Modern Day Worship

A good friend of mine posted an article recently to his Facebook post, and tagged me in the post, along with many others, asking our opinions on the piece. Rather than gum up his FB feed, I thought I'd put my thoughts down here.

The piece is titled "Nine Reasons People Aren't Singing in Worship." As a long-time worship participant and leader, this is a subject -- along with worship services in general -- that I've thought long and hard about for some time. I won't rehash the whole article here. You should read it. But I'll list the nine reasons the author gives:

1) They don't know the songs.
2) We are singing songs not suitable for congregational singing.
3) We are singing in keys too high for the average singer.
4) The congregation can't hear people singing around them.
5) We have created worship services which are spectator events, building a performance environment.
6) The congregation feels they are not expected to sing.
7) We fail to have a common body of hymnody.
8) Worship leaders ad lib too much.
9) Worship leaders are not connecting to the congregation.

I'm not going to go through these point-by-point. I will say this about them all: They each have some merit. They are legitimate problems in today's worship environment, albeit some more than others. Not every church, of course, struggles with all nine of these issues. Most struggle more in one area than another, if they're struggling at all. But each of them are issues that indeed need to be addressed to some extent or another in our modern-day worship services.

Rather, what I want to do is address some issues this list -- and many others like it -- ignores. I don't pretend to know the author's overall mindset behind the piece, or his overall abilities as a worship leader, or his experience therein. I do, however, believe the piece illustrates his own frustrations in worship, and probably speaks to some specific agenda or stylistic beliefs he holds regarding modern day worship. That's not a bad thing, per se, but a piece like can easily imply the author believes there is a proper way and an improper way to conduct modern day worship, and as such, either accidentally or on purpose ignores other factors that shape the whole worship discussion.

So let's dive in...

First, as a church, we often hold an inaccurate definition of what worship in the church is. Worship, all-encompassing, is not the music service alone. Its important to understand the a church's music service is only one tiny piece of Godly worship as it is defined by the Bible. The truth is that music could indeed be eliminated entirely from Sunday morning church, and you could still have one whale of a worship service. Godly worship encompasses many aspects, music included, but also giving, prayer, fellowship, discipleship, evangelism, etc. Worship involves many facets. A case could be made that the biggest mistake we make as a church is that we put too much emphasis on music, and all too often cause new believers or transplanted Christians to believe that worship is all about the music, and if we don't have some killer band and some killer singers, then that church just ain't gettin' it done. It simply isn't true. Music is indeed a part of worship, and we should strive to do it with excellence, and as inclusive as possible, but it ain't the end-all-be-all.

Second, lists like these assume that everyone who walks into a church is a singer. As a long-time karaoke DJ, I've often joked, "Everyone can sing. Some people just do it better than others." The truth is that not everyone is a singer, nor desires to be one. True, there are many who want to be singers, and it isn't their talent. And indeed still others who believe it is their talent, and bless their hearts, it simply isn't. But the reality is that not everyone is a singer. And if you want to be brutal about it, very few are. The Bible teaches us that everyone is given different talents. It's not the talent we're given that's important, but rather, how we use that talent for the Lord.

As a musician and singer, I'm often given much praise for that gift. And while I dearly love making people happy with my talent, I often have to remind them that there are many, many --many -- things I'm not good at. Like fixing the brakes on a car, or sewing, or drywalling, or painting, etc... etc... I'm a singer, and a guitar player. That's my gift. But it's not everybody's. Entertainers and athletes are often afforded a lot of glory, and I truly appreciate it. But I am just as fascinated by the guy who can fix the brakes on my car as he is of my ability to sing. The sad part is that he doesn't have people packed into his garage applauding him everytime he changes a caliper!

So ask yourself: How many really good mechanics do you know? How many talented seamstresses? How many really good lawyers, or teachers, or doctors or preachers do you know? They're not a dime a dozen. It's the same with singers. The reality is that God gives out talents to each of us, and they're all different. Some have the talent to sing. Everybody else is just along for the ride.

