Contemporary worship is insufficient (3 reasons why)

Show Notes

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What is Study Worship?

"Let us offer to God acceptable worship."

Caleb: 00:00

If you're a Christian, odds are your church leads contemporary worship. And that's because, over the last sixty years or so, contemporary worship has captured the imaginations of Christians worldwide, becoming the most dominant way that people approach God even across denominational lines. And contemporary worship has done good. Inspired three generations of Christians to seek God in fresh ways, and it's enabled millions of non Christians to hear the gospel for the first time. And yet, here am I, a lowly part time worship leader in rural Ohio, saying that contemporary worship is insufficient, that it's not enough.

Caleb: 00:49

So who am I to say such a thing? And more importantly, is it true? Is contemporary worship insufficient? Well, I'm gonna answer those exact two questions in this video. First and briefly, my name is Caleb Peterson.

Caleb: 01:06

I'm the worship leader at King's Tree Church in Sabina, Ohio. I've been leading worship for about sixteen years, twelve of those years in a contemporary worship setting. And eight of those years, I've also been studying worship more intently, more academically at Cedarville University and at Bethlehem College and Seminary. I say these things merely to give evidence that I love worship, that I'm very intimately acquainted with worship, especially contemporary worship, and that I'm aware of its strengths and its weaknesses, which I want to speak more about in this video. But before I can talk about those, I need to clarify what I mean and what I'm talking about when I say contemporary worship.

Caleb: 01:56

So when I talk about contemporary worship, I'm not talking about contemporary worship music or contemporary worship as a musical style. Instead, I'm talking about contemporary worship more broadly as the modern model that churches are using to publicly engage with God. Now, worship as a model has two key characteristics or distinctions, if you will. So the first key distinction of contemporary worship is that it adapts worship to match contemporary people. This shows itself in at least four different ways.

Caleb: 02:37

First, contemporary worship uses non archaic English. This was actually the impetus for contemporary worship, the transition from the use of the King James Bible to modern translations like the ESV and NIV. But temporary worship also uses non archaic English simply in the style of preaching and praying and singing. So the second way contemporary worship adapts worship to match contemporary people is that it addresses relevant concerns and issues to contemporary people. So if the contemporary person is dealing with or concerned about anxiety, then a contemporary worship leader will address it, whether it's in the preaching or again, the singing or the praying.

Caleb: 03:29

The third way contemporary worship adapts worship is it promotes informality. So before contemporary worship, it was common for people to dress up formally for church. I mean, when I was a kid, it was expected of me to put on a dress shirt and slacks and a tie. But in contemporary worship, the motto is come as you are. And then the fourth way that contemporary worship adapts worship to contemporary people is that it employs popular musical styles.

Caleb: 04:04

So music in church is no longer just hymns played by a piano and organ. Instead, every popular musical style is welcome, whether it's folk, or rock, or pop, or hip hop, or country. It's not that contemporary worship services need to have all of these, but it's open to them and welcomes them as it welcomes the contemporary person. Alright, so that's the first key distinction. Contemporary worship adapts worship to match contemporary people.

Caleb: 04:41

But the second key distinction of contemporary worship is that it presents music as the most potent way to engage with God together. And this also shows itself in four ways. So because music is the most potent way to engage with God, contemporary worship features extended times of uninterrupted congregational singing. And the idea here is because God is present in music in a very powerful way, then we shouldn't have anything that gets in the way of us going deeper and deeper into our musical experience of Him. The second way that this shows itself is that contemporary worship centralizes musicians in the liturgical space and in the leadership of the service.

Caleb: 05:33

So because music is forefront, those who make music ought to be forefront. So musicians take center stage, they're present for most of the service, they craft the service, and they are endowed with unprecedented and at least church history, spiritual leadership over the service. It's often mentioned that it's the worship leader who ushers the congregation into the presence of God. The third way that music being primary shows itself is that contemporary worship celebrates greater levels of physical expressiveness. So music is a very expressive medium, very connected with dance and movement of the body.

Caleb: 06:19

And therefore contemporary worship encourages that, encourages the raising of hands, the clapping of hands, bowing down, kneeling, dancing, and so on and so forth. And then fourth and final, contemporary worship relies heavily on electronic technology. So as music itself moves to be much more of a technologically advanced medium, so church services have to do the same, and they followed the same. So these are the two key distinctions that drive the contemporary worship model. And it's this model driven by these distinctions that I'm saying is insufficient.

