By Chuck Lawless
A few weeks ago, I posted findings on common worship distractions. Since that time, some readers have questioned me more specifically about our findings regarding the musical component of worship. So, the goal in this post is to respond to that request.
Let me be honest about my qualifications up front, though: I am not a musician or singer; I am a church consultant only reporting what our teams have found in more than 15 years of consulting. It is not my intent to be judgmental or offensive. I have utmost respect for those who lead us in worship. With those caveats in mind, here are ten distractions we’ve encountered in the music element of worship.
- Incomprehensible choir or praise team words – I start with this distraction (a repeat from the previous post) simply because we face this issue so often. The sound system may be poor, the singers may not enunciate well, or the music may drown out the lyrics – but in any case, we miss the message while straining to understand the words.
- Unsmiling faces leading worship – Some solemn hymns may not necessitate smiles, but something is lacking in singing about the joy of the Lord when the singer’s facial expression suggests something different. We have seen entire praise teams show little expression as they lead worship.
- Poor musicians or singers – I hesitate to include this distraction because I realize the level of talent varies by congregation. Nor do I want to suggest that only the most talented musicians or singers should be permitted to lead worship. I’m simply stating what we’ve experienced: sometimes the musical component of worship lacks quality.
- Unprepared singers – Here, level of talent is not the issue; lack of preparation instead appears to be the problem. Sometimes it seems – right or wrong – as if no one practiced this component of the worship service. In fact, we’ve occasionally heard it stated publicly: “Please pray for me before I sing today because I really didn’t have time to get ready for singing.”
- “Preachy” music directors – Some folks leading worship do a great job of succinctly and effectively speaking between songs. Others, though, seem to use interludes to preach a sermon in preparation for the sermon still to come. Too much talking may actually disrupt the worship more than facilitate it.
- Songs disconnected from the sermon topic – It seems strange, for example, when the sermon series is about family but none of the song selections moves in that direction. On the other hand, worship is often facilitated – and the teachings of that service’s content are easier to recall – when the musical selections and the sermon content focus in a single direction.
- Difficult songs to sing – Again, I am not a singer, but I do know when I’m struggling to sing a particular song. Some of our more gifted consulting team members are singers, and they at times question song selections on the “singability” of the song. What works for the gifted singer doesn’t always work for the typical person in the pew.
- Weak use of media for lyrics – This distraction is a corollary to the previous one. Lyrics on the screen are most often helpful. If, though, the phrase and sentence breaks on the screen don’t match the breaks in the singing, the worshipper may still struggle with knowing how to sing the song. Lyrics on the screen do not generally help worship participants learn the melody.
- Poorly done blended style – Anecdotally, we are seeing more churches move to a blended style of worship rather than offer multiple distinct styles of worship. That approach is not bad, but it becomes problematic when the worship leaders are strong in one style but weak in the other. Often, that difference is noticeable.
- Introducing new songs without teaching them – Numerous good songwriters are producing strong worship music today. Introducing new songs to a church, however, requires intentionality that often seems lacking. Many of us welcome a worship leader’s taking the time to help us actually learn the song as a congregation.
What other distractions regarding worship music have you seen?
Chuck Lawless currently serves as Professor of Evangelism and Missions and Dean of Graduate Studies at Southeastern Seminary. You can connect with Dr. Lawless on both Twitter and Facebook.
Posted on January 8, 2015
Dr. Chuck Lawless is a leading expert in spiritual consultation, discipleship and mentoring. As a former pastor, he understands the challenges ministry presents and works with Church Answers to provide advice and counsel for church leaders.
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142 Comments
Something I would add as a musician: there’s a fine line between showing off and worshipping God with the entire breadth of one’s talent. I am a jazz bassist who also enjoys playing on the worship team and one of the greatest impedances to worship, for me, are leaders who insist, sometimes rather belligerently, on keeping it simple. Done rightly and with discernment, embellishments, flourishes, and extra details turn a song from a worship song cover to an expression of worship on behalf of the band, adding a level of genuineness over performance and many musicians who are paying attention to and worshipping God will know when to play simply vs expressively.
Do you think its proper etiquette for the pastor to be standing at the pulpit writing and during internet search with the Choir behind him singing
Oh yes, music is so much a part of our culture and it seems when we go to church we have the need to hear the same kind of music on Sunday as we do M-S. I for one am tired of that pressure both as a worship leader and participant. Sunday is a time to hear something different. It has to be high quality that is a given, but I have a feeling if we stop trying to sound like that week’s top 40 we will engage our congregation into a more authentic worship experience.
