What Happens When Worship Songs Replace Sermons?

Every generation of the Church has had to decide what will sit at the center of its worship: the unapologetic preaching of the Word, or the aesthetic power of music. Both are gifts of God. Both belong in Christian worship. But history—and our present moment—show how easily one displaces the other.

How Culture Rewrote the Sound of Worship

Architecture often reveals theology. In the 18th century, “auditory churches” were built so that everyone could hear the preacher. Triple-decker pulpits and galleries placed proclamation at the very center. Worship was anchored in the conviction Paul gave to Timothy: “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching” (2 Tim. 4:2).

But by the 19th century, priorities shifted. The Oxford Movement re-centered attention on the altar, choir, and ritual. Great cathedrals began to boast of their magnificent organs, sometimes treating them as their most prized possessions. Entire sanctuaries were designed not for the voice of the preacher, but for the resonance of the instrument.

What Changed in Between? Several cultural forces converged to displace preaching:

Progressivism & Rationalism
The Enlightenment prized reason over revelation. Sermons were pressured to become moral lectures instead of prophetic proclamations.
Romanticism & Aesthetics
The 19th century emphasized beauty, emotion, and art. Organs, choirs, and architecture became the means of transcendence while sermons lost fire.
Secular Respectability
Churches sought cultural approval in increasingly secular societies, softening sermons that once carried prophetic rebuke.
Persecution & Pressure
In parts of Europe, state oversight or hostility caused pulpits to retreat into safer tones.

The result was predictable: when the pulpit grew quieter, the music grew louder.

The Return to Preaching in the 20th Century

The 20th century, however, witnessed a recovery of expository preaching, especially in evangelicalism:

Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy
In response to liberal theology, preachers doubled down on the inerrancy of Scripture.
Revivalists like Billy Graham
Music prepared the crowd, but the sermon was always the climax. Graham would never let a crusade end without a clear call to repentance.
The Expository Movement
Leaders such as Martyn Lloyd-Jones, John Stott, James Montgomery Boice, and later John MacArthur revived confidence in verse-by-verse exposition. Seminaries built whole programs on it.

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What if Forgiveness Is the Key to Your Own Freedom?

Forgiveness That Frees the Brokenhearted

Phillip and Laurie seemed like the perfect couple. Winsome. Steady. Parents of three beautiful children. Their home became a gathering point for actors, producers, and screenwriters in Hollywood. Then tragedy struck. Laurie was killed in a drive-by shooting. The story made national headlines. Days later, Phillip stood before microphones and stunned reporters:

“As a Christian, my faith teaches me to forgive my enemies. I forgive my wife’s killers.”

The declaration went viral. Some called it noble; others called it naïve. Months later, the prison chaplain called Phillip.

“Sir, the man who killed your wife has become a Christian. He wants to ask for your forgiveness.”

Phillip froze. Suddenly, forgiveness wasn’t an idea—it was a face and a voice.

“My wife was a fantastic mother,” Phillip said later. “Her sudden death left an unfilled gap. I struggled to raise our children alone. And now this killer wanted me to release him?”

In that moment, Phillip realized: forgiveness isn’t about what someone deserves. It’s about what Christ has already done.

 “I knew I didn’t deserve mercy for everything I had done myself,” he said. “What right did I have to withhold forgiveness?”

Phillip forgave his wife’s murderer.

Christ's Love Is Strong Enough to Face the Wound

My own story runs along a similar road. As a boy, I watched my father devastate our family through an affair with my mother’s best friend, our neighbor. Daddy would return from work, wave to us kids, then walk straight into her house. He’d come home late, often drunk. One wrong word from Mommy, and she’d be slapped or punched.

The affair carried on in plain sight until, one day, the woman announced she had become a Christian. She ended the relationship and joined our church. At the close of every service, we had a tradition. We would turn to one another and sing a familiar song:

“I love you with the love of the Lord,
 I love you with the love of the Lord,
 Because I see in you the glory of the Lord,
 Yes, I love you with the love of the Lord.”

For weeks, I watched my mother nervously. I didn’t want her to have to face this woman. I feared it would hurt too much. But then one Sunday, I looked up and saw it happen. My mother was holding the hands of this woman, tears streaming down her face, singing those very words:

“I love you with the love of the Lord,
 Yes, I love you with the love of the Lord,
 Because I see in you the glory of the Lord.”

It was forgiveness made visible—not doctrine on a page, but grace embodied. It marked me forever.

5 Things Forgiveness Is Not

Before we define forgiveness, we need to clear the ground:

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Why Would We Settle for Christianity Lite?

I hail from the ancient tribe of the Baganda in Uganda. Although Christianity had already spread to Northern Africa by the middle of the 2nd century—long before it reached Northern Europe—we in Sub-Saharan Africa continued to worship our own gods, completely unreached by the Gospel.

Our gods were feared and revered. Their representatives—the witch doctors, or medicine men and women—could heal, torment, or kill when invoked. I recall tales of one witch doctor casually floating on a goatskin across Lake Victoria without sinking. Water spirits, or mermaids, were said to appear often along the shores of this great lake, locally called Nnalubaale—“the home of the gods.” Young men were warned to beware of the light-skinned, flawlessly beautiful women with unusually long hair. To sleep with one, it was said, meant being dragged beneath the waters, never to be seen again.

Night dancers also haunted our townships. These were naked men with shiny, oil-covered bodies who terrorized villages under the cover of darkness. Deep in Africa, there were virtually no atheists. The very notion of rejecting belief in the supernatural was considered absurd. Indeed, this was a continent shrouded in pervasive spiritual darkness.

In the 15th century, the first white missionaries penetrated Sub-Saharan Africa. Though many were propelled by the antislavery crusade and European ambitions of colonization, they also challenged us to believe in an unseen God. The very thought was absurd. How could a loving God, invisible and dwelling beyond the skies, be real, much less trusted? Our gods were cruel, vindictive, and exacting. They demanded sacrifices and unbending allegiance. A God of love seemed weak.

To make matters worse, these Whites declared that their unseen God was “the King of kings and Lord of lords”—an outrageous insult to our culture and rulers. So we killed them.

But they would not stop coming. Eventually, we listened. And then we surrendered. We accepted their God and His Son, Jesus Christ. To our surprise, He was not weak at all. Confrontations with witch doctors revealed that this Christian God held far greater power than our gods. We encountered His overwhelming love and forgiveness for our sins. We were converted—radically saved and filled with the Holy Spirit.

With Christianity came more than salvation. It ushered in education, literacy, trade, and enterprise—though also colonialism and exploitation. Yet what made this faith utterly distinct was that we were not asked to understand this God of love; we were invited to believe. And by believing, we could do what Jesus did.

God’s promises to those early converts still ring true for us Africans: “

And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” - Mark 16:17–18

And we saw it. Jesus still heals. He still opens blind eyes and unstops deaf ears. Miracles, signs, and wonders followed us. I personally witnessed at least eight dead people raised to life at the invocation of His mighty name. I myself have been poisoned by Islamic radicals and shot at point-blank range by armed thugs. Many of my brothers and sisters have suffered far worse—persecuted, raped, tortured, burned alive, or slaughtered for their faith.

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