It appears that many Christians in the United States were raised singing hymns in their Sunday services, while many others were raised in a mega church or other such evangelical, pentecostal, baptist, or non-denominational churches singing Contemporary Praise and Worship Music. This musical divide causes a drift within churches based on opinions in musical style, liturgical style, and plays a role in what it says about the theological role within the prose of the music. The divide has become a discussion amongst the church, which I am sure most of you reading this are aware of today. Perhaps that is why you are reading this post, to receive some insight, some clarity, or some more information on the matter. Today I will be discussing the implications of the worship wars between the traditional and contemporary sacred music scenes, and theorize how we may be able to move forward as one body of Christ. I will especially be talking within the context of leading a music program within a church that struggles with wanting both contemporary and traditional music.
It is all about broadening our musical horizons–the music within the church needs to be eclectic.(1) We are always looking for new ways to innovate the church, bring in new congregants, and make our churches thrive. The modern world has brought us these two forms of worship that clash and oppose each other rather drastically. To get beyond that, there must be a frequent meeting between the pastor and the music director on choosing the appropriate music.(2) Choosing music that is appropriate will encompass many styles of music, whether it be jazz, organ, folk, christian rock, or traditional hymns. Whatever you like, but it must be eclectic. If there is new music it should be within the musical vernacular, within a small vocal range, a simple melody, something with words that are modern and easy to understand, and the melody should be easy to learn. This is a theology of Martin Luther, bringing the vernacular to the people in the service so they may participate in the music in the service.(3) There should also be room for music from other cultures and other hymn books.(4) Many churches will take time to do a Taize service. I know many others that will occasionally sing gospel music or R&B within African American musical styles. Song will sing out of a hymnal from a Latin American community. It is also important to sit down together to discuss the prose of the lyrics, and make an attempt to choose music that is theological. Truly emphasizing whatever theological points within the music are appropriate for the service, and especially for that specific church’s doctrine is key to making a great service.
One thing that is important to take note, is that when I say “traditional music” and “contemporary music,” these are terms that are truly in the greatest sense interchangeable for the types of music we will be studying today.(5) If I were to write a new piano piece, intended to play in church, and also within the style of Bach, the piece would be considered contemporary, especially in the classical music world. However, it is also traditional. It is traditional to the Baroque stylings of keyboard music, traditional to the church to play within a context of prayer, and traditional in that it is performed in the church in general. If I performed a Christian country rock song from the 1970’s at church, many would immediately consider that contemporary music. However, it is not from our era today, but from 50 years ago, thus making it a more traditional piece from its age.
All worship music that takes place in our time is contemporary music. All worship music that takes place within a church is traditional. Churches are inherently traditional, no matter the denomination. Since some lean more towards high church and some lean towards rock-band mega-churches, I will be discussing the implications of their differences and why there are flaws within each that can be counteracted by fusing the positive aesthetics of each type of worship together.
I want to dive first into the topic of Contemporary Praise and Worship Music within Contemporary Churches. If you attend a church such as this, or have ever visited one, the large majority of the music focuses only on praise alone.
Now why is that? Why do contemporary worship songs primarily focus on praise music and not on other genres of theology? This we will have to answer by looking far back into the 1940's in an evangelical, revivalist, Pentecostal movement. Reg Layzell (b. 1904) one day was praying and reading his bible for guidance on how to keep his congregation from going limp. Upon his lecto-divina he came across the words of Psalm 22:3, “But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.” A second verse came to him, Hebrews 13:15, “By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.” Layzell understood this as divine providence. He “understood that God has commanded us to offer praise regardless of human feelings or emotions.”(6) Layzell then began using these verses not only for his next sermon, but also for his way of life. Though this verse has been used in the past in the Pentecostal church, Layzell is the first to have made it a liturgical theology of praising God.(7) The entire service, both music and sermon, were focused on praise. Themes were able to become apparent:
- Linking the praises of God with the coming of God’s divine presence through the Holy Spirit– Layzell believed that the Holy Spirit would not come unless you put in enough praise. Paraphrased from Psalm 22:3, God will be present when the people praise him together. (8)
- Praising God must come before your feelings.(9)
3. Weaponize praise, because God’s presence can bring deliverance.(10)
Is this the gospel truth for all contemporary churches? Absolutely NOT! Not even for Pentecostal churches! Though I did know a few people in college that believed in the first theme. What matters is that these are the roots they derive from. Praise & Worship songs are designed to praise God. Because of that, there are often very few songs that stray from that theological theme of praise and adoration. This was especially true with the music written in the 20th century.
Praising God is valuable and important, but if all there is to do in a church’s service every week is praise and nothing else, then there is an issue with the ecclesiology of that church. Being a Chrisitian is more than praising God. It is developing a relationship with God. As an analogy, marriages are often messy. Some people within their marriage do not want to talk about the issues they are expressing, so instead they bottle their feelings. Having a theology of Praise alone is much like bottling our feelings from God. For a strong relationship of God, in my humble opinion, it requires at least these four attributes.