I fear that what we will start seeing next is one of 2 things: a return to music that singers and musicians can actually do well or as the technology becomes more and more advanced, a move towards the heavy use of either Midi and we all just simply play along or the sole use of Midi where we just get up there, press play and just “fake” along. Many churches are already doing some of this and to musicians it’s obvious. What i’m hearing is a 100 piece symphony orchestra and large choir but what i’m seeing are 8 instrumentalists and 20 people in the choir loft. Is this how we are going to respond to the need to sound good and be relevant – By cheating?? Surely not!
One more thing: if you have a choir don’t use Praise Singers on mics, the solo voices are distracting both musically and visually and again, that’s cheating! Use one or the other. You are unconsciously sending a message that says: the choir isn’t good or strong enough so we need “showy” “real” singers on mics to get the job done. It’s corporate, Congregational worship we should be leading, not “Follow Along Time” and try to do it as good as we do it. It’s things like this that mark the difference between a service that is a performance experience (and that is fine, worship is possible by “looking on”) or a service that is a more Corporate experience (if you want me to stand and participate and sing along – make that easier to do). Intentionally do one or the other.
More authenticity!!
In the world I would be called a musician/drummer, but in our worship team, we are called praise worshippers. i have several issues with worship. One is the excessive use of contemporary Christian pop. The other is use of recorded music with frequent stumbling around trying to get the right song or setting the volume; looks really amateurish and grossly disrespectful to the church, and more importantly, to God.
Another thing I have observed is use of praise and worship to give musicians solo’s that has nothing to do with worship, taking the worship from being “in the spirit” and focusing on the Lord to focusing on individuals.
Another issue is hovering church stage mothers who seem to think that the purpose of worship is to display their children’s, even adult children’s talents. Extremely distracting and supremely disrespectful.
You know there’s a place for all that in the church. But it must be done well, with proper planning and intention.
Having instruments in worship is a distraction and not authorized or commanded in the New Testament.
Having members of the body set apart and on a stage, rather than singing with the rest of the church body is distracting.
When members are now judging those on stage, the songs chosen, the attire worn, the items mentioned in this article.. it causes division. This was not God’s design. This is why he asks us to sing hymns and psalms together. He is our creator, shouldn’t He have the ultimate word on how He wants to be worshiped?
Please read and pray over this article:
http://www.gospelway.com/church/instrumental_music.php
I disagree with only one of the 10 distractions. I don’t believe that it is very important to align the songs with the sermon. First, because it can come across as artificial and stilted. That is, if I feel it necessary to sing songs about the Fruit of the Spirit, I may find myself snatching things out of thin air–songs that don’t move me or anyone else, but do align with the sermon topic.
Second, in my world, the minister may have no idea what he’s going to preach on in time for the singers/musicians to pull together an appropriate list.
Lastly (and I think this is the most important thing), when a worship service has the touch of heaven on it–the “anointing” as many of us old-line Pentecostals say–it will support the sermon perfectly. In fact, I can seldom remember a time when I thought to myself, “Hey, that service was wonderful because the music and the sermon were on the same topic.” No, what touches me is when the worship is sincere and touched of God. When that happens, the sermon can be on about anything and will still touch me. My heart has been opened, so to speak, to receive.
Just my thoughts.
Interesting article, for which I thank you. For someone who wants to immerse herself in singing on Sundays, these distractions make it difficult. Sometimes I just stand there listening because a variety of reasons do not allow me to partake. A few I’ll add to your list:
1. When a new song is introduced, I need to see, not just hear, the melody. I am a visual learner more so than an audio learner, so for me to pick up a new song strictly by ear takes me a lot longer than if I had the musical notes to follow.
2. I get all excited when I see that a familiar song is next, and then I get all frustrated when I hear a different tune or a tune that is creatively monkeyed with (added runs, trills, etc., that throw me off from the expected tune). I understand that musicians have the talent and the tendency to play around with melodies, but if I can’t join in the singing, how does that enchance my worship experience?
3. In my opinion (and I understand the worship service doesn’t revolve around my opinions), I don’t think the right time for general announcements is after the singing and before the sermon — that just puts the skids on preparing my heart to hear God’s Word. How about having the announcements at the beginning or end of the service, so there are no interruptions between the singing and the sermon?
Perhaps we focus on the litmus test of is it “in spirit and truth” and everything else will sort itself out.
