The church I presently serve has had a contemporary
worship service for almost 15 years. They
have done this type of worship well
for a very long time. The contemporary worship services at this church are some
of the most deeply spiritually moving I have ever been in. What is different
for me is having professional musicians as worship leaders. They have a
completely different way of expressing things than I am used to hearing. Last week
I heard these phrases during worship prep: “I will change instruments when I
feel you ramping down.” “Don’t use a bunch of worship jargon.” “While you are
praying I will be grooving in the background.” “Back out of the prayer time
gently.” My favorite was when we were talking about opening the service and the
praise leader said to the minister, “Just say something profound and spiritual.”
Gosh, I thought everything I said was profound and spiritual. It is an
interesting bunch to work with. I love them.
Several weeks ago I was engaged in conversation with
one of our senior members who attends our wonderful traditional worship
service. She was sharing with me about how much she enjoys the worship and
music in the service she attends and really can’t understand why anyone would
want to attend the contemporary worship. To her ears, the music is just noise.
I am thinking she feels about contemporary Christian music like I feel about
rap music – that’s not music. She was shocked and amazed when I told her that
some of the deepest spiritual experiences I have ever had were during
contemporary worship.
I have been involved in what is known as “Contemporary
Worship” since the early 1970’s. I have seen it move through several changes and
the genre has morphed in many ways. Each decade has fostered a change in songs
and musical approach – a generation of praise music. When I was first involved
there were no publishing companies involved in the movement and songs were
passed around the church and the nation through word of mouth. If I heard a
song while worshiping in Kansas City, I would write it down and take the song
to my church in Louisville. It was cool to watch that happen. It felt a little
1st Century.
Slowly publishing houses were established that started
providing songbooks, chord charts, music tapes and then CDs and then worship
DVDs. There was Maranatha Praise and Worship, Vineyard Music, Hosanna Music,
Integrity’s Praise! Music, Brentwood-Benson, Word, Hillsong and the list goes
on. It has grown from nobody publishing that “new stuff” to a multimillion
dollar industry.
Contemporary/Praise worship has been exciting to me because
it was a great opportunity to move from doing worship as I had known it to
something very different. The greatest change needed was not in music style but
in the basic intent in our worship and what it accomplished. I know, because I was
there, that for most of the 20th century the church became
proficient in developing what could be called the consumer church. People came
to church to consume; to have spiritual their needs met; to develop networks of
friends; to have a place to marry them and bury them; to have Christian
education provided for their children; to hear a good sermon (whatever that is)
and enjoy some good music. People often bluntly state that they are church
shopping. We came to church to take, not give. Mission and ministry
opportunities were extremely limited. The emphasis was on hands-off missionary
work. We paid someone to do it for us and prayed God never called us to the
mission field. Not us – we had lives to live.
Sunday morning was the ultimate consumer experience. We
went to a worship service. There was little emphasis on worship and a great
emphasis on consuming. The average family went and occupied a pew and felt we
were doing our Christian duty and doing God a favor by just showing up. We sat
and watched and observed and critiqued. It wasn’t that blatant but it was
close. After worship we gathered with family and friends and critiqued the
sermon. Was it interesting? Was it understandable? Was it doctrinally correct?
Was it too long? What was the theme? Next we moved on to the choir. Did you
like the selection? Could you understand the words they were singing? Did anybody
hit a wrong note? Next on the agenda were the Elders. How were the prayers? Too
long or too short? Did they wander from the subject? Sunday dinner was critique
time.
In all of the critiques I sat through, I never heard
the most important, necessary and critical question asked: “Was God pleased
with our worship?” In fact, mention of God never showed up in those sessions.
It is not because we didn’t care about God, it was because we were a part of
the consumer church and in that church those kinds of questions never came up.
My excitement about and hope for contemporary worship
was that we could move from watching worship to participating in worship. And,
for me, a few times in a few places that has happened. And when it does, it is
awesome. God shows up and it is a powerful, moving, empowering and life
changing experience.
Christianity in America still tends toward being a spectator
sport that is watched and enjoyed but is rarely participated in. But I see a
trend in the church of the 21st Century of a church that is becoming
more missional, more participatory, more hands on. And that is happening some
in worship. Lately many have been saying, “Don’t go to church; be the church.”
May I add this: don’t go to worship; be the worship.
Copyright ©
2014, William T. McConnell, All Rights Reserved
Bill McConnell is Senior Minister at Lindenwood
Christian Church in Memphis, Tennessee and is a Church Transformation
consultant and a Christian Leadership Coach. He is a frequent speaker at Church
Transformation events. His latest book on church transformation is DEVELOPING A
SIGNIFICANT CHURCH and is available at Westbow Press.
He can be contacted @ bill45053@gmail.com.
Connect with him on Facebook @ William T. McConnell
or on Twitter @billmc45053.
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