I am grateful for the faithful, biblical leadership that Brad S provides as he and our gifted musicians/singers help God's people worship the Lord with songs/hymns of praise. As one travels around the world and worships you quickly realize that timeless biblical principles govern our corporate worship gatherings (Heb. 10:24-25; Col. 3:16).
Psalm 150 reminds us that God can be and should be praised with all different kinds of instruments/sounds. If you doubt this, you really should sign up for the next short missions trip your church takes to India, Africa, or Brazil.
With that said, the following article is well worth your time. It is an article that will no doubt lead to much reflection and prayer. It considers some of the positive and negative ways the contemporary worship music culture has influenced many local church ministries. It is not a legalistic diatribe against a particular "style" of music. Instead it is a thorough evaluation of how contemporary worship music is shaping us- for better or worse. May we do all that we can to worship and serve the Lord "in spirit and in truth."
"It was roughly 50 years ago that young people started
bringing their guitars to church. Converts from the hippie culture, known as
Jesus People, strummed a chord that would echo around the world. Modern worship
was born.
In the ensuing decades, the phenomenon known as “praise and
worship music” or “contemporary worship music” has seen its share of
developments. By no means a monolithic movement, it has nevertheless coalesced
into a highly recognizable sound and ethos, as demonstrated by the numerous parodies that poke
fun at its most predictable features. The dust has settled after the so-called
“worship wars” of the 1980s and ’90s, and it appears that contemporary worship
has emerged victorious in many spheres of evangelical life.
Now that contemporary worship music has become not only a
major feature of evangelical identity in North America but also a
multimillion-dollar industry, it’s worth asking an often neglected question:
How does contemporary worship music shape us?
Worship Music as Sociological Phenomenon
Monique Ingalls, assistant professor of music at Baylor
University, tackles this question in her book, Singing the Congregation: How Contemporary Worship Music Forms Evangelical Community.
Focusing on the decade from 2007 to 2017, she examines modern praise through
sociological lenses. Ingalls analyzes five gatherings in which this type of
singing plays a prominent role: worship concerts (ch. 1), student conferences
(ch. 2), one local congregation in Nashville, Tennessee (ch. 3), public praise
parades (ch. 4), and the virtual “community” of online “worship-video” creators
and consumers (ch. 5).
Though these social gatherings differ from one another in
many respects, one thing unites them: the centrality of contemporary worship
music. “For evangelicals, the use of contemporary worship music immediately
marks an activity as ‘worship’” (22). Therefore, Ingalls reasons, the act of engaging
in modern worship singing produces a sort of “congregation” out of gatherings
not traditionally thought of as such. This has deep, often unnoticed, effects
on how Christians understand worship and the church.
The main value of Singing the Congregation is its
thorough description of the world that contemporary worship music has created. Ingalls’s book is a work of musicology. Each chapter is full
of anthropologist-style “field notes” and insights culled from interviews with
worshipers and music ministers alike. As such, the main value of Singing
the Congregation is its thorough description of the world that
contemporary worship music has created. For that reason, even if musicology is
a new field for you, I recommend this book to pastors, worship leaders, and
anyone else with an interest in the modern worship movement—fans and critics
alike.
To be sure, readers will need to look elsewhere for
sustained analysis of the lyrical themes found in modern praise songs.
Ingalls’s focus is on worship music as sociological phenomenon, so there is
little here in the way of theological interaction with worship lyrics. Still,
Ingalls’s in-depth account of how contemporary worship shapes evangelical life
proves the axiom that “the medium is the message.” In other words, contemporary
worship music not only reflects evangelical values and convictions about how to
engage with God, it also profoundly influences those values and convictions.
For me, as a church elder, song leader, and hymn writer who
“grew up” musically in a variety of modern worship settings, Ingalls’s book
provoked me to reflect on the unintended consequences of contemporary worship
music. Rather than proceed with a traditional book review, it may be more
useful to my readers to share some ways in which Ingalls’s work has prompted my
own thinking.
So here are four areas of reflection, which I invite you to
consider with me.
