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by Chad Koons

“I’m leaving the church!”

Hmmm… I’ve heard that one before. As a leader in the church, as a concerned fellow believer, and sometimes just as a nosey human being, my first question is always, “Why?”

There are many reasons why someone may leave a church. In my humble yet firm opinion, there are only three truly valid reasons for leaving your current church. Here they are: 1) Error in the church, 2) the Lord moving you to another specific region or church (for a specific reason), or 3) you’ve died. Seriously! The transient nature of church hopping has got to stop. Put down roots, dig in, serve fervently, get over yourself, and love people through decades! Yet I digress; that is a different topic.

For today, let’s have a look at one of the primary reasons why people leave a church body. Fasten your seatbelt, this is a crazy one: “I don’t like the music.”

Say WHAT?! Yep. Does that sound unbelievable? Yet it’s true.

Think about this for a minute. Have you ever left a church over the music? Maybe you know someone who has. Maybe you’ve become overly critical of the music within your own church.

Consider the music in your church. If you don’t have a current church, think about the music at your last church. Take the test, see if any of this resonates with you:

1. I don’t like the style of music.
2. I don’t like the song choices.
3. The band are a bunch of show offs (or the band isn’t talented enough).
4. The music is too big of a production (or it’s not big enough).
5. The singers and musicians seem insincere (or they seem too fanatical).
6. The music is too modern (or too old school).
7. The music is too structured (or too free flowing).

Well, how did you do? Did any of those describe your feelings? Let me say this: it’s perfectly normal to critique something. There should be no shame in having an opinion about your church’s music! However, there is a problem if you let it affect you so deeply that it causes issues. For example, there is a problem if you refuse to worship the Lord because you are too busy being critical. Worse yet is when you share your offense with others and spread the poison. Worse than both of those is when you actually leave the church over it.

I say this because I personally know many people who have left a church because of the music. I also know many folks who have become toxic over sniffing the worship cork, so to speak.

Quite frankly, I think that being overly critical of worship music reveals a lot about the condition of one’s heart, although it’s not always because we have a bad heart. Some of those who have struggled with it seem to possess a most sincere and mature relationship with Christ! Yet it’s often the unrealized motivations that are the deadliest to our spiritual health.

How important is it for God’s people to worship and praise Him with song? Check out Isaiah 43:21 and Psalm 96. Yeah, it is extremely important to say the least!

A good look into our attitudes towards worship music is absolutely necessary.

We will get into the many worship disasters in future blog posts. Please keep an eye out for them and share them with your friends. God bless!

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