When I was a young man in my twenties and thirties, I met a fair number of professing Christians who regularly missed worship services – either at our church or at the one they attended. They seemed to have a cavalier attitude about being absent, an attitude that I as a pastor could not relate to.
After all, church was my life.
While I knew that attending church services could not gain salvation for anyone, I believed that it was essential for spiritual growth – and I still do.
But lately, I’ve been wondering.
I’ve attended services at about 25 different churches over the past 18 months, so my observations aren’t based upon going to a mere handful. I’ve been to small, medium-sized, and large churches, as well as a few mega-churches.
Since growing, cutting-edge churches tend to follow trends, there’s a lot of sameness in our churches today, even though evangelical churches don’t use a common liturgy.
But attending worship is starting to become less meaningful for me, and I’m wondering if I’m all alone on this one.
Let me make some observations about my experiences:
First, the music has been uniformly good. Most of the churches I’ve attended have bands, and they know what they’re doing. Some play soft, others play loud. They all play contemporary praise music, and most mix in a hymn or two. And I don’t think any band has played longer than 15 minutes, or 4 songs. In addition, the state of musicianship in our churches has vastly improved over the past decade.
However … too many of the lyrics contain Christian cliches. What if we declared a moratorium on using words like “praise” and “worship” and “bow” and “adore” and insisted that Christian songwriters quit cranking out songs like they were working for Tin Pan Alley?
Back in the early 1970s, Lovesong, the original Christian rock group, put these lyrics on its pioneer album:
Sing unto the heavens with a brand new song
The one that we’ve been hearing’s been a hit too long
The lyrics sound confused as if they don’t belong
So sing unto the Lord and sing with feeling
I’m starting to get to the point where I’m content to miss the first few minutes of the worship time, and I’ve never felt that way before. Is it just me, or is there an increasing sameness about worship music today?
Second, the prayers are so short they’re practically meaningless. In my humble opinion, they sound perfunctory. To quote Keith Green out of context, “no one hurts, no one aches, no one even sheds one tear.” I’m non-charismatic in my approach to worship, but the prayers I’ve been hearing lately have one thing in common: let’s get through this prayer quickly so we can say we prayed … and move on to the good stuff.
But in the process, we don’t really touch heaven, and heaven doesn’t really touch us.
Many pastors operate by the philosophy, “When in doubt, pray.” At one church my wife and I attended recently, the pastor prayed six or seven times during the service – and it seemed a bit much. But I’m longing for one meaningful time of prayer during the service so we can know we touched the face of God.
Sometimes, the pastor will offer that prayer – and I love to hear a pastor’s heart poured out for his congregation. Other times, someone else might encourage people to pray silently right where they’re seated.
But let’s do some planning so that prayers aren’t just whizzing by us during a service.
We can pray a little longer, a little more intensely, and much, much better.
Amen?
Third, I long to hear a pastor teach from one passage of Scripture. I’ve heard messages from Genesis 1, Exodus 1, Joshua 4, Nehemiah 13, Song of Solomon, Luke 22, John 10, Acts 1, and Acts 28 (among other passages) – but I’ve mostly heard topical messages. (And I can’t recall one message from any of the epistles.) While I like topical messages – and usually preached a high percentage of them myself – I’m concerned about the lack of biblical ignorance among Christians today.
We don’t seem to know our Bibles anymore.
Let me use the church we’ve been attending as an example. The pastor does very little exposition of Scripture. Instead, he preaches topically, referring to and quoting key verses. There’s a place for that, and he does a great job. But if you want to study a biblical passage or book, where in the church can you do that anymore?
Can you do it in small groups? The groups at our church are designed around discussing the pastor’s message from the week before.
Can you do it in Bible classes? The only Bible classes that exist are unadvertised.
The church encourages us to read our Bibles through in a year – a very good thing to do – but where in the church can people learn how to interpret and study Scripture for themselves?
Instead, it’s done for us by a professional.
Maybe I’m missing something, but it seems as if Protestant churches are starting to go Roman Catholic: only the priest is qualified to interpret the Bible.
What do you think about what I’ve shared?
I’ll share my final few observations next time.
I agree with the worship songs completely. I’ve called it worship mad libs amongst my friends. Often times I’ll be singing a song in a group where the words aren’t available and when I come to a word in the song and I need to guess what it is, I’m pretty safe by using “love” or “grace”. “Oh Lord I need to feel your ____.” It can be love, grace, presence, who knows.
