Has Contemporary Worship Jumped the Shark?

Though there are still plenty of churches which use more traditional forms of worship, contemporary worship dominates the American Evangelical landscape, especially in larger churches. I have long waited for this day to arrive. However, I think that, in many respects and in many places, contemporary worship has gone too far in a direction that is not healthy for the church. Today, I call on everyone involved in worship leading to consider these issues and see if an adjustment is in order.

My Credentials

I have been involved in leading worship practically from the time I got off my knees at the altar in 1973. A rock-and-roller with some country influence, I have always been convinced that we weren’t going to reach modern people with the gospel being wrapped up in old-fashioned musical forms.

I rode the wave of the Praise and Worship Movement through the Maranatha! Music and Scripture in Song product of the 1970s, the Integrity Hosanna contributions of the 1980s, Vineyard Music’s revolution of the 1990s, down to Hillsongs, Matt Redmond, Chris Tomlin, and David Crowder. I have led worship and played guitar, bass, and keyboards in worship bands.

As I said, I have long supported the entire concept of contemporary forms of worship. Though they tell me I am old enough at 57, I will never join the senior adult ministry at any church because I do not want to live in the past. I have told my wife that I want a praise band to play at my funeral and I want them to sing whatever songs are current, not to go back to some “golden era.” So I think I’m qualified to speak to this topic.

Contemporary Worship Defined

Contemporary. I like this definition of “contemporary”: “Belonging to or occurring in the present.” It describes what is happening across society at the present time. Outside of church, the average person does not go to choir concerts or organ recitals, for example. So why should church music be like this?

But the word “contemporary” must not be mistaken for the word “hip” which can be defined as “Beyond all trends and conventional coolness.” Basic pop/rock music is contemporary; rap music might be understood as hip.

This is an important distinction. Many of the details I will address later are from confusing contemporary with hip. Hip is what the youngest people or some sub-cultures think is the latest style; contemporary is what the average person thinks is modern. It is a common-denominator approach.

Worship. Many people define “worship” in different ways. For the purposes of this article, I am limiting “worship” to our acts of praise to and about God in a corporate setting. Mostly, this involves vocal and musical praise.

The old Praise and Worship Movement taught us—though some have forgotten—that our focus in worship should be on entering the presence of God in a real way and directly our thoughts and feelings directly to him. Though songs of praise about what God has done and directed to others were acceptable (these were the mainstays of the hymnals we were moving away from), the movement helped us write and use songs that were directed to God.

The belief was that the activity of worship (narrowly defined) should bring us to an actual encounter with God. That nothing else around us should matter as we focused our attention upon him. That we could actually feel his presence in our midst (very Pentecostal, actually).

Contemporary Worship. The result of merging these two concepts led us to a contemporary worship that used modern musical forms to help us enter the presence of God and, once there, pour out our hearts to him.

In my experience, no one captured this concept better and more consistently than the Vineyard churches in the late 1980s and 1990s (they may still, I just haven’t had much contact with them since then). They produced a boat-load of good songs that many non-Vineyard churches used during that time (including a few that are still used today). Visiting the “mother church” in Anaheim demonstrated how a simple rock band could lead these songs in a church setting while maintaining an atmosphere to enter God’s presence. They proved that you could attract modern non-believers into a place where the presence of God was celebrated. These concepts were not mutually exclusive.

There was no showmanship. Though the music and players were high quality, this was never a performance. The songs were arranged and orderly, yet the Spirit moved.

This was not the only church where I saw this in operation. A church in whose worship band I played in the early 2000s also had this balance. Other churches of which I have been a part before and since have been less successful at the blend, but still had some manner of it.

My experience that a church can have both contemporary worship to draw new people and a real sense of God’s presence will inform the rest of this article.

The Problems

1. Some churches are too hip. See my definition above. Hipster pastor and worship leaders are now in vogue, with their skinny jeans, glasses they may or may not need, and plaid shirts. I can live with that as long as they’re sticking with the truth of the Bible and helping me move into God’s presence.

Unfortunately, this attitude carries over into worship in ways that will be described in more detail below. I believe that behind these issues is a desires to be so “cutting edge” that they forget that the average person is not “cutting edge.” Therefore, worship appeals only to the youngest and hippest people out there.

Though a lot of people attend these churches (it “works”), a lot of non-hip people are driven away. I know a lot of them. However, I have never known someone who dropped out of church entirely because they attended a merely contemporary-styled church because it wasn’t hip enough.

Save the “hip” for the youth group or college group, but, if a church is interested in reaching as many people as possible, just being contemporary is not only good enough, it broadens the appeal.

2. Don’t turn worship into a performance. Play skillfully. Arrange the songs tightly. But the smoke machines, flashing lights, hand-held video of the performers are, at best, distracting and, at worst, a serious hindrance to authentic, in-the-presence-of-God worship. This may be contemporary for a concert, worship is not supposed to be a concert.

I don’t understand what advantage this brings to the worship experience. It would look like a standard pop concert to a younger participant, but does it help them enter into God’s presence?

3. Let’s talk about volume. I am not going to give you the old-fogey argument here. I don’t have a problem with the volume being turned up pretty good. I’ve always been of the school that believes that the music or preaching volume should be enough to reach out and grab people to make them pay attention. However, in the hipper churches, the volume is even higher than that. The problem with the volume being at rock concert levels is that a person can’t hear themselves or anyone else sing. As worship is a participatory community activity, there needs to be a balance between good volume and crowd participation.

4. Some of the songs are not easily singable. The point of the song should be participation. The average person has a more limited vocal range than worship singers. Worship leaders should remember this. There are several newer songs that, early in the song are in a lower register, but then later jump to sing the same notes an octave up. It sounds great in a performance song, but the average person cannot do that. The lower part is too low for many, and the higher part is too high for even more. I’ve watched people give up. When your goal is participation, you need to find a key that avoids extremes as much as possible, even if it’s different than on the original recording.

5. Whoa, whoa, whoa, oh, oh. Really? Have we run out of words?

6. Replacing experiencing God’s presence with activity. This was a problem of the old camp-meeting song service. Hand-clapping, Jericho marches, choreographed hand waving is something that the Praise and Worship Movement moved us away from. Having the youth come down to the front of the auditorium to jump up and down may be fun, but it’s not entering God’s presence.

7. There are stories of carnality among worship personnel. I am NOT branding all who lead worship as described above like this, so feel free to ignore this part if it doesn’t apply to your setting. Unfortunately, I have heard several stories—first hand—of worship leaders or musicians getting drunk and participating in other activities that we should not condone. I do not personally have a problem if your guitarist plays in a band that occasionally plays in a bar. But if you find out that he pounds down a six pack while he’s there, I think there is a problem. Leading people in worship is a holy activity and, though we are all imperfect vessels, we must give our best to God for him to bless it to others.

Conclusion

It is possible to have authentic worship while trying to attract the unchurched. Those who do get saved need that kind of worship and those who are not saved even need to be exposed to people who worship. Several of the trends noted above are a hindrance to authentic worship with little or no gain of the unchurched. This has been proven by the many churches which have learned this balance.

I hope you believe me when I say these are not the rantings of an old fart. If you have heard me play guitar, you know I can still rock. I love contemporary worship; I just want it to lead to an authentic experience in the presence of God.

Please hear these thoughts that I’ve collected over the last few years and consider if your approach to worship is bringing people into the presence of God.