Contemporary worship is a form of

Christian worship In Christianity, worship is the act of attributing reverent honour and homage to God. In the New Testament, various words are used to refer to the term worship. One is ("to worship") which means to bow down to God or kings. Throughout most ...

that emerged within

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide Interdenominationalism, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "bor ...

Protestantism Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

in the 20th century. It was originally confined to the

charismatic movement The charismatic movement in Christianity is a movement within established or mainstream Christian denominations to adopt beliefs and practices of Charismatic Christianity with an emphasis on baptism with the Holy Spirit, and the use of spirit ...

, but is now found in a wide range of churches, including many which do not subscribe to a charismatic theology. Contemporary worship uses

contemporary worship music Contemporary worship music (CWM), also known as praise and worship music, is a defined genre of Christian music used in contemporary worship. It has developed over the past 60 years and is stylistically similar to pop music. The songs are fr ...

in an informal setting. Congregational singing typically comprises a greater proportion of the service than in conventional forms of worship. Where contemporary worship is practiced in churches with a

liturgical Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. ''Liturgy'' can also be used to refer specifically to public worship by Christians. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and partic ...

tradition, elements of the liturgy are frequently kept to a minimum. The terms ''historic worship'', ''traditional worship'' or ''liturgical worship'' are sometimes used to describe conventional worship forms and distinguish them from contemporary worship.

History

The contemporary worship phenomenon emerged from the

Jesus Movement The Jesus movement was an Evangelicalism, evangelical Christian movement which began on the West Coast of the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s and primarily spread throughout North America, Europe, and Central America, before it su ...

in North America in the 1960s and the "Charismatic Renewal Movement" in Australia and New Zealand during the 1970s and 1980s. The function of music in services, the style of songs, their performance, the explicit theology of the lyrics, and the theology implied by these aspects distinguish “contemporary worship” from traditional worship in practice, and theological background. Contemporary worship music takes a significant part of the service time and repetition of phrases reinforces the theological content of the service. The impact is heightened as creeds and formal prayers are seldom used. Theologically, contemporary worship music is influenced by Pentecostal and evangelical theologies. However, the phenomenon has influenced all major denominations to some degree. There is a wide variety in practice between churches. Contemporary worship is intrinsically related to the contemporary

Christian music industry The Christian music industry is one aspect of the broader music industry, with a focus on Christian music and subgenres such as gospel music, southern gospel, contemporary Christian music, contemporary worship music, and even traditional church mus ...

Practical details

Block worship

Contemporary worship normally includes a number of songs sung in succession, with little or no intermediate speaking. In more traditional forms of worship, it would be normal for hymns to be interspersed with prayers, readings, liturgical items, etc. The traditional practice is sometimes referred to as a 'hymn-prayer sandwich' and the contemporary form 'block worship' or the 'praise and worship'.

Worship leader

A notable feature of contemporary worship is the worship leader. A worship leader is normally a musician (often a guitarist or pianist) with good singing ability whose role it is to lead the congregational singing. Many composers of contemporary worship songs are also worship leaders. The worship leader has a prominent role in contemporary worship services and is responsible for much of the spiritual direction of the meeting and often will choose the songs that will be sung. This can be contrasted with traditional churches, where the entire service is normally led by a member of the clergy. Also, in many cases, the worship leader is responsible for recruiting, assigning, and training other musicians to compose a worship band or team. A popular definition of the worship leader's role is by Bob Kauflin: "A faithful worship leader magnifies the greatness of God in Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit by skillfully combining God's Word with music, thereby motivating the gathered church to proclaim the gospel, to cherish God's presence, and to live for God's glory."