- They require deep conversation. We should not be the only ones talking in this relationship. This means that it is important to listen to God’s word through meditation, nature, the sermon, the words of the church fathers, the world around us, and scripture. St. Augustine “considers affection of the heart so essential a component of prayer that if one’s heart is not stirred, one is not truly praying.”(11)
- A relationship requires confession. God is hurt when we sin. We owe it to God to confess those sins and ask for forgiveness. In the same way, God invites us to lament our problems, ask for prayers of petition, and to have doubts with God.
- A relationship with God thrives on the sacraments, especially the Eucharist. We Protestants have moved away from the Eucharist as a holy gift, and adopted the Zwinglian memorial service. Many Non-denominational Christians and other Evangelical contemporary churches have started leaving out the Eucharist all together, and only focusing on the music and the sermon. In the words of Alexander Schmemann,
“We know that in Christ, the new Adam, the perfect man, this eucharistic life was restored to man. For he himself was the perfect Eucharist; he offered himself in total obedience, love, and thanksgiving to God. God was his very life. And he gave this perfect and eucharistic life to us. In him God became our life.”(12)
We must also take note of the importance of other sacraments.
4. A relationship that is not anthropocentric, but rather theocentric. Former Dean of Yale Divinity School, Leandy Keck, brings this to light: both contemporary and mainline denominational churches tend to create worship services that are oriented towards the entertainment of the congregation and not on the worship of God.
A more God centric service can look like a lot of things, but it certainly needs to be focused on the historical, sacred blessings of the ancient church. The church needs to hold its focus directly towards Christ and the holy marriage bond between Christ and Church. Those who participate can see what is and is not the gospel, therefore helping us in our formation.(13) We also need to break away from our own anthropocentric tendencies of distraction: with bright lights, social media, electronics, busy schedules, and thinking about our work week. Church is a time of Sabbath.
The music, therefore, needs to have a broadened sense of theology. It is vital to study the lyric prose of the hymns or contemporary music before playing it. It should fit nicely theologically with the sermon, the church calendar, and especially with your church’s ecclesial rites and core beliefs. This is not all to say that it is wrong to be a Contemporary Evangelical Christian, or that it is wrong to sing Contemporary Praise and Worship Music. It is certainly not an intervention to make everyone Catholic or Orthodox. What I am saying is that these are flaws within the Contemporary Church and Contemporary Music that need to be addressed.
That being said, there are many issues going on with mainline Protestant denominational churches as well. We are all flawed in the eyes of God. The church with the white steeple, the pews all facing the front towards a podium, and sacred symbols everywhere (or completely blank white walls if you grew up in a town founded by colonialist puritans like my church), are starting to die out. Most mom and pop shop churches have dwindled in number, and mainly consist of older generations. This is not a coincidence. This is due to many facets, including musical, theological, social, and political.
Traditional mainstream protestant churches today have a large number of congregants in the older generations. According to The Pew Research Center, on a weekly basis, about 78% of people over the age of 30 attend church weekly. That means only 22% of Gen X and younger Millennials participate in the Protestant mainline church that attend regularly; about 25% of younger folk come about once per month; another 26% seldom come, perhaps at Christmas and Easter; 17% say they cannot remember the last time they even stepped foot into the church building.(14) To learn more you can read it here in this article. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/religious-landscape-study/attendance-at-religious-services/
So we know for certain the numbers are low. Why are they? Is it the music? Well…yes and no. Everyone is different and like I said before, many factors go into this. Though I will start with a study going door to door, and asking people what they want to see in church if they are Christian. If they are not Christian they were to answer their reasoning for not attending. They noticed men of ages 25 to 30 were the hardest to reach. They managed to have received these responses in summary:
- Churches are always asking for money, and yet never see the good fruits of it.
- They are boring
- They are repetitive and predictable
- Sermons do not relate to life today
- The pastor makes everyone feel guilty to the point of making them feel worse than when they arrived.
This ambiance of the traditional mainline denomination churches are pulling away many people in the youth because they do not know how to properly engage in the service. It is a ritual boredom of singing the same songs, listening to the organ (which unfortunately not many people enjoy), hearing and reciting the same prayers, and listening to a half hour long lecture from a pastor who makes you feel guilty and gives an irrelevant message. Youth are also very visual and aural in their awareness of the world. They want to have visuals and big sounds aside from the organ. These are all valid reasons for not wanting to be there, but we all know that is not all of it.
Given that over the last decade, the United States has become very divisive, social movements and labor movements have been rapidly increasing. Since the Occupy Wall Street protest, social movements for workers rights for a union, women’s rights with the #metoo movement, and the Black Lives Matter movement have all made a huge mark on Gen Z youth and millennials. Because of this political shift, conservative churches have been moving away from the movements, while the youth have been moving away from the churches. I have heard first hand accounts of dozens of friends who left the church over the hypocrisy of not living up to God’s call to love, grace, and mercy to all of God’s people.
