Type of Doctrine: Typically Secondary
"Oh sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth!"
-Psalm 96:1 ESV
Why Does It Matter?
The last few decades saw many churches go through strife and conflict with the so-called "worship wars" (between traditional worship and contemporary worship). How did contemporary worship come about? The following article will explore contemporary worship by examining what it is and how it developed.
Many consider this a secondary issue since one's view will likely affect the church one attends. Some churches, however, attempt to hold a traditional worship service and a contemporary worship service. I suppose in this case it would be considered a tertiary issue. (However, some would reject the multiple service model for churches. In that case, one may consider different worship services different churches, meaning it would again be a secondary issue!)
What Is It?
The basic idea of contemporary worship music is utilizing musical styles that make sense to the current generation of people. That is, we're talking about popular musical styles utilized in worship services.
However, as time progressed, contemporary worship began to have other characteristics. Swee Hong Lim and Lester Ruth provide the following nine characteristics in their excellent book covering the history of contemporary music titled Lovin' On Jesus.
9 Qualities of Contemporary Worship[1]
Contemporary Language (e.g., contemporary English)
Relevance to life issues
Targeted to match contemporary people
Utilizes musical styles from popular music
Extended times of uninterrupted singing
Musicians are central in the leadership of the worship service
Greater physical expressiveness in worship
Typically informal dress and language
Reliance on electronics / technology
How Did It Start?
The following is adapted from Lovin' On Jesus, and it will cover the four main sources for contemporary worship.[2] These following four groups converged to create our modern form of contemporary worship music.
Source #1: Youth Groups (mid-1900s)
Youth groups in the mid-twentieth century adapted music to try to reach the youth.
They sought to innovate in order to reach youth (in the wider culture reaching youth was considered pivotal).
As these generations aged, this type of music was desired in the adult worship services. Churches began using similar worship styles in the regular worship services.
Source #2: Pentecostalism (early 1900s)
In the early 1900s, this movement emphasized the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. Worship services, as a result, were highly expressive.
In the mid-1900s, Pentecostalism experienced a renewal internally. Also, it influenced other church movements through charismatic renewal movements around this time. Along with expressiveness, its influence is still felt today with an emphasis on the expectation of an experience in worship.
Here are a few significant influencers which came out of this movement (some of these may not claim to be Pentecostal, but they are likely charismatic):
Various Gospel Music Artists
The Church on the Way
New Life Church (Colorado Springs)
Hillsong Church / Worship
Bethel Church / Music
Times Square Church
Lakewood Church
Church of the Highlands (though this church could also fit into the church growth movement category as well)
Gateway Church
Various Third-Wave Charismatic movements
Source #3: Baby Boomers (primarily the 1960s when many were teenagers or older)
Questioning of tradition
Search for worship styles that seemed more authentic
A significant subgroup:
Jesus People - Christian hippie movement in the late 1960s
Helped establish guitar as the primary instrument of contemporary worship
Developed new publishing houses to produce and deliver the music
Informality of dress
Significantly influenced:
Calvary Chapel
Vineyard Churches
Sovereign Grace
Source #4: Church Growth Movement (mid-1900s)
This movement began with Donald McGavran's study on why some missions grew and others did not (primarily foreign missions).
This began to be applied in America in the 1960s and 1970s.
These principles were appealing to pastors among declining churches, and denominations, in the 1980s and 1990s.
Lim and Ruth comment: "What the church growth movement has contributed to the rise of contemporary worship is a motivation for many to adopt this new style of worship as a way to make and keep members more effectively. Church growth thinking reawakened a liturgical pragmatism that has characterized much of American Protestantism since the branding and promoting of camp meetings in the Second Great Awakening at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The mind frame is thoroughly American because of its democratic and capitalistic assumptions about numerical validation. Those assumptions create a liturgical pragmatism driven by numbers: What works to produce the greatest numbers in worship? When fused with evangelistic concerns, the perspective creates an approach to worship that assesses worship from the outside in: What works best in worship for the people who are not here and are not members already?"[3]
Significantly Influenced:
Willow Creek Church
Saddleback Church
Fellowship Church (TX)
North Point Community Church
Life Church (OKC)
Elevation Church
Insights:
The main worship leaders became musicians rather than pastors.
Emphasis on Ps. 96:1 and singing new songs
Earliest groups had an impulse to have a powerful encounter with God in worship.
The latest groups had an impulse for mission to reach people with worship.
A culture of pragmatism and capitalism (driven by numbers) was found among many (especially those in the church growth movement stream)
Informality of language and dress
Utilize music from the contemporary context
Hands raised; expressiveness in worship
Highly dependent on technology
Reaching the youth, having an encounter with God, rejecting tradition while seeking authenticity, and attempting to grow churches all converged to create contemporary worship.
Now many have some combination of these influential streams merging together.
Emphasis on reaching youth
Emphasis on using worship to reach people and grow the church (mission)
Emphasis on worship that is powerful and experiential as an encounter with God
Emphasis on innovation rather than tradition
Contemporary worship has influenced many streams of Christianity.
Bibliography:
[1] Swee Hong Lim and Lester Ruth, Lovin' On Jesus: A Concise History of Contemporary Worship (Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 2017), 3.
[2] Ibid., 16-23.
[3] Ibid., 21.