Worship Music, Inc
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My partner and I recently watched the Netflix dark comedy series Beef together, and we were both struck by a scene in the series’ first few episodes when one of the main characters, a down-on-his-luck Korean-American man named Danny (Stephen Yeun) accepts an invitation to church. The scene begins with Danny standing alone just outside the sanctuary door, deciding whether or not to go into the service which has already started. He ends up going in, and as the door opens immediately a soundscape familiar to many Christians takes over the scene: electric guitar and keyboard creating a meditative backdrop as the worship leader prays over the congregation.
And as the worship team gets going, two things become clear: 1) Danny is in for more than he bargained for and 2) the band is good. Really good.
It turns out that the worship team on Beef isn’t just a random collection of actors and musicians, but an actual worship band serving Citizens LA church (the pastor, Jason Min, is close friends with the show runner Lee Sung Jin). And according to an interview with Min, the band approached their shoots just as they would a normal Sunday service, doing their best to lead worship despite the presence of cameras, directors yelling, “Cut!”, and a congregation made up of actors. Despite all this they manage to sound so good that as the scene calls for Stephen Yeun’s character to break down weeping in the middle of the song in a moment of deep spiritual reckoning, their voices and instruments mix perfectly with Yeun’s master performance to invite the viewer into the heart of the moment.
If you couldn’t tell by now, the fact is I love a great worship team. And, according to a recent Christianity Today article, I’m not alone. Popular worship bands regularly pack not just megachurches, but major national and international tours. Successful Christian songwriters are able to sell their back catalogs to investors for significant profit. And current hit worship songs are another investment target, yielding returns based on live and streaming licensing agreements.
People love great worship. They love it so much they’ll pay top dollar for it. And investors will too.
For followers of Christ, this leads to some cognitive dissonance. On the one hand, we all recognize that great worship music takes an investment not only of time and talent, but also money, just as all great music does. And this is without mentioning the vast resources that go into distributing this music. On the other hand, the fact of the matter is worship music is now a bona fide industry, with investors, intellectual property lawyers and contracts, and market research.
Is this ok? Should we as followers of Christ and leaders of congregations be pushing back against this? Or, better yet, what are the questions we should be asking as we consider the reality of our situation as people who not only sing but are moved by these songs every week?
I think I’d start with the following two questions:
What are the forces at work here?
How does this influence disciple-making?
What Are the Forces at Work Here?
As I mentioned earlier, I love a great time of worship. But rarely in my years in full time ministry did I think to dig a little deeper at how our church was sourcing its songs, and who had an interest in getting these songs out to our congregation.
If I did, maybe I’d have found out, as the article I referenced earlier states, that out of nearly 30,000 licensed Christian worship songs, only 336 center a theme of sorrow.
If I did, maybe I’d have discovered that nearly all of the most popular worship songs today come from just 4 churches.
Would we have changed anything? Looking back, it’s hard to say for certain. But I can say one thing: without asking, we wouldn’t even have the chance to consider any of this.
How Does This Influence Disciple-Making?
This is probably a question we should be asking regularly anyway as followers of Christ and leaders of congregations, regardless of whether we’re thinking about the worship industry or something else. But when we reframe the question to specifically ask how the worship industry influences our efforts to be disciple making communities, right away this opens the door to thinking about our worship gatherings in new and fresh ways. As I’ve been taking pains to make clear: great worship music speaks to my core. So I’m the last person that would ever suggest divesting resources from a faithful worship band. But that’s exactly what asking this question puts on the table.
And maybe we need to: according to this article, the guitar making giant Fender estimates that one out of every three guitars is purchased by and for church musicians. And Ultimate Guitar estimates that one-million guitar players gig at churches every weekend. Is it possible that maybe, just maybe we might be better at making disciples if we spent a little less on our guitars, and a little more on building up other aspects of our disciple making communities? Or, getting away from money for a second, what new disciple making possibilities might emerge if we stepped back from singing songs every week, and experimented with other ways of proclaiming God’s goodness, proclaiming the works of Christ?
How about you? What questions does this lead you to ask?