Modern Church Music

by Jeffrey L Girling

I’m writing this article because I have something I personally want to say about christian music today!   Yet I believe most Pastors and christians will disagree with me, and I realize they might actually be right,  because the Holy Spirit could actually be behind the music sung and played in all churhes today!  (That means I’m not the last word on the subject, and I realize it!)

But here’s the thing:   Music in church today is completely different than it was forty or fifty years ago.   I remember a time when churches were filled with hymn books, with the whole  congregation singing the old hymns together!

But then the Charismatic movement came during the late 60’s and 70’s which I was very much a part of as a young man.    I couldn’t  wait until I arrived at church in those days, because I loved being around Spirit Filled Christians with all of us praising the Lord together!

I would have went to church six or seven days a week if I could have found church services that many days a week, because I wanted to be continually in the Spirit of God, so praise services and music was very exciting for me in the 70’s.

But things are different now, and I hardly go to church at all, and I want this article to explain why, because most church services are almost unbearable for me to sit through these days, and the music is the reason.

I kept wondering for a few years why I couldn’t enjoy church music anymore, when I remembered enjoying it so much during the 70’s.   So I would keep meditating on what was different between now and then.

One day I suddenly realized it wasn’t the music at all, but it was the very loud noisy amplifiers which troubled my ears.   So it was technology which had changed since the 70’s, and amplifers are becoming louder and louder.

I have a very low tolerance to loud amplifiers, and continued loud music annoys and irritates my ears so much, that I find it almost unbearable to sit through most church services today!  (I remember the old church pianos and organs were much more pleasant in the 70’s)

Then another thing:   The praise music in the 70’s was more simple to sing with, so most of the congregation could sing along quite well, but now praise music is becoming so complicated, that only skilled musicians can sing through them, which means a percentage of the congregation can’t participate in the praise music, and is left just standing there, and I believe a great percentage of the church is sitting at home, because the church praise music is unbearably loud with noisy amplifiers, and just too complicated for some people to sing and participate with.

The praise music also goes on and on singing the same complicated praise songs over and over in every church service.   So where have all the precious old church hymns gone?   The old church hymns are almost non-existent in some churches today!

The Old Rugged Cross and What A Friend We Have In Jesus  are just a couple of examples of hymns which I haven’t heard in years in some churches in America.   I wonder if some younger christians even know what they are, or if they ever heard them.

The Bottom Line Is:   I don’t recognize church music as it once was, because something very loud, annoying, and complicated has replaced the precious old church hymns, and church just isn’t enjoyable for me anymore, and I believe half of the church is sitting at home feeling the same way I do, while the other half of the church is making an unenjoyable noise unto the Lord. (They Call It Revival!) But it’s driving some away from the church, so how can it be revival?

 Yet!  I know you all mean well! Sincerely!  God Bless You All!    Jeffrey L. Girling