WHAT ABOUT CONTEMPORARY MUSIC?
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Should it be used in church services?
Some contemporary music is honoring to God, and some is not.
Motive, method, and doctrine must all be examined.

#1 Motive: Motives like getting away from hymns, updating the church, becoming relevant to culture, attracting unbelievers, sounding like the world, appealing to youth, not boring the congregation, changing it up, etc; these are poor motives that do not honor God or worship Him, as they focus on the self. They also do harm to the call to be in the world, but not of it.

The motive to play a song (old or new) should simply be that it is a song good for worshiping the Lord!

#2 Method:

Not every CW band will have these problems. They are common though, so the music is often confused with the method.

Sustained loud music is actually unsafe (loss of hearing), and painful for many congregants (headaches, seizures, etc). This has a tendency to force the elderly and the sensitive to sit outside or in the back. It is not just people with medical conditions who may be affected by loud music or strong vibrations.

While 'max' volume is going to vary by the individual health needs of the church, a basic guideline for everyone is that normal worship music should be under 85 decibels, and there can be -short- peaks and bursts that go higher (never an entire set or longer than 15 minutes, as hearing loss sets in with sustained 90+ music). The maximum volume can always be less; God can hear equally well at 3 decibels or 300.

Other problems that may creep into the method of presentation are

-the secularization of the church (as in, the band is trying deliberately to look like the world).

-'come as you are, and stay that way' mentality. The band exhorts us not to be holy and set apart in the righteousness of Christ, but to revel in our broken humanity

- the worship of the band over the worship of God (the praises of the band are extolled "come see the hip new band with great lyrics and awesome music! They are really on fire!" while the praises of God are minimized (Explicit praises like 'How excellent are the things you have made, your wonders fill the earth' are replaced with vague and self-focused lines like 'I love to praise you God, I'm going to praise you, look how we praise you', etc - while never actually getting around to the actual praising). Posters and advertisements for bands and events may be made with lots of information and pictures about the band members, but very little (sometimes even nothing) about Jesus.

-Biblical ideas on worship (service, praise, thanksgiving, etc) can be replaced by experiential high and entertainment. While the Bible emphasizes being set apart, extolling the glory of God, and laying our life down as a living sacrifice all as different types of worship - contemporary music often treats worship as the experiential 'feeling' of being close to God.

- Musically, the songs are often difficult for the congregation to sing. They often tend to be 'performance' songs.

-Vain repetition and filler words (Woahahooooahoh...), rather than increasing the mindfulness of our worship, have a tendency to zone out the mind and focus the person on the feeling.

- A hip image may be prized over embracing spiritual gifts and talents. Many sound problems come from imbalanced sound, or bad singers. Compound a bad sound system or off-key musicians with loud volume, and you will end up with a distracted congregation that is in pain. The same goes for song-writing.

#3 Doctrine: While there are many wonderful contemporary songs that will likely endure as classics - contemporary songs overall trend towards being vague. Many songs do not shy in bringing in strange theologies, or skew towards personal view points. Many could easily be secular love songs (In the Secret). Some warp scripture entirely (Days of Elijah), or flip around scripture to highlight self (Above All).

It is fine to use contemporary songs, but test any song against scripture, and be sure the motive and manner are for the worship of God.

View THE DISTRACTION DILEMMA - A music overview Seminar