Medleys have ruined worship (and our lives)

I've been hatin' on medleys for a long time. And for good reason. They're awful.

But before I start venting, as I do so well, let's provide some background.

What's a medley, you ask? A medley is taking one perfectly good song, and mashing it into another perfectly good song, thereby creating a jumbling, swirl of horrific "music". And if you're feeling particularly adventurous, you don't have to stop at just a two-song medley. Believe it or not, there are three-, four-, and even five-song medleys (I'm weeping as I type this now).

Medleys are seldom seen in contemporary music today outside of Christian circles. You don't see an artist singing Adele's Rolling in the Deep and adding Mean by Taylor Swift (don't get any ideas). However, in the Christian music community, it's all the rage. And speaking of rage, I hope I can get through this post without getting myself riled up and doing something I'll regret later, like punching a kitten. I was at a meeting at a local church recently and the band leading worship incorporated the chorus of Don't Stop Believing (the Journey song) into Blessed Be Your Name.And Jump with I Am Free. I think I threw up a little in my mouth.

To be frank, medleys can be quite nice and appropriate at times. The problem is, it seems I'm the only one on the planet who knows how to arrange a medley the correct way. Well, me and Chris Quilala. But I'm not going to tell you how. Instead, I'm just going to rant and rave about how everyone else is wrong. I mean, this is America, right? We complain, but offer no solutions. So I'll fit right in!

So if medleys are so bad, why do people (and by "people", I mean "worship leaders") do them? Here are a few reasons why:

Reason #1 On Why Worship Leaders Go Down the Dark Path That is Medleys


Jamie and Adam have tested your medley and deemed it a bust.

 Medleys are crowd pleasers.
The idea is to pick several songs/choruses of songs that are popular to make one song. And sure, in theory, taking two awesome worship songs and making one song out of them sounds pretty cool. But there's a reason why it's called a theory.  In reality, you're destroying the beauty of those songs. If you want to do those songs so badly, open up space in your setlist to do both songs individually.


Reason #2 On Why Worship Leaders Go Down the Dark Path That is Medleys
The chorus of a song is great, but the rest of the song sucks.
I'm sorry, but I have to pick on Deluge's Worshiping You for a second here. The verse of the song is incredible. The bridge of the song is dope. The chorus...well, it leaves a lot to be desired. So I can understand the temptation to just nix the chorus and add the bridge to another song where it might fit. My solution to this is the same as #1. Just do the song, but without the chorus. Learn how to arrange the song so that it runs for the amount of time you want it to. And if it's shorter than the standard worship song, trust me, no one notices, and no one cares.

Reason #3 On Why Worship Leaders Go Down the Dark Path That is Medleys
It gives the illusion that you have a seamless worship setlist.
Newsflash: it does not give you a seamless worship setlist. Worship leaders think they're brilliant when they're able to compile a list of songs that are all in the same key. It means that they can transition from one song to the next easier because there are no awkward pauses or unnatural key changes.

A medley is (supposedly) even better because you don't even have to transition. You just keep cranking away with the same four chords and just sing a different chorus. Now the only one doing any work is the powerpoint guy (or girl) because he (or she) has to frantically jump from one song to the next, trying to keep up. I don't know how to break it to you worship leaders, but doing everything in the same key is a cop out. You're being a wuss. Strap on your wings of courage and fly to new levels of awesome worship leading (I love cheesy one-liners). Learn how to transition a song in more ways than just this one. You can't hide behind one key signature forever.

What Have We Learned Today? Sing along with the gourds!

Medleys seem great on the outside. Picking and choosing the best choruses may seem like a wonderful idea. Keeping everything in the same key appears to be genius. All three myths are neither great, nor wonderful, nor ingenious. The biggest downfall of medleys is that they're so gosh-darn confusing. The poor congregation. They're just getting into the groove with How Great is Our God and you just jump into How Great Thou Art all willy nilly! And it only gets worse if you add more songs to this hot mess you call a worship set.