There are a ton of songs that we sing at church that I feel are just not very deep or meaningful.
Prayer is the same. It’s easy to just recite Christianese and end every sentence with “Lord”. “Bless us here today as we bow before you Lord. We want to worship you with our hearts Lord.”
I feel like I could write a computer program that would output random Christian phrases and you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between a real prayer and a computer generated prayer.
Also don’t even get me started on the feminization of worship! Haha. How could I ever sing this song (it’s a real song):
Your love is extravagant,
Your friendship so intimate,
I find I’m moving to the rhythms of your grace,
Your fragrance is intoxicating,
in our secret place.
Your love is extravagant.
I’m sorry but I can never sing that song and I can’t believe it was even written.
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You know, we aren’t confined to words we find in the Psalms or the New Testament when we sing in church. We’re getting so unimaginative!
I laughed and laughed at the lyrics to that song, Ryan. Sounds like someone is having an affair with someone, doesn’t it? I mean, a husband and wife usually don’t have a “secret place.”
We’ve got to form a rebellion and take on this issue. How do we go about doing it?
Great post!
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I think with some of the songs the lyrics might be meaningful for the author, but not edifying for the body. A private worship experience might not be appropriate for public consumption. I remember that’s a pet peeve of yours … seeing worship leaders having their own private worship time on stage and not leading people.
I tend to find the most worshipful times with songs and music that aren’t good for singing along to. I might be inspired to pray after listening or the music just evokes an emotional experience. I cherish those songs, but don’t see how they could ever be sung in a church.
The old hymn writers were legitimate poets and writers on their own and when they turned to writing lyrics, their talents were easily translatable. I think the depth of knowledge and patience to study is missing from modern day writers. It’s more about having some emotional experience and then writing about it. That is supposed to be just as valid as thoughtful, theologically sound phrases.
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I was always afraid this was going to happen – and now it’s starting to occur! Your mother and I listen to hymns more often than we used to – usually at night as we’re preparing to sleep. The songs seem timeless and evoke deep emotional and spiritual responses. I think there are some very good worship songs being written in our day, too, and a few will survive the decades and become classics. They’re sung, played, and arranged well by the original artists. It’s just that the lyrics to so many songs are trite that I have a hard time singing them. The performance songs at our church are usually terrific, with very meaningful lyrics that the congregation couldn’t possibly sing. That’s where I delight in the turn of a phrase or a heartfelt confession to the Lord. And maybe that’s the problem: I’m not feeling what the praise choruses are encouraging me to feel. The songs just don’t feel authentic. Am I the only one who feels this way?
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Yeah I feel the same. The worship songs at church are usually categorized in my mind under the genre “always happy, always positive, feel good, may be mindless.” There is something to be said for that though in my experience. For me music can reflect the mood I’m in, and it can also change it.
So there are times where I’m in a bad mood and listening to worship music moves me into a better mood. In that regard I think those songs have great value. “Fake it till you make it.” mentality.
I personally have no problem abstaining from singing songs that make me feel like a hypocrite. I don’t want to promise anything to God from a song if I’m not going to follow up on it and actually do what the song says.
In the past when my spirit has been broken I have taken comfort in the songs that talk about sacrifice. A special lyric to me at a hard time: “My life is my sacrifice, daily surrendered.” I had something removed from my life and even though it wasn’t a willing sacrifice on my part, I could acknowledge afterwards that it was God’s good plan. So even though the sacrifice was “forced” I could sing to God that I was surrendering the desire to question what happened and thus give Him my obedience. I was surrendering my life and it was definitely a sacrifice.
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Great thoughts, Ryan. Your parents must be proud of you! As you know, I LOVE music, and listen to all kinds of tunes. (I’m listening to Mozart right now.) We just need some lyrical breakthroughs in worship music in our churches. The songs are presented, sung, arranged and played well – but the words all seem to be identical with slight variations. We need to expand our worship vocabularly. I like some of Caedmon Call’s songs as well as those of Delirious? because their lyrics are a bit quirky and yet still do the job. Glad to know it’s not just me!
