An Examination of How
Modern Worship Has Lost Its Way
The scene unfolds in countless Baptist churches across America each Sunday morning. Congregants stand, holding hymnals or gazing at projection screens, as music fills the sanctuary. Yet something profound has changed. The older hymns possess singable melodies, logical harmonic progressions, and rhythmic patterns that invite participation. But the newer compositions present a stark contrast: melodies that wander unpredictably, jerky rhythmic patterns, and harmonic structures that seem to defy congregational singing. This observation is not merely the complaint of those resistant to change; it represents a fundamental shift in how the church approaches one of its most sacred practices.
Understanding this transformation requires examining both the historical development of church music and the theological implications of the changes we have witnessed. I approach this topic with both reverence for music as a means of glorifying God and concern for how commercial interests have infiltrated what should remain a pure expression of devotion.
THE HISTORICAL FOUNDATIONS OF CONGREGATIONAL WORSHIP
The Protestant Reformation not only returned worship to the people but also reshaped its theological foundation and practical experience. Reformers like Luther emphasized the “priesthood of all believers,” rejecting the notion that access to God required intermediaries such as priests or saints. This meant every worshipper could approach God directly, changing the atmosphere of Christian gatherings from passive observation to active communal participation.
Worship in the Vernacular
A dramatic shift occurred when reformers began preaching and singing in local languages rather than Latin. Translations of the Bible and hymn texts made Christianity’s core doctrines intelligible even to children and non-scholars, fostering a culture of biblical literacy and personal devotion. Lay participation increased, not only in song but also in public reading and discussion of Scripture, nurturing a sense of shared discipleship and responsibility.
The Centrality of the Sermon and Congregational Singing
The centerpiece of Reformation-era worship was the sermon, intended to teach and exhort all believers. No longer was worship centered solely on ritual, but it equipped worshippers with biblical truth for daily life. Pews were installed to seat entire congregations, focusing their attention on the scriptural exposition, while collective confession fostered communal unity and accountability.
Musical Accessibility and Inclusion
Traditional hymnody further reflected these democratic ideals. Composers crafted melodies that were memorable and accessible, paired with harmonies accommodating various vocal ranges. Because music was designed for group singing, predictable rhythms and intuitive harmonies helped both trained and untrained singers contribute meaningfully to worship. This structure allowed families and entire communities, regardless of musical training, to participate and internalize profound scriptural teachings through song.
Long-Term Impacts
The Reformation’s emphasis on individual access to God and congregational worship paved the way for future developments such as religious toleration, personal faith expression, and vast cultural shifts in music, literature, and education. Communities were empowered to worship, learn, and serve together as equal members of the body of Christ.
THE CULTURAL SHIFTS THAT TRANSFORMED WORSHIP
The late 1960s and early 1970s marked a watershed moment in American Christianity, with the Jesus Movement catalyzing a surge of youthful faith expression through music. Emerging often from countercultural backgrounds, these new believers wielded guitars and heartfelt zeal rather than formal training. Their music was simple, repetitive, and constructed around basic guitar chords, marked by dramatic builds and wide melodic ranges. The rhythmic syncopation and emotional intensity helped create an inclusive, communal feel using collective pronouns like “our” and “we,” which emphasized unity and shared faith over individualism.
GotQuestions.org: What was the Jesus Movement?
While the growth of the Jesus Movement was disorganized and diverse, with many scattered subgroups, participants in the spiritual awakening shared common characteristics. Perhaps most apparent were the movement’s intense evangelistic fervor and stress on experience and emotion over doctrine. As part of their anti-establishment shift, the Jesus Movement pushed away from the norms of institutional religious expression. One widespread aspect of their unconventional lifestyle involved communal living. The Jesus people’s worldview opposed intellectualism and conventional social values of the time. Many old-school Christians criticized the Jesus Movement for being too simplistic.
In protest of traditional religious music, the sound of the Jesus Movement was solidly rock and roll. A direct legacy of the movement was the contemporary Christian music industry, which exploded in the following decades. Worship services were typically charismatic, informal, and emotional. An intense interest in end times and apocalyptic prophecy pervaded the Jesus Movement, primarily inspired by Hal Lindsey’s book The Late Great Planet Earth. A popular message of the movement was “Repent! Get ready! Jesus is coming back soon!”
