Unified Worship

When the Bible commands us to sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, it does not specify how these songs are to be accompanied. The Old Testament does mention many different instruments and instructs us to use all of them along with clapping, shouting, dancing, and raising hands as we praise God. That journey to determine what style should be used has been the cause of what is commonly known as the Worship Wars.

Here is just one example from an individual opposed to a certain worship style:

"There are several reasons for opposing it. One, it's too new. Two, it's often worldly...the new Christian music is not as pleasant as the more established style. Besides there are so many new songs that you can't learn them all. It puts too much emphasis on instrumental music rather than godly lyrics. This new music creates disturbances making people act indecently. The preceding generation got along without it. It's a money-making scheme, and some of these new music upstarts are lewd and loose." This quote comes from a pastor in 1723 attacking Isaac Watts, the father of American hymnody ("Rhyme & Reason: under the Microscope" by Matt Redman in Worship Leader Magazine, May 2006).

As I have shared before (Worship Wars and Defining Worship Styles), these Worship Wars are nothing new. Ed Stetzer describes Worship Wars this way, "When people clash over the expression of worship." The essence may still be the same, but they do not like certain expressions. This constant battle of style, format, and even appearance is not healthy for our churches. While statistics show that most dying churches have a Traditional style of worship and that most growing churches have a Contemporary style of worship, that does not mean that one style is better than the other. Perhaps it means that one style has been less willing to make use of the talents that they have.

Johann Sebastian Bach had a philosophy of worship that is just as valid and valuable today as it was in his own day. He believed that you use the talents that God has given you. This philosophy can be seen in some of the strange instrumental combinations that he used for his sacred music. If he had a viola, flute, and trumpet available, then he wrote for those instruments. His philosophy was scripturally based, see Matthew 25:14-30. Yet in many of today's churches we eschew the talents that can be found in our church family because of a preconceived idea of what worship should look like.

Why do we find it necessary to segregate our churches into classical, traditional, contemporary, gospel, blended, modern, seeker, or emergent?

"Most churches would agree that racial or economic segregation runs contrary to the very nature of the Gospel...But there's another, perhaps more subtle, type of segregation that many churches today have actually adopted and embraced....Many churches offer a "traditional service" for the tribe who prefers old music and a "contemporary service" for the tribe who prefers new music. I understand the good intentions behind some of these efforts but something as seemingly harmless as this evidences a fundamental failure to comprehend the heart of the Gospel. When we offer, for instance, a contemporary service for the younger people and a traditional service for the older people, we are not only feeding tribalism (which is a toxic form of racism) but we are saying that the Gospel can't successfully bring these two different groups together. It is a declaration of doubt in the reconciling power of God's Gospel. Generational appeal in worship is an unintentional admission that the Gospel is powerless to "join together" what man has separated." (Tulliam Tchividjian in Unfashionable)

I learned a new worship term this past weekend that I would suggest we all begin to adopt in our churches: Unified Worship. This style of worship can happen when the church comes together to worship God in spirit and in truth utilizing their unique gifts and talents, which will vary from church to church. Stop trying to copy a style of worship and start creating unity in worship.

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This past weekend I attended the Baptist Convention of Maryland and Delaware's Worship Leader Boot Camp at SkyCroft Conference Center at the top of South Mountain in Middletown, Maryland. It was led by Kenny Lamm, senior consultant for worship and music at the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina. I strongly encourage all church leaders to read his ten part series on Worship Wars.