What is fascinating is that many young individuals crave the music of Contemporary Praise and Worship, and yet they are unhappy with the theology of many of the churches that have that music. When they try to go to a mainline Protestant Church, they end up disliking the music. Also with such a small church, having a sense of community is a challenge without many people within their age group present. Many young Christians are also gaining more interest towards Orthodox Christianity and other high church traditions.
Like I said in the beginning of the post, the key is to work out the positives of each tradition together, and sculpt the clay into a tradition that will appease the masses, honor God, and move forward as one body of Christ.
Like I told everyone in the last post, I do not listen to Contemporary Christian Music anymore as I did as a young teenager in my evangelical phase of my faith formation. Then again, most people in the United States I think can say the same thing. Even those who refuse to admit it, there are plenty of Atheists and other non-believers who were raised Christian and sang along to many CCM songs at a Christian youth camp, vacation bible school, youth conference, or even just on the radio or their cassette player. I know that is certainly true with my siblings. No, today I would much rather listen to the music of great choral composers, such as John Richter, Eric Whitacre, Arthur Baynon, Jay Althouse, or Peter Amidon; or great organ composers such as J.S. Bach, Steve Reich, Samuel Barber, or Ralph van Williams; or great hymn composers of John Wesley, Martin Luther, Marty Hougan, or Davis Haas. Granted, that does not mean I do not enjoy the occasional contemporary piece. For instance, I enjoy this one contemporary song called, “El Shaddai” by a Christian band called “Dogwood and Holly.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gI4rJ7zYEAY.(19) There is a reason I like this song and not other CCM songs. The two things I find most important in a contemporary song are theological agreement and musicality. What I find intriguing about “El Shaddai” is that it has a bluegrass and indie-folk rock sound (which is a genre of music I love to listen to), and theology of a lament. The singer is lamenting to God about the state of the world in utter dismay–children dying from school shootings, for fires, for pain and suffering–shaking his fist and screaming at God, “Where were you El Shaddai?” In which God replies, “Where were you when the world was made? Where were you when the blood was paid? It was I, El Shaddai, you cry!”(20) I love how sassy Jesus gets in this one. I bring this to your attention because this contemporary song was specifically written with the intention of lament and with a clearly laid out theodicy of piety. I also bring this up because it is a tell-tale sign that even a classical music fiend as myself can enjoy the occasional contemporary piece, which means that other congregants can too.
Notes:
1. Ronald P. Byars, The Future of Protestant Worship: Beyond the Worship Wars, (Westminster John Knox Press: Louisvill, KY, 2002), 120.
2. Byars, The Future of Protestant Worship: Beyond the Worship Wars, 120-121.
3. Sunny Yoon, International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music, “Tuning in Sacred: Youth Culture and Contemporary Christian Music, 47, no. 2, December 2016, 320.
4. Byars, The Future of Protestant Worship: Beyond the Worship Wars, 121.
5.Byars, The Future of Protestant Worship: Beyond the Worship Wars, 49.
6. Lester Ruth, Lim Swee Hong, A History of Contemporary Praise & Worship: Understanding the Ideas that Reshaped the Protestant Church, (Baker Academic Publishing Group: Grand Rapids, MI, 2021,) 12.
7.Ruth, Hong, A History of Contemporary Praise & Worship, 10-11.
8 Ruth, Hong, A History of Contemporary Praise & Worship, 21-22.
9 Ruth, Hong, A History of Contemporary Praise & Worship, 23.
10. Ruth, Hong, A History of Contemporary Praise & Worship, 24.
11 Peter Kwasniewski, Sacred Music, “A Critique of Contemporary Church Music in Light of the Characteristics of Sacred Music,” 144, no. 1, 2017, 32.
12.Alexander Scmemann, For the Life of the World: Sacraments and Orthodoxy, “St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press Classics Series,” Vol. 1, (St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press: Yonkers, New York, 2018), 45.
13 Byars, The Future of Protestant Worship: Beyond the Worship Wars, 29.
14. “Pew Research Center,” 2023, https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/religious-landscape-study/attendance-at-religious-services/.
15. Ruth, Hong, A History of Contemporary Praise & Worship, 17.
16. Ruth, Hong, A History of Contemporary Praise & Worship, 17.
17. Ruth, Hong, A History of Contemporary Praise & Worship, 19, 22.
18. Ruth, Hong, A History of Contemporary Praise & Worship, 53.
19. Richie Worrel, “El Shaddai,” uploaded by Tunecore, April 10, 2017, Music video, 6:06, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gI4rJ7zYEAY.
20. Richie Worrel, “El Shaddai,” uploaded by Tunecore, April 10, 2017, Music video, 6:06, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gI4rJ7zYEAY.
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