesting read but some of the comments below are even more interesting – Particularly Scott Ivey’s comment.
I am a pastor in London, England and particularly have oversight of our worship team.
I think this article raises some interesting points and they are things we as worship leaders should definitely be aware of and navigate but I think I would agree much more with the views of Scott Ivey.
Take the discussion around what key we are using our songs in. Hay I have been in times of worship where the leader is singing in a range way outside of my own, whether it is a Chris Tomlin singing in the heavens or A female lead and Im singing ultra low…. never the less I worship – what definitely does not aid me in worship is watching a worship leader try and sing a song outside of there range – Again whether you can hear there voice breaking as they tear there vocal chords or there singing a song in such a low key its boring and lifeless.
Worship leaders, sing in a key where you are comfortable and can actually lead from! If you are not comfortable then you won’t be able to lead affectively.
My only other comment is on introducing new songs… Again I think Scott Ivey’s comments are helpful. Agree with your leadership what a healthy balance of new/old songs looks like – This can change in seasons btw. The strength of your musicians for instance can affect this. In our current season, we introduce a new song every month in general. But Scott is right, teach them properly – Some songs require more walking through than others. Also be sensible in what other songs you cushion around the new ones. When I teach a new song I put incredibly simple well known songs either side it… But be wise with the songs you choose… Choose songs that are manageable for your team and your congregation.
As I say this article is helpful to raise questions and be aware of some things but be careful – One size doesn’t fit all. This article may be true for the church of the writer but my experience has lead me to believe more along the lines of Scott Ivey.
There are so so many factors at play when we think of a time of congregational worship… If only our church congregation could turn up every week, utterly on fire to sing and dance and exalt our God but they don’t… People come from busy, crazy, hectic and often messy lives and they need to be engaged with and lead and often reminded of the truth of the bible – Who God is, whats he’s done, who we are now through his sacrifice. Engage your congregations, lead them, take them on a journey every time you lead worship of discovering more of God’s love, grace and majesty.
So, I’ve seen different variations of this blog post over the past several months, and I guess I’m ready to stop ignoring it. I’m a full-time worship pastor, so a lot of FB friends or concerned members will forward me the article in a confused “I read this, so it must be true… but… what?” kind of way. They’re confused because it is in direct contrast to the experience we have every week at church. I don’t have any doubt that there are churches who are having a lot of trouble with passionate worship, and lack of participating congregants. I do, however; think that the “9 reasons” are a naive and extremely broad diagnosis for the modern Church’s passivity in general. I can say this confidently, as our church sings… and we sing loud.
So, I thought I would take a little time to share my opinions… That is all they are. I’ll say, before I start, that I do agree with some of the actual bullet points to a… point. Some of the beef I have with the article is the apparent… almost (dare I say) arrogance that some seem to have found in using a personal and touchy, trending topic to steer people who don’t know any better than to listen to only one point of view…. Ok… Here we go…
1. They don’t know the songs?
If this is true then you may be leading too many songs… Not too many “new” songs. A consistent flow of new songs is a great way to bring fresh acclimation and adoration to God. What I mean is too many in a single service. If you only have enough time allotted for your music to sing 4 or 5 songs “as recorded”, then cut one or 2 of them, and take some actual time to teach and learn the new ones. For us, 3 is a great number. A new song is not always included in our set, but when it is… We spend about twice as much time digging into it… By the middle of that song, it is almost always sung the most passionately. The following week, we sing it again as a part of the set… They know it fairly well, and we only extend it if it needs it. After 3 weeks, it is a part of our catalog, and we’re most likely already teaching another one. It’s exciting.
The other problem that could be happening is that you don’t have the talent on stage to help create an atmosphere of worship. That may sound harsh or fake and plastic, but it’s very true. If ANY of you went to, say, a leadership conference and the worship was lead by a tone-deaf screacher, then a distraction-factor has been established. This can (and will) cause every new song (and old one) to transform into something to tolerate for 5 minutes instead of something to help them engage in communication with their Savior.
2. We are singing songs not suitable for congregational singing?
I agree with this one. If you are singing a top 40 radio hit, then they will bob their head, and may even recognize them, but some of those songs are just difficult to follow. We rarely choose songs that aren’t “all-skate”, and when we do… it’s purposeful.
3. We are singing in keys too high for the average singer?
This one actually makes me laugh.
There’s usually a good reason that songs a recorded in the chosen keys… Because the singer is able to achieve “excellence” in that key.
I heard a joke once that went something like “3/4 of a worship leader’s time during the week is spent on changing keys in Chris Tomlin songs.” That’s funny because, of course, Chris Tomlin has a high range, and worship leaders believe that this is why people don’t sing when they lead his songs(it’s not, by the way) Chris not only has a girly, high tenor voice, he is also one of the most effective worship leaders of the modern era. He doesn’t change his songs to more manageable keys when he leads, and we all sing loud.
Phil Whickham not only has a girly, high tenor voice, he is also one of the most effective worship leaders of the modern era. He doesn’t change his songs to more manageable keys when he leads, and we all sing loud.
Lincoln Brewster not only has a girly, high tenor voice, he is also one of the most effective worship leaders of the modern era. He doesn’t change his songs to more manageable keys when he leads, and we all sing loud.
There are so many more… I think there is a pattern here…
In my opinion, the only time you should change the key of a song to be more manageable is when the leader of the song has a hard time singing it. If someone from the stage can’t reach a note, then that whole “distraction factor” has come back into play. In the same way… If a leader has a natural high range, and changing to a lower key steals his “umph”, then the potential moment has been robbed of excellence… (distraction).
I will often tell people to sing, and sing loud… I have even called out friends in the congregation from time to time to say… “See, Eric is singing, and he can’t carry a tune in a bucket. Church… it’s not about you harmonizing with your neighbor, or hitting every note perfectly. It’s about you pouring your heart out to your Savior, and He tells us that it is a sweet, sweet sound in His ear. This may be the only place you ever hear that said about your singing, so take advantage… Eric knows what I’m saying. Now, let’s sing together, and lift up our God!” Their inability to sing well has become a teaching point, and a new comfort level has been established and even encouraged.
4. The congregation can’t hear people around them singing.
Good! I’m not singing to them. By the way, most people don’t want the person next to them to hear them… That actually keeps them from singing. I’ve had more than a big handful of people tell me that they love that they can come together with the Church and sing with abandon to God because they didn’t feel like they could at their last church… The music is powerful, and only God can hear them. I remember growing up in a very traditional church, and there was always that one guy who sang 10 times as loud as everyone else (usually in some operetic-esque manner). I would giggle, my mom would shush me, and then giggle a little herself. (distractions) There is no perfect volume, and I’ve come to understand that “too loud” means different things to different people. Sometimes volume can be distracting when it’s low, and sometimes when it’s high. We’ve managed to dial in the right levels that seem to set the right environment for our congregation… 88 to 93db for us.
5. We have created worship services which are spectator events, building a performance environment?
Musicians are performers. They use their talents as worship. Guitar solos are worship. Fiddles and drums and harmonicas and mimes are too. (yes… mimes). A sound man who makes it sound incredible is worshiping. The guy who takes pride in creating a visual environment with lights and smoke does it for God, and he is worshiping. The person communicating the message is worshiping too, and he took lots of time to make his (or her) points relate in a way that is relevant… There is a true art to that as well, and he is not only worshiping he is also performing. When we complain about it being a performance environment, we’ve missed the point entirely… It’s not about making it all about performances and the experience. It’s about making every experience and performance about God. If we’re afraid to do our best and shine where God has blessed us, then I would say we’re not truly worshiping to begin with.
6. The congregation feels they are not expected to sing?
I agree. You are the lead worshiper, so lead by example, and invite, invite, invite… lead, lead, lead.
7. We fail to have a common body of hymnody?
I view this with having about as much sincerity as the “book of common prayer”. I realize that liturgical practice can have profound meaning, and deep emotional response at times (usually when used to emphasize a point, not to BE the point). It’s just that it steals away creativity and relational value, and adds religiosity and confined structure. Church isn’t about having fun, but it certainly isn’t about celebrating our boredom with contrived tools that we’ve developed to make sure things become more predictable.
8. Worship leaders ad lib too much.
These really aren’t 9 different points. This is kind of like a sub-point. It could’ve been included in a couple others… I digress.
I agree… If they are ad libbing.
But where in the world have you been going to churches who consistently do this enough for it to make your top 9? I may have heard one worship leader ever who thought he was on American Idol. I just don’t see this as being that relevant. I could be wrong though.
9. Worship leaders are not connecting with the congregation?
YES! This, in my opinion, should be the entirety of your post. Number nine. This is the biggest problem. A worship LEADER shouldn’t be leading if they don’t know how to lead. Engaging is a giant part of that. Points 1 though 8 could all fit inside this one issue. Get rid of your charts on stage… If you can’t play without them, don’t lead until you can (harsh?) Talk to the congregation. Teach the songs. Plan your transitions well. If you raise your game and realize that you are performing for HIM, and teaching others to do the same, then true worship will happen (even with a lot of new songs) I promise.
THIS! This response is fantastic. Thank you so much for posting it. Above all, it is about heart and I think you captured that well with your response.
I think you bring up some very interesting points here Scott. I do have a few questions, if you wouldn’t mind maybe taking a look (or if anyone else has some thoughts).
With regards to new songs, what do you think is an effective way of teaching new songs? I’m not talking about the simple songs, that can be learnt by listening to the worship team play them once, but some more complicated songs. Things that spring to mind are anything with call and response, or one particular example (which I would love to introduce at our church but have no idea how to teach it) is You Are Holy, we the 2 different parts of the chorus sung simultaneously.
