Modern church goers have always used the phrase “contemporary worship” as a way to appeal to a new generation.
It has always been a value.
But I’m wondering if it has lost its meaning and is costing us what true, Biblical, corporate worship should be.
Since my days of being a young child, I’ve been raised in “contemporary” worship.
New songs, upbeat music, and exuberant participation from the congregation in the forms of singing, hand-raising, dancing, and shouting is all I’ve known.
Matter of fact, bringing your tambourines, flags, and banners to church was a weekly occurrence for some (not me, of course).
It’s what we’ve prided ourselves on. It’s what I lead every week. We have contemporary worship. It’s not dead religion or ritual.
But is our contemporary worship becoming a dead ritual?
The more I grow in Christ, the longer I’m in ministry, the more I see that contemporary doesn’t always mean better. Truth is, the greatest realities in life are old.
The gospel is old news – but has more relevance today than anything.
New isn’t always novel. Most of the time it’s better to look back and learn.
What Are We Missing?
Sometimes I wonder if our emphasis on contemporary worship is clouding our perspective and causing us to miss elements of Christian worship that are essential to our formation and development as the people of God.
We sing a lot. But who and what is worship actually for? Worship is primarily for the praise, adoration, and exaltation of God, yes. But a secondary result of that discipline is our own formation as a certain kind of people.
To worship is to be transformed. Whatever is the object of our affection becomes the standard of our transformation (Tweetable).
The more we gaze upon God’s glory, the more we change. The more we sing, declare, believe, and feel Gospel truth, the more transformed our inner life becomes. In a sense, the more we worship, the more we become who we were created to be (Tweetable).
But do our corporate, contemporary worship services lead us to this end? Do our weekly meetings, over the course of a year, provide this context for transformation?
By now you know I’m not opposed to contemporary practices. Modern music, lights, haze, videos, projection can all be used in the corporate worship experience if worship is a matter of the heart.
But I wonder if our focus on contemporary needs to be labeled by a “looking back” – a gaze into historical practices that have stood the test of time.
I fear that our version of “contemporary” can often mean shallow, limited, narrow, and unbiblical.
What Makes Routines Rote, Boring, & Lifeless?
Many people think of words like Eucharist, sacrament, and liturgy as dead routines – lifeless systems that have been replaced by a living relationship with Jesus.
But routines themselves aren’t dead. Routines become dead when we allow our hearts to die. Our contemporary routines of modern worship, spontaneous singing, and perfect programming can also become a mindless, heartless routine that we simply “pull off” each week.
As James K. A. Smith says in his book, Desiring the Kingdom:
“I think it is important to own up to the fact that perhaps some of our worship habits are a missed opportunity; that we fail to draw on the formative riches of the tradition and thereby shut down channels for the Spirit’s work. Key historical practices are left behind. While we might be inclined to think of this as a way to update worship and make it contemporary, my concern is that in the process we lose key aspects of formation and discipleship.”
Do your worship services contain meaningful, transformational routines and liturgies?
How do you celebrate communion? Do you recite creeds? Is there space for silence? How do you approach prayer?
James encourages us again:
“There is a deep sense in which the church is a people called to resist the presentism embedded in the tyranny of the contemporary. We are called to be a people of memory, who are shaped by a tradition that is millennia older than the last Billboard chart. And we are also called to be a people of expectation, praying for and looking forward to a coming kingdom that will break in upon our present as a thief in the night.”
So the question needs to be asked, dear worship leader: what is missing in our contemporary worship? Maybe for you and your church, the answer is nothing.
We’d all love to know how you remain rooted in the past and relevant to a new generation.
But maybe your contemporary worship is costing you a whole lot. What needs to change?
Let’s talk about it in the comments. You can leave a comment by clicking here.
[ois skin=”Beyond Sunday 2″]
Well the church I attend has now banned praise an worship using musical instruments!
As a result we have people struggling to sing songs (as there’s no projector either) uncertain of where to come in or when to start.
The singer often starts in the wrong key, or halfway thro a verse, doesn’t always finish and the congregation are uncertain when to end, especially when someone valiantly continues to sing the chorus or repeat the song again!
It was the pastors way of dealing with a problem of not being able to cope with the praise an worship team, she promoted someone who couldn’t pitch, didn’t know the tune, couldn’t phrase a song, had poor timing and we were expected to follow her!
It was her friend, it was like happy hour on a Sun sometimes!
Now its “open mike”time as the pastor now calls it!
The pastor was previously a missionary worker, who got promoted and what group which took yrs to create, has been destroyed within a few months!
Breaking up an established praise an worship group with youngsters being trained up at the time. The church also invested heavily in a tv monitoring system for the lyrics and chords with a new laptop, they also purchased a tablet and cables for the band.
All this expense has now come to nothing……………….
She also decided to start bringing in spurious an false doctrines, no longer having the messages videoed (she obviously didnt want proof of what had been preached)!
She is so sincere in what she believes she’s doing!
I am stunned!
You should just leave.
Wow – seems like a really dysfunctional situation! So there’s no band…just backing tracks?
