Worship Arts Pastor Mike Cosper Writes About The Modern Worship Movement

Sojourn worship arts pastor Mike Cosper writes below, on the current interest in worship arts and theology, modern renewal movements, and the challenging new paradigm in worship ministry:

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Scan the shelves or CD racks at a Christian bookstore and you’ll find an incredible range of ideas about worship: where it begins and ends, what it is, whether worship is for God or for ourselves, and on and on the questions and answers go. As many writers find themselves at the beginning of a project, one has to ask why another book on worship is necessary or helpful.

Across the country today, there are worship renewal movements that are sparking new life into congregations and church plants. Indelible Grace’s songwriters are giving the hymnal back to churches who have forgotten it. Sovereign Grace is reminding us of the centrality of the cross. Wonderful hymns are being written by Keith and Kristen Getty and many others, and churches across the country are seeing new songwriters emerge from their congregations, speaking with a unique voice to the unique context in which they live.

And, at the same time, confusion abounds. Ask a group of pastors what worship is, and the diversity of answers will result in a diversity of local expressions. One congregation emphasizes “whole-life worship” while another emphasizes the gathering of the body. This church thinks worship is about theology while that one thinks that it’s about contextualization. The results are diverse and interesting, and might be fine enough except for what happens when these churches look at one another. The contextualized church thinks the theological church is failing to love and serve its people, lost in some western, classical, elitist model. The theological church thinks the contextualized church is dumbing down the gospel. The whole-life-worship church thinks the gathered-worship church is making an institutional idol of itself, while the gathered church thinks the whole-life church is losing sight of two thousand years of church history and practice.

Then, we throw the modern-day worship leader into this mix.

Twenty-five years ago, most worship leaders in most churches had been through some kind of traditioning process. The worship leader at the church where I grew up had been through musical training at a good university and seminary training at a respected seminary. He was experienced in a range of musical styles and, though it took some re-education, learned well how to work with a rock band and moved our church through the transition from what was a blended service, leaning heavily on hymns, to a contemporary one. Today, that same church has a worship leader who is a young, guitar-playing singer-songwriter with no formal training in music or theology. The songs played at this church are a blend of the CCLI Top 100 and a few locally-written songs (not including the “special music” which ranges from James Taylor’s “You’ve Got a Friend” to Guns and Roses’ “Sweet Child of Mine.” No, I am not making this up.).

This is the new paradigm. In a world of video feeds, podcasts, and near-instant distribution of recordings, churches are following the lead of news networks and national corporations, trading in the experience and tradition of one generation for the hipness and cultural savvy of young would-be rock stars. Where worship leaders once were raised up in churches, colleges, and seminaries, they now are regularly making the leap from the bar or the coffee shop to the platform at the church.

With him, he carries the knowledge he’s gained from this traditioning process - a totally different set of skills. The rock set at the local venue is governed by some of the basic principles of show business…(to be continued)

(Tomorrow here on sojournmusic.com Pastor Mike will talk about modern trends, the dual responsibility of pastors to be faithful and attractional, the connection with traditions of the past, and more.)

Pictured in the photo above, from left to right, pastor Mike, Terra Nova (NY) pastors Ed Marcelle and Scott Womer, Christ Church (N.M.) pastor Martin Ban, and author Harold Best, in a roundtable discussion at Sojourn’s home, The 930.