Whilst it isn’t one of his 9 points, you say you’re a pastor, so I’m interested in hearing your opinion on this. Do you think there is a place for a “behind-the-scenes” worship leader? I greatly enjoy, and get a lot out of picking songs, working with whoever’s speaking, practising through at home, working out what could/couldn’t work, but I don’t yet feel like a great, or the most confident on stage leader, but too often it feels like whoever is doing that behind-the-scenes stuff also has to be the person doing the on stage stuff?
I think what you are referring to as a “behind the scenes” leader is what I would call a music director or a creative director.
A lot of larger churches have entire teams lead by a MD and while their job is to choose, chart out and in some cases, prepare the band, they are rarely the one presenting the material from the stage. It’s a system of playing to everyone’s strengths instead of bogging one person down with the weight of everything that has to take place in a service. I take on both roles by choice. One of my favorite aspects of implementing what God wants to do from the stage is seeing how the Holy Spirit guides and prepares those moments in advance. I love being used in that capacity.
As far as introducing more difficult songs to the congregation, I would think that it falls in line with the concept of not ever speaking over someone’s head when communicating… What I mean is that scripture tells us to speak plainly so that everyone can understand the message. When it comes to songs that we expect a significant participation to happen within, I think we should choose songs that are easy to sing. It’s that simple.
Now, when highlighting a point of a message, or accenting a feeling, or blessing a congregation with what God says to us in His Word? Then, I think the weight of responsibility is no longer on the leader to be a good “teacher”, but instead a good demonstrator. When I sing a song like that, then I honestly don’t expect anyone to sing, but rather to listen. Some churches have liturgy that is read altogether as a congregation. Most of the time, though; there’s a message, and God just wants you to listen. So… In the end you want to say that you’ve done all things with excellence, so never choose a song that challenges you beyond your abilities to pull off with any sort of grace… Like I said in my initial response to the “9 reasons” article… Anytime I choose a song that isn’t singable, it is always purposeful, and we don’t do it all the time… Only on special occasions.
I hope I even came close to answering your questions?
Let me know. God Bless!
(ps… where are you from? I can nearly hear the accent with your usage of “whilst…” and “practising”. :))
Thanks for your response. That’s all very helpful and I’ll try to bear it all in mind.
I’m actually from Yorkshire over in the UK, but I try to use relatively formal English in writing.
To your 3rd point about keys, and the joke “3/4 of a worship leader’s time during the week is spent on changing keys in Chris Tomlin songs.” Often worship leaders may be able to lead singing and play piano, but the dominant instruments in contemporary worship are guitars and many worship leaders know little or nothing about guitar theory and make poor choices of song keys without consulting the guitarists. For example, one thing that worship leaders often do not consider is if the song is playable or even sounds good in a certain key. Often a song that is originally in the key of A or B can be moved down to G and maintain the original chord shapes and sounds, instead of changing to F and forcing the guitars to use bar chords or capo’s which don’t sound as good as the original chords. A change from the key of G to F will destroy the finger picking patterns of a pretty acoustic song. Yes, worship is not for the worship band but for the congregation, and ultimately for God. But we destroy the beauty and playability of too many songs by changing to keys where the instruments can’t produce the original sound. Also, the congregation is not made up only of bass and alto voices, and likely has a good representation of tenors and sopranos too (who may have difficulty singing lower keys). I want to bring God the best sounding worship music possible. He is worthy of that.
Agree whole-heartedly Scott. I consistently see 25-30% of the congregation participating. These are valid points. And maybe there should be a #10. Style, for some folks, P&W music is simply not a style that floats their boat and will never work for them. I like your points about vocal range, singable for one is not singable for another. I believe there is no such thing as singable. Making the melody too dominant is a major turnoff. Music is intricate and that is what makes it beautiful. Hearing a group of singers all sing unison comes across as very mediocre.
Scott, I love your response and the approach you took with it. I too am a worship leader and read many of these types of articles. I find I get more out reading peoples posts than I do the actual article. Yours was meaningful, thought out, honest and funny without being the judgemental finger pointer that these blogs tend to be full of. I can tell by the way you chose to address your thoughts, that you undoubtedly use the same approach with your life which I would hope spills out into your leadership. Loved reading it. Thanks for sharing. Would love to connect sometime outside of this blog post and share ideas. If not, that’s OK. Either way, be blessed and keep up the good work. 😉
Got to say.You really tick me off. Especially, about songs being too high and it makes you laugh. You 20 somethings with the fairy tenor voices and gee-tars whining think you have talent. You instead have a case of narcissism. Guess what junior,, you are to lead the congregation into the Holy of Holies with their mouths filled with praise, and if you sing in the stratosphere for your own comfort you are missing it. And the congregation of worshipers become immediate spectators. Smarten up junior.
You probably encourage the congregation to break out in praise after your solo rendition and can’t figure out why spontaneous praise doesn’t happen. The atmosphere of worship has not been created and received by the people and will not be available at your urging junior.
if I sound somewhat curt it is because you asked for it. Make your gifts of song an offering and allow the congregation to also offer their song with all their hearts with the voices that God has provided.
Well here is my rant…I will understand if you delete it…in response to people/congregations not participating in worship…zero sympathy from me! I think they are being so disrespectful to the church they are in, to the worship leader, etc. Do you yell at hockey games? Do you sing the national anthem? Do you sing/cheer at sporting events? Do you sing in your car when traveling? Would it kill you to take your hands out of your pants and show some life? We sing to commercials, Disney songs, pop culture tunes, etc…YOU have no excuse as far as I can see!
“Worship is moving to its pre-Reformation mess”. What ridiculous and ignorant propaganda: an insult to 1500 years of sacred liturgy. That was the worship which created a Christian culture, which integrated personal, social and sacred life together. Have the ‘Reformers’ anything to equal that? They were stalking horses for the triumph of materialist and secular attitudes which we are reaping now so bitterly in the complete disintegration of personal, social and sacred life
I think this has bigger implications that we would realize. If the local Body does not feel engaged in the worship and sees it as an event versus a group/family experience then they are more likely to disengage from serving their local body and community at large. When we create that non participatory atmosphere it spills over into all areas of how the Body functions.
A big factor you are missing is the fact that nowhere else in American society are people asked to sing out loud in front of others, except maybe the national anthem. People are socially ostracized in every other situation for singing out loud, because that has become something that professionals do.
Also, Christian radio is purposefully targeted toward soccer moms, so they are the only ones familiar with the songs. When you bring those artless wonders into the church, no one, especially men, knows or likes them.
I think you missed a tenth reason. Multitudes of Americans that go to church are religious but not saved. They have never met or been transformed by Him. When this happened in Scripture, people fell to their knees, they thanked with tears of joy, and they sang.
Amen. The redeemed will say so
I understand the reasons listed, but it falls short of biblical instruction, in my opinion. I’ve been re-reading and meditating on Psalms recently. I haven’t read where it says to sing the same songs over and over. Rather, the psalms instruct us to sing new songs and to …. SHOUT WITH LOUD VOICES!!! Now, if the idea of congregational worship is to lull us asleep, as it has for generations, then ok. But the author of this article admits we are “sheep” and well, sheep need to be led. Now, I will strongly agree that there are many, many inadequate worship leaders who are pre-occupied with the production value of their song sets, but that should not limit the new expression of what God is doing through new songs. The psalmist says “he has given me a new song” and songs are purposed to be shared. Hymns and spiritual songs from the past are good and have strong doctrinal importance and value. We certainly don’t want to lose their influence. With that said, ALL hymns and spiritual songs, no matter how long they’ve been with us, we’re once “new” music of the day. They were not instantly recognizable as part of our musical heritage. We are in the midst of a spiritual re-awakening influenced greatly through the new melodies and rhythms and lyrical content being birthed today. These songs are just as important now as the “new” hymns composed in 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. Why are congregations not singing? I point you to the vast majority of pastors who fail to embrace the passion these songs envoke. Walk into your average mainstream church where modern worship is being offered. Are these pastors singing? Are these pastors responding to the Holy Spirit? Are they connecting with their congregation? Pastors are the chief, lead worshipper. Congregants take their cue from their pastor. If their pastor is fully engaged in worship, congregants will take notice and follow. My wife and I have been visiting a church for several months. The worship team is soundly tight, not showy, and they fully engage the church through worship. The best part of it — the pastor, a man in his late 50s, a man who has pastored this same church for over 25 years — this man of God is in a world to himself during the worship set. His eyes are closed, both hands are raised above his head, and he…he is jumping up and down in place lost in his own worship service. He is sold out, and his people notice. I kinda get the feeling that no matter what songs are being sung or how they sound, he would display a similar pattern of worship. The point is, worship is a matter of ones heart. If you can’t get fired up singing “Our God is greater, our God is stronger, our God is higher than any other”, then you won’t be impacted by the power of great anthems such “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” either. Churches need more pastors to fully sell out and be unafraid to lead their people in prostrating themselves before God in worship. Oh, and one final thought, the worship and preaching at this new church we are visiting had impacted me more than any church I have ever attended — they feed and are influenced by one another and co-exist and collaborate together like I’ve never seen. That is what is needed. Don’t get distracted by the whims and opinions of those who don’t understand that’s it’s not an issue of music styles, it clearly is an issue of the heart. Modern worship is speaking to whole new generations of seekers and also those left marginalized over the last few decades. Do not throw cold water on what GOD is doing. (I apologize for the length of my post, but I get really frustrated when consultants offer their opinions on how I should and should not worship. It’s like listening to my music minister father stuck in the 1970s all over again. Sigh.)
I agree with most of your article. As far as the songs for worship and the congregation not being able to sing the words, I believe it to be the leader not being able to sing it, and not being skillful enough in that area so the congregation can follow and sing too. The Bible uses the word “skillful” when it comes to worship. ( I Chronicles 25:7) I think the Leaders should go before God and really search their own hearts if leading worship is where God is calling them or are they leading because of family or they want to be noticed.
