Featured SongRe: Key Worship Convictions of Grace Church (David)
Home » Blog » GeneralPosted by David L. Ward on June 8th, 2006
Kevin,
Thanks for thinking so deeply about your church's approach to worship and identifying key goals. For many of these I can simply say "amen," and for the others I'll try to add something meaningful below.
Theological Richness: Songs should not only be doctrinally true, but theologically rich. Preference will be shown to modern hymns, and shallow, repetitive songs will be avoided.
I wouldn't write off shallow, repetitive songs completely. I occasionally use very simple songs (but don't repeat them too many times) particularly for those who can't fully grasp the complex theological ideas in the larger songs, like children or mentally slow adults.
Historical Connection: The great hymns of the faith should be sung, either with their original tunes or with modern revisions of them, allowing today’s worshippers to be connected to their brothers and sisters of the past and their depth of expression.
I completely agree that we need to connect our people to the past and give them a sense of the history of worship songs, particularly for congregations that haven't grown up with a hymn background. And I think it's important that they learn the original tunes to some of the best hymns.
Indigenous Style: The “feel” of worship music should suit the place in which the church is found, allowing the people of that community to give appropriate voice to their praises.
I normally call this identifying the local church's stylistic center. I believe that we should seek to be ever expanding the stylistic center of the styles of music people can connect with. That expansion should happen slowly in most cases, and can greatly benefit God's people as it helps them to have a broad palette of musical ideas that they enjoy. As Harold Best says, "the mature believer is easily edified." If we stick to the same style of music each week we'll box our people's musical tastes into a small corner of comfort and when they worship anywhere else around the world (or even around the corner) they may have a hard time being edified by the music.
Liturgical Flow: The structure of the worship gathering should have a certain flow, ushering people through the gospel to the throne of God. To say the gathering is liturgical speaks more of the thought put into the service than the feel produced by it.
I want to clarify what I think you are saying. A structure in itself doesn't usher people through the gospel to the throne of God. Structure refers to how the service is put together, readings followed by songs, etc. When I speak of flow I first speak about the flow of truth - what the worshipper should be thinking and doing with truth as they move from item to item in a service. This should be our primary concern, how items in the service relate to one another. Then we can speak about more mechanical things like when it sit/stand, how many songs in a row to sing, etc. Too many worship planners get caught up in the mechanics and think that the right physical structure, lights, seating, etc. will create worship or "take us to the throne." I normally avoid connecting the throne room of God with an intensity of worship or emotion. We enter the throne room of God not by the depth of our passion, but by faith in our union with Christ. And when we first "draw near to the throne" (Heb. 4:16) then we will find mercy and grace (our response).
Multi-Generational Appeal: A diversity of songs should be sung that appeal to all of God’s saints, not just a certain age group. However, a congregational “center” should be ascertained, enabling for an indigenous expression of worship by the bulk of the congregation.
I want to point out that groups of people who have different musical heart languages are often not defined by generations. We have young people who don't like pop music, and older people who don't like traditional music. It's more about the background and learned associations that people have developed over their life. Sometimes the hymn vs. chorus gets stereotyped as old vs. young Christians.
Corporate Emphasis: Believers should be encouraged to worship God primarily as a corporate body, not as individuals, during the weekly corporate worship gathering. This will affect songs chosen (preference for “we” songs over those “I”) and prayers uttered (“God, forgive us,” over “God, forgive me.”), as well as numerous other aspects of the meeting.
In the corporate gathering, there is a sense in which when we sing "I love you" we are also saying "We love you." I'm not sure that simply using the plural pronouns will help believers to see themselves as worshipping with the community. Additionally, using personal pronouns can sometimes help people appropriate the response they are singing and help them make it "their own." The psalms show us this balance of first person vs. second person.