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Hmm….I’m not really sure if the Protestant Churches are going the Roman Catholic direction, but I do agree that most of the topical messages are to make us all feel that we are loved by God. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but I think with many of the churches today, they want younger people to attend. To attract these young people they make everyone “feel good” and never discuss consequences or convictions for our sins. I know God loves me no matter what, but I don’t want to go through my life (or especially my children going through their lives) thinking that we can do no wrong in the eyes of God. This is what bothers me. As far as the worship goes, this former Russian Orthodox chick is still getting use to the idea of a drum set in church. LOL!
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Kat, I didn’t mean that the Protestant churches are becoming more Roman Catholic in many respects. For centuries, the Church taught that only the priest could properly interpret the Bible for the people. With many – if not most – Protestant churches having just one teacher nowadays – the lead/senior pastor – it seems like we’re becoming more Catholic that way. Not too many years ago, the pastor would teach on Sunday mornings, and there would be Bible classes for adults before or after the worship time, and others with the gift of teaching would also use their gifts and teach. In a church I attended in the late seventies, four different people preached on Sunday nights, and we all benefited from their gifts. That’s all gone now. Just one teacher per church with occasional substitutes – and that’s why I say that Protestant churches are becoming more Catholic. However, if you go to church this Sunday, and there’s holy water as you enter, a statue of Mary off to the side, and a whole bunch of candles that need lighting …
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I’m with you, Kat! As a former Roman Catholic I recently attended mass and could not believe how poor the sermon was! I had forgotten…we Protestants are still doing a much, much better job in our music, our sermons, and our prayers. But I also agree with you Ryan-those lyrics you quoted were downright creepy and I could not sing them either. We have to continue to look at things with a bit of a critical or discerning eye. I love songs about hope because they address suffering and sin but at the same time remind us of God’s love.
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Ce Ce, as I explained to Kat, I was referring to a congregation being taught by just one person. For centuries, the Roman Catholic Church would not let its parishoners study the Bible for themselves. They were told that only the priest could interpret it correctly. Because more and more Protestant churches are only allowing one Bible teacher – the lead/senior pastor – it seems to me we are headed backwards in local churches today. Because people want professional Bible teaching, we are limiting the giftedness of other teachers in our churches. Thanks for commenting!
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I think there is a place for topical … but there’s also a place for the expositional. And if your music guy/gal is doing their job correctly, they’ve consulted with the pastor and prayed over the passage for just the right blend of songs so that the entire service resonates with that theme. That’s what happens at the church I currently pastor … and for the most part I feel people are appreciative. One of the greatest joys of expositional is what comes up naturally within the context of a particular passage within a book…no one can say you ever loaded up ‘your shotgun and fired’ at them!
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Chuck, I agree wholeheartedly with your comment. The great preachers in the past – as well as people like John MacArthur and Chuck Swindoll – have always done both expository and topical messages. From what I’ve been observing here in Phoenix, it seems like the people of the church aren’t interacting much with Scripture in classes or groups anymore. You’re taught by the professional on Sunday morning and you read Scripture on your own at home – and that’s it. Since most churches have traded Sunday Bible classes for small groups, and since we no longer have Sunday evening or midweek Bible studies, Christians are being told what to think from the pulpit and aren’t interacting with the Bible like they have in the past. This just seems to be the trend among larger and growing churches, and I’m wondering what it all means for us in the future.
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I think I understand what you’re saying, Jim, and I wonder how much of this is a reflection of what’s happening in our culture. Is this because churches have the teachers and want to offer the classes, but don’t think enough people will attend? People have already carved out Sunday morning and are done with church for the rest of the week? Unlike the Catholic Church where people were being told only the priest can interpret the Bible, in Protestant churches it seems it may be the other way around-“pastor, tell me what the Bible says on Sunday morning and I’m good to go on with the rest of my week”.
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I think it’s a combination of things. Thirty years ago, people were willing to come to church 3 or 4 times a week so you could offer a class led by a lay person on Sunday night or Wednesday night. That is no longer true, of course, and most people now only come to church 1 or 2 times a week. So if you’re going to offer classes, it’s essential you do so on Sunday mornings – and some churches lack either the space or the teaching team. So it’s easier for churches just to offer one teacher (the pastor) and then offer small groups – with many of them now discussing the pastor’s message. I understand how we got to where we are, but I lament the fact that (a) people don’t dig into Scripture for themselves much anymore, (b) people with a teaching gift can’t develope and use it in their home church, and (c) many believers are abdicating biblical interpretation and teaching to just one person. Maybe I’m the only one who sees this or cares about this, I don’t know – but that’s what blogs are for!
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