Wow, this definately shows different strokes for different folks. We are currently looking at a second service at our church and have struggled with these very things. I believe you have to start with why you are even in a worship experience to start with, before you can develop a good service. So many times the very points that have been made here hides the fact that God loves any and all praise/worship that may happen in his name. I pray we all find the answers that please him in all we do, regardless how loud, high, low or entertaining it may be!
At our church on Sunday people sang loudly. There were 38 people that responded to a spontaneous call for baptism and were dunked in their Sunday best. There was life change and celebration of Jesus and tears of joy as eternal trajectories were changed and the kingdom was advanced. All this happened, not because of following these nine conditions (we actually broke most of them), but because God is moving.
Candidly, I’ve had multiple people share this blog posting with me and ask for my feedback. I’m a worship leader so it makes sense I suppose. But the things that I question about this article is why there’s a need for such dramatic and unfounded conclusions (like the simple assumption that people are no longer singing and that there’s a decline in church music at large) and the need for such a heavy-handed photo attached to it. I mean really… duck tape? 🙁
Without digging into all nine points, I’ll start by stating that worship is a response. It’s rooted in our identity in Christ, and, as Harold Best describes it in his book “Unceasing Worship”, it’s an outpouring. The implication is that one must first be filled in order to pour out. So if the average church attender walks in without already being filled, they have nothing to pour out when we gather to worship. Jeremiah 20:9… if we’re filled, we cannot help but let it out. Ps 95 also describes passionate, dynamic worship. One of the words used there literally means it’s so loud that it evokes “ringing”. Music should have moments of peace, and also moments of proclamation.
The very first point made implies that just because new music is being produced at an accelerated rate and also in more localized ways (i.e. more churches writing their won songs) that it’s a bad thing. I wish I had time to sit down with everyone over a cup of coffee and show why it’s actually a GOOD thing, and how the technological revolution should help people know the songs better, not prevent them from it.
Last thought for now: music is not just a means to an end. The implication in this blog is that the sole purpose for music is to get people to sing, and that’s not only Biblically unfounded, it’s also a low view of music as sacred art. Sacred art itself is to reveal the glory and grandeur of God. Steve Turner, in his book “Imagine: A Vision for Christians In The Arts” makes the case that our music is often “insipid and uninspiring” … how does that reflect the awe, holiness, and inspiring nature of our God? I have little fear that our music be so difficult that people have a hard time following along… my fear is that our music is done so poorly and with such drabness that God and all of His creation yawns at it.
Let’s be in tune with then needs of our people, hold a high view of God, and create music that moves people deeply. There’s no one-size-fits-all model, so let’s only loosely hold these nine considerations he points out, friends. <3
Micah, thanks for your comments. You have shared some great thoughts.
I agree wholeheartedly with your third paragraph. I speak to this point often.
Concerning new music, I am a STRONG supporter of using new music in the church. My point is that some churches inundate their congregations with too much unknown music such that the people quit singing because they don’t know the songs. I have attended many worship services where 75%+ of the songs were new to the congregation. The singing struggles in cases like that. I have a link to an article that talks about this in more detail with point one.
Also, I do not believe the “sole purpose of music is to get people to sing.” I did not mean to imply that in this post. However, music is certainly a tool that helps people actively participate in corporate worship. The nine points I raised here were targeted specifically at the times that worship leaders are seeking to involve their congregations in singing. There are many reasons beyond these nine why people are not singing, as you so well pointed out in the third paragraph, but the target of this post is to confront bad practices of worship teams that are seeking to lead people in singing, and so often failing to do so.
our church still has a good mix of congregational singing and I have been in churches where they put on a performance and it is so loud it hurts my ears. I love to sing but find it difficult to sing to music that loud. also often the performers will apply there own beat and rythem to a song you thought you knew. it is a good thing we have enough churches that do teach gods word that we can choose a church that suits our style of worship.
This is what I have been trying to say for years!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!
You forgot one….some people don’t like to sing and wish it wasn’t always a part of worship.
Thank you for taking the time to think about the different aspects of corporate worship, and how to lead effectively and help others to worship. I respect your thoughts and suggestions and agree, generally, that what you have offered can only help. However, I don’t believe this is the key to seeing those not in the worship “team” sing more. There is certainly a definite distinction between musicians who lead, and those who follow… scripture reveals this. David had an anointing to play the harp so that the demonic influenced Saul was encountering would flee him, which they did. I believe that we are ultimately not responsible for congregation members singing or not singing. We have the responsibility to influence and lead, but the individual will make the final choice. It all comes down to how much oil we have. Is the lamp in our heart burning with plenty of oil? In other words, are we connecting with and encountering Jesus throughout our non-Sunday church lives? When we arrive together in a corporate worship meeting, are we waiting to ride someone else’s coat tail to enter into the presence of God? Or, are we taking the prompting of the worship leader, and with our own free will choosing to step into worship by faith, regardless of our feelings, emotions, or the little distractions around us? I fortunately come for a body where there is more than one worship leader, and there are multiple different teams that lead for every service throughout the week. So as a worship leader, if I am not scheduled for a particular Sunday, I am certainly out in the congregation singing out and passionately givin God glory and praise as a “team” member not on the stage.
He is worthy of it all. When we have that revelation, and the oil of our intimate walk with Jesus is burning, we will be able to push through sludgy atmospheres and press into worship without a ceiling.
Blessings and love!!
the reason people aren’t singing in church is a thankless, selfish heart condition that misses the redemption of the very soul. I read articles like this on both sides of the equation and find them very decisive. A church member posts and other members see (plus the worship leader) and passionate division happens. And on both sides of the issue are falsehoods.
Scripture never deals with keys and how to methodically lead worship so traditional and worship bands draw lines and prepare for holy worship war.
I am a worship leader and also the lead pastor of a baptist church (rare I know) and just wish the issue would be handled appropriately. Someone who truly understands the gospel and what has been done for them will not be able to keep from singing. I lead with guitar some rocked up praise and hymns in another service with piano and organ and trust me when I say that their are people who don’t sing in both and music is not the problem. As for ad libbing, I think this may be some of the problem with mainstream baptist worship. We are so afraid of breaking from structure and a leader worshipping before the Lord apart from the script. I’m in FL so maybe shouldn’t have commented, but a few of our congregation posted and wanted to know how I felt. With due respect to the writer, this is divisive. This article is dealing with issues from 10-12 years ago in the worship war era. Please as a leader in this field I urge you to stand accountable to bring unity and not 9 reasons that have nothing to do with the heart. Love to all:)
What’s interesting about this article is that not one of his points is backed up by scripture. If we are basing our difficulty in singing to God on our own personal preferences then we have completely missed the point of worship. Although I understand some of issues of struggle for people in these areas, I see no scriptural support for any of these claims.
Bit hard to do, Chad, seeing that the Bible doesn’t have a lot to say about keys (Hebrew music was differently structured anyway) or electronic sound systems and such. It does have something to say about worship teams though – like Asaph’s (1 Chronicles 15-16). Their job was to lead people in worship, not sing at them. The Bible also contains the Hebrew people’s “hymnody” – the Psalms. Many of them begin with “Sing to the Lord!” – an injunction on everyone to join in. I’m with Kenny on this. If the congregation is not singing with gusto (if slightly out of tune – who cares?) then the worship team has not done its job.
I agree with all 9 points in this article. Would just like to add that performancism seems to be taking over “corporate” worship. Remember this one thing….Music(instrumentalists and singers) are supposed to compliment the message, not the other way around. So much for rock concert mentality.
What important insights for Worship Leaders to keep in mind. Thankfully I attend a church who balances all these things well. Weekly I leave with my spirit refreshed because of having sung & proclaimed together with the whole congregation, the praises of our God. Also, I am challenged by sound biblical teaching. I appreciate that our worship leaders & pastors take seriously the planning & preparation of the worship service, because our God deserves the best we have to offer.
Having just read again this morning Jesus’ messages to the 7 churches in Revelation 2 & 3, I would like to submit another reason people are not singing. Jesus commends the Church at Ephesus for many good deeds, but then reproves them because they have lost their first love. Good deeds minus love equals nothing in God’s sight. Good deeds done in love & in response to the great love we have been given is living a life of worship.
Remember the expressions of first love? When you could not wait to be with Him, to hear His voice & to tell Him how much you love Him? There was no holding back! Such passion! Oh to find the words to tell Him how much I love Him! Has our love grown cold? (Hint: It’s not the fault of the music style.) We have allowed our love to grow cold & we need to remember our first love.
1 Corinthians 13 tells us that whatever we do, MUST be done in love. We use this passage to talk about love in a variety of relationships, but in context this passage is talking about our corporate worship services. Whatever we say & do….worshiper, worship leader, pastors, must be done in love.
Good article. Unfortunately, many church meetings today have turned into CCM concerts with a keynote speaker –– truly a spectator event.
We need to return to New Testament simplicity, Christ-centered participation (by the whole body), and Spirit-driven service to God and His children.
More thoughts here: http://lambblood.com/what-does-it-mean-to-gather-as-christ-s-church-.html
When you can’t tell the difference between a worship session, a night club, and a rock concert, something is wrong. Worship is the only thing that God gets out of a “service”, and when we make it about performance, it is like eating the sacrifice off of the altar. Flashing lights, smoke machines, booming bass… too much for me. Give me simple worship songs that can also be sung in a small group, that are attainable by average people, that call the heart into a love relationship with the Father.
I could not have said it better – Thanks!
Personally I would never go to any church that called me a “sheep”. I’m not an animal! Maybe that is your problem.
