Contemporary worship leaders aren’t leading worship—they’re performing it. That’s why they must have new songs every week. A friend of mine is a hipster guitarist in a megachurch and even he is sick and tired of the constant onslaught of new songs. But then again, his worship leader is … a failed CCM artist who has ended up in a worship leader job. The guitarist laughed: “Can we not repeat at least ONE song that’s six months old?” It’s a bizarre insecurity on the rock star worship leader’s part—he’s terrified of repeating a six-month-old song for fear of being dated and out of touch.
This also explains the ridiculous, unsingable keys of modern worship. The rock star worship leader, most likely a high tenor, must pitch the songs in the perfect key to fit his voice. And those keys unfortunately are not accessible by the mere mortals in the congregation (not that they could sing those songs anyway since they’re all new every week and nobody knows them).
Glenn Packiam urges us to not paint all megachurches with a broad brush. Glenn, I hear you, and I can imagine there are megachurches out there, somewhere, who are doing things right. But gee whiz—the megachurches I visit, all across the country, all seem to have this same rampant rock star problem. It’s not the songs—it’s the performers who are more interested in their hipness (how they look, how they sound and what they sing) than helping people connect to God in worship.
This problem is not exclusive to megachurches, either. However, if I’m visiting a megachurch, it’s usually one of the top 25 in the country—the ones hosting conferences and setting the precedents smaller churches are copying.
Is change in the air? From blogs and social media, I’ve read countless articles in the past few months where those mere mortals in the congregation are fed up—and speaking out. Change unfortunately won’t take place until pastors stop hiring those exciting rock stars and start hiring true worship leaders and directors who are called.
