Is Contemporary Worship Wrong?

Let’s start with an honest distinction, because this question generates more heat than light when it isn’t made. Worship forms—the style of music, the instruments, the order of service—are, in themselves, matters of Christian freedom (adiaphora). God has not commanded a particular musical genre, and Lutherans have always said so (Augsburg Confession XV). So “contemporary worship” is not sinful by definition; the Gospel can be truly preached and Christ truly given in a service with a guitar as surely as one with an organ. Anyone who treats a music style as itself a matter of salvation has overstepped.

That said, Lutherans do tend to prize the historic liturgy, and for reasons that go deeper than taste or nostalgia—reasons worth understanding before you dismiss the preference as mere fustiness. The real question Lutherans press about any worship is not “old or new?” but “what is it doing, and what is it teaching?” And here the historic liturgy has serious strengths (see “Why do Lutherans worship with liturgy?”). Its shape delivers the Gospel—confession and absolution, the Word, the Creed, the Supper—rather than merely generating an emotional experience. Its words are drawn overwhelmingly from Scripture, so the congregation is constantly putting God’s Word in its mouth. It catechizes, teaching the faith by repetition until it’s written on the heart. And it anchors the congregation to the whole Church across time, rather than to one leader’s gifts or one era’s fashions.

So the Lutheran caution about some contemporary worship is not about drums or projection screens. It’s about substance and direction. Two concerns recur. First, content: does the music teach the faith richly (Christ’s cross, our forgiveness, God’s promises), or is it thin, repetitive, and centered mostly on our feelings? Since we come to believe what we repeatedly sing, the words matter enormously (Colossians 3:16). Second, direction: is the service built around God serving us with his gifts in Word and Sacrament, or around us generating an experience and offering it up? Much contemporary worship subtly shifts the center of gravity from what God gives to what we feel—and that shift, not the instrumentation, is the real issue.

So the fair answer is: contemporary worship is not inherently wrong, and reverent, Gospel-rich, Christ-centered worship can take more than one form. But not all forms serve the Gospel equally well, and the questions to ask are always about substance over style—is Christ given here, is the Word central, is sound doctrine sung, and is the service God’s service to us? Judge worship by that, in any era.