Thoughts on Contemporary Worship

I was recently reading an engaging article by D. H. Williams, dealing with contemporary worship (http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2011/june/culturalmedium.html). Williams’s observations caused me to think through some concerns that I have had for several years. However, let me begin by stating that I perceive many of the discussions centered on contemporary versus traditional music in worship to be a little silly. Consider, for example, that 100 year old songs (many of which I cherish, by the way) were contemporary in style 100 years ago. There is nothing particularly sacred about a music format or soundscape. Many of the elements that define our traditional church song format were once considered controversial. For instance, harmony, at one time, was thought to be too sensual for church music; thus, voices in worship music were only allowed to sing melody!

For me, the more important concerns, as it relates to the topic of modern worship, are in the areas of lyric content and corporate compatibility. The older hymns were much more concerned, more so than many contemporary worship songs, with teaching Christians about the greatness of God and the foundational doctrines of the faith. Such themes give Christians the context and the inspiration to worship God. Many of the contemporary worship songs today are quite generic in content (there are some happy exceptions, of course). Many of these songs could just as well be about one’s significant other. And, some of these songs are, quite frankly, romantic in nature. This is a problem. However, fixing this problem does not entail tossing out contemporary music styles. Rather, the Church needs to foster better songwriting from its artists. Christian musicians need to be better trained theologians than is commonly the case today, and the Church should provide this kind of training and mentoring.

Corporate compatibility, with regard to modern worship, is also an issue that is a pressing but often neglected topic in contemporary discussions (Williams has some great thoughts on this in his article). Church worship is a community or corporate activity—or at least it should be. Yet, many modern churches set up their worship center like a lecture hall and plan their worship service like a pop concert. Now, this is fine—except for the fact that such things do much more for fostering personal worship than corporate worship. In other words, when the lights are dim and your fellow congregants’s voices are inaudible, then your obvious option is to engage in personal worship. But, church should be a corporate and community building endeavor. The evangelical church needs to be talking about this. We need to be problem solving here.

None of these concerns necessitate the rejection of contemporary worship songs. Nevertheless, as concerned members of the body of Christ, we must think through the implications of our worship formats and work on solutions that help us maintain a biblical model for worship in the Church. What do you think?