When the praise team stands in front of a full choir with microphones as to give the impression that they are the better singers and they need to “help” the lesser voices and make themselves look better when in fact the choir has many singers who are much better than many of the praise team members who are mediocre but obviously have their positions because of nepotism. When the choir is poorly mic’d of course they aren’t going to appear loud enough. This give the illusion that the praise team are
the better singers when in fact their incompetence and pretending is magnified all the more because they’re untrained voice is blasting into the mic, exposing them as getting the position because they are the “pastor’s niece” . Then there is the issue of picking the same two or three soloists out of a choir of one or two hundred gifted singers. But that’s a whole nother page : )
Greetings Thom, Chuck and Brothers & Sisters in Christ,
I’d like to say a few things with regard to this topic of “Worship Teams” and please know that this is with all due respect to everyone. I make these comments from my perspective as a Full-Time Musician – a Professor of Music at a major University in Philadelphia (where I was the Vice President of our University’s Faculty Christian Fellowship), a Voting Member of the GRAMMYs (and 1st Round Nominee for this year’s 57th GRAMMY Awards), I have recorded over 35 albums with a wide variety of artists, etc.; I have been a believer since I was a child, the member of three different churches and I have played on numerous Worship Teams over the past 18 years … experiencing the Music “Business” from both the secular & church perspectives.
• This crazy “LEADERSHIP MANIA,” has infiltrated its way into Worship and corrupted the way people were originally meant to bring praises to The Lord, especially with the creation of the “Worship Teams.” Having been a member of numerous Worship Teams for many years, I have been a first hand witness to how Leadership has corrupted Worship and has become nothing more than a big Rock Concert and a means for the “Worship Leaders” to LORD THEIR AUTHORITY over others on their “Teams” – micro-managing, dictating every move and QUENCHING the Holy Spirit in the other musicians on the Team. Ironically, the whole concept of the “Worship Team” or “Worship Band,” basically began with Chuck Smith (who my wife and I had the opportunity to meet not too long before he passed away) and the Calvary Chapel Movement, back in the 1970s. My wife, son & attend a Calvary Chapel and we had the opportunity to meet Chuck Smith right before he passed away.
• The word “LEADERSHIP” is NOT mentioned anywhere in The Holy Bible, nor is the word “Leader” mentioned. The only instance where Jesus even mentions the word “leaders” is in Matt 15:14, where He says, “Let them alone. They are BLIND LEADERS of the blind.” There are only a few instances where anything resembling the subject, is dealt with by Jesus – when the disciples are arguing over who among them is the greatest and Jesus responds by saying the “greatest” is the one who SERVES you and is your SLAVE (Matt 18:1-4, Matt 23:11, Mark 9:34, Luke 9:46, Luke 22:24). So WHY ALL THE HYPE!! I’ve had NONE of these so-called “Leaders” wash MY feet!
Here are some of my thoughts on the particular points mentioned in this Episode:
1, 2 & 8) Why are we worrying about what the Worship Team is doing – smiling or not, incomprehensible words, etc.?? This is really PETTY stuff – Who cares!! Worship should be a personal communication between the worshiper & The Lord, not with the Worship Team. Like someone else posted – the term “WORSHIP” is “an act of religious devotion usually directed towards a deity” and says nothing about “Music.” If people are focusing THAT much on what the Worship Team is doing – whether someone on the Worship Team is SMILING or not – then they really ARE NOT worshiping at all in the first place! If churches were smart, they would PRINT the lyrics to the songs for each service, on a separate piece of paper, and hand them out with the Bulletins. It’s really easy to do and costs nothing! P.S. There’s nothing that says we must LOOK UP, when singing Praises to The Lord! We BOW our heads when we pray! That avoids any problems with PowerPoint or people who have a hard time seeing the screen. Jesus says, “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in SPIRIT and truth.” (John 4:23-24)
• If you’re having problems with the lyrics being displayed on a screen, USE HYMNALS or PRINT THE LYRICS IN YOUR BULLETINS!! The whole problem with churches that have Worship Teams, is that the Worship Teams themselves have become IDOLS and the whole concept of a Worship Team, in itself, has become the distraction. Having the lyrics projected on the screen above the Worship Team, is to help bring more attention to the Worship Team, NOT to The Lord! I am in favor of the way the Catholic Churches (and some Protestant churches) that have the organist and choir BEHIND the congregation – no worries about who is smiling in choir. The sad thing is that many church Worship Teams have become like AMERICAN IDOL 🙂
3 & 4) Who are these people who are capable of JUDGING the “Poor musicians or singers” or the “Unprepared singers”??? Why don’t we sit back and JUDGE THE JUDGES or why don’t we judge some of the very POOR SERMONS preached on Sundays!! If you want to get REAL technical … of ALL the Worship Leaders I’ve played “under” (which for me, has been too numerous to mention in an 18 year period), there are VERY FEW who are good enough to maintain a career in Music outside of the church, yet they think they have the authority to judge the skills of other people on their Worship Teams (???)!
