Some Thoughts on Worship Music

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I’ve read a couple of articles lately about worship.  In church circles, that is quite the hot topic these days.  The first article is one by LifeWay President Thom Rainer concerning what attracts the Millennial Generation (those born 1980-2000) to worship.  You can read it here.  The second article, written by Christian layman David Murrow, ponders the reasons most men do not sing during worship times in church.  You can read that article here.

Both articles were very insightful and both challenged me and encouraged me.  As a pastor, I want to see my congregation genuinely worship God in a way that pleases Him primarily and edifies us additionally.  The problem with most worship discussions, I believe, is that we focus on how to please the wrong audience.  We discuss what music appeals most to a certain generation, demographic, or other affinity group.

We debate whether we should sing hymns, contemporary songs, or both sung from hymnals or projected on screens, while played by bands or organ and piano.  The deciding factor in those determinations is usually the preference of the majority of people in the church or the perceived attraction of a target group. The truth, however, is that our worship needs to focus on an audience of ONE – God himself who alone is worthy of our praises.  Instead of considering the preferences of our majorities or target groups, we should be asking ourselves if our worship pleases God.  Does our selection of songs communicate genuine and substantive praise TO GOD?  Is the effort with which we engage singing worthy of the ONE to whom we sing?

The key is not hymns, contemporary songs, books, screens, bands, or organs, but about singing upbeat celebratory songs that are easy to sing, knowable or learnable, and that have rich theological meaning, not fluff or gimmicky.  That is the kind of music that reverberates through the corridors of heaven and exalts our Lord.  It’s about HIM not me.

Worship leaders and Pastors; ask yourselves some questions as you prepare the worship service.  Do the songs we will sing make sense?  Do they really say the things God wants to hear?  Can the average person sing this song? Are we celebrating the glory of God or singing for the beauty of the song? Is the song keyed properly? Are the words simple to sing but substantial in meaning? Is God basking in the attention He is getting from my worship?

Worshippers, connect with God this Sunday when you worship.  Don’t just stand there, sing…sing to God.

Shout for joy to God, all the earth;
sing the glory of his name;
give to him glorious praise!
Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds!
So great is your power that your enemies come cringing to you.
All the earth worships you
and sings praises to you;
they sing praises to your name.”  – Psalm 66:1-4

Challenge #2 – What Do We Do With Worship?

I believe in the value of music in a believer’s life as I wrote in an earlier blog.  I strongly believe in the value of music in the corporate worship experience. I do believe, though, that we have made the music the central focus of worship.  How often have you heard people refer to the musical portion of the service as “worship” and the pastor’s part as “preaching,” as if the two are mutually exclusive? The so-called “worship wars” that have pervaded many churches indicate we have crossed an idolatrous line and have begun to worship worship.

My point is not to argue worship styles or to defend one style over another.  I like them all as long as they are done with energy, enthusiasm, and genuineness.  My point is we have made the wrong thing central to our worship.  The church is in a mess because PREACHING is no longer central in our worship experience.  I once heard the joke about a young child critiquing his first visit to “big church” by saying, “The music was good but the commercial (preaching) was too long.”

Here are my thoughts on what we need to do to recenter our worship around the Word of God preached.

  1. PREACHERS – stop slacking!  Spend the necessary time to deliver to your dear people a Bible centered message.  Quit stealing sermons from the internet, quit filling the time with cute sound bites, quit tickling ears, but proclaim the Word and apply it to life.  Make it interesting and make it meaningful, but by all means preach it!  That is the PRIMARY task to which God calls us.  (2 Timothy 4:1-5)
  2. PREACHERS – pray!  You cannot deliver a WORD from God if you don’t have a Word  FROM God.  A sermon is not a speech.  It can be erudite and alliterated; it can be humorously illustrated and cleverly applied; it may be entertaining, but it cannot accomplish with human instrumentation anything of Spiritual significance.  Bathe your message in prayer and preach with confidence that only comes from the anointing of God.
  3. CONGREGATIONS – come hungry!  Don’t come to church with your mind already made up about what you want to hear or not hear.  Expect that God knows what you need better than you do and come with an empty heart to hear what God has for you.
  4. CONGREGATIONS – free the preacher to preach.  I have been misquoted as saying that I am a preacher and not a pastor. That is wrong on at least three accounts.  First, I never said that nor do I believe that.  Second, you cannot be one without the other.  I cannot connect my people to the Word of God if I do not sympathize and move among my people.  I love them and because I love them I want for them what God wants for them.  Third, preaching is pastoring.  The term “pastor” sounds an awful lot like “pasture” which conjures up shepherding images.  The pastor’s primary task is to lay spiritual food before Jesus’ sheep.  Free the pastor up to give ample time to study and pray.  You will NOT be sorry you did.  (Acts 6:1-7)

When we return preaching to the place of prominence in our public worship – as God prescribes – we will be inching closer still to revival.

See also 1 Corinthians 1:21 and  Romans 10:14