1. The Worship Experience
First, I’ve reflected on how the notion of experience has
become a crucial expectation in contemporary worship. Ingalls reports that the
language of “worship experience” is pervasive, not only in worshipers’ own
descriptions of what they are seeking when singing modern songs, but also in
marketing materials for worship concerts and events (22). These worshipers have
come to expect “a personal encounter with God during congregational singing,”
described as God “‘speaking into,’ ‘ministering,’ or ‘being real to me’” (85).
It‘s worth noticing that these folks describe worship more as an experience of
receiving blessing from God, rather than responding to God’s majesty with
praise. Does that shift toward self reveal that our worship may sometimes not
be as God-centered as we hope it is?
In a similar vein, some Christians use the language of
“worship fix” or “worship junkie” to describe their craving for contemporary
worship music. Ingalls suggests what may be behind this: “The language of
addiction [seen in such terms] evidences the overwhelming success of the major
worship brands in not just responding to felt needs, but also actively
producing desire” (204). The question is: desire for what? My aim as a song
leader is to foster desire for God and for his glory. My fear, however, is that
in the contemporary worship movement we have too often trained people to seek a
caffeine jolt of emotional bliss.
My fear is that in the contemporary worship movement we have
too often trained people to seek a caffeine jolt of emotional bliss. This is where Ingalls’s book can prompt us to some healthy
soul-searching about the future of contemporary worship music. What if
composers of modern praise songs carefully selected lyrics that focus more on
God’s character than on our experience? What if we embarked on a campaign to
teach believers that worship is more about ascribing worth to God than pursuing
an emotional response—that in fact, our emotions will often be stirred in the
right ways when we focus more on God and less on ourselves?
2. Better Than Church?
Second, Ingalls caused me to consider how contemporary
worship music in parachurch settings shapes evangelical expectations for
worship through song at church. Many of Ingalls’s interview subjects reported
that they found the music at worship concerts and youth conferences more
engaging than the weekly singing at their own home congregations. Due to the
professional production quality and an environment more conducive to bodily
interaction, one young woman concluded that the singing she heard at a concert
promoted more authentic self-expression than the singing at her church
(53). Others viewed the worship at a conference as “more sacred than
church” because of the excitement of worshiping with thousands of anonymous
fellow “pilgrims” who have all gathered for a special purpose (102).
I’m not against singing at concerts or conferences per se,
but it’s worth pausing to consider Ingalls’s point: “Understanding their worship
concert activities as worship shapes what evangelicals expect of a ‘worship
experience’ in other settings”—especially at church (42). For example, one
typical feature of a worship concert is “the amplified wall of sound that
facilitates, even as it covers over, the gathered crowd’s signing” (58). Though
I love a loud concert as much as the next millennial, and the Bible certainly
has some positive things to say about high volume (see Ps. 150:6—!), this aspect of the worship concert is subtly teaching
folks what worship through song means. A wall of sound communicates a set of
values. It suggests that passion, intensity, and a sense of losing oneself in a
massive sonic ocean are supreme virtues in corporate worship, rather than being
able to hear the voices of those around you.
If our musical experiences in parachurch settings result in
lower esteem for the holy privilege of singing with the assembly that Jesus
founded, then perhaps something is amiss.
There is an irony here. One of the original goals for the
contemporary singing style was to awaken more passionate singing at church, to
bring fresh participation out of cold formality. But Ingalls’s interviews made
me wonder if contemporary worship music—at least as many evangelicals
experience it in concert and conference settings—has become so professionalized
and emotionally charged that singing with one’s local church simply seems
lackluster in comparison. Stage lights, fog machines, and wall-of-sound
arrangements aren’t forbidden in Scripture, but when worship concerts including
these components inform what evangelicals understand as “authentic” worship,
then we must ask what results when such concert conventions become expected in
church services as well.
It’s first and foremost the church where the word of Christ
dwells in us richly as we sing (Col. 3:16).
The church—embodied in visible, local congregations—is the only institution
that Jesus has promised will endure to the end (Matt. 16:18).
If the musical intensity of a concert is our benchmark for optimal worship,
then singing at a church service filled with noisy kids, elderly folks, and
people from different cultural backgrounds will let us down. But it seems to be
the biblical standard. And if our musical experiences in parachurch settings
result in lower esteem for the holy privilege of singing with the assembly that
Jesus founded, then perhaps something is amiss.
