8 Indicators Worship Music is Not Good
By Chuck Lawless

I’m not a singer or a musician, so I hesitate to write this post. On the other hand, the topic of worship and worship music is a critical one for believers. So, I write simply as a person who has worshiped in multiple settings on several continents, and who is concerned when worship music simply isn’t well done. Here are some of my indicators of when the worship music is not good:

1. It drags, and it hurts the atmosphere of worship. I’ve been in churches where the music moved so slowly that it seemed we were in a funeral home more than a church.

2. It’s not biblically sound. It may have a good melody—and may, in fact, be popular and well known—but its lyrics contradict biblical teaching.

3. It’s difficult to sing. When only the worship singer sings the song because few other people can follow the melody, it’s possible the song was written more for solos than congregational worship. Worship is really uncomfortable when the best you can do is try to mouth the words of a song.

4. It’s boring. I don’t believe that good worship music must be contemporary and upbeat (in fact, see why I miss hymns), but I do believe all worship music must grab the hearts of worshipers and direct them to God. Music that makes us want to take a nap between stanzas obviously isn’t the best.

5. It distracts from genuine worship. Perhaps you’ve been in this situation: the worship music is either so poorly done or seemingly so completely irrelevant that focusing on God is even harder. All you can think about is the music.

6. It’s seldom attractive to guests and non-believers. Gospel-centered lyrics may, in fact, be rightly offensive to non-believers; on the other hand, poorly done worship music may distract them before they ever get to hear the Word.

7. It produces church members who don’t want to invite their friends to church. This point, of course, relates to #6 above. When church members themselves struggle with the worship music, they’re less likely to invite their friends.

8. It misses an opportunity to prepare the preacher to preach. Some Sundays I’m so excited to preach after strong, God-centered worship that the preaching fire in my bones is inextinguishable. On the other hand, I’ve also had Sundays in other churches where I felt I almost had to apologize for the music as I started my sermon.

The above article, “8 Indicators Worship Music is Not Good” was written by Chuck Lawless. The article was excerpted from www.chucklawless.com. August 2018.

The material is copyrighted and should not be reprinted under any other name or author. However, this material may be freely used for personal study or research purposes.

This article may not be written by an Apostolic author, but it contains many excellent principles and concepts that can be adapted to most churches. As the old saying goes, “Eat the meat. Throw away the bones.”