New Generation at Worship Winter 1997

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Okay, first the full disclosure. I spend a good part of my life leading worship through contemporary music in decidedly non-liturgical settings. From InterVarsity's Urbana student mission convention--where since a dramatic transition in 1990 "worship" has run the gamut from gospel to salsa to mtv-style videos--to United Methodist charismatic gatherings in cavernous assembly halls with troops of dancers and banner-carriers interpreting the lyrics of pop praise music, I've seen and led a lot of worship that is coming to very few churches near you. And I love it.

On the other hand, on Sunday mornings my wife and I sit, stand, and kneel in the brownstone beauty of St. James's Episcopal Church, where we are led in a weekly Eucharistic liturgy that would make terrible radio and worse television. The sound system is tinny and used only for speaking, never for music. Our multimedia consists of stained glass windows, carved woodwork, organ music, and the elevation of the Host at the Feast. I love that too.

So, when I'm asked to write about the current outpouring of innovation in worship, I confess a certain ambivalence. The truth is that when I'm among the innovators, I'm often pressing for tradition--hymns, silence, a bit of mystery to counteract our media-fed busyness. Among the conservators, though, I'm constantly restraining my impulse to cut loose. A good bass player and some reggae could do wonders for St. James's.

That I have this problem at all is a sign of the revolution that has taken place in North American church life in the last ten years. The contemporary worship movement, spurred by factors from church growth anxiety to seeker sensitivity to a (baby) boom of pastors who had garage bands in their youth, has shaken up the ...

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