Characteristics of Jesus Movement Music
The Jesus Movement was a countercultural Christian youth revival in the late 1960s and early 1970s, rooted in hippie values but seeking a radical return to the early church’s simplicity and authenticity. It emphasized personal faith experiences over formal doctrine, which energized many but also led to theological confusion and division. The movement rejected institutional churches as apostate, favoring communal living and raw, heartfelt worship through folk and rock music. Despite its apparent passionate evangelism and cultural impact, especially in spawning contemporary Christian music, the movement often lacked theological depth and sustainability. Over time, many participants integrated into traditional churches or abandoned the movement’s idealism. While it revitalized American Christianity and challenged societal norms, it also displayed youthful naivety and organizational instability, leaving a mixed legacy of genuine renewal alongside spiritual and structural challenges. This honest evaluation acknowledges both the movement’s transformative power and its limitations.
Contemporary Worship Music Shifts
In contrast, contemporary worship music today leans heavily into devotional, subjective, and often individualistic expressions. While technically more produced, modern songs frequently feature repetitive “7-11” chord progressions and emphasize personal experience over doctrinal depth. The use of professional lighting, theatrical staging, and choreographed worship teams has shifted the focus toward performance quality. This shift can draw attention to the musicians and their showmanship rather than helping the congregation direct their worship toward God. When production excellence becomes the primary goal, the worship experience risks prioritizing entertainment over spiritual engagement.
Criticisms of Modern Worship
Many critics argue modern worship songs lack theological richness and often foster spiritual consumerism, focusing on the worshiper’s feelings rather than God’s attributes or redemptive acts. The emphasis on emotional build-ups and individualistic lyrics can lead to a worship environment structured more as a concert experience than a communal encounter with the divine. Such music sometimes uses sensual vocal styles and unresolved harmonic cadences that engage emotions but offer little intellectual or spiritual grounding, which can make worship transient and emotionally driven rather than doctrinally rooted.
The Heidelblog.net: Keith Getty’s Critique Of Contemporary Worship Music Is A Step In The Right Direction
In a recent interview in the Christian Post (HT: Presbycast) Keith Getty, author of the widely sung contemporary hymn, “In Christ Alone,” lamented that, in its quest for “cultural relevance,” modern worship music is “de-Christianizing people.” He said, “Over 75 percent of what are called the great hymns of the faith talk about eternity, Heaven, Hell, and the fact that we have peace with God. Yet, less than 5 percent of modern worship songs talk about eternity.”
Getty’s critique is undoubtedly correct. Much contemporary worship music is both aesthetically and biblically vacuous. He is right to call Christians to seek to create art with theological depth and lasting artistic value. After observing evangelical worship for 45 years and after talking with my students, in both broadly evangelical and in Reformed schools, about their experience of contemporary worship music, I am confident that the principal function of most contemporary worship music is to produce a mild euphoria. It puts the T back in therapeutic. It makes people feel good but Getty is quite right to observe “[m]any worship songs are focused on this Earth.” More specifically, they are focused on the feelings and experience of the believer. They are crafted, if that is indeed the right verb to use here, with the intent of producing in the singer a certain emotional reaction.
Legacy and Influence
The legacy of Jesus Movement music, while influential, reveals significant limitations when contrasted with the enduring worship styles of church history. The movement popularized guitars and drums in worship and inspired many contemporary subgenres, but its raw, simplistic approach lacked the theological depth and musical richness of traditional hymnody. Unlike the carefully crafted hymns that have edified believers for centuries, Jesus Music often prioritized emotional authenticity over doctrinal substance and artistic excellence. This has contributed to a worship culture focused more on style and experience than on enduring truth and communal participation. Moreover, much of the Jesus Movement’s music quickly faded from influence, overshadowed by repetitive, market-driven praise songs that lack originality. Its initial promise of renewal has largely given way to a consumer-driven worship industry that often sacrifices spiritual depth for entertainment value, diverging sharply from the timeless, unifying worship traditions that shaped Christianity for centuries.
THE SCRIPTURAL STANDARD FOR WORSHIP
Before proceeding further with the critique, we must establish the biblical foundation for worship. What does Scripture actually say about how God’s people should gather to praise Him? While the New Testament does not provide detailed prescriptions for every aspect of corporate worship, certain principles emerge clearly.
First, worship must be offered in spirit and truth (John 4:23-24123 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”). Jesus emphasized that authentic worship is not primarily about location or outward forms but about the condition of the heart and the content of our confession. Worship in spirit means worship that flows from hearts regenerated by the Holy Spirit, worship characterized by sincerity and freedom from mere ritual. Worship in truth means worship grounded in God’s self-revelation, aligned with Scripture, and focused on the God who actually exists rather than on a deity of our imagination.
