The Style Of Contemporary Worship

Sustained sections of praise are now being used successfully in worship by young congregations. Instead of organizing their services into a series of discrete events—a single hymn followed by a prayer, another hymn, the choir, the offering, a solo, a Scripture reading, and then the sermon—they make time for sustained, unbroken, flowing praise that often lasts anywhere from ten to fifty minutes. After a time of teaching, people are invited to come forward for salvation, healing, and deliverance. In churches with a more charismatic flavor, the extended time of worship includes opportunities for healing, words of knowledge, exhortations from the congregation, prophetic utterances, and dance both from those in the congregation and from trained dance teams.

Another pattern followed by many contemporary worship leaders is the fourfold pattern based on the tabernacle. In this pattern the worship leaders lead the worshipers through the gates, into the outer court, into the inner court, and finally into the Holy of Holies. There is a narrative quality to the movement as the worshipers travel through distinct moods and stages of spiritual intensity through the use of music. The Five-Phase Worship Pattern John Wimber and Eddie Espinosa have developed a five-phase pattern for guiding their long worship song service, or as they term it, "worship set." Evangelical churches may find aspects of it useful for their Sunday morning or evening services, as well as weekday small-group meetings. Wimber and Espinosa have used this pattern for several years in leading both groups of a thousand people and small home praise groups. The idea for this pattern evolved from their experience, practice, and Bible reading. They became aware that there are different types of choruses and that these can be categorized in a sequence. The five phases are invitation, engagement, exaltation, adoration, and intimacy (plus a closing). The invitation phase is like a call to worship. The lyrics used in this phase should address the people and draw their attention to worship, as in the choruses "I Just Came to Praise the Lord" or " Don't You Know It's Time to Praise the Lord." They may be accompanied with hand-clapping where appropriate. For a vigorous call to worship with hand clapping, the Hebrew chorus "The Celebration Song" (Chambers) is excellent. A mellower opener could be "Let's Forget about Ourselves and Magnify the Lord and Worship Him." More traditional churches might wish to have a mix of speaking, reading, and singing. They might include Scripture readings in the call and substitute hymns for choruses. The key is that the lyrics of the song can now do the inviting and focusing without the song leader having to resort to verbal exhortation. The leader can continue with hymns and choruses until he or she has made contact with the people and they with him or her and everyone is focused. In the engagement phase the people begin to draw near to God, and the lyrics should reflect that. They are now singing to God, not encouraging one another. Espinosa likens it to the engagement period before marriage (e.g., "Praise Song"). In the exaltation phase the people sing out with power in response to key words in these choruses like great, majestic, worthy, reigns, Lord, mountains, and so on (e.g., "Our God Reigns"). The pitch spans of the melodies are generally greater than in the other phases. In the adoration phase the dynamics may gradually subside and melody may have a smaller range. The key words may be you or Jesus (e.g., "Father, I Adore You"). The last phase before the close, the intimacy phase, is the quietest and most personal. It's like addressing God as Abba or "Daddy" (e.g., "In Moments like These" or "O Lord, You're Beautiful"). This is the "kiss." One meaning of the Greek word for worship, proskuneo, is "to turn toward to kiss," as in kissing the feet, the hands, or the lips. Closeness is required for kissing; this closeness can happen in worship only if it is properly prepared for in the phases that precede it. It all ends with a closing chorus or hymn that leads out of intimacy and helps the people to adjust to the next event in the service. Using the Five-Phase Style The five-phase progression has a beautifully balanced and graduated arch shape with the high point in the middle. Use it as handy frame to guide your own worship practice, but feel free to be flexible with it. You can be flexible about time; the same progression can be used in either long or short worship sets. You can also be flexible about content; use all choruses, all hymns, or a mixture of hymns and choruses (or even humming and prayers). You can even rearrange the phases. For example, you can give a single phase like adoration more weight than the others, or limit a set to one or two of the phases. I've experimented successfully with short sets (ten to fifteen minutes) toward the middle of the morning service that focus on adoration pieces exclusively. It works especially well when the set emerges out of a time of prayer. I've also tried moving from exaltation to adoration and vice versa—or even from exaltation to adoration and back to exaltation. One benefit of the order is that it encourages us not to jump around between categories in a worship set when we select choruses and hymns. This jerking about tends to be confusing and results in a lack of direction. It's like a home decorated with uncoordinated colors, furniture, and paintings. Another advantage of the progression is that if a group is leading the song service, group members don't need to know the exact sequencing of the individual tunes. They can identify the phase they are in from the lyrics and the progression of songs over time and know how they should be functioning musically to achieve an ensemble effect. Here is one more thought on linking choruses. Try to find key words and similar thoughts. Many choruses have only one key thought. Two choruses back-to-back that reiterate the key word love, for example, will promote a sense of continuity rather than patchiness. You or Jesus are other examples of key words. The Four-Phase Tabernacle Style During the first phase of coming through the gates the congregation may sing a chorus such as "I Will Enter His Gates with Thanksgiving in My Heart." This song may be accompanied by loud shouts of joy and dancing. Once in the inner court, the congregation may continue to sing songs about coming to worship such as "Come Let Us Worship and Bow Down" as well as songs of confession and repentance such as "Change My Heart, Oh God." Next, when the congregation passes into the inner court, songs are sung about God such as "My God How Wonderful Thou Art" and "Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus." Finally when the congregation is brought into the Holy of Holies songs are sung to God such as "I Love You, Lord," "Father, I Adore You," and "Jesus, What a Wonder You Are." Charismatic churches include the operation of various spiritual gifts throughout all the phases of worship. Many churches are now requiring that any participation from people in the congregation is first approved by a designated elder or staff member who assists the worship leader in releasing these gifts at the proper time in the service. In charismatic and some contemporary churches, the use of "open worship" such as the "singing the new song," prophetic songs, or singing in the Spirit often precedes or follows some choruses during the exaltation and adoration phases. Building on one or a few chords, the congregation is encouraged to lift their own personal songs to the Lord with the rest of the congregation. Sometimes a person may even have a prophetic song for the congregation, where he or she sings a melodic message of insight or encouragement. This must be accomplished only by the most trusted worshipers. Churches involved in long periods of praise, worship, and the operation of spiritual gifts must be cautioned against seeing this section of the service as the total expression of worship. Recently, many churches have become aware of richness brought to worship by bringing back certain traditional dynamics of liturgy and structure.