When worship feels dry and emotions fade, it’s easy to wonder if something is wrong with your faith. Explore why worship isn’t about feelings, how God meets us in obedience, and what to do when praise feels empty. Through Scripture, personal reflection, and the story of Paul and Silas, discover how faithful worship can lead to real spiritual breakthrough.
Music can be a piece of worship. It alone is not worship. The modern church has, in many cases, made it synonymous with music. It is helpful for worship, but music is not the same thing. Let’s return to the heart of worship. Our whole lives, everything within us, offered up to God to his glory and praise at all times.
I can say, as one sitting in an audience of singers, if it is not spirit led, I feel nothing. It's just singing, but if the singers get anointed by God and let God’s anointing flow, then everything changes. The singers sing differently and the people began to feel the spirit of God and worship. We as Christians have to pray and worship God, stay in tune with him or our life and whatever we do will be just empty, we will be pouring out of a dry cup.
I'm playing bass in our church worship band, and our church is in transition, with the retirement of the senior pastor, and the extremely gifted worship leader left to pastor an out-of-state church. The remaining singers aren't great, the new worship leader is spirit-led and very talented musically, but his song selection sometimes leaves something to be desired. Especially during Christmas, where classic carols were "reinterpreted" into CCM rock songs. I had to give up my opinion and master the songs anyway, and in the process grew to love them, as the words sunk into my spirit. My old motto was, "Ours is not to question why, ours is but to play, and die!" My new motto is "Praise you Jesus for the opportunity to worship you through my playing!"
The music in almost all of my most recent churches has just been terrible. I struggle to sing along, let alone enjoy it on any level. I appreciate the dedication of the worship team, but when it sounds bad it negatively affects me. However, this post is convicting me to sing along and hyper focus on the words, regardless of how it sounds - out of obedience. Thank you!
I understand. I was at this church in Wyoming that did all the songs I knew with a country twang/twist and at first I was against it because I couldn’t follow them. But it worked out in the end as I focused and just listened. God can do something with your sacrifice.
Your point about how easy it is the manufacture the emotion was so spot on. The music can also sound amazing but be empty inside, so it really boils down to our internal posture, which we can’t fake with God.
Nice piece. I’ve found repetition is often the deeper key- hearing and singing the same song or tune at different times of year, in different seasons of life. Sung liturgically, a song doesn’t have to meet us where we are; sometimes it carries us until we can catch up.
This is a gentle and needed word for anyone who has ever confused sincerity of effort with depth of encounter. Thank you for naming the quiet ache so many feel but rarely admit, especially those who serve, lead, or carry responsibility in worship spaces.
What resonates most is your insistence that emptiness is not failure. The shift you describe, from emotion-driven worship to costly, honest worship, feels deeply biblical. Scripture never promises that worship will always feel alive; it promises that God is worthy regardless of circumstance. Paul and Silas remind us that worship can be an act of trust before it is an experience of release.
Your question: Did I even worship?; is one many carry in silence. And your response is pastoral and freeing: worship is not validated by feeling, but by faithfulness. The “sacrifice of praise” language reframes dryness not as distance from God, but as an invitation into maturity.
The practical invitations you offer are wise because they lower the bar from performance to presence. Naming what we carry, slowing down, choosing truth over tone; these practices restore honesty without demanding intensity.
If worship feels empty, perhaps it isn’t dying. Perhaps it’s being stripped of illusion so it can become real. As you say so well: we’re not failing, we’re being formed.
Why would anyone turn their church service into a rock concert is beyond me.
God says, "BE STILL and Know I Am God"... and man gets out the drums and deafens people.
Do people really think the Spirit of God and Holy Angels are going to remain in a place like that? I would never attend a place that is such a bedlam of noise..
I agree with you.
Music can be a piece of worship. It alone is not worship. The modern church has, in many cases, made it synonymous with music. It is helpful for worship, but music is not the same thing. Let’s return to the heart of worship. Our whole lives, everything within us, offered up to God to his glory and praise at all times.
I can say, as one sitting in an audience of singers, if it is not spirit led, I feel nothing. It's just singing, but if the singers get anointed by God and let God’s anointing flow, then everything changes. The singers sing differently and the people began to feel the spirit of God and worship. We as Christians have to pray and worship God, stay in tune with him or our life and whatever we do will be just empty, we will be pouring out of a dry cup.
I'm playing bass in our church worship band, and our church is in transition, with the retirement of the senior pastor, and the extremely gifted worship leader left to pastor an out-of-state church. The remaining singers aren't great, the new worship leader is spirit-led and very talented musically, but his song selection sometimes leaves something to be desired. Especially during Christmas, where classic carols were "reinterpreted" into CCM rock songs. I had to give up my opinion and master the songs anyway, and in the process grew to love them, as the words sunk into my spirit. My old motto was, "Ours is not to question why, ours is but to play, and die!" My new motto is "Praise you Jesus for the opportunity to worship you through my playing!"
The music in almost all of my most recent churches has just been terrible. I struggle to sing along, let alone enjoy it on any level. I appreciate the dedication of the worship team, but when it sounds bad it negatively affects me. However, this post is convicting me to sing along and hyper focus on the words, regardless of how it sounds - out of obedience. Thank you!
I understand. I was at this church in Wyoming that did all the songs I knew with a country twang/twist and at first I was against it because I couldn’t follow them. But it worked out in the end as I focused and just listened. God can do something with your sacrifice.
Your point about how easy it is the manufacture the emotion was so spot on. The music can also sound amazing but be empty inside, so it really boils down to our internal posture, which we can’t fake with God.
Nice piece. I’ve found repetition is often the deeper key- hearing and singing the same song or tune at different times of year, in different seasons of life. Sung liturgically, a song doesn’t have to meet us where we are; sometimes it carries us until we can catch up.
Spot on! Every diagnosis. Every recommendation. Every word of encouragement.
It's humbling to know that God can totally use us even when and if we're not feeling it.
Thanks for this, Chris. Great article.
Awesome!
Chris,
This is a gentle and needed word for anyone who has ever confused sincerity of effort with depth of encounter. Thank you for naming the quiet ache so many feel but rarely admit, especially those who serve, lead, or carry responsibility in worship spaces.
What resonates most is your insistence that emptiness is not failure. The shift you describe, from emotion-driven worship to costly, honest worship, feels deeply biblical. Scripture never promises that worship will always feel alive; it promises that God is worthy regardless of circumstance. Paul and Silas remind us that worship can be an act of trust before it is an experience of release.
Your question: Did I even worship?; is one many carry in silence. And your response is pastoral and freeing: worship is not validated by feeling, but by faithfulness. The “sacrifice of praise” language reframes dryness not as distance from God, but as an invitation into maturity.
The practical invitations you offer are wise because they lower the bar from performance to presence. Naming what we carry, slowing down, choosing truth over tone; these practices restore honesty without demanding intensity.
If worship feels empty, perhaps it isn’t dying. Perhaps it’s being stripped of illusion so it can become real. As you say so well: we’re not failing, we’re being formed.
Blessings,
Ze Selassie
Thank you! I needed that.
Why would anyone turn their church service into a rock concert is beyond me.
God says, "BE STILL and Know I Am God"... and man gets out the drums and deafens people.
Do people really think the Spirit of God and Holy Angels are going to remain in a place like that? I would never attend a place that is such a bedlam of noise..