Worship band

Harvest Community Church Goshen Worship Service 1-24-2016

The style of

is influenced by

popular music Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fun ...

and not suitable for the traditional church organ. Most churches adopting contemporary worship therefore have a ''worship band'' or ''praise band'' to provide music during their services. Other terms such as ''worship team'', ''worship group'', ''praise team'', or ''music group'' are also used. Worship bands are most common in

denominations, but can also be found among other Christian denominations. Most worship bands are church-based and seldom play outside their own churches. However, some

contemporary Christian music Contemporary Christian music, also known as CCM, Christian pop, and occasionally inspirational music is a genre of modern popular music, and an aspect of Christian media, which is lyrically focused on matters related to the Christian faith and s ...

bands also act as worship bands for events, and may label themselves as such. Worship bands have varying compositions and use a variety of non-traditional church instruments. In the 1970s and 1980s, a

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

style was commonplace with acoustic string or woodwind instruments being popular. Today, the influence of

rock music Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and roll" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles in the mid-1960s and later, particularly in the United States an ...

is widespread and the use of electric instruments has increased. Worship bands normally also include vocalists and a worship leader and usually lead congregational singing replacing the traditional church choir and

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ''ranks ...

, although occasionally churches use both bands and choirs. In fact, apart from the singers and musicians, the people "handling the presentation slides, the sound guy who manages the mixer, and all others who support the worship ministry in many different ways" are also considered a part of the worship team or band. A worship band can create a contemporary sound to the worship that younger worshipers can identify with. Worship bands may also be utilized with the rationale that some non-churchgoing visitors will feel more comfortable.

Projected lyrics

The

also resulted in large numbers of

songs A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetition ...

being written. It became impractical for churches to use hymn or song books, as a single book rarely contained all the material they wanted to sing, and the turnover in songs was rapid. Hence many churches that adopt a contemporary style of worship project the words to the songs onto one or more screens. Originally, this was done using an

overhead projector An overhead projector (often abbreviated to OHP), like a film or slide projector, uses light to project an enlarged image on a screen, allowing the view of a small document or picture to be shared with a large audience. In the overhead project ...

or occasionally a

slide projector A slide projector is an opto-mechanical device for showing photographic slides. 35 mm slide projectors, direct descendants of the larger-format magic lantern, first came into widespread use during the 1950s as a form of occasional home ...

, but as

video projectors A video projector is an image projector that receives a video signal and projects the corresponding image on a projection screen using a lens system. Video projectors use a very bright ultra-high-performance lamp (a special mercury arc lamp), Xen ...

fell in price and improved in performance, it became more popular to use a computerised system. Specialised software, known as

worship presentation program Church software is any type of computer software specifically designed for use by a church. There are administrative packages tailored to handle membership databases and finances, and also worship presentation programs to generate images for vide ...

s, was developed to generate the images for display.

Creative arts

Contemporary worship often includes other elements not found in conventional forms of worship.

Drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

, typically in the form of short sketches, is sometimes used to highlight a topic of teaching.

Dance Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

is commonplace and includes both choreographed and improvised dance as both an expression of worship and again for teaching purposes. Occasionally short videos or film clips are shown.

Criticism

The shift towards contemporary worship has been a source of significant criticism (sometimes called 'worship wars') in some churches. Critics have also argued that contemporary worship services are actually 'entertainment', claiming that the increased amounts of music (often played by a band) and lack of

intercession Intercession or intercessory prayer is the act of praying to a deity on behalf of others, or Intercession of saints, asking a saint in heaven to pray on behalf of oneself or for others. The Apostle Paul's exhortation to Saint Timothy, Timothy sp ...

, create the atmosphere of a concert or performance. Interviewed in ''

Christianity Today ''Christianity Today'' is an evangelical Christian media magazine founded in 1956 by Billy Graham. It is published by Christianity Today International based in Carol Stream, Illinois. ''The Washington Post'' calls ''Christianity Today'' "evange ...

'' in 2011,

Grove City College Grove City College (GCC) is a private, conservative Christian liberal arts college in Grove City, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1876 as a normal school, the college emphasizes a humanities core curriculum and offers 60 majors and 6 pre-professional ...

professor T. David Gordon stated that churches were adding hymns to contemporary services, but that in the past the main concern had never been how new the music sounded. He supported blended services, but only to the extent that they kept churches from splitting. After his 2011 interview, Gordon said Mark Moring of ''Christianity Today'' had observed that contemporary music in churches was on the decline. Gordon said the people who first wanted it are older, and contemporary music had become so common that it was no longer a marketing tool, and no longer new when people wanted what was new. Praise teams, Gordon said, were like performers, but they were in conflict with what the Bible said. And the congregation needed to participate.