Hi David, good post. I cut my spiritual teeth in a non denominational strong Bible teaching church with contemporary praise worship (of which I was soon a part of) We did the usual current songs of the 80’s and 90’s. But when my husband and I moved to Europe as Missionaries, it forced us to learn new things outside of our little church circle which was very valuable to us. We learned by golly, that there was some great things about some traditions! We became a lot more tolerant and accepting of other churches way of worship and form. We embraced other Christians outside of our own convictions. It was healthy. During this time my thoughts started to change on worship. As I grew in my own understanding of grace and became hungry for understanding the deep doctrines of God, my appreciation for hymns started to take root in this old “rock -n- roll” heart of mine. I had always groaned years before when our Pastors’ wife forced us to do a hymn now and then. But when I discovered that some of these hymns were expounding on the very deep truths I was learning and rejoicing in, they took on a whole new appreciation for me! God completely changed my perspective on worship songs. Now I see how far we’ve slipped away from the depth of lyrics. How hymns of the past were like a powerful Bible study to our soul when we proclaimed it’s deep truths together. How encouraging they are, how timeless the truths are, transcending generation gaps. The only thing that needed to be done in many cases (for me) was to update the way it was played or sung. We still do modern songs but I carefully pick them out using lyrical content as my main guide. I mix in the old hymns that have been somewhat updated. I’ve noticed in the two churches we have planted, that our congregations sang out the loudest on the hymns and not the other songs. I personally am getting more and more bored by the other songs as well because they don’t minister to me. But songs like “Before the throne of God above”, “Great is thy faithfulness”, and modern day hymns like “In Christ alone”, “My heart is filled with thankfulness” always bless the Church. I think the Church worships worship music today. We worship a “style” of music instead of worship God. Younger generations are raised in this atmosphere and do not know any different. They follow the music STYLE and not so much the worship of GOD no matter what the style is. As a missionary years back, I learned to worship no matter what the music was like in the churches we visited (and there is some pretty wonky music in European churches!) I have learned to focus on the truths being proclaimed not how it’s packaged. Bottom line: we’ve dumbed down everything in our churches today. From the pulpit to the praise! No wonder many are bored or don’t go anymore. Many modern worship songwriters keep repeating the same old tired and shallow phrases. Is there any new creative thought out there? I think church songwriters should also be good theologians too.
Louise – these are great thoughts! I agree with your thoughts on hymns and pulling from tradition in our services. But I don’t think this generation necessarily worships worship music. I think our young people are simply hungry for the real thing. They don’t mind hymns if they are explained and they’re taught about the truth within the songs. A lot of times it’s just such archaic language that they don’t understand. From what I’ve noticed, I think this generation is hungry for the real thing. They just need leaders who will teach them. Know what I mean?
David, I think a lot of people (all generations) are hungry for the real thing too. But There is a segment of (mostly youth) that chase after churches that do the more rock and roll style of worship music because that is their music preference. I’ve had conversations with youth that say they would not go to a church that isn’t doing the contemporary “most current” songs. Music is a huge idol in our culture today, so why would it be so far fetched to say it is also a problem in the Church? Music style should not be the criteria for choosing a good church. Many youth today are absolutely flocking to churches that have great music (purely from a musical point of view) But the doctrine being taught in those churches is so off the wall and unbiblical! In fact I honestly believe the devil is using music to draw young naive youth into such churches. Remember, Satan was the head angel over the music in heaven and of course he’s joined the church today. I know some will fiercely disagree with me but see, we’ve put too much value in STYLE instead of content. We should go where we grow the most, where the Word of God and truth are saturated in all the church does.
First off…this is the FIRST time EVER that I have responded to someone’s post! So this is new territory for me. (Plus…I did not read the other comments, so…)
David…I like your post…especially the “Tweetable” paragraphs! GOOD STUFF! But a couple of things that jumped out at me was…the Gospel is neither “old” news or “new” news…it’s the “GOOD” news…transcendent of time.
The other part is your sentence…”I fear that our version of “contemporary” can often mean shallow, limited, narrow, and unbiblical.” First off…I really dislike the terms “contemporary”…”traditional”…”blended”…etc…but unfortunately that’s the language that most people understand..so I know what you mean. However… “shallow, limited, narrow, and unbiblical” can take place in ANY “style” of worship…traditional…liturgical… contemporary…etc. So is it necessarily the style of music…or as you mentioned…the heart? I think it’s more of a heart issue than a music issue.
WOW…I’ve written more than I probably needed. Thanks for the post! As a worship leader I always enjoy reading other’s thoughts!
Dave – so great to have you comment! You should do so more often 🙂 I think you’re right – we can be shallow and unbiblical no matter what the form. We always need to reevaluate our forms to make sure we’re keeping them real and not just a dead ritual, you know?
I don’t usually comment either. I think there should be room for both and all at times. Worship was different at different seasons in the bible. It says sometimes that a certain phrase is sung continually. Sometimes there is bowing, kneeling, hands raised. Sometimes they are singing words found in the old testament. Sometimes they are singing “a new song”. New testament worship mentions testimony even. We pray, we read scripture, we sometimes open for testimony, we sing hymns, we sing praise & worship songs, we (try to) have silence…that is the hardest sometimes. I think we spend a lot of time trying to define what works in a season not realizing that the seasons are constantly changing. Follow the Spirit is the only practice I’ve found that hasn’t changed.
Cassidy…love the response!
Well this is fantastic to have two new commenters! 🙂 Cassidy, this is really great. Question – why do you think silence is so difficult?
Louise, you are spot on. There is a prevailing appetite today that is fueled by would be Jesus pop stars. It is glorified and publicized at every turn and I find all ages at risk for the yearning. The first comment from parcel demonstrates the absolute must for churches to choose their leaders wisely. Sometimes this is part of the problem too as churches lack the maturity for selection.
We are reaping the political seeds of traditional, contemporary and blended cliques that we have formed and favored, showing up in the forms of shallow divisiveness and stunted discipleship.
“But is our contemporary worship becoming a dead ritual?” Wow, this is something I’ve actually asked myself before. You handled this so topic so excellently! Thank You!
People dont know how to worship, they think singing is all thats needed, In our church when the pastor says lets worship the Lord people clap there hands.