I am sorry you are offended, but the Bible uses the imagery of sheep for the followers of Christ multiple times. In this case, it was merely an analogy of the untrained, average singer who follows closely the direction of the shepherd (lead worshipper).
You are too kind to respond that comment.
However, the commentator’s inability to understand your usage of scriptural imagery reminds me of another important part of the Reformation’s impact on singing in worship amongst the Calvinist tradition — exclusive usage of the biblical text in the lyrics of the hymn. Not quite sure if it is a reason why people in the pews aren’t singing. BUT the lyrics of many of the weekly top 40 of praise music are not bringing the congregation closer to the words of the sacred text.
And I think it’s pretty insulting to assume that the average person in the congregation is “untrained” and has no musical ability. Voice and instrumental lessons were a standard and valued part of my upbringing, as they were for most people I knew. Hymns are a beautiful expression of worship that allow a congregation to join together in four-part harmony. Contemporary worship songs are flat and uninteresting to me because of the lack of musical complexity.
Loved the article and I feel like most of the points are spot on!
Scrolling through the comments, it has been interesting to see all the different experiences within worship. I for one, am thankful for the variety of expressions that church services can display. From the piano-only congregation to the rock band, God has gifted musicians with many talents to be displayed for HIS glory. Not everyone is going to view your idea of worship as the best form.
I relate more towards one style over the other, but it is refreshing to go to a different church and seeing a different style resonate with my brothers and sisters in Christ.
But hey… what do I know. I’m just one of those average (or if I’m being honest… below average) sheep that can’t carry a tune in a bucket.
Kenny, thank you for searching deep to find the best way the church can worship God. I pray He blesses your services with the right balance so that He is most glorified!
Kenny – thanks for a wonderfully well written piece on an important subject. Many Christians find God most directly through music, and without the ability to participate in worship through music, much is lost. Amen.
That list is just the beginning. More is learned from the comments. Personally, I quit the church years ago over music. Every time I’ve been to another one it has been the same agony. I didn’t go there to attend a rock concert with ear shattering volume, smoke, lights, and whatever other distractions can be thought up to bring attention to oneself. I just wanted to function like the early church. I must wear ear plugs in every place I’ve gone. I’m bored with the boring moronic songs that have no message and just does nothing but hinder me from worship of my Lord and Savior. I used to play a woodwind until I realized I needed to be singing (confessing God’s Word) to Him, so I quit playing and only sang. Singing scripture is the best way to memorize it. When the time comes we can’t have bibles while we’re in prison it would be very valuable to have the Word in our hearts (where it should be now).
Amen!
You hit the nail right on the head with these 9 reasons. The trend going back to “concert style” worship is hurting participation greatly.. And the whole point of worship is to participate!!
I recently stepped down from being a vocalist on the worship team at our church because of at least half of these reasons.
In the main I agree with this. I was part of the 60’s development of outreach via music and drama and believe that this is still valid, but the growth off (to coin a phrase )’ worship festivals & concerts’, is rather worrying. I know several of the current well known pan church worship leaders, and know there hearts are for Jesus and the Gospel, but am concerned that the distinction between worship leading and performance has become blurred. Yesterday I watched a video of a Christian music event and could not decide if the performer was leading worship or just performing! He and his band had been flown over from USA for the event. Toward the end we came to the conclusion that the ‘congregation’ was worshiping the performer rather than God!
As a typical every few months attendee, It has never been made clear to me why singing songs is as important as learning the actual text of the bible and essential doctrines of salvation. We call concert time “worship” but even when I was attending more frequently, I rarely felt as fed and impacted as when scripture was taught. And I don’t mean a couple bible versus surrounded by the Pastors life experience puffed up by empty platitudes. I mean, what is the doctrine of Justification and how is that different than Sanctification? What’s the point of singing happy songs from the heart if our heart is believing in some sort of works based salvation which is no salvation at all? Might as well be singing from a Mormon hymnal book at that point.
Scripture tells us to sing! “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” (Colossians 3:16) Note that it’s teaching “one another”, not a one-directional teaching relationship. There are three types of music, but all are to teach and admonish each other as well as be to the Lord. Teachers know that music lyrics are often better retained in our memory than plain speech.
I saw a secular news article recently that said the quickest method of making friends was to join a singing group. Doing an activity in unison with other for an extended period of time puts us in harmony (pun intended) with them, not only syncing physically but emotionally and mentally. God knew this long before researchers figured it out. He wants to make us a unified spiritual family (Ephesians 4:3-6).
He created music; He sings over us! (Zephaniah 3:17)
I appreciate this article. I am weary of the “concert” experience that is purported to be congregational worship. It has become so extreme in one church I know of that they hold late comers back and wait to seat them until they won’t interrupt the “performance”. When Worship “Pastors” put career first, the end result is plastic for believers and for seekers. I encourage a back to the basic approach.
Excellent article – I completely agree with every point.
The church I attend and are a member of suffers from “blended” worship. Always hymns, always a “team”, code for band… On occasion “The Choir” will contribute during the offertory or some other appropriate time in the service. The big guy likes to change things up evry so often. I’m one of the former choir members, team singers and soloists. For reasons I won’t get into here, I now only sing hymns from the congregation. And only those hymns with biblically accurate lyrics. My convictions about music in the church are considered radical. I refuse to sing Christmas hymns due to the fallicy of the man made holiday worshiping the event of the Nativity and not the Messiah. Today it should be more about His second coming and less about his first. At least the Bible seems to make a bigger deal about it in my opinion. Anyway, people will sing what makes them “feel good” about themselves and their soft relationship with their good buddy JC. Half heartedly raising a single hand and the obligatory toe tapping to represent their dance before The LORD of hosts. The claptrap being produced by today’s weak Christian artists is more about selling their rights by a CCLI publishing house than honoring God. I’d rather sing next to a woman who has had throat cancer and is praising God in a harsh and raspy voice than next to an opera star who sings about the days of Elijah. Singing is important but not as important as knowing Christ and him crucified.
to be completely honest this is just a list of excuses for people who are not motivated of themselves to worship. Since when has worship ever been about you? When you make it about you these are the types of articles that make people feel like they have a valid reason to leave churches oh dear me the music just wasn’t too my liking blah blah blah. I get so fed up with these selfish me me me types in church
Definitely true in my great church. In general, I find the older guys tend to be worship leaders, the younger to be performers. Modern churches prefer the younger performers because the focus is on seeker sensitivity towards a younger audience.
Amen, to who ever put this together. The hymns we use to sing were inspired by the holy spirit, now what happens with the new stuff it causes the holy spirit to be quenched.
This debate reminds of that joke ‘what’s the difference between a terrorist and a worship leader? – you can negotiate with a terrorist. The real problem is the problem that has plagued the church for millennia. Despite its best efforts the church always takes on the values of the culture around it. Our culture is very entertainment oriented. Both worship leaders and worship followers expect something concert-ish at church. The followers expect to be entertained and the leaders expect some of the payoff due entertainers. This is not because either are deliberately evil. It just seems reasonable. We should remember this when we judge Christians of other ages for the things they did. It seemed reasonable to them. Someday another generation of Christians will judge us and say “how could they turn the house of God into a ….”
I understand many of the points- however I cannot get past the statement at the beginning of the article of worship being “for the people.” Worship is exclusively “for” God. Whether you have congregational led singing or a full worship band, the individual is responsible for his or her own heart. If you spend your time during worship criticizing how everything is done, you are wasting time that should be focused on worshipping God.
There are many different styles of worship- and I believe that if man’a heart is pure in it, than it is acceptable to God. Man looks on the outward appearance but God looks at the heart. Though different forms of worship appear very different, it’s all the same to God- where is your heart?
And as a side note- instruments were specifically requested and instructed in the psalms for the music leaders. So instruments are certainly an acceptable component of worship.
I agree with most of the comment, cooperate worship is very important and we must all endourver to encourage that.
Loads (probably everyone) sings at my church, and by that I mean that they worship. My only ‘problem’ is that the songs are set to low for me, but that’s because I’m a soprano. Our worship music is set perfectly for the average singer to reach and the melodies aren’t too complicated.
The writer nailed it … ALL REASONS ARE TRUE …Let’s all sing, see James 5:13 …. SING Psalms…NOT play them. … ISN’T THAT INTERESTING!
I literally couldn’t disagree more. This article takes ALL responsibility off of the congregation.
Thanks for your comment, Emily. I do not disagree with your inference at all. As I wrote about in other posts, personal worship is a prerequisite to corporate worship, and we as worship leaders cannot force someone to worship. People have to have that 24/7 relationship with God and come expectant to times of corporate worship. We can, however, set an environment conducive to worship. Unfortunately, as this post points out, we as worship leaders can do things that get in the way of helping people voice their worship to God. The purpose of this article was not to determine who is responsible for people worshipping (the congregant vs. the worship leader) but rather to point out what we as worship leaders often do (perhaps unknowingly) to be a barrier. Unfortunately, the nine reasons I highlight here are seen far too often in churches throughout the world.
I would add a number ten to the list and this is more of a cultural thing than a decision made by church leaders. People don’t sing in our culture in general anymore. We are a consumer/spectator culture. People divide themselves into singer/performers and non-singers. Neither churches nor schools provide children with training in choirs the way they used to, most people don’t know how to read music, much less sing in parts. People are self-conscious and everything we do has to get posted to you tube. We don’t have the experience of singing as a process and not a performance.You mentioned a regular range being from A-D but that is actually quite low. Most people have notes above D but do not feel confident using their head voice because they have never been encouraged or trained to do so unless they were identified as singer/performers early on. I agree with the poster above that singing is not always worship, but it is a powerful doorway to worship, especially when we join as a corporate, fully engaged, humble body to do so. It is a shame that for so many people that door has not been opened. I would like to see churches do more work around equipping people to sing as a spiritual and worshipful practice. Church liturgy is the work of all the people not the performance of a few.
