Over the past four years I have visited numerous churches for their Sunday morning worship service. This morning I was the first time visitor at a church of around 110 people in attendance. We sang one old hymn to open the service and then, after about 25 minutes, we entered a time of contemporary praise and worship. The congregation sang out heartily for the old hymn to open the service. But when it came time for the praise and worship time, I looked around the congregation and found the same thing that I notice in most places I visit. About or less than half of the congregation was singing. Most of the songs I was totally unfamiliar with and, I am guessing, so was the congregation. The worship team and a few others were having a great time but far too many of the people sat down long before the singing was over. I am bewildered as to why we have went so far away from the old hymns or even familiar worship songs of the 80’s and 90’s?
A few weeks ago I spoke at a church of around 160 in attendance. I brought my guitar and just before the sermon I asked for requests for any old song and challenged them to pick out an old familiar one that I didn’t know or couldn’t play. I hadn’t played anywhere for quite some time so I was rusty. However, the congregation began to pick out old, old traditional hymns and camp meeting songs. I played them and lead them in a little old fashioned worship. The old-timers were raising their hands and praising the Lord. A few “amens” and “hallelujahs” could be heard by those who are still caring the church on their backs financially and spiritually. The younger people, who didn’t know the words to most of the songs, were amazed at how the older people of the congregation worshiped. The excitement and passion was real. They had never seen this from them before.
It further convinced me that we are cheating our saints by totally or nearly totally eliminating the hymns and old worship songs from our services. The message to these dear people who built our buildings and ministries is loud and clear, “Blessing you in our worship service is no longer important!”
Am I opposed to contemporary worship? Absolutely not! In fact, I embrace it! In the churches that I have pastored, we have had a blended worship service since 1979. That’s long before contemporary worship was popular and long before most evangelical, non-Pentecostal churches would ever consider it. But now many of those same churches are rushing to “compete” with the church down the road or the “denomination of the month” and are neglecting the saints.
Worship services must be designed for people of all ages in our churches. For years we heard about the church offering nothing for young people. Now we are reversing the situation. Too often we define the word “balance” with “excess” and I suspect we have done it again.
Further, almost every church that I have visited in recent months has their finances in the bulletin. This is a practice that has not always been done by many churches. I can’t remember the last time I saw a financial report in a church bulletin or newsletter that the giving was equal to or above budget. In fact, every one of them has been running hundreds of dollars per week deficit. A wise old pastor once told me, “Lyn, you don’t have to preach about giving. If the people are being blessed they will give.” I submit to you that there is a group of people who are no longer being blessed by the local church in the way they are accustomed. I don’t think they are asking for much. Perhaps just a little more equality in worship style and time is in order.
