Like That New Church Worship Song? Chances Are, It Will Be Gone Soon.

A new study found that the lifespan of a hit worship song has declined dramatically in recent years.

The most popular worship song in churches these days is “Build My Life,” from Bethel Music, the megachurch-based worship music hit machine based in Northern California.

Sitting at number one on the top 100 worship song chart from Christian Copyright Licensing International, which licenses worship music, “Build My Life,” first released in 2016, is an outlier in worship music, where hit songs are here today and gone tomorrow.

A new study entitled “Worship at the Speed of Sound,” from Southern Wesleyan University professor Mike Tapper and colleagues, found that the lifespan of a hit worship song has declined dramatically in recent years. Read More

In Romans 15:6 the apostle Paul talka about glorify God with one voice, but in many churches today the people do not know the songs that are used in church services, the songs that are sung are not accessible to the average congregational singer, those that are accessible to the congregation are not repeated enough for them to learn and master, and the songs used each week are mostly new ones. The result has been a decline in congregational singing in these churches. 

I have been involved in music ministry in a variety of ways over the years and have kept a close eye on the trends in the music used in a number of churches, particularly evangelical ones. In the 1980s and 1990s most of the songs classifiable as "contemporary" were accessible to the congregation and were repeated with sufficient frequency that the congregation learned and mastered them. But in the opening decades of the twenty-first century the songs have increasingly become "performance" songs, songs written for the praise team, not the congregation. 

When a congregation no longer sings God's praises during a church service but listens to the singing of a praise team, the congregation is not worshiping God. Rather the congregation has been reduced to spectators to the praise team's worship of God. 

When those who plan the music of a church service pick only one song accessible to the congregation, the song is kept short, and the voices of the praise team drown out the voices of the congregation, the congregation receives no encouragement to sing. The praise team is not fulfilling its purpose which is to release all present, young and old, into praise. It has essentially usurped the role of the congregation as the primary worshipers.

The Bible, it must be pointed out, enjoins us to sing, not to listen to someone else sing. Special music has a place in a church service but it should not be allowed to dominate the music of the service.

The congregation should not only be encouraged to sing but the songs carefully selected to enable the congregation to sing. The congregation should be given ample opportunity to learn new songs.

The purpose of the music of church service is not to showcase a praise team but to form a part of a congregation's worship of God.