This is not accurate. When was the last time you were at an actual concert? Secular, Christian, doesn’t matter. People in the crowd will sing along with the same songs sung on stage as the songs they sing along with in their cars. It always amazes me when I am at a concert that has no intention of letting the attendees be heard, that thousands of attendees are singing along anyway.
Songs too complex or vocally challenging will lose many people. But, songs that are too simplistic seem to lose people too.
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I see people dropping out after the first few times. Seems like there is probably a good balance to be found.
I find this to be true in many churches except for the Churches of Christ. We sing acapella, so there’s no chance of being drowned out by a band. Depending on the church, you will find traditional, contemporary, or a mix of music. Our worship leaders do add new music, but usually make an effort to teach the new songs to us.
Our church stopped having a choir and never had a praise team. Congregational singing is the focus. Over the past several years, the congregation has learned well over one hundred new songs well. There is a “song of the month” which is introduced on a Sunday night and then sung every Sunday morning for at least 4 weeks. All songs are printed in the bulletin or are sung from the hymnal. We do not have a “worship leader”. The music director selects the songs, runs them by the pastor (the true worship leader), and one of the men in the church leads the congregation each week. God has blessed us with some strong, beautiful voices and keyboardists, plus a couple of instrumentalists. There is nothing like hearing the voices of the congregation heartily praising their God.
Choirs and praise teams are to be used to encourage the congregation to worship. There is nothing wrong with skilled musicians using their talents to lead others in worship.
Most Churches now give you the aura of a Rock Concert that is geared toward a sensual experience rather than giving to the Lord the Worship due his name……… this is the number 1 problem.
Not sure if this has been mentioned, but it feels like a lot of contemporary worship songs have been written for soloists – not the music, but the lyrics. I feel for some reason that the words for many worship songs seem to be ones written for an individual to sing – the words are from an individual perspective. Corporate worship songs, when done well, allow the congregation to sing songs without feeling like they are singing someone else’s words (against their will).
Hope that made sense.
I agree. Congregational singing should be focused more on God himself- his attributes, his power, his glory – and less about the writer’s personal musings or experiences, since all of us cannot always identify with a writer’s very personal expressions. The idea behind corporate worship is just that – ‘corporate’ worship, drawing all the worshippers in, and not simply providing an outlet for a performer’s or writer’s creativity or self-expression.
I am Catholic. When I was little everyone sang. Now it is like a spectator sport for most. Except they are just watching a priest and the music leader. I suspect that people don’t feel like they don’t really feel like it and are a bit lazy. In a catholic setting the songs are mostly always the same. Although I do agree on the pitch part. I often feel that I either have to drop too low or squeak my way through.
Observations:
—Many modern worship song are self focused rather than God focused
( “I” and “me” appear in the lyrics repeatedly)
—–Theologically weak and badly written
—–So loud from the front it excludes the congregation rather than includes
Barbara
Yes, I agree with that wholeheartedly. Some of the songs we sing sound like pitiful self-help pep talks. Another problem is all we sing about is God’s love–90% of the time. We don’t sing about hell, wrath, blood, soldiers, etc. because the church has become to squeamish.
You made a great observation. The number of times “I,” “me,” and “my,” appear in our songs is ridiculous. I wish Christian songwriters would be more diligent to stick to Scripture.
I can look through any Christian hymnal out there and find just as much narcissism as any “contemporary” song. Also, I am constantly having to adjust the wording of hymns to be theologically sound. There are some hymns that are so theologically bad that they will never be sung by any congregation that I am leading.
Too many points for me to intelligently comment on them all, but one really struck me: We have created worship services which are spectator events, building a performance environment.
A church service isn’t a performance. It’s true worship of God by the people.
Okay this is going to be a long reply, before I start I am writing this sincerely having thought and sought a lot about this stuff. I am merely sharing my thoughts and adding to the discussion. I am happy to be wrong if that is indeed what I am. However, if I am wrong please be gentle with me.
I enjoyed this article. However, I do feel the need to add a little. We call the part of a Sunday service where we sing worship. I find that a bit difficult as worship is something that happens in someone’s heart and often there is no external authentic evidence of worship, only some faint indications. There are many reasons why people will sing in church but not all of them are worship. I have heard, and have probably even said myself ‘the worship was good this morning’, but what does that mean? The worship isn’t for me and the production values of the music have little bearing on whether it is good worship, because the music isn’t for me and it isn’t my place to decide if it is acceptable to God. In the end God looks at each person’s heart and decides is it is acceptable and if it is worship. I think that sometimes we worship, worship. Which is a pretty dangerous place to be.
Also to get this in perspective, in the new testament I don’t see the type of ‘worship’ we are talking about. I don’t even see mention of musical instruments (please correct me if I am wrong). I do see the act of offering our bodies as worship, and that worship is something that happens ‘in spirit (much debate there) and truth’. Yes I do also see ‘each on’ brings a psalm a hymn and a spiritual song to a gathering, but I don’t see the office of worship leader.
I don’t think that music and singing is bad but I also don’t see it as being the only expression of worship we should talk about and indeed I see the emphasis of the new testament stacked more in favour of worship being more than singing. The sheer weight of new testament (which I am presuming should be our model for modern church life) scriptures seems to indicate worship being more that singing. My point is that singing and music are definitely not worship in my opinion, they are merely a potential (often not realised potential) for the expression of worship. A worship that is happening deep inside someone and that could as easily be expressed in an act of obedience (Jesus mentions this all the time in the book of John) or kindness or as much in a heartfelt tuneless prayer, than it is in a singular art form such as singing and music.
I hope this is coming across humbly and sincerely and NOT that I want us to stop singing. I really want to be a worshipper and to truly know God, and I appreciate anyone who wants to help me uncover what that really means. I guess I am saying is let’s not just get caught up in singing, let’s get right into the nuts and bolts of what worship is and how we can expression that worship in whatever, art forms, acts, obedience’s and heart attitudes God wants.
Just to explain a bit, your definition was correct until you said that there is no outward expression of worship. There is an outward form, we just give it a different name. Praise. look up the seven? hebrew words for praise and you will see that each one is a physical symbol of the worship going on in our hearts. this might help a bit
I believe the most important reason has not been mentioned….Whether you can read music or not, when you can’t even tell when the song goes up or down because you just see words on a screen, you can’t sing alto, tenner or bass unless you just make it up by ear. I miss that alot! There’s nothing like 4 part singing on hymns.
I agree! I miss that a lot. I hate it when there’s a new song and no clue about how it goes. There’s such a difference between a hymn and a “worship song” that was written to be performed by a band, and not by a congregation.
The term “worship leader” is not Biblical and causes division in the Body Of Christ. The Bible has two terms that I have seen, “musician” and “head musician”. It is the Holy Spirit that “Leads us into the all truth”. Yahshua is our “Captain of our salvation.” Putting individuals under the title of “worship leader” is a false elevation and does harm to the person with undue pressure and no ability at all to lead anyone to worship God. The title also implies that the rest of the brethren need someone to lead them in worship and they will automatically rely on this one person, and may resent the “worship leader” for failing. There are just too many things wrong with the term. As Peter penned by the Holy Spirit: ” Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.” – 1Peter 2:5 and also: “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light;” -1Peter 2:9 All the members are royal priests and have the the ability to praise God. The “worship leader” already lives within each of us. Let us no longer address the musicians with this false title.
I have heard and like using the term “lead worshiper” rather than “worship leader”. We should not have a higher “place” in the church because we have musical talent/gifting. We should humbly worship, and lead God’s people in worship.
We need to get back to MORE EDIFICATION and LESS ENTERTAINMENT! Meaning we, as true believers and servants of the Lord Jesus Christ, need to concentrate on pleasing GOD in our worship and teaching instead of entertaining man!
I believe there is a 10th reason for the decline of the worship experience in churches for the past decade or so. Too many pastors are eager to have a young worship leader just for the sake of their youth. Ther is nothing wrong with a young worship leader IF they are well discipled by a seasoned, gifted and effective worshipleader. Too many gifted worshipleaders are not given the opportunity to serve the body because they are considered ‘too old’. Pastors deny their congregations a more meaningful time of worship when they take that point of view. 2Timothy 5:22 tells us not to lay hands on anyone too soon for this very reason. We wouldn’t dream of replacing a senior pastor because he was ‘too old’. We consider his experience and Godly refining an asset. It should be the same for worshipleaders as long as they are effective.
Different strokes. Personally I am the tech leader and I sing in the choir and do solos (over 40 years now). We have a 24 channel sound board and 4 amps, and a video screen but the music is never too loud that you can’t hear the person next to you singing. I have been in churches (with smoke, lights and a band) where they project words on the screen, but then play so loud with huge sets of line array speakers you can’t even hear yourself sing, and I can sing loud. At our church we have a blended service where we mix hymnal songs with more contemporary songs, but we have no band. A miced piano,a keyboard and a small pipe organ, all get used during most every service. We might have 7 or 8 songs projected on the screen any given Sunday with a choir to help lead the congregation (ave attendance 140). I agree with most of the premises put forth by the OP, yet understand the need to provide full blown entertainment by a band just to fill the seats with young (by age and at heart) folks that otherwise wouldn’t attend a more traditional service so they are there for the Message. And who says you can’t worship without singing?
Great points here, i still think you have to be careful either way you pull in this case. Pushing too hard into the future and contemporary style can definitely leave half a congregation behind.
But trying to ‘restrict’ or regiment worship style can have the same negative effect.
This is just as common a problem, the body is made up of different parts and due to this, some want organisation and familiarity, systems and structure etc. others want new perspectives on a walk with Christ, and fresh approaches, cool music and melodies etc.
