Turning Up the Volume: Joyful Noise or Noise Ordinance Violation?

Concerned neighbors and church members sound off about megachurch worship becoming “too loud.”

Nearby businesses and residents initially welcomed Transformation Church when it bought the abandoned Spirit Bank Event Center in Bixby, Oklahoma, last August. But some neighbors have already had enough.

Sound complaints have reached a fever pitch, with those living in a housing development behind the church claiming it’s so loud their coffee mugs shake during worship, according to a recent report by Tulsa ABC affiliate KTUL. The city attorney called on Transformation—which draws 3,500 visitors each week to the Tulsa suburb—to lower the volume or build a wall to block the excessive noise.

Despite exhortations in the Bible to “make a joyful noise to the Lord” and “praise him with loud clashing cymbals” (Ps. 100:1; 150:5, ESV), volume has been a major factor in the so-called worship wars for years, causing discord in communities and within congregations themselves.

News reports indicate more than a dozen US churches faced significant backlash for their noise, such as police warnings or citations, in the past year. Complaints tend to be lodged against megachurches with auditoriums containing sophisticated sound systems for bombastic music sets and high-energy sermons.

Neighbors in the Charlotte, North Carolina, Ballantyne neighborhood have repeatedly complained about noise from Elevation Church continuing as late as 10 p.m. And between December 2018 and November 2019, police in Seminole County, Florida, received 222 complaints against Action Church for noise issues.

Some smaller churches also draw complaints from residents, particularly as the makeup of a neighborhood changes around them. In recent years, the city of Oakland threatened to impose a $500-per-day fine on Mount Pleasant Baptist ...