The Praise-And-Worship Renewal

"Praise and worship" is a phrase used to designate a worship style that draws on contemporary choruses, usually in a flowing or connected sequence. The praise-and-worship style is influenced by charismatic worship and often features the lifting of hands in praise, ministry through the laying on of hands, and an inviting and informal climate in worship.

A new style of worship has been spreading throughout North America and other parts of the world in the last several decades. While this approach to worship goes by a variety of names, the designation that seems to be gaining most acceptance is "praise and worship" (P&W). This discussion seeks to explain what this style of worship is and how it may affect traditional worship in the future. Where Did "Praise and Worship" Originate? P&W emerged from several trends in the sixties and early seventies. These trends include the perception some people have that traditional worship forms are dead. Along with that conviction goes a concern for an immediacy of the Spirit, a desire for intimacy, and a persuasion that music and informality must connect with people of a post-Christian culture. One of the earliest expressions of these trends was the rise of testimonial music through the leadership of Bill Gaither in the early 1960s. Songs such as "He Touched Me," "There's Something About That Name," "Let's Just Praise the Lord," and "Because He Lives" touched many lives and introduced people to a new genre of music. At first these were performance songs, but soon they became congregational: people sang along or at least joined in on the refrain. A second expression of these trends came in the late 1960s on the West Coast (and all over the world) in the "Jesus movement." A major emphasis of this movement was the singing of praise choruses, some of which were written and sung right on the spot. Since those early days in the 1960s and early 1970s, this form of music and the style of worship it has engendered have developed into a new worldwide approach to worship. Characteristics of the Praise and Worship Movement While the exact origins of the P&W tradition are ambiguous, the movement itself is not difficult to describe. First, P&W moves beyond a post-Enlightenment-style expression of worship. Since the eighteenth century, Western thought has been influenced by the Enlightenment's rationalistic and scientific explanations of our existence. Worship influenced by the Enlightenment is essentially cerebral, appealing to the mind and to the intellectual side of our beings. It is "left-brained." In contrast, P&W touches the affective side of the person. It is "right-brained," reaching into the feelings and emotions of the human personality. However, it is not correct to dismiss it as merely emotional worship or as worship lacking in content or biblical foundation. Indeed, a second characteristic of P&W is that it seeks to recapture the lost element of praise found in both Old and New Testament worship. It stands in the tradition of the Talmud, saying "Man should always utter praises, and then pray." Praise God first and foremost, then move on to the other elements of worship, say the proponents of P&W. Distinguishing Praise from Worship A major feature of the P&W movement is its tendency to distinguish praise from worship. Judson Cornwall, a P&W leader and author of more than a half-dozen books, addresses the distinction between praise and worship in his book Let Us Worship (1983). Cornwall argues that the Scriptures present praise as something different than worship, and he cites Psalm 95 as a good example of this distinction. In the opening verses, the psalmist invites praise: Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song (vv. 1–2). Only then, after praise has been offered, does the psalmist invite worship: Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker (v. 6). So Cornwall concludes that "the order is praise first, worship second" (p. 143). "Praise," Cornwall writes, "prepares us for worship"; it is a "prelude to worship." Praise is not an attempt to get something from God; it is a ministry that we offer to God. We offer praise for what God has done—for God's mighty deeds in history and his continued providential presence in our lives. While we praise God for what he has done, we worship God for who he is. The one extols the acts of God, the other the person and character of God. Cornwall clarifies this distinction between praise and worship:

Praise begins by applauding God's power, but it often brings us close enough to God that worship can respond to God's presence. While the energy of praise is toward what God does, the energy of worship is toward who God is. The first is concerned with God's performance, while the second is occupied with God's personage. The thrust of worship, therefore, is higher than the thrust of praise (p. 146).

The Temple Sequence The order of the service, the swing from praise to worship, is patterned after the movement in the Old Testament tabernacle and temple from the outer court to the inner court and then into the Holy of Holies. All of these steps are accomplished through song. The song leader (or the worship leader, as she or he is more often called) plays a significant role in moving the congregation through the various steps that lead to worship. He or she begins with choruses of personal experience or testimony, such as "This is the Day the Lord Has Made" or "We Bring Sacrifices of Praise into the House of the Lord." These songs center on praise, are all upbeat in tempo, and relate to the personal experience of the believer. They are songs that often mention "I," "me," or "we." In the tabernacle typology, during this first step the people are still outside the fence that surrounds the tabernacle. They cannot worship until they come through the gates into the tabernacle court. This movement by way of song prepares us for what takes place in the second step: the mood and the content of the music shift to express the action of entering the gates and coming into the courts. Here the song leader leads people in songs that express the transition from praise to worship. These are songs of thanksgiving, such as the Scripture song from Psalm 100: "I will enter his gates with thanksgiving in my heart, I will enter his courts with praise" or "Come let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our God, our Maker." According to Cornwall:

It is a matter of bringing them from a consciousness of what has been done in them and for them (testimony) to who did it in and for them (thanksgiving). The procession through the eastern gate into the outer court should be a joyful march, for thanks should never be expressed mournfully or negatively. While the people are singing choruses of thanksgiving, they will be thinking both of themselves and of their God, but by putting the emphasis upon the giving of thanks, the majority of the thought patterns should be on their God. Singing at this level will often be a beginning level of praise, but it will not produce worship, for the singers are not yet close enough to God's presence to express a worship response" (p. 156).