That's not in any way meant to imply that someone who isn't a singer can't come into a church and fully participate in the musical worship, and sing their hearts out for the Lord. (Jesus doesn't care how good you are, I promise!) Not at all. What it means is that many people come into church and are just fine NOT singing. Many are just fine to sit and watch the band, much like they would a good concert, and they get just as much out of the musical service as the guy who's singing his brains out. So inasmuch as we can all go and enjoy a really good concert, and have a great experience doing so, it doesn't diminish our worship services at church if people truly just come to enjoy the show, as it were. There's nothing inherently wrong with that.

I RARELY sing in the worship service when I'm sitting in the pews. I sing so much outside of church, or when I'm on the worship team, that when I get a break, I'm more than happy to just sit back and enjoy the band. I watch the drummer most of the time, if you must know the truth, and just dig the musicianship I so often see displayed on the stage for Jesus. So it's wrong of us to assume everyone wants to sing in the congregation, and certainly wrong for us to assume that if they're not singing, they're not worshipping.

Third, we often wildly misrepresent the concept of volume, and what it actually means with regard to our music service. Far too often, we confuse volume with sound quality. Make no mistake, there are indeed volume limitations in any setting. But most often, when people complain about the volume of our musical worship, what they are really complaining about is the quality of the sound. And because sound reproduction (or music in general) is often not their area of expertise, they equate bad sound with volume that's too loud simply because they don't know any better and don't know how to articulate what they really mean.

For those of us who are old enough to remember the old dial-type car radios, remember how you had to get the dial just right on a station so the sound would be nice and clear? Otherwise, you would get static and background noise on the station. And at any volume, that static could just about drive you nuts. So you'd turn it down. But once you got the station dialed in just right, what did you do? You turned it up! And you could keep turning it up because it sounded good! And you'll sing louder in the car when the music is cranked.

The same concept applies in our musical services. Most professional concerts you go to have professional, quality sound gear, and professional sound people to run it, and it often sounds very good. So those concerts tend to be really loud. Because they can be -- because they sound good. By contrast, many of our church musical services are run by volunteers, and often on sound gear that was purchased because it was cheap, not because it was the best. If you happen to attend a church that spared no expense on it's musical equipment, and/or have volunteers who just so happen to have sound and musical expertise, then you might have a pretty nice sounding service. If not, then you're at the mercy of people who are doing their best, but might simply not have the ability or the resources to dial in the quality of the sound like a professional. And if the quality of the sound is poor, it will almost always sound TOO LOUD! And people will complain about the volume.

If churches would put more of an emphasis on buying quality sound and music equipment, and endeavor to either hire people with expertise, or properly train their volunteers to run sound well, they would actually eliminate a large portion of what they consider to be volume problems. And they would eliminate volume as a problem in congregational singing. You don't sing in your car until you can crank up the radio when it's sounding just right. The same principle applies in the church.

Fourth, music today is not too complex. If anything it's too simple. Have you ever really checked out some of the old hymns? Many of them are extraordinarily complicated! So complexity is not an excuse. I agree in part with #1 on this list, but I believe it misses the bigger picture. People do indeed tend to participate more with songs they know. But that is true for every person in every generation, and we often ignore the fact that many people simply may not like today's modern praise and worship music style.

Think about it this way: If you grew up, say, a big Tom Petty fan, it's a good bet that your kids aren't. Generally speaking, our children often don't enjoy the same music we grew up listening to. Just as we didn't like what our parents listened to. If you're a Tom Petty fan, you're probably not much of a Perry Como fan. I'm generalizing, but you get the point.

Conversely, you don't like what your kids listen to. Again, if you're a Tom Petty fan, you're probably not much of a Justin Bieber fan. If you and your children attended either of those concerts together, one of you is going to be jamming, and the other is going to be bored.

The same concept is happening in our churches. Today's style of praise and worship music is vastly different from inaugural praise and worship music of just 15 or 20 years ago, and virtually unrecognizable to the groundbreaking Christian music of the late 70's and 80's. If you're in a megachurch of 2500 people, what's the chances they're all Switchfoot fans, or Chris Tomlin fans, or Rich Mullins fans, or Petra fans, or Gaither fans? Virtually nill. So the reality is that some people aren't singing because they simply don't like the music. Perhaps they could get lucky and find a church that plays nothing but 80's Christian rock, but I doubt it. So, to a certain extent, they're stuck with what they have. If they don't engage, it's not always because we're doing something inherently wrong in worship. That shouldn't be discouraging to the worship team. It's simply reality.