No matter what, due to taste and preference, there is only a couple of songs that are really safe to play in church (amazing grace, I have decided to follow Jesus etc.) but there will always be those who don’t know the songs/don’t like the style. And there will always be those who are bored with the same song they have been singing for 3 years.
Too much pain and arguing happens over this topic.
However, I do 100% agree with the first comment on this blog,
Main point missing is this:
It’s all about Jesus. Above all systems, lyrics, traditions etc, no matter how familia you are with the songs, and how scripturely based the lyrics, if the family isn’t there to worship God, a redeemed people coming together to glorify their God, if the band isn’t their to worship God, then it’s going to be dead, and people will sing half heartedly like you see often. We can blame it on anything we want to. Sure I could make a list. But if Jesus isn’t the centre, what are we wasting time for singing songs we don’t really know/like.
If you are saved by Jesus, and his grace, and mercy and justice, and you have taken that gift and are running with it, ANY song that glorifys God will be on your lips and you will sing with Joy.
If your not singing out of Joy for the love of our saviour, what are you singing for?
Just some thoughts.
If you want to chat with me about this give us an email:
nic_loves_jesus@hotmail.com
One more thing: Proper acoustics encourage singing. An acoustic and sound consultant explained to us that carpeting soaks up sound and if you have a hard floor in the seating area folks will be able to hear each other better and being able to hear those around you will encourage more singing. Venues designed for loud sound levels generated by speakers and the band typically want a fairly dead room, so they are fully carpeted.
New music isn’t an issue for me. It’s the one or two, or three words top songs and chorus phrases that are repeated 20 times ad nauseam that drive me to silence. It lets the director/singer do a lot of performance vocalizing. The lyrics don’t have a gospel message – that’s hard to do in three words such as hallelujah, oh-ohh, and ah-hh. Where did all the gospel song writers go.
We recently had quite a discussion on this matter in church. There is nothing wrong with most of the “new” music but much of it is not suitable for congregational singing. You can’t sing if you don’t know the song. I agree that new songs can be added but should be done like one at a time and sing it for several weeks so people know where the melody line is going, what the rhythm is doing and learn the words. Constant new pieces do not encourage this. It also helps when you can hear what is going on and not so loud that you can’t hear anything. Also the repetition of words and phrases get very boring and sounds more like “vain repetition”. The music is so important and allows the congregation to participate and can be a real dividing threat if not handled correctly. Music does not have to be fast, loud and difficult to be considered suitable music. We must also remember that there is a place for quiet, searching music.
I think one point is missing. if we are worshipping, we are worshipping GOD and Jesus throug the Holy Spirit. Everything should be focused on this. When the worship leader and the whole group Knows exactly on WHO is the focus of the time they have to manage, and they know how to manage with the presence of God, in my experience every mouth should shout and sing to the glory of God.
These are good thoughts. I’ve been a worship leader for 10+ years and have had to learn this stuff the hard way. This should be added to “things to learn from worship ministry school.”
Us old folks don’t like the contemporary stuff they call worship music and if we want real church they make us come to the early service. I am retired and I don’t get up to be anywhere at 8:00 a.m. Let them young folks go at 8:00 and we’ll stay at 10:00. This is one of my pet peeves. Music is a ministry, not entertainment. All that repetition, over and over. One of my former pastors put it best, God is not deaf nor does he have alzheimers.
I totally agree with your 9 points. I also have seen the sad regression from a less professiona grass rootsl type expression that I became involved with in the eighties to see worship evolve into something more packaged and performance based. More concerning is the mimicking and celebrity image identity being projected that promotes and produces self worship rather than God worship. I still wish to worship no matter what’s being protected on the stage out front, but it sometimes becomes difficult when you’ve thrown up in your mouth.
Just one other thought do you think it would be more effective to help the worshipers if the worship team were not Centre stage?
I’m 56 years old. I remember the older people, as well as the younger “more spiritual” people, making these same “points” back when “Kum-ba-yah” was all the rage. And frankly, some group probably made the same kinds of arguments regarding Gregorian Chant back in that day. For those who actually worship – they know that music is merely one of many vehicles to assist in – not be – worship. If the music at your church gathering place isn’t up to your “standard”, and thus somehow prohibits your ability to worship – then go down the road a half mile and see if you can fit in there. I’m a music major…a cellist…and I have never attended any “church” where I thoroughly enjoyed every musical “offering”. By the same token, I’ve never attended any “church” where my worship was somehow “blocked” (unless, of course, I blocked it myself – by refusing to worship). There is so much more that could be said in response to what I personally consider the drivelish nature of most everything I’ve read here – but I’ll end with just one more. By many of the “standards” spewed out in previous posts, David’s worship in the Psalms must be virtually revolting for all of the clamor, dance, and repetition. Back at the beginning, I referenced the “younger ‘more spiritual'” crowd. Well – I was one of them. And years latter, I’ve discovered that God is no more present in the red hymnal than the green hymnal than the blue hymnal than the Gaithers than Tomlin than etc. Music is a vehicle – nothing more and nothing less. If it’s your hang-up where you’re at – move…not a big deal. It’s only a big deal if you remain discontented, ungrateful, and a divider where you are now. Find a place where you won’t feel compelled to complain. And… Good luck with that.
Your rant would be more useful to us all if you had addressed at least one of the nine points made in the article. It is easy to fling unsubstantiated accusations of divisiveness and character deficiency at the author without examples but it is hardly helpful. Dialogue requires that you actually engage what someone has said ~ someone like the author of the article on which you are commenting.
Oh, puhleeeeeze. The vast majority of the comments on here have nothing to do with the subject of worship, but are simply tired old arguments elevating personal taste to the level of spirituality. At least Seck’s comment addressed something in the same time zone as the OP.
Boyd is right on……………..too much self-gratification and not enough addressing the issue. I don’t notice any comments in the article about psalms or Gregorian chants(essentially straw men put up by Seck); but I suspect the latter were not designed for people who being encouraged to take part in the service………or even read the Bible, but if chants turn Seck on he can get a CD. Even though Seck considers himself a “more spiritual” person, telling people to go somewhere else is not really what a spirit filled person would do. A spirit filled person would want to bring people in.
Find out what the origins of church gatherings are before deciding that the sermon is the most important part. You might be surprised.
I’m wondering who decided that the sermon is the most important part of a church service. Really, have you ever wondered or found out what the roots of the church service are? It’s not subjective, nor is it something to be based on what your pastor says, that he heard from another pastor that he heard from someone else etc.. People should bother to find out for themselves where the worship/church service or gathering came from originally.
In the early church (as it is today in liturgical congregations), neither the singing nor the sermon was the most important part. It was the Eucharist (communion, Lord’s Supper, pick your synonym). Singing was something akin to sung prayer to prepare for the Eucharist. The sermon took the place of importance during the Reformation with a new focus on the Scriptures. It has only been since the 60s that the music has been raised to its level of attention.
nothing about the sound guys/girls ? there job to mix and get the lvls just right
One of the other issues that goes unnoticed is that many of the new contemporary worship songs are penned by those who do not hold an orthodox view of the Person of Jesus Christ. Therefore, what we are often forced to listen to in orthodox evangelical worship is penned by heretics and some of us in the crowd know it and refuse to sing.
http://bit.ly/1xXlssv
I first read this article translated into Spanish. I affirmed many things I had believed for years but had not heard anyone say. Of course, you brought out many more excellent points. I love it so much I shared it with those who follow me on Facebook throughout Latin America. In less than 24 hours it has already been shared from there over 100 times, and has been seen by another 7,000 people. I was happy to find the original article in English.
Thank you for helping the Church get back to worshipping the King they way He desires to be worshipped – in Spirit and in truth.
That was an interesting article. I would also add that sometimes people don’t sing because they are self absorbed…not focused on Him, not engaged in the process of giving Him their all. Singing to The Lord is to worship Him. Worship isn’t to be about us but about Him. Maybe we can only offer a joyful noise, that’s OK. Why not bless The Lord by singing from our heart as He desires we would. The Psalms reveal interesting insights on this matter: Psalm 33, 47, 95, 100, 149 &150, just to start with. My personal favorite worship song is 10,000 Reasons by Matt Redmond.
I would want to shout hallelujah, and as a Southern Baptist, I have never raised my voice in church. This is probably the first thing I have ever commented on.
A friend of my mother’s (now 90) called them 7-11 songs. You sing seven words 11 times, but now they are 12-24.
I never sing in church, and I grew up singing — that’s the only place I can sing because I am so bad, but I used to think that I gave a new meaning to making a “joyful noise unto the Lord.” Now I get to church in time to hear the preacher, and I am not alone.
My husband and I are Pastors of a local church. I lead worship and I consider it great joy to part of a team that has dedicated their lives and time to create a “platform” for the Word of God to be preached. We are certainly not entertainers or ego driven in any way as we know that the demand for a righteous lifestyle is more important than the expression of music and song. Corporate worship should be a culmination of private worship which comes from a personal relationship with God. A heart connection to the Father is far more important than singing or dancing. The temptation for worship leaders to become entertainers is very real until they realise that they can be replaced. The song becomes an expression of what your heart feels toward your Father, to me that is True Worship. The objective of church gatherings is the Word God . worship aligns our hearts to receive the Word. Be blessed. Vanessa South Africa
I think church now is too focused on worship and not focused enough on teaching. I recently left a church because they increased the worship time to 45 minutes every Sunday. I found it to be too tiring every week to have 45 minutes of worship. Also, after the announcements and a couple extra’s like a baby dedication, it was almost an hour. By the time the Pastor got up to speak I mentally checked out. I really didn’t find it worthwhile attending there if I wasn’t getting anything out of what the Pastor had to say.
