Among Protestant churches, the Lutheran tradition has the richest heritage of music for worship. It is based on the assumption that music is a profound means by which we enter God’s presence and render our liturgy of thanksgiving to God. Bringing together insights first developed by Martin Luther and practices that have grown out of almost 500 years of Lutheran worship, this article describes why and how music is used in Lutheran worship.
Worship in the praise-and-worship tradition is based on the assumption that praise is not identical to worship. Praise is the prelude to worship, our entrance into God’s presence, which is the locus of true worship. This article describes this distinction.
Although the technical aspects of music are the same for concert and worship music, the function and purpose of music in these settings are different. Understanding these differences is important for church musicians, ultimately changing the criteria by which music is selected and influencing the way in which music is rehearsed and presented.
Music in worship serves many purposes and manifests itself in a variety of expressions. It is used both to praise God and to proclaim the Word; it both expresses prayer and relates the Gospel story. This article examines the various functions of music in worship and describes their implication for the church musician, who is the leader of the people’s song.
Music has great power to both reflect and shape human experience. In worship, as in other activities, music is able to express the most profound thoughts and emotions in ways that words cannot. Music in Christian worship is a powerful—even a risky—force that must be used thoughtfully, imaginatively, and prayerfully.
The Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Church has remained quite traditional in its approach to music and the arts. Recent changes include the recovery of psalm-singing and, in some churches on particular occasions, the use of choruses. Little use is made of the arts.
Winds of worship change are blowing in the Wesleyan Church, but not always in the same direction. Different as they may seem, the trends toward celebrative worship on the one hand and a more liturgical framework on the other are both encouraging signs of life in corporate worship, and both emphasize music and the arts as key elements in renewal.
The Vineyard assemblies are marked by contemporary musical forms in a praise-and-worship style. After a period of development along these lines, some Vineyards are rediscovering the hymns and songs of the historic church. Of the other arts in worship, the Vineyards are making a unique contribution to dance in worship, in the form of free and spontaneous dance rather than formal liturgical dance. Vineyard leadership must “release” dancers to perform their ministry, thereby screening out dance that is inappropriate for worship.
At the heart of United Methodist worship is music. Music is the language of the congregation, and it is widely understood that the function of music in worship is to help the congregation encounter God. Whether a United Methodist Church is “high church,” “low church,” or somewhere between the two, the philosophy of the function of music rarely deviates. Music is the human expression by which we are joined one to another and by which we claim our understanding of God and our relationship to God. Music is the vehicle, the action, of the work of the people.
The United Church of Christ was founded in 1957 by the joining of the Evangelical and Reformed Church and the Congregational Christian Church. These two denominations were likewise the result of mergers in the 1930s of the Evangelical Synod with the Reformed Church, and of the Congregational Church with the Christian Church. The present United Church of Christ includes German-rooted Evangelical and Reformed churches, Puritan Reformation-based Congregationalism, and the free-thinking spirit of the southern Christian Church.