Caleb: 07:00

Now hear me when I say this. I'm not saying that contemporary worship is bad or sinful, nor am I saying that the people engaged with contemporary worship are bad or sinful. I'm saying that contemporary worship is lacking, that it's not enough. Particularly, it is insufficient to advance all of God's purposes for worship. So this brings up the question, well, what are God's purposes for worship?

Caleb: 07:30

I think they're threefold. First, God's purpose for worship is to commune with his people. This has been his aim from the beginning of creation, and it's what he's aiming at for the end of time. He wants to be with us, fellowshipping with us. And he has made a way for us to do that even now through the life and death and resurrection of his Son Jesus Christ.

Caleb: 07:58

We read in Hebrews 10, we have the confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. God's second purpose for worship is to conform us to Christ. We read this in first Corinthians 14. It says from Paul, 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. But what are we building up into?

Caleb: 08:45

That's given to us in Ephesians four eleven through 13, which says, He gave up the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for building up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. So God's second purpose for worship is to conform us to the image of Christ. And then third, God's third purpose for worship is to convict the world through us. And I get this from one Corinthians 14, starting in verse 24. Paul's talking about what you do when you gather.

Caleb: 09:34

They were placing tongues at much higher place than prophecy, and he's encouraging them to prophecy instead of to speak in tongues, at least when they gather for worship. And he says, if all prophesy and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all. He is called to account by all. The secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you. So this is God's third purpose for worship, to convict the world through us.

Caleb: 10:11

Now you may say, woah, you're not saying Caleb that contemporary worship doesn't actually fulfill these purposes, that it doesn't accomplish these things. And you're right. I'm not saying that contemporary worship doesn't do these things at all. I'm not saying that those engaged in contemporary worship are not actually communing with God, are not conforming more to Christ, and are not being used to convict the world that God is truly among them. What I'm saying is that contemporary worship has limitations, that it holds us back from fully experiencing the accomplishment of these purposes.

Caleb: 10:55

So let's take the purposes one at a time, and I'll give you an example of how contemporary worship inhibits the advancement of that purpose. So first, contemporary worship is insufficient to advance God's purpose for worship to commune with us, because it neglects significant ways that God longs to commune with us. Now, are many different things that I could talk about here, but I'm only going to give one example for the sake of time, and that is public confession of sin. Public confession of sin is a practice the Church has done for most, if not all of its history. But contemporary worship has decided to set it aside in an effort to make worship accessible, understandable, and comfortable for the contemporary person.

Caleb: 11:44

And I believe that this is to its detriment, because for two reasons. One, God commands us to do this. In James five sixteen, we hear, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. I believe that this is in the context of the gathered body, because earlier in the passage, James says, Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray.

Caleb: 12:11

Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church. And then later we get, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another.

Caleb: 12:23

And this is a very similar construction to what we find in Ephesians five nineteen, which is often used as a argument in contemporary worship for congregational singing, which says, be filled with the spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart. So first, confessing your sins to one another is commanded by God and expected, but confessing your sins is the means by which you have the confidence to go deeper into your fellowship and experience of God's presence. And this is not without risk of your unity to Christ. I'm not saying that if you don't confess your sins, you're not united to God in some sense. Let me give you an example of this.

Caleb: 13:13

It's very similar to a marriage relationship. So, I'm married to my wife, and we have a covenant with one another that says we are committed to one another, right? Now, I can do something that is sinful against her. Let's say I let anger control me and I lash out in my words toward her. If the next day, I say nothing about me lashing out toward her and start acting normal with her as if nothing is wrong and try to commune with her in ways that we did prior to that, she would not let me do so.

Caleb: 13:52

Because, and rightfully so, it's expected of me to clear any wrongs that I've done with her before we actually enjoy one another's presence to the fullest. This is exactly the same thing with God. It is not as though if you don't confess your sins and you still believe in him that you are no longer united with him. But in order to commune with Him, if you have unconfessed sin, that's going to get in the way of your fullest and deepest experience of Him, especially when you come together with the gathered body. So I believe that this is a huge deficit of the contemporary worship model.

Caleb: 14:34

I think that contemporary worship is leading millions of Christians to come before God with unconfessed sin, and expect him to show up in the same way as he would without confessing sins and seeking his forgiveness. All right, that was the first one. Let's go ahead and move to the second one. Contemporary worship is insufficient to advance God's purposes for worship to conform us to Christ, because it suppresses significant means that God uses to conform us to Christ. The example I have here is that contemporary worship suppresses the lesser gifts of the body of Christ.