The third step, into the Holy of Holies, brings the believer away from himself or herself into a full conscious worship of God alone. No longer is the worshiper thinking about what God has done, but rather of who God is in person and character. A quiet devotion hovers over the congregation as they sing songs such as "Father, I Adore You," "I Love You, Lord" and "You Are Worthy." In these moments of worship "the emotional clapping will likely be replaced with devotional response of upturned faces, raised hands, tears, and even a subtle change in the timbre of the voices." For when there is an "awareness that we have come into the presence of God, we step out of lightness with sobriety" (p. 157). The third phase of the sequence is often described as an experience of "the manifest presence of God." This experience does not differ greatly from the liturgical experience of the presence of Christ at the Lord's table. In this atmosphere, the charismata, or gifts of God, are released, and, just as men and women throughout the history of the church have experienced physical and spiritual healing while partaking of the table of Christ, so many today are tasting of special manifestations of the Holy Spirit in worship renewal as he inhabits, i.e., settles down, makes his home, and abides in the praises of his people (Ps. 22:3). Variations While the tabernacle/temple order of worship is quite prominent in praise and worship churches, it is not the only order or sequence of song. For example, the Vineyard Church in Anaheim, California, is a church that fits into the broader category of the P&W tradition of worship. Worship there has a slightly different variation of the progression that brings a worshiper into God's presence. Vineyard Church worship begins with an invitation phase, which is like a call to worship. Songs of invitation such as "I Just Came to Praise the Lord" may be sung with clapping, swinging the body, and looking at other worshipers, smiling and acknowledging their presence. In the next movement, the engagement phase, the people are brought closer to God, and their songs are addressed to him, not to one another. A good example may be "Humble Yourself in the Sight of the Lord." The song leader then moves the people into the adoration phase. In this stage of worship the broad range of pitch and melody that characterized the previous phases is exchanged for the smaller range of music and the more subdued tone of songs such as "Jesus, Jesus, There's Something About that Name" or "Father, I Adore You." Next, the congregation is led into the intimacy phase, which is the quietest and most personal part of worship. Songs such as "O Lord, You're Beautiful" and "Great Are You, Lord" are personal statements of an intimate relationship directed from the believer to the Lord. As these songs are sung, people become highly intense and lose themselves in the ecstasy of the moment. During this phase of the worship service that I attended at the Vineyard Church, people stood with heads and hands turned upward and eyes closed as they sang these songs of what John Wimber calls "love-making to God." Some people, especially in the front rows, were kneeling or even prostrate on the floor during this "quiet time." The final phase of the Vineyard worship progression is a closeout song, a song that helps the people move out of the experience of being transfixed on God to prepare for the next segment of the service, the time of teaching. Praise, Worship, Teaching, Prayer, Ministry It is common in the P&W tradition of worship to distinguish between the various acts of a typical service. The most significant distinction is that of praise from worship, as described above. Other acts in the service include the time for teaching, the time for intercessory prayer, and the time for ministry. Because most P&W churches are informal, the various acts of the service are done in an informal way. For example, while teaching is fairly straightforward, it may end with a time of brief feedback or discussion (depending on the size of the congregation). Intercessory prayer may also be informal. The idea of the traditional pastoral prayer may be replaced by a prayer circle. After prayer, many churches enter a time of ministry. People are sent into various rooms where those gifted with ministry for particular needs lay hands on them and pray for hurt and broken lives as from the Master's hand. What is experienced in this setting can be very meaningful, ministering in a powerful way to the people of God. Response to Praise and Worship Broadly speaking, traditional churches have responded to the spread of P&W in three ways. First are those churches that have not responded at all—perhaps because they are not consciously aware of the P&W tradition. These congregations may have heard one or two P&W-style songs and be vaguely aware of the existence of such a style of worship in nontraditional churches, but for the most part they are impervious to P&W. Second are those congregations who are more aware of the P&W traditions but are indifferent to it or who actively dismiss it, arguing that it is "too superficial" or "too charismatic." The third set of traditional churches are not only aware of P&W and its relevancy to a post-Enlightenment culture but also seek to integrate this new approach to worship into the local church.