The Case Against Using Backing Tracks in Worship

Good audio equipment is cheaper than ever. This is a blessing, as it allows more churches to run better and smoother services from a technical standpoint. As a result, the use of backing tracks in worship services has skyrocketed in the past few years. Now, even small church plants with tight budgets can buy basic gear and add professional-sounding backing tracks to their live praise sets.

There are a few advantages to this. It allows worship sets to sound fuller, even when there are very few musicians on stage. It cuts down on rehearsal time, especially time spent teaching specific parts to band members, and when rehearsal time is shorter, it lessens the weight and burden of the ministry on the praise team members, and it allows for more time spent in prayer and team building. Also, backing tracks create an immediate sense of familiarity for the congregation, as the songs sound exactly like the recordings everyone listens to.

“Now, even small church plants with tight budgets can buy basic gear and add professional-sounding backing tracks to their live praise sets.”

But there are many disadvantages to using backing tracks as well, and these disadvantages are often not considered as seriously as the apparent advantages. In the rush to sound updated or professional, we often fail to ask ourselves whether that approach is the right approach.

Advantages, or Disadvantages?

The apparent advantages stated above can also be disadvantages, depending on how one looks at them. Take, for instance, the point about familiarity. Familiarity can be a good thing if it allows people to enter into a song without confusion or distraction. But it can also be a bad thing if it forces a cookie-cutter uniformity on churches, not allowing for the expression of a church's unique make-up and history.

Every church is unique, and that uniqueness is a gift from God that ought to be valued, celebrated, and expressed. It doesn't make sense for a small church in a Midwestern suburb to sound exactly like Hillsong Australia, a megachurch of thousands on the other side of the world.

By forgoing backing tracks and allowing the praise team to play their own renditions of the songs—even if those renditions are not as impressive or polished—the unique character and identity of the church can be heard and felt.

“It doesn't make sense for a small church in a Midwestern suburb to sound exactly like Hillsong Australia.”

The second advantage that can be a disadvantage is the issue of saving time. Yes, ministries should not feel like burdens on the backs of people (the only burden Christians should carry is the burden for lost souls.) But time-saving and convenience should also not be the priorities when it comes to ministry. A certain degree of commitment and sacrifice comes with the territory of serving the Lord and His people. In fact, a little more time spent (within reason) on rehearsal can actually enhance the quality and spiritual depth of the worship service. The praise team members feel more invested, and in turn, the congregation feels more inspired and drawn in.

Then there was the so-called advantage of sounding fuller. But we have to ask: is that an ideal that ought to be sought after? There are cases in which the opposite worked better; when the sound of the instruments was turned down, the congregation actually sang louder. (See also here.)

God is not against the sound of instruments. In fact, the Bible tells us to play our instruments loudly to God in worship (Ps. 150:3-5). But the voices of the people are essential in congregational worship as well. If they are not singing, there is something lacking in the worship.

A Crucial Lost Element in Worship

But by far, the most important reason not to use backing tracks in live worship is because of the way they limit the element of spontaneity in worship. Matt Redman, in his book The Unquenchable Worshipper, writes a whole chapter on this topic. He states the centrality of spontaneity in worship like this:

God often calls worship leaders to do the unexpected. Sometimes He has a particular provision for a particular moment. If we do what the Father is doing, when He is doing it, God will break into our services in powerful and surprising ways.

Matt Redman, The Unquenchable Worshipper, p.54.

Just as the sinful woman was moved to show an extravagant and spontaneous demonstration of love for Jesus by pouring expensive perfume on Him, so too should we "leave room for the unpredictable" and "leave room for the romance" in our worship.

Redman continues this train of thought. "There's nothing more exciting than a dynamic worship time where God breaks in with such freshness that no one really knows where we're going next." This element of freshness and spontaneity in worship is largely lost and forgotten in churches today. But it is a crucial element to recover if we want our worship services to be anointed, Spirit-led, and transformative. The use of backing tracks severely limits our ability to be spontaneous and makes us slaves to the metronome.

Conclusion

It is not absolutely wrong in every case to use backing tracks. There are wise and creative ways to use them that enhance the worship, allow the Spirit to move, and bring people closer to God. Backing tracks can be wonderful tools when used sparingly, in certain places for specific reasons, to highlight or to add variation.

But when used as a blanket that smothers everything with layers of sound, as a mask to cover mistakes and imperfections and the lack of preparation of the praise team, or as a crutch to help a worship leader who doesn't know what he or she is doing, then there is good reason to re-think the use of backing tracks.

Sounding full or sounding just like Hillsong, Elevation, or Passion isn't an ideal that most churches should strive for. Rather, let's strive to sound authentic, allowing the unique character of our churches to shine through. Let's strive to encourage our congregations to worship God with their own voices. And let's strive to be free and spontaneous in our worship, allowing God to break in and do whatever He pleases with us. This is the kind of worship our Father seeks.