I have to totally agree with you! 45 min.of music plus the announcements and things is way too much!!!!! Teaching of God’s Word should be first and foremost!!!! I go to a church now where the pastor teaches for an hour breaks for 20 then teaches 45 more min. in a second session!!! I LOVE IT!!!! It’s like going to seminary!! He teaches from the original languages and verse by verse!!!! You don’t find this kind of teaching anywhere any more!!!!! An old saying goes….”As goes the pulpit….so goes a Nation”!!!! We have a Nation in decline because we have lost our thought!!! Hosea says….My people suffer from lack of knowledge!!! and the shepherd of the flock is to blame in a church….the people are starving and they are still being given milk!!!! They can’t grow and mature!!!
I studied at a college of music. I’m also a music worship leader. To be honest, it’s not often the first helps you with the second! However, studying the history of music over the last 2 millennia has shown me something that’s relevant to this issue. Music used in church worship is constantly going through a cycle, whereby it begins very simple in format and essentially grass-roots led, then gradually increases in complexity and thus becomes more and more exclusive (i.e. led by trained or experienced musicians) until at some point there is a counter-reaction to return back to simplicity and congregation-led worship again. A classic example of this counter-reaction occurred with the rise of Lutheranism, when hymns such as ‘A Safe Stronghold’ reclaimed the place of congregational participation. In my own time, songs used in worship in the 60s and 70s were generally of a very simple nature and easy to pick up and sing. Some of them, to be fair, were also rather banal and corny! As a teenager growing up in the 70s listening to rock, I and my friends used to long for the time when ‘Christian’ music would catch up with secular music in terms of skill and style. Well, now we have it. The songs we hear on CDs and dowloads today could rival some of the world’s most successful bands. Unfortunately, what we’ve now lost is the common touch. If history teaches us anything, it’s probably time for a counter-revolution.
Hey guys sorry for the delay. Life never slows down no matter how much I try to make it!! I will answer each of these with a short answer however I have a much longer version for this article is great for the rhythm of my heart. My replies are based on My Part. Gods Part, Their Part.
1) They don’t know the songs. I agree many times the congregation will not know the songs. It is my job to introduce them to new once while also using the familiar ones. No one can sing out to something they don’t know. (BUT WORSHIP IS MORE THAN SIGNING A SONG.) They also have to want to know the songs. If they just hear the sermon on Sunday and do not get into the word through out the week the want grow to know Christ either.
2) We are singing songs not suitable for congregational singing. This is subjective to each person. Every style of music has songs that are heard to sing to. It is my Job to set those moments up as clear as possible that there is not expectation to sing. Some people will stand and sing no matter what. ☺ (BUT WORSHIP IS MORE THAN SIGNING A SONG.)
3) We are singing in keys too high for the average singer. Songs are written for a reason, and many times if you change the key it will take away from the blessing in the music. Some churches only have a male leader. Well what about the women their choice key is different than ours. Any time I am leading I will always share the stage with a female, and will not lead all of the songs if I have other male leaders. I do process the key of the songs based on what key is best for the leader.
(BUT WORSHIP IS MORE THAN SIGNING A SONG.) By me not leading all of the songs this allows for a divers time of singing praises.
4) The congregation can’t hear people around them singing. This part is really a personal preference and a tradition that some churches have giving up themselves. I have learned that no matter how I set up a song for the perfect key in some settings the room fears what the person next to them thinks more than there heart before the LORD. More Ashamed of being heard than they are ok with standing alone it what should be a “safe place”. Have you ever been to a secular concert where those who are in attendance make it clear that they want to be there? No matter how LOUD or who is watching them you will hear the room sing every lyric to every song. WHY? Because they have chosen to do their part, and learn the songs even making up words they don’t know. Finding joy in just letting go and giving that artist all that they can. Those same people will walk into church and not open their mouths. My PART? GODS Part? Or THEIR PART? The truth, our music is not louder the heart of the worshiper his weakened. I don’t show up to be heard, and if I let the thought of hearing others inspire me ( and I will say it does when I do hear it☺ ) the my muse for worship is defiantly off track. WHY? (BECAUSE WORSHIP IS MORE THAN SIGNING A SONG.)
5) We have created worship services which are spectator events, building a performance environment. I truly believe this one of all is at times a big joke. What has turned out to be cool and open doors to allow men and women to use their gifts that the world appreciates we like to say it’s just a show. It takes talent to create moments with in the arts. I am sure not a person sits backs and complains about the building they are sitting it calling their house of worship. Please remember a talented; person who loves design took time to use their gift to create that building. From the blandest church building to the most contemporary design an architect got to show off what they could create. When you think about lights, video work, and all the things that fuel the above statement you forget that is someone’s worship, and offering back to bless. It was never apart of the church at one point but neither were microphones. RIGHT? (BUT WORSHIP IS MORE THAN SIGNING A SONG.) I love that someone wants to use their gifting for the local church.
6) The congregation feels they are not expected to sing
I know for me that I have to always work on the clear expectation. Once a DNA is set it takes more work to get the room to stop singing or to start. No matter what the churched person cannot walk in with the mind set we all know the expectation. It is our job to lead on and off the stage for the seeker or lost person attending a service.
7) We fail to have a common body of hymnody. I make sure to repeat songs as often as I can and fuse together many for the overall time of praise. The work that I put into the flow of the songs always helps with the outcome for my soul and those in the room. The lack of knowing a tune will always be an issues for someone or lost people are not being invited to church. If that’s the case we should not even talk about the music we have bigger fish to fry ☺.
8) Worship leaders ad lib too much. The weight on the person on stage as turned the congregation into lazy little robots. You will hear people only from certain church styles say I cant follow the leader some times. I do believe we should be mindful of this! For some churches it does not matter because the room understands their DNA and style. For those who have seen the shift of this there are a few key reasons why. The room does not fill themselves with these songs throughout the week. They complain about following you because they are lost. To me it is the same as not knowing where a book of the bible is and the teaching pastor as you to turn there. IF you are in the word you know where to look if not do you get mad and say hey preacher man you are hard to follow how dare you ask this of me. Those who are in there word find it and can keep up. We along with many other churches post links to our worship set on our site so that people can go and download and learn the songs.
9) Worship leaders are not connecting with the congregation. I will say that so many worship leaders get lost in their person time of worship when on stage. Eyes close 4th wall up them and the Lord. The problem with this is clarity of why we are doing what we do. It helps to fully understand just how impactful or time before the LORD is and can be. When coaching worship leaders I remind them that you want people to see and hear the truths and convictions of your heart. Open your eyes and connect. We have a message and it is the most important message ever. When is that last time you saw a well know artist singing there message with their eyes closed the entire song? You will not because they want to clearly welcome their fans into that moment with them. It is like magic to see a major artist perform and sing lyrics that you may even have a hard time singing, but they draw you in or turn you off with the delivery of their song. There is nothing wrong with being confident in your gifting. We have to teach our point leaders, that being confident in your message is key on and off the stage. If the teaching pastor taught the whole sermon with his eyes closed what would you think about him? BECAUSE WORSHIP IS MORE THAN SIGNING A SONG.)
Most of this blog post is missing the main point that was once held by the church.
WORSHIP IS MORE THAN SIGNING A SONG. Worship is a life style. Worship is offering everything you have to GOD. We have lost the focus on our gathering time to be solely about God and it is now about how can I be filled up. This selfish heart is what allows the enemy to help the room see all the things they don’t like and why it is ok for them to not participate. It may be my job to lead you in songs, but it is my calling and Gods will for me to serve those I am “leading”. I look at each time of praise as a worshiper worshiping. I to can’t spend all week away from the Lord and then expect radical things to happen on Sunday morning so why is it ok for the congregation to? The Lord is with us every step of the way. We have to acknowledge him to experience him. SIGNING LOUD MEANS NOTHING WHEN YOUR HEART BEATS TO IT”S OWN RHYTHM. It should be an overflow not always a pick me up. In the old days the power did not come from the hymns, it was that people lived in the WORD. Lets focus on how often we are in the word and not how loud or much we sing. The music portion of worship is meant to be the under score to the life devoted to worshiping GOD 24/7 not Day 7 / 45 min.
Frank,
You should not have apologized for the delay. You should have been even more delayed and taken more time and actually thought about what was written. It seems you were so interested in self promotion you overlooked what essence of the article……..reasons that people don’t sing as a congregation. For all your words, you may have felt you justified yourself by dumping on the people and blaming them; but the point is to get the people to sing……….not to make you feel good. I am a soloist. I sing mainly at seniors homes. When I go to church I want to be taught and join everyone else in singing a few songs in unison. I don’t need even 10 minutes of concert singing to help me pay attention to the sermon. If I want concert singing there are always CDs.
Appreciate the article Kenny, but you’ve clearly not done the research… The NCLS surveys and my own for my phD show ppl are actually very engaged with (which includes singing in) corporate worship… But nothing like playing to the fans… This is actually more of a generational issue than a congregational song style issue. Check my articles in worship leader mag, if your looking for the facts 😉
Good to hear that you have more favorable data. My observations come from multiple site visits and discussions with many others who all agree this is a real problem. The viral nature of this post indicates that it indeed hits a nerve today. I didn’t make this stuff up.
You did an excellent job. There is no need of a PhD to see this, we need the guidance of the Holy Spirit who leads us to all thruth. Thank you for this excellent article because God is tired of the show. He wants and deserve genuine praise. God is the same yesterday, today a d forever. People is forgetting to who is the glory and sometimes we see more a show to glorify who is singing, and not to glorify who deserve all our praise …our Savior and Lord! Thanks again!
Great article – I totally agree with these 9 points. Thanks for putting this out there
Or, people could actually worshiping during a song, I personally don’t sing along sometimes because I’m praising and talking to God during the song.
