I think it’s time we consider abandoning the idea of Contemporary Worship in the modern church. This is probably the last thing you ever thought would come from me, especially seeing as I’ve been serving on worship teams and ministry teams to do contemporary worship since 1997 when I was but a freshman in high school. So why this change of thought and what does it mean for the future of worship?
First, a little history and vocabulary lesson.
To begin with, the title of Contemporary Worship has always bothered me. The term contemporary means current, of the present time, modern. Contemporary worship is meant for the people of the time and place in which it’s happening. Isn’t all worship supposed to be contemporary in that it’s meant to edify the people who are present?
First, we need to remember that church worship styles have changed greatly over the centuries. From the ancient songs of the first century church to the chants and motets of the middle ages to the hymns and organs that became standard in the 1800s, church music has not been static over the years.
The idea of contemporary worship music had been around for decades but it really took off in the 1990s with the advent of the praise and worship movement. The Christian Contemporary Music (CCM) genera exploded with concerts, radio stations, music festivals and more. This bled over into the worship music that was being written at the time and churches everywhere started to hold Contemporary Services. Some abandoned their typical worship styles while others kept both going separately.
By the early 2000s, contemporary worship was everywhere. While it was usually a little different at every church you checked out, contemporary worship services usually had a few things in common:
• The music was mostly written after 1990. Occasionally a late 1980s song would sneak in or they might include a hymn that was of a more gospel style.
• The instrumentation was typically piano or guitar led with drums, bass, and in the 1990s you didn’t have real contemporary worship music without a saxophone! Organs were shunned for being stodgy and out of touch, setting church organists everywhere at odds with the new worship teams.
• This was also the era of having massive numbers of singers, each with their own microphone. After all, those poor abandoned choir folks had to go somewhere, right?
• There was usually little to the order of service in regards to the liturgy. Typical contemporary services would include prayers, reading scripture and the sermon, but they were less formal and weren’t rigid in their placement in the lineup.
• Overall, the big prevailing idea was that the old ways were bad and the new way was good. Anything “traditional” didn’t belong in the “contemporary” worship service. Traditional hymns were shelved. Organs were sold. The liturgy was relegated to the “old folk’s service” and the church forged ahead into the fresh new realm of contemporary worship.
What’s Wrong With That?
First of all, I want to be very clear: there is no one right style of worship. As long as the focus is on Jesus and it helps people grow through Word, Sacrament and teaching, it’s the right way to worship. God gave us the ability to make music and be creative and we should continue to use those gifts to worship Him.
Throwing out the hymns of the past and our traditional worship elements is to throw away the resources the church has amassed throughout the years. Throughout church history, countless individuals have produced nearly innumerable resources. Looking at music alone, there have been millions of Christian worship songs written in the last 2,000 years – songs of every genre and style from chant to rock and roll. Now, of those millions of songs, certainly not all of them are still with us today. Some have been lost to history entirely while others have been replaced by stronger, more widely used and beloved songs.
The songs from the church’s history that are still with us today represent the absolute cream-of-the-crop of sacred worship music. They have remained popular and in wide use because they are theologically rich and musically solid. The same thing is continuing to happen today: there are current songwriters who are extremely prolific, but as time goes by some of their songs will stand out as more lasting than others. The church today is in a state of renewal as far as worship is concerned, but that renewal has often come at the cost of the history passed down.
