What’s in a Name?

1. What’s in a Name? What the History of the Term “Contemporary Worship” Tells Us

2. Imagine: “Something New, Different, Distinctive” in Worship “…the needs of today’s young adults in mind.” “In the past we (i.e., the church) have offered what businessmen called a manufacturing mentality. We produced a product and then looked for someone to take it. Now, instead, we need a marketing mentality…A marketing mentality searches for what people want and need and then resolves to satisfy that need.”

3. The Name: Contemporary Worship • A preliminary overview of its rise and spread • Method: emphasize publication history, especially in books, with some coordination with information from early practitioners • Looking at frequency of use via Google’s ngram function • Examining how used and what is meant by the term • Offers insight into the rise and spread of the now-widespread liturgical phenomenon

4. Broad Comments • The current use of the term is the third of three eras in the 20th century which saw an upswing in the published frequency of the term. • General observations: • The current use is the most technically specific of the 3 periods. • The current era is the longest lasting with a hint of having offered a permanent addition to the liturgical landscape. • Defined by characteristics, there were—and are—churches with “contemporary worship” that do not use the term. • Both the multiple phases and the dynamics of who does/doesn’t use the term highlights the complexity of the phenomenon’s origins and developments.

5. General observations continued: • Churches in and authors from established/mainline denominations are the main adopters of the term in its most recent resurgence. • The term’s usability in branding and marketing, especially to set up a binary contrast with “traditional worship,” all this occurring at a point of institutional anxiety, seems to help explain the quick rise and spread during this last era of use.

6. The Three Periods of Use

7. Comparing to “Contemporary” Itself

8. The First Period of Use: 1920s-1930s • Meaning of “contemporary worship” in this era: • Any worship that takes place in a certain place and a certain time. • Any worship that belongs to a people of a certain place and time. • A non-technical use of the term.

9. The Second Period of Use: Late 1960s-1970s • Rise of the term synonymous with a period of liturgical “experimentation” • James White, New Forms of Worship (1971), speaks of a period of experimentation beginning about 1965.

11. Characteristics Of Traditional (1960s era) Contemporary Worship • 1971 Interpreter magazine article answering “What do you mean by ‘contemporary worship’?” • Characteristics identified: • Most central: innovative • Others: • Variety! • Continuity! • Now sound! • Participation! • Relationship! • Action! • Celebration! (n.b. !’s found in the original.)

12. What was contemporary in 60s CW? • Generally, reviewing the term’s use broadly as well as parallel materials, three contemporary aspects stand out in this order of priority: • Contemporary language: updated English • Contemporary concerns: relevant interests, esp. social concerns of the period • Contemporary music: varies but usually based on some form of popular music

13. Examples of 60s Contemporary Worship • James White and experimental liturgy in the chapel at Perkins School of theology

14. Examples of 60s Contemporary Worship • 1967, Church-O-Theque at Mount Vernon Place Methodist Church, Rockville, Maryland

16. Examples of 60s Contemporary Worship • Episcopal Campus Ministry, University of Michigan, documented in Multi-Media Worship

18. Centrality of Contemporary Language and Concerns • Seen in independently released volumes of text-based resources: • Carl F. Burke, comp., Treat Me Cool, Lord: Prayers—Devotions—Litanies as Prepared by Some of God’s Bad-tempered Angels with Busted Halos (1968). • Ralph E. Dessem, ed., A Guide to Contemporary Worship (ca. 1970) • James L. Christensen, Contemporary Worship Services (1971) • Seen in denominationally-related, text-based resources • Methodist: David James Randolph, ed., Ventures in Worship (1969) • Lutheran: series of resources from Inter-Lutheran Commission on Worship

19. Contemporary Language: The Critical & Radical Element • Parallel to new Bible translations of the time • Parallel to new denominational worship texts, starting with post-Vatican II texts • Parallel to changes in extemporaneous praying

20. Where Did This 2nd Era of CW Go? • James White, Christian Worship in Transition (1976) • “Period of experimentation absorbed….experimentation has become a standard and permanent part of…worship.” • “Period of experimentation has become lodged as a permanent part of us.” If the term and perspective has become “routinized,” then no longer appropriate to use the term. • Suggests some pastors wore congregations out and did not experiment well • Donald Hustad, Jubilate! Church Music in the Evangelical Tradition (1981) • Seems to speak of relief that the period of “far out” services in the late 1960s to early 1970s is over

21. Perhaps the 1960s Era of CW Not Over • The propriety of contemporary language and concerns (and music) widely accepted • Updated, easily understandable English foundational to any thorough-going inculturation since the mid-20th century • Unclear as to whether this era of contemporary worship merely paralleled larger changes or helped spark them

22. The Late 1970s-1980s: Incubation • The level of published usage of the term drops off.

23. Decrease in All English Publications

24. Decrease in Am. English Publications

25. Developments in Incubation, 70s-80s • Rise of Jesus Movement-derived, “new paradigm” churches: Calvary Chapel and Vineyard

26. Developments in Incubation, 70s-80s • Rise of Praise & Worship, appears to start in Pentecostalism, especially Latter Rain-influenced strand • Example: Ruth Ann Ashton, God’s Presence Through Music

