Focus On “Worship Wars” Hides the Real Issue Regarding Connection to God

Magazines have featured articles on the worship wars said to be raging in the nation’s churches. According to data from a new study presented at Baylor University by researcher George Barna, however, the real issue is not the choice of music by churches but rather people’s interest in, understanding of, and engagement in the act of worshiping God.

Describing the national research conducted by his company for the Billy Ray Hearn Symposium on Christian Music, held at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, Barna indicated that the coverage afforded the worship wars has exaggerated the scope of the problem while ignoring the real issues regarding worship. “The major challenge,” according to Barna, “is not about how to use music to facilitate worship as much as it is to help people understand worship and have an intense passion to connect with God.” Citing various findings from three recent nationwide surveys he directed on the issue, Barna noted that relatively few churches have intense musical battles, but most churches have too few people who truly engage God in worship.

“Most of the church people who fight about their musical preference do so because they don’t understand the relationship between music, communication, God, and worship. Church leaders foster the problem by focusing on how to please people with music or how to offer enough styles of music to meet everyone’s tastes rather than dealing with the underlying issues of limited interest in, comprehension of, and investment in fervent worship of a holy, deserving God.” Barna also stated that although music is important in the worship process, it is often elevated beyond its rightful place in the worship effort. “Music is just a tool meant to enable people to express themselves to God, yet we sometimes spend more time arguing over the tool than over the product and purpose of the tool.”

Creating a controversy

Drawing on national surveys among churchgoers, senior pastors of Protestant churches and worship leaders from those churches, Barna revealed that while there are definitely battles being waged within Protestant churches regarding music, the battle is not widespread. One-quarter (24 percent) of senior pastors say their church has music-related tensions, but only 5 percent of them claim those tensions are severe, which amounts to just 1 percent of the Protestant congregations in the U.S.

One reason identified by Barna for the limited severity of the tensions is that most church people appreciate the use of music for worship, but are not obsessed with the style used. The research found that the style of music relied upon in the service is a matter of high significance to just one-third of all church attenders. In fact, only 17 percent said that they would definitely or probably change their attendance pattern if their church altered the musical style of the service they usually attend. Three-quarters (76 percent) said they would just go along with the new style and not make any change in their attendance habits. These figures suggest that in spite of the controversy surrounding church music, people may be more accepting or flexible than assumed.

As confirmation of the limited significance of the worship wars controversy, the research also pointed out that only 3 out of 10 adults say worship music is the single, most important factor in their choice of what church to attend. The people most likely to list music as a key factor were blacks, people 56 or older, adults who attend a church that has 500 or more attenders, women, and born-again Christians.

Music that dominates

There is plenty of opportunity for people to gain exposure to the style of music they prefer. Three-quarters of Protestant churches (73 percent) have multiple worship services. Overall, 27 percent have just one service, 32 percent offer two services, 33 percent provide three options, and 8 percent have four or more distinct services.

What type of worship music do congregants gravitate toward? If the service attended is any indication, traditional worship music still reigns, although a minority of churchgoing adults experiences it. Presently, 40 percent of adults say they attend a service that uses traditional music (e.g., a choir, hymns, organ). The next most common styles are “blended” music (used in the services frequented by 12 percent of adults); gospel (11 percent); praise and worship (10 percent); and contemporary Christian (i.e., CCM) or Christian rock (9 percent). One out of every eight attenders (13 percent) said they don’t know what the style of music is at their services.

The real issues

The Barna study discovered that among the key worship issues is that churchgoing adults and Protestant senior pastors do not share a common perception of the most important outcome of worship. Congregants were most likely to understand worship as activity undertaken for their personal benefit (47 percent), while senior pastors described the purpose of worship as connecting with God (41 percent) or experiencing His presence (30 percent). Only 3 out of 10 churchgoing adults (29 percent) indicated that they view worship as something that is focused primarily on God. One out of every five attenders admitted that they had no idea what the most important outcome of worship is.

Another relevant research finding was that most pastors do not prioritize worship as a main thrust of their church’s ministry. When asked to list the two or three top ministry priorities of their church, the survey revealed that worship was included in that list by only one out of every four pastors (26 percent). Other top-rated priorities included evangelism (listed as a top-3 priority by 41 percent), preaching/teaching (34 percent), ministry to youth and children (25 percent), and discipleship (19 percent).

Some mixed signals

If significant changes will be made in worship, don’t expect them to be driven by the laity. For the most part, people are satisfied with the worship experiences they currently have. Four out of five individuals (83 percent) say they leave the services feeling accepted or completely loved by God “every time” or “most of the time.”

However, Barna pointed out that churchgoers and pastors have conflicting notions of what is considered necessary to worship effectively. Out of 10 facilitation factors studied, parishioners and pastors differed substantially on the importance of 6 of these items.

The areas of agreement related to prayer, which 9 out of 10 pastors and parishioners said was very important to facilitate effective worship. More than four out of five pastors (84 percent) said music is very important to facilitate effective worship. However, barely half of the congregants (55 percent) agreed. In fact, in assessing the ranking of the 10 worship elements studied, pastors rated music second only to prayer, and tied with the sermon, in importance. Congregants, however, rated music in a tie for fifth place, following prayer, the sermon, Communion, and a time for reflection. The music was deemed no more important than the public reading of Scripture, confession, the offering, and the turn-and-greet time. In fact, music was more important than only 1 of the 10 elements evaluated: reciting creeds and responsive readings.

If the people in the pews are going to push for changes, those transitions may relate to the substance of the songs they sing and being able to sing songs they know more often. Overall, nearly half of all worship attenders said that the words in the currently popular praise and worship songs lack the spiritual depth of traditional hymns. Three out of 10 adults noted that too many new worship songs are introduced into their services.

Opportunities for growth

Based on the data from the studies, Barna cited two important patterns of behavior. “Notice that the churches most likely to have worship-related problems are those that utilize blended music, which is a questionable attempt to please everyone at once. It appears that the use of blended music merely reminds people of the fact they have to share the music space with others who cannot tolerate their own preferences, just as they cannot tolerate those of others. The reliance on blended music seems to actually fuel rather than dampen the fires of discord. Other recent studies we have conducted even show that people are less likely to feel connected to God in a blended service than in one that uses a single style of music.

Returning to his main takeaway from the research, Barna encouraged church leaders to get back to basics. “Many church people fight about music because they have yet to understand the purpose of music in the worship process. That lack of insight causes them to focus on and fight for their preferred sound, instruments, presentation techniques, or their desired order of service. Too often, church leaders get caught up in the fuss.

“These battles are inappropriate distractions from meaningful ministry and fruitful discipleship. Christians need to be more zealous about and devoted to worshiping God. The church needs to move on and focus on the One worthy of worship and the desire of His heart, which is to be worshiped with intensity and passion by His people, rather than to focus on the tools used to facilitate our expressions of love and gratitude.”

—Abridged from Barna Research Group Online, Ventura, Calif., www.barna.org Research Archives. Used by permission.