Second, corporate worship should build up the body of Christ. Paul’s extensive instructions in 1 Corinthians 14 address this principle directly. Although his immediate context concerned spiritual gifts, the governing principle applies to all aspects of worship: “Let all things be done for edification” (1 Corinthians 14:262What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.). Whatever does not contribute to the spiritual strengthening of the congregation should be set aside, regardless of how impressive or emotionally satisfying it might be.
Third, worship involves teaching and admonition through music. Colossians 3:163Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. and Ephesians 5:194addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, both emphasize that Christian singing functions as a means of mutual instruction and encouragement. This requires songs with substantial content, congregations that know dozens of songs superficially but no songs deeply.
Fourth, commercial interests incentivize production values that serve recordings rather than congregations. A song that sounds spectacular with professional vocalists, a full band, and studio production may be entirely unsuitable for congregational singing. But if the goal is selling recordings rather than serving churches, such concerns become secondary.
The contrast with earlier eras could not be more stark. Hymn writers like Isaac Watts, Charles Wesley, and Fanny Crosby wrote to serve the church, not to generate income. Their hymns were road-tested in actual congregational settings and refined based on how well they served worship. Songs that proved unsuitable for congregational use were discarded, regardless of their artistic merit. The criteria were simple: Does this help God’s people worship Him? Modern worship music rarely applies such a test.
THE PATH FORWARD: RECLAIMING BIBLICAL WORSHIP
Recognizing the problems with modern worship music is only the first step. The more difficult task is charting a path forward that honors both biblical principles and the legitimate needs of contemporary believers. This requires wisdom, humility, and a willingness to prioritize substance over style.
First, churches must reclaim the centrality of Scripture in worship music. Songs should be evaluated not primarily on their emotional impact or musical sophistication but on their theological accuracy and biblical content. Worship leaders should be trained in systematic theology and biblical interpretation, not merely in musical performance. The question should always be: What truth is this song teaching, and is that truth consistent with Scripture?
Second, congregational participation must be restored as the primary goal of corporate worship music. This means selecting songs that ordinary people can actually sing, both musical and theological. Some modern songs, like “In Christ Alone” or “Yet Not I But Through Christ in Me,” demonstrate that contemporary writers can produce music of lasting value when they prioritize substance over style.
Fourth, worship leaders must embrace their role as servants rather than performers. The worship leader’s task is not to showcase personal vocal abilities or to create an emotional experience for the congregation. Rather, it is to facilitate the congregation’s offering of praise to God. This requires humility, musical knowledge, and sensitivity to the people being led. It means choosing keys that suit the congregation’s range, not the leader’s. It means stepping back and allowing the voices of God’s people to be heard.
Fifth, churches must resist the commercial pressures that dominate the contemporary worship music industry. This might mean using songs not currently popular, writing original music locally, or drawing from the vast historical treasury of the church’s music across cultures and centuries. It certainly means refusing to treat worship leaders as celebrities or to organize worship around entertainment values.
THE ROLE OF BEAUTY AND EXCELLENCE
Some may hear these critiques and conclude that they represent a call for musical mediocrity or aesthetic indifference. Nothing could be further from the truth. God deserves our best, and beauty has a legitimate place in worship. The question is what kind of beauty and excellence we should pursue.
The Bible reveals a God who loves beauty. He commanded that the tabernacle and temple be constructed with exquisite craftsmanship and adorned with precious materials. The Psalms employ sophisticated poetry. The creation itself testifies to God’s artistic nature in the biblical sense, a way that God shapes and forms them over time, not merely aesthetic preferences, but the spiritual health of Christ’s church and the authenticity of our witness to a watching world.
As we move forward, may we remember that our music should sound not like the world’s entertainment but like the gathered people of God offering sincere praise to their Creator and Redeemer. May we value songs that teach truth over songs that merely manipulate emotions. May we restore congregational participation as the heart of worship music? And may we never forget that worship music exists not to make us feel good, attract crowds, or generate revenue, but to glorify God and build up the body of Christ in faith, hope, and love. In this calling, may we prove faithful stewards of the great musical heritage entrusted to the church, preserving what is good, correcting what has gone astray, and always prioritizing the glory of God above all else.
Related posts in this series:
The Sacred Sound in Crisis: A Critical Examination of Contemporary Worship Music
The beauty and power of music … a gift from God
The Biblical Legitimacy of Contemporary Worship Design: A Critical Theological Analysis
The Performance Trap: A Biblical Critique of Modern Worship Culture
Navigating the Melody of Faith: The Christian’s Guide to Entertainment Choices