• I have a story …
There were 2 people in a church:
a) A very slick, hip & “RELEVANT” [Hillsong, Switchfoot style] Millennial Worship Leader, who dresses real COOL (with gelled hair) and is being paid a stipend; is on the schedule two or three times per month, prepares his Music for the Sunday service, rehearsing with his Worship Team on Thursday evening and perfectly matching his selection with the Pastor’s message; as he performs on “stage” this particular Sunday, he’s very conscious about how he’s moving and jumping around the stage, raising his hands (which he doesn’t do in rehearsal), keeps glancing at the Pastor to see if he has his undivided attention and making sure that all eyes are on him during the 25 minutes of Worship – just going through his very rehearsed motions. He knows all the proper “Christianese” and has all his prayers memorized.
b) A middle aged woman, who truly cherishes the few opportunities she has to sing on the Worship Team and serve The Lord and has no ambitions, whatsoever, of making a career of Music, only enjoying it on a Spiritual level, volunteering her time; however, because the church has decided to schedule more young people and Millennials on most of their Teams, she has only been allowed to be a part of the Worship Team once, every other month (as a “Charity Case”) – since she has been a member of the church for the past 25 years; she attended the Thursday Worship rehearsal, but on this particular Sunday, she is exhausted, from working the 2 jobs she has as a single Mom with a teenaged daughter, trying to make a living; she is singing a little off key, messing up on a few of the lyrics, and not as “rehearsed” as the others, but does her best, under the circumstances … yet is totally immersed in the Spirit and caught up in singing her Praise & Worship to The Lord.
Of these 2 people, who do you think is the one who honors The Lord the most during this particular Sunday Worship Service?
• Please check out this great video interview with best-selling Christian author (of the book, “Chasing Francis”), Ian Morgan Cron, speaking about “AGEISM IN CHURCH WORSHIP”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXGQ0-QqWI8
6, 7, 9 & 10) TRADITIONAL HYMNS should be a major part of the Worship Music Repertoire in every church! They have stood the test of time for many centuries and were written with much more feeling & thought, than the very vain lyrics of today’s Music, which only comes as a result of artists becoming “song mills” & trying to appease the Record Labels. If you read the story of the late Christian songwriter, Rich Mullins, you will get a better understanding of this. Most everyone is familiar with the old hymns and they are much more intuitive than the bland Worship Music of recent years.
• The Lord is NOT IMPRESSED with what great musicians or “leaders” we are (try creating the Universe some day!). He looks at our HEARTS and how we worship Him in SPIRIT.
• True Worship should be SPONTANEOUS and does not need to be “Well-Prepared.” How can you PLAN the way The Holy Spirit will move us to worship?? We don’t tell The Holy Spirit what to do. JESUS and the disciples SPONTANEOUSLY broke into singing a Hymn after He spoke to them, then they went out to the Mount of Olives (Matt 26:30, Mark 14:26). They didn’t sit down and prepare how the hymn would fit His teaching! If a church is a true church that follows Christ, then EVERY message/sermon should be referencing the CROSS at some point (even the Rev. Billy Graham was convicted by this), which would make EVERY song ever written about Christ, compatible with EVERY sermon!
Many thanks & May The Lord Bless You & The Holy Spirit guide you in your decisions about Worship Music 🙂
Mark Beecher
Sorry … I repeated myself on the ‘meeting Chuck Smith’ thing 🙂
And thank you for indulging me on my very long Comment!
God Bless.
M.B.
Your comment on the leadership position going to some leaders’ heads to the point they lord over the rest of the team, dictating their every move is spot on – one of my pet peeves as a musician, bassist specifically (we seem to get a large portion of the grief for some reason).
My pet peeve is worship leaders who feel the need to tell us the words of the next line when the words are on the screen. I can read. Also, when they sing stuff in between lines that no one can hear or understand. This is distracting and takes away from worship.
Amen, Danny!! Having Worship Leaders reading the upcoming lines of a songs lyrics (before we sing them) is really ANNOYING!! They treat the congregations like they’re babies and need to be spoon fed!! It’s just as bad and uncomfortable as being forced to “Turn around and greet your neighbor” after worship. I will say ‘hello’ to someone when I feel like it, thank you!!
Thanks, Danny 🙂
Mark Beecher
As someone who displays the song lyrics up on screen, I can tell you that having the worship leader say just a couple of lines of the next slide is extremely helpful so I know where they are going! Many worship leaders do not do this, and if they happen to decide to repeat a line or stanza that was not planned for during rehearsal, I can navigate correctly “on the fly”.
I meant to say “a couple of words” in my comment above! ; )