Caleb: 15:15

And that's a pretty significant thing to say. Let me first argue that the lesser gifts of the body are necessary to conform us to Christ. We see this in First Corinthians 12, starting in verse seven, To each, that is to each member of the church, is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. So every single member matters to the church. It says down in verse 20, as it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

Caleb: 15:48

The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Every member matters. And then if we go to Ephesians four, we hear that the body only grows up into Christ when each part is working properly, that the church builds itself up, every member working properly to build the church up in love. So, the lesser gifts are necessary for even the more presentable, even the members that have the more presentable gifts, if you will, for their good, for their upbuilding. And I believe that those ought to be experienced when the church gathers together.

Caleb: 16:37

But contemporary worship suppresses these in a couple of ways. One example is those with particularly musical gifts that are in an unpopular musical style are set aside because they don't match the contemporary person. I've heard this from many different musicians who are really good or have interest in a musical style that does not fit the normal flow of the service. And therefore they are said, set aside and said, that doesn't fit, find another place for that. But that person has a particular history, particular skill, and a particular reason for those songs to be shared among the body.

Caleb: 17:23

I'm not saying that every song that everybody writes ought to have a place in the service. But I'm saying that it shouldn't just be understood that the music that has to be done when we gather is only that music that people from the outside think is attractive. The second way that contemporary worship suppresses lesser gifts is not so much intentionally, but it's just done habitually through contemporary worship architecture. So, contemporary worship churches are set up in such a way where it seems as if the members who are in the pews are only spectators and not participants. And contemporary worship leaders will say, well, you're participating if you're singing, if you are being uniform and standing up and sitting down and saying a particular prayer or something to that extent.

Caleb: 18:20

But I don't believe that that is the intent here that Paul is saying about each person having a gift to share with the common good. I believe that God is graciously giving gifts to every member throughout the week, that they are meant to share with one another when they come together. Now, how does this look? How does this work in a larger church setting? I don't quite know.

Caleb: 18:44

But that doesn't change the fact that this is what the Scripture is calling us to do and trying to work out among one another. All right, let's go to the final one. Contemporary worship is insufficient to advance the purpose of God for worship to convict the world through us, because it discounts significant teaching that God uses to convict the world. And this I get from the contemporary worship commitment to adapt worship to the contemporary person, to be concerned about what they are concerned about. Basically, worship has there's a danger of contemporary worship putting the contemporary person's interests before the interests of the Scripture, of God's interests.

Caleb: 19:42

We see this in two Timothy four:one-three. Paul charges Timothy in the presence of God and Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead and by his appearing in his kingdom, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions. And that's my main concern with the contemporary commitment to adapt worship, is that they will end up moving to consider the passions of the outsider or even of the church before they consider the scriptures. But here we are expected to go to the word first, to preach the word, to preach what the Word says is important to preach, so that we are not led to and fro by the passions and the whims of ourselves even.

Caleb: 20:53

So, I'm not saying that contemporary worship doesn't speak the truth or preach the word or anything like that. I'm just saying it often discounts what the word says, because it seems like what is better for the congregant or the outsider is to talk about what they are concerned about. And that is not entirely the case. I think it's important to consider what the congregation and the outsider are concerned about. Those things ought to be talked about, but it should not be the first or primary thing that the pastor considers when he goes to craft his sermon or to craft the music or the prayers or the readings or anything like that.

Caleb: 21:37

So those are the three reasons why I think contemporary worship is insufficient to advance God's purposes for worship. But you may not agree. You may have many questions and many concerns about what I've said, and I would love to hear those. So please do not hesitate to write your honest thoughts in the comments below. Next week, I will create a video responding to your comments and answering your questions, fielding your concerns.

Caleb: 22:10

Because really, this video is meant to be the start of a conversation. I want to see worship of the church grow and be better than it currently is right now. It's actually why I created this channel. And really what I'm doing in all of these videos, I want to slowly develop publicly over time, an alternative or a counterpoint, if you will, to contemporary worship. That's why it's called impractical worship.

Caleb: 22:40

Because contemporary worship is rather pragmatic, and everything that it's missing, believe is rather impractical and counterintuitive. So if you want to join me on this journey, consider subscribing to this channel. That way you'll be notified anytime a new video comes out. And I would love to continue talking with you about these things. If you like what I'm saying, you like this message, and want to support me in developing this, consider becoming a patron through Patreon.

Caleb: 23:16

I would love to be able to spend more time making these videos, making more videos, making them better, higher quality. And by higher quality, I mainly mean in my study, being able to take more time to study and be more precise in what I'm saying. Other than that, I guess I'll see you next week. I'm excited to hear your responses to this video, whether they're good or whether they're bad, and to continue this conversation next week. See you then.