First off, let me say that I appreciate the thought out in to the original article and I agree with much of what was said. There are certain things we should always be mindful and/or weary of when planning our worship services.
Now, with all due respect to the original poster, and all the above comments – this kind of theory and debate, to me, only emphasizes the hypothetical “Drive-Thru Worship/Church” idea. The main thought behind that is that everyone wants to order something different for their worship experience. Some want to sit and listen, some want to participate; some like it loud, while others prefer more quiet; and some want atmosphere or ambiance, yet others may find it distracting. The use of new media (i.e. music, video, sound, lights) to enhance worship is a great thing, but agreeably can be overproduced and distracting… but some may want precisely that. It’s all personal opinion, and who’s to say what’s right or wrong? What’s completely unacceptable to someone may be just want someone else it looking for. Is God going to judge them based on their preferred style of worship? Or is He simply happy that they are worshiping Him with all their heart, no matter the media to get there. As some have said before, it all boils down to the heart of those worshiping. Sure, as church leaders we can try and find a happy medium of all the things mentioned above, but no matter the choices we make on how we present our worship, there will always be some who want it differently. That’s just human nature. What made me excited to worship may be the exact opposite of the person standing next to me on Judgement Day, yet again, I don’t think that’s going to matter to God.
I grew up in a Church of Christ congregation which, stereotypical of that organization, was fairly traditional and conservative. Since I was able to talk, I fondly remember singing the old songs from the hymnal, which still mean a lot to me now. 30 years later, I’m now part of the leadership planning for that very same church, but today our worship is much different. We went from a single song leader at the pulpit, to a praise team (4 part harmony), to a praise band. We have one service that utilizes the musical style worship, and another that utilizes a cappella style worship. Both are attended and received well by our congregation, as some prefer one style over the other. I know we’re by no means different in doing this than so many other churches, and in fact, we’re behind the times in doing so. When we finally decided to incorporate an instrumental worship service, it was mainly due to the concern of our church elders leadership that we would lose too many of our youth to more contemporary churches.
Ultimately, what I think this debate boils down to (which supports the idea of the “Drive-Thru Worship”) is – how are we able to attract people to want to worship and have the best experience they can, which (hopefully) brings them closer to God. I like to think of it kind of like fishing – since we are fishers of men. You can head to a lake to do some fishing, and chances are if you’re like me, you’ll bring several different styles of bait. You can do all kinds of research and read up on the fish you’re hoping to catch, see what they like, how they are responding to certain types of bait, etc. You’ll then try your luck casting out with what you think will be the best bait to catch the most fish. Good old fashioned worms can and still do the trick with some fish. Some fish respond better to the expensive, flashy lures. A lot of it also comes down to your skill of fishing in general. In the end, all you want to do is catch some fish, and does it really matter what bait got them to you?
I agree with Bill Worley except for one point. We don’t have a church band. We don’t have a church organ. In fact, we only have our own voices, and they sound just fine in four parts. We do, however, have the occasional voice that wants others to know how powerful they are, but that doesn’t happen very often. Come, thou Fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace, sounds great without an organ or band.
Two weeks ago, I attended an Episcopal church in town that was new to me. The pipe organ was just restored. It was a large Hook and Hastings organ that was to be played that afternoon at a concert. As the organist played the hymns, I did not feel much like singing because no one else was singing, and I felt that I might drown out the organ. The organist was not playing loud enough and did not demonstrate the organ’s ability to lead in singing. If I had been at the console, I would have given it much more punch. Who would want to sing when played in this manner?
WELL ! All kinds of opinions.
The fact remains that each person singing must make the words meaningful, from the heart. Think what you are singing and make the words your own.
I’ve been doing church music a long time. I have a full music education. I fully agree with the 9 reasons. I will add that in many churches music is for entertainment and feel go with minimal if any worship value.
1. Generally speaking, music making today making is about singing along to a recording, not making music as a group. People don’t know how to corporately own their music making.
2. Music making is expected to be performed for people, and must be seen to be a performance. Litmus test: if the group performing (whether it’s praise band or soloist or children’s choir) has to be “up front” and can’t fulfill their duties from a balcony, it is not music for corporate worship. It’s a performance for the sake of entertainment.
Actually, the Reformation gave the Word of God to the people. Worship was what came out of it – because people understood it, they wanted to praise God for all His wondrous works.
If I hear the term “Worship Leader” used, I know immediately to avoid that church. There is no such thing. The pastor, elders, choir(s), accompanist and others are all, in their time and throughout the service, leaders of worship, but to have one person (who is NOT the pastor), designated with that title tells me immediately that things are on the wrong road in that place. Add other words such as “stage” and “auditorium”, and you just seal the deal. Sanctuaries are not, not NOT places of performance and thus DO NOT have stages or auditoriums. Ever. If you use that vocabulary, I know exactly what the mindset is in that “church” and will know to avoid it like the plague. And “praise band” – we won’t even go there.
There is a story I heard during music history class that has stuck with me for many years. There was great criticism of a new director of music many years ago whose music by many was considered the devils music. They could not understand how the church elders could allow such a musician to take holy music for the purpose of worship in the Lutheran church and make it so UNGodly.
I used to have a copy of this story, but, probably lost it during a move so no longer have it.
This criticism was directed toward the newly appointed organist of the Cathedral in Leipzig, none other than J.S. Bach.
Our church has wonderful christian musicians and we have several >worship leaders> all of whom present the Gospel in a respectful, holy spirit inspired way from the ‘stage’. What happened to PEOPLE are the church? The ‘church’ is not the platform or the sanctuary or the auditorium, it is the people.
Different denominations have different names and titles for positions within the church structure, you surely cannot tell me you “judge” a church and its “chiristianity” on labels??? I have learned in my last 60 years God wired us all differently and this is why we have different church’s and different ways of worship.
Lastly, who are you to judge, I thought was God’s job.
Try a one year worship leaders course and you may feel both humbled and overwhelmed by the feeling of responsibility to facilitate worship.
some songs only work when sung in an American accent!
another reason:
The congregants are too busy drinking their coffee, eating their muffin, and enjoying other foods allowed in the meeting room to be able to shut out the world and allow the HS to move them in worship and singing. And any singer knows that food and drinks except water are not conducive to the vocal chords singing clearly.
I figured if I scrolled down these comments far enough I might find a comment like this. I think the table ministry used in our creative worship service has contributed greatly to our sense of community and corporate worship. (We combine seating around round tables with rows of chairs so that each can sit as they prefer.) I think it also helps us attract a broader spectrum of people to our congregation, welcoming to those in needs of food and those with other special needs not entirely comfortable in pews. The Holy Spirit is still invited and quite welcome. And, frankly, after nearly six decades of singing (and directing) in churches, I much prefer a good cup of coffee to a glass of water. I actually have the most trouble with the communion elements, but nobody is going to keep me from taking them before sharing a table song! Peace.
I agree with everything you said. This is pretty much a nuts-and-bolts approach to why people don’t sing, and you’re exactly right. What I don’t read is anything about letting the Holy Spirit guide in both song selection and in the actual time of singing. Where does God really fit in to any of this? Some of the advice would work for business situations etc. One thing I remember about growing up in church was that during the music the Spirit of God would be so real. And just a few years ago I heard a choir sing such a powerful song, it felt like the roof of the church opened up to heaven – not like a big rush of emotion, but in awe and quiet wonder that God had come so close. That’s what I treasure and what I long for – the Spirit of God, not theatrics and performance.
Thank you for your comments. This post was not intended to be anywhere near exhaustive on the topic of leading worship–just wanted to hit a few things that I see happening so often in churches today that are hurting worship. I certainly teach the importance of seeking God in planning and leading worship. I do feel that you can grow a large “church” today totally void of God’s Spirit. Sad to see. You might be interested in this post: What Happens to Your Order of Worship When God Shows Up?
Some great points made in the article, but isn’t strange that there is not one mention or example of a “worship leader” within the New Covenant context? I think we have moved very far from how the early church functioned. The model we are used to today is not working and is well past its sell by date!
Some great points made in the article, but isn’t strange that there is not one mention or example of a “worship leader” within the New Covenant context? I think we have moved very far from how the early church functioned. The model we are used to today (in most part) is not working and is well past its sell by date!
referring to church goers as pew potatoes and sheep in the way that is written here is disrespectful to them. I agree with many of your points in this article, but you don’t have to be so rude.
I certainly meant no disrespect for church goers. This post is intended to open eyes of worship leaders who do a disservice to the “church goers” by not engaging them in participative worship . I use the words, “pew potatoes” to show the parallel of engagement to “couch potatoes” when we merely sit back to be entertained. Thanks for reading and commenting.
Drives me crazy when verses or choruses are repeated. Once now and then is nice. any more and I stop singing.
Oh I don’t know…..how hard is it to sing along with the same songs you hear on the Christian radio Station………
I prefer hymns remade….like In Tenderness……abound in us…..etc.
although, Chris Tomlim does writes some pretty good corporate worship songs……..more than he does radio type worship songs…
I prefer songs that speak to worshiping Jesus rather than making me! feel all good about myself ….
many songs sung in Church are all about how good we feel about worshiping……easy to make it about us and not Jesus
I find that most songs for me (the typical second soprano) are limited in range, going across the voice break repeatedly, and are not melodic. Great melodies, regardless of how much they move around, are what the church sang for ages. If a note was too high, people dropped an octave. I also feel that the loss of a hymnal or video showing the actual notation has hurt us – people don’t sing parts any more. The songs don’t lend themselves to that anyway so they might be too high for men who are reduced to singing only the “melody”. Three or four part writing lends itself to beautiful harmony which is why most choirs use it. Regardless, people aren’t going to sing if all they hear is a drum.
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