Plus, it messes with the flow. You come off as trying to rush through the set. Learn to relax. Learn to settle into a song, play it with excellence, and see God move through a single song. Of course, be careful not to pull an Eagles' Wings (inside joke, sorry), and stay on one song for 20 minutes. That is equally annoying as doing five songs in two minutes is. If you love a chorus of a song, learn the beauty of a short song. Ever hear of Chris Tomlin's Our God Reigns? Or Hillsong United's Majesty? Or Will Reagan's Set A Fire? Or Jesus Culture's Nothing But the Blood? They're all short. And they're all amazing.

Oh and one last piece of advice. Don't ever lead worship with music from Journey. Ever. Or any other non-Christian piece of music for that matter. I don't care how much you change the lyrics to be more "Jesus friendly", it will always be terrible.



can prevent medleys.



On behalf of Christian musicians, I'm sorry.

This is to all you Christians out there with little or no musical talent, or those of you not on a worship team or band of some kind. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for all the incredibly annoying qualities Christian musicians have. Please forgive us. We have no idea that we're doing it.

And what are those qualities? Well, let me tell you. Introducing the latest blog post, "The Problem With Christian Musicians". I hope you get something out of this.

The problem with Christian musicians #1
We're arrogant. The irritating part is that it isn't obvious.. Sure, there are a whole lot of musicians who are blatantly cocky, but those people are easy to handle. We simply despise them. But most of us just have a very subtle pride. We're not always flaunting our skills and being over-the-top. But the vanity is there. The problem for the rest of the world is in dealing with it. You can't hate them, because they're clueless. You can't love them because they're arrogant. It's tough.

The problem with Christian musicians #2
We're blatantly annoying. All we talk about is music. We don't know how to talk about anything else. We know all of the obscure Christian artists, we've known about the latest album from Jesus Culture long before you did, and we totally did that worship song last year. Whether we're arguing over whether it's better to lead Blessed Assurance is E or in F#, or if we're debating what year it was that Shout to the Lord first came out, it's super fun for us, and super obnoxious for the rest of you.

The problem with Christian musicians #3
We are super spiritual. Oh sweet Jesus, are we super spiritual. I am extra apologetic about this one. I don't know why one of you hasn't walked straight up to one of us yet and punched us right in the breadbasket. I believe this one ties in a lot with #1. Sometimes, we try so hard to stay out of the "arrogant" zone and hop right into the "it's all Jesus" zone. For the record, there is a great middle ground. It's called the "I understand that I have talent but I also understand that I owe it to God" zone. I wish more Christian musicians were aware of this.

The following scenario happens way too often. A worship leader does a killer set. God moves, people are touched, it was amazing. The worship leader walks off stage and a sweet elderly woman approaches him. She says, "That was incredible! Great job!". The worship leader replies, "It was all God. Praise the Lord!" And then walks away. The elderly woman then makes a vow to never communicate with a worship leader ever again.
How disgusting is that?!? I mean, come on! Am I the only one who sees the fallacy of this? How hard would it have been for the leader to just say, "Thank you"? There's this paranoia that thanking someone for a compliment implies pride and sin. Which is terribly and horribly inaccurate. There is absolutely nothing wrong with thanking someone.

The problem with Christian musicians #4
We are clueless. We have our heads stuck so far into the sand that we're able to watch the New Zealand rugby game in person. This is a blanket issue that covers the rest of the problems. On top of being cocky, being annoying, and being uber-spiritual, we don't know we're doing it. I'm not sure if it makes it worse, or if alleviates it, but it's the truth. We are totally and completely ignorant. It's kind of sad, really. But it ends here. Any Christian musician reading this no longer can use the "I didn't know" card. No more excuses.

So, as a representative of all Christian musicians, here's my plea to you. Do not enable us. Help us. Work with us. Treat this as an intervention for someone with a controlled substance addiction. Next time you compliment a worship leader and he gives you a "Christianese" response, slug him. Next time a singer condescendingly tells you that she's known about Brian and Katie Torwalt for years before you did, kick her in the shins. And the next time a guitarist randomly pulls out a guitar in a non-worship setting, grab that guitar from him and smash it against a wall. You'll be doing all of us a favor.

Side hugs and Jesus jukes,

Greg