3. The YouTubification of Worship
Third, a similar question arises from Ingalls’s research
about the prevalence of YouTube “worship videos” being used in churches. Some
small congregations have turned to online music videos produced by major
worship media companies to accompany their singing. This “phenomenon was not
created simply by a lack of musical or personnel resources; it was also a
growing sense within these small churches that they could not measure up to the
new musical standard” (197). Somehow, though I trust it’s been unintentional,
the contemporary worship movement has conveyed that a certain level of
production quality is necessary to achieve faithful modern worship.
In this sense, contemporary worship has come quite a long
way from the folk guitars and simple choruses of the 1970s, which were designed
to democratize congregational singing so that more people could engage with it
meaningfully. In the 2000s, contemporary worship media have embraced the values
of polished production and mass-market appeal. But as modern praise has become
more professionalized, it’s led at least some church leaders to conclude that
they’d be better off foregoing human musicians altogether and leaving
accompaniment to the (virtual) experts.
The good news is that God gives each congregation all they
need to serve him. First Corinthians 12:18 reminds us that “God arranged
the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.” If that means a church
is unable to produce the same quality of music they see at worship concerts and
on YouTube, then we can trust God’s good purposes. He cares far more about the
state of our hearts than the ability of our band to recreate the sound of an
online video.
4. The Power of Image
A fourth area for reflection involves how contemporary
worship has become a visual phenomenon, not just an aural one. According to
Ingalls, digital projection of lyrics and background images has become
“pervasive” in churches with a contemporary style (174). She argues, “The
worship experience has become irreducibly audiovisual, combining . . . musical
devotional practices that accompany contemporary worship and the visual piety
surrounding the image” (179).
Many Protestants have long been hesitant to incorporate
visual elements in corporate worship, stemming from a common view that the
second commandment prohibits not just idol worship but any visual
representation of God. For some, this has implied that even so-called visual
aids—apart from the God-given symbols of baptism and the Lord’s Supper—are
potentially distracting to our wandering hearts. It is fascinating, then, to
hear Ingalls comment on “how essential the visual dimension has become within
the evangelical worship experience,” even cataloging which sorts of images
function as “evangelical ‘icons’ during worship” (179). Though she doesn’t give
hard numbers, her research would suggest that many churches don’t merely
project the words for congregational songs, but also use extensive background
images and videos. Nature shots and pictures of anonymous worshipers are
especially common.
The forms of worship we adopt aren’t neutral. They will mold
the next generation of worshipers.
Time doesn’t permit a full interaction with the theological
issues raised by the question of visual backgrounds in projection slides. I
merely mention it here because it shows, again, how the medium shapes the
message. Even if images were originally introduced “merely” to provide a
pleasing backdrop for the words, many people now engage with worship as “a site
of audiovisual convergence” (178). That is certainly a curious state of affairs
for a theological tradition with roots in prioritizing the ear (hearing the
Word read, sung, prayed, and preached) over the eye.
For example, Ingalls tells of one congregant who believed
God was giving her a special message through the swirling orbs of light on the
screen, which corresponded with similar colors she had pictured while her eyes
were closed (190–91). While such an example is admittedly extreme and
indicative of other theological problems beyond the mere use of imagery, it
does show that the forms we use in congregational worship will shape people’s
understanding of how they should engage with God.
Future of Contemporary Worship Music: Where do we go from here?
Contemporary worship music is here to stay, at least for the
foreseeable future. I’m thankful for its strengths. It has provided a vehicle
for countless millions to honor God through their musical vernacular.
A book like Ingalls’s, however, summons us to be semper
reformanda—always reforming. I pray that studies like hers will help those of
us involved in the contemporary worship movement to understand more clearly the
ways our corporate worship shapes people as disciples—for better or worse. The
forms of worship we adopt aren’t neutral; they will mold the next generation of
worshipers. Let’s never get complacent about where corporate worship is today,
but ask God for the wisdom we need to serve him more faithfully in the future.
Article written by Matt Merker serves as an elder and pastoral assistant
at CHBC in Washington, D.C. He writes congregational hymns, including “He
Will Hold Me Fast.”