Which brings me to my final point. Churches need to stop trying to please everyone. They just need to stop. Because it ain't ever gonna happen.

Back in the early, heady days of Contemporary worship, a church had to decide whether it wanted to "go Contemporary," or stay "traditional." Eventually, someone came up with the ultimate compromise: "Blended" worship. And churches took a lot of pride (some still do) in being able to bill themselves as "Blended" worship. All it really means, of course, is that you played a few contemporary songs in worship, and you threw in a hymn or two for the old people, sometimes even still accompanying it only on the piano -- and even better, actually using the hymnal book. If you did this every week, you could call yourself "blended."

Back in my days as a church staffer, the subject would actually come up in the weekly staff meeting. "We didn't have a hymn in worship this week. Make sure we do next week." Or, "One too-many hymns this week. Better back it down next week."

All the while we ignored the fact that it was absurd to believe that by doing what we were doing, we were actually making everybody happy. I used to complain in the staff meetings, "Hey, when are we gonna do an 80's Christian rock song in the service?" I mean, that's what I grew up with. It helped lead me to the Lord, and what caused me to devote my musical talent to God. It's what still resonates and speaks to me today. But nobody -- and I mean NOBODY -- is doing 80's Christian rock in their weekly musical worship. Not then, and certainly not now. So I got a little tired of the whole "we gotta make everybody happy in worship" chatter. Because if you liked Contemporary worship, or you liked hymns, you were golden, and the church was satisfied in believing they were doing "something for everybody." But if you liked any other kind of Christian music style, you were simply out of luck.

And, sadly, you still are. There are very few truly "traditional" churches left, and once Chris Tomlin started rewriting hymns, there really was no need for the hymnal at all anymore, so there isn't any "blended" churches left. Most churches are doing musically what is considered modern day Contemporary worship. And so they've lost all pretext of trying to keep everybody happy anyway. Which is why the lip-service to it is so futile. It's simply not possible, and as such, it's virtually impossible to not violate at least some of the bullet points in this list.

Churches today should simply choose what they're gonna do, and what they wanna be, and then strive to do it the very best they can. Preachers do it all the time. Any preacher worth his salt will not care how his sermon is going to offend someone. They're going to preach from the Bible. If you don't like it, tough. Church worship services really ought to be this way.

The church I attend currently in my new hometown is that way. Being a former church staffer, I know full well they get a lot of pushback the general congregation probably doesn't know about, but they do what they do, and they do it well. It is a large church, with a large congregation. The worship staff overall is relatively young. Youthful and vibrant, and they are very in-tune (no pun intended) with today's worship style. And they do it with excellence and precision. They've spared no expense on technology, sound and musical gear, and their overall production, from the lighting to the sound to the musicianship and the technology is fantastic. It's very hard for a church to have a large production and it not feel like a large production. Our church does, and they do it about as well as any I've ever seen. And I've seen a bunch.

And you know what? They hand out ear plugs at the Welcome Centers for those who'd like them. Because our services are loud. And living in a vacation spot as we do, our congregation is made up a wide variety of age groups and generations. And our worship teams do what they do. They play the same songs on the Jr. High and High School worship nights as they do on Sunday mornings. And everybody (well everybody I've talked to anyway!) of all age groups love it. They're not trying to "do something for everybody." They're very confident in who they are, and they do THAT to the best of their ability.

The nine points in this list are good guidelines. They truly are. But they're only a part of the bigger picture when it comes to our modern musical worship. And the truth is, trying to adhere to and fix every single one can actually bog us down at times. No matter how hard we try, we're never going to make and keep everyone happy. So the best we can do is to strive to be excellent, and remember that our audience is not our congregation, it's Jesus. And there isn't a separation between the worship team and the congregation. We're all -- every one of us -- on the SAME stage and the SAME team leading worship for the Lord. Everything we do is a sweet sound, whether it's an 1800's hymn, a Petra rocker, or a contemporary hit, and we should strive to do it the best we can.

Worship of all kinds is deeply personal between you and God. If you remember that, and focus on that, then it won't matter what your worship team is doing. Jesus will show up and inhabit your praise. THAT'S the goal.

Everything else is just clutter in the way, and we should stop worrying about it so much.