Criticisms include Gary Parrett's concern that the volume of this music drowns out congregational participation and therefore turns it into a performance. He quotes
Ephesians 5:19, in which
Paul the Apostle tells the church in Ephesus to be "speaking to one another with psalms, hymns and songs from the Spirit"; Parrett questions whether the worship band, now often amplified and playing like a rock band, replaces rather than enables a congregation’s praise. The theological content has also raised concerns for some, including
Martyn Percy, who argues that there is too great an emphasis on a highly intimate relationship with God. He critiques the use of personal pronouns such as "I" and "You" in place of "we" and "God," along with the use of passionate and physical language, arguing that this imbalance needs urgent correction. Percy contends that the emotional emphasis may promote hype and a need to artificially generate an atmosphere of encounter with God, rather than allowing space for God to act independently. The emphasis on praise and a consistently positive interpretation of "worship" can result in neglecting more somber or challenging biblical themes.
Michael Vasey observes: "Scripture is, of course, full of lament—and devotes its finest literary creation to warning the godly against quick and easy answers. The power of many of the psalms we are embarrassed to use lies precisely here. Of all this there is little echo in our contemporary reading." While many traditional denominations use a weekly
lectionary that incorporates a wide range of scriptural texts—including psalms—CWM-oriented churches often lack an agreed lectionary, and thus a comparable breadth of thematic material.
Pope John Paul II, reflecting on music in worship, emphasized the need for serious artistic training, stating: "today, as yesterday, musicians, composers, liturgical chapel cantors, church organists and instrumentalists must feel the necessity of serious and rigorous professional training. They should be especially conscious of the fact that each of their creations or interpretations cannot escape the requirement of being a work that is inspired, appropriate and attentive to aesthetic dignity, transformed into a prayer of worship when, in the course of the liturgy, it expresses the mystery of faith in sound." Some critics have argued that CWM lyrics reflect a broader cultural trend toward
individualism, emphasizing personal experience and relationship with God even within communal settings. In a 2011 interview in
Christianity Today,
Grove City College professor T. David Gordon noted that contemporary worship music is not necessarily easier to sing or musically superior to traditional forms, but that its familiarity makes it appealing to congregants. He observed that churches often choose songs primarily based on their contemporary sound, rather than on theological depth or musical quality. Gordon also noted a trend of reintroducing hymns into contemporary services, observing that musical novelty had not historically been the primary concern in worship. In 2014, Gordon expanded on these views, arguing that contemporary worship music cannot match the depth of a musical tradition developed over multiple generations. He pointed out that even popular modern worship songs are often simply updated versions of older hymns. He stated that writers of new worship songs struggle to produce texts that are both theologically sound and artistically rich—“significant, profound, appropriate, memorable, and edifying.” Gordon also remarked that the novelty of contemporary music had faded, diminishing its appeal as a growth or marketing strategy. He argued that the performance-oriented nature of praise teams may contradict biblical principles of congregational participation in worship. ==Popularity==