27. Non-Pentecostal Adoption of P&W, Examples • Robert Webber’s The Complete Library of Christian Worship, initially published in 1994 • Praise and Worship: 269 instances in 155 articles in 7 volumes • Contemporary Worship: 109 instances in 85 articles • Seeker Services: 65 instances in 32 articles • Theme issue of Reformed Worship, 1991

29. P&W A More Prevalent Term?

30. Developments in Incubation, 70s-80s • The rise of Contemporary Christian Music as a distinct genre • This rise likely reinforces the use of the “contemporary” term generally related to worship. • It is a small step to name worship that uses this music as “contemporary worship.” • But this step still presumes the earlier 1960s-era steps: contemporary language, relevant contemporary concerns, and “Creative Celebration!”

32. Developments in Incubation, 70s-80s • Rise of the American Church Growth movement with developing body of literature, schools, workshops, and consultants • Reinforces tradition-questioning tendencies of the 1960s • Reinforces generational thinking with respect to church life including targeting • Reinforces sense of the propriety/necessity of starting new services • Playing to increasing anxiety about denominational decline

33. Developments in Incubation, 70s-80s • Rise of several prominent megachurches with increasing public profile and influence by the late 1980s • Rise of Pentecostal-based, Latter Rain-derived worship conferences: International Worship Symposium, International Worship Institute, etc.

34. Developments in Incubation, 70s-80s • Liturgical developments in renewal movements and targeted programming • Charismatic Movement • Walk to Emmaus • Youth ministries • Seedbed for new musical development and sharing (songs and instrumentation) • Offered: exposure by, positive experience for, and new desires/aspirations in worshipers

35. The Term in the Period of Incubation • Terry Dittmer, Creating Contemporary Worship: A Workbook for Understanding and Writing Youth-Led Worship Services (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1985).

36. Groundswell, ca. 1990 • Many with experiences of something new in worship • Many with desire for something new in worship • Many advocating something new in worship • Numerically successful models for something new in worship • Growing mainline denominational anxiety about loss of vitality • Circulation of “contemporary” label in several forms

37. On the Verge • Paul Westermeyer, “Beyond ‘Alternative’ and ‘Traditional’ Worship,” The Christian Century 109, 10 (March 18-25, 1992): 300: “’Alternative worship is apparently the Protestant answer to evangelism for the 1990s…These services (adopted by many congregations) are called ‘contemporary’ or ‘alternative’ to distinguish them from ‘traditional’ worship…Protestant congregations, imitating post-Vatican II Roman Catholic practice, have created different tracks of services, one ‘alternative’ and one ‘traditional’.”

38. The 1990s: The Term Unleashed

39. 1994, A Clear Threshold: Ongoing Technically Specific Use of the Term

40. Circuit Rider magazine, Dec. 94-Jan. 95

41. Brandt, Worship and Outreach, 1994

42. Nature of These Early Books • Notice that much of the early literature includes how-to guides. • Authors must define what it means to do “contemporary worship” and how to get such a service started.

43. Evidence of Breadth of Usage: Job Titles • From the Summer 1994 issue of The Evangelizing Congregation, newsletter from the ELCA Division of Congregational Ministries includes an article by Dori Collins of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Naperville, Illinois entitled “Bursting the Barriers: Removing the Roadblock to Contemporary Music.” • Notice her position title: Director of Contemporary Worship and Youth Music

44. 1995, The Tide Rises as the Floodgates Open

45. 1995, Trying to Block the Tide and Close the Floodgates

46. Mid-1990s: The Floodgates Open

47. Some Early Books Retain Sense of Complexity of Origins/Patterns • Daniel T. Benedict and Craig Kennet Miller, Contemporary Worship for the 21st Century: Worship or Evangelism (1994): 3 models of CW: Book of Common Worship, Book of Common Song, Seeker • Tim and Jan Wright, eds., Contemporary Worship: A Sourcebook for Spirited-Traditional, Praise and Seeker Services (1997) • Andy Langford, Transitions in Worship: Moving from Traditional to Contemporary (1999): 3 patterns of CW: liturgical, Praise and Worship, Seeker Services

48. The Term’s Proliferation: The Role of Abingdon Press • Titles with “contemporary” and “worship” in the title by publisher, 1990s • Abingdon: 11 (+ related books by Kim Miller, Mike Slaughter, Tex Sample, Walt Kallestad, and Lyle Schaller) • Fortress: 3 • Baker: 1 • Chalice: 1 • Discipleship Resources: 1 • Eerdmans: 0 • Concordia: 0 • Word: 0 • Judson: 0 • Zondervan: 0 (but publishes Willow Creek Community Church materials) • Broadman/Broadman & Holman/B&H: 0

49. Common in Mainline Publications • An intrinsic anxiety about declining numbers • A tone of urgency • Adoption of contemporary worship as a tactical measure • Paralleled by reflections of pastors who adopted • Contrast to 1960s era materials • Drive for authenticity arising out of a sense of a crisis of worship connecting with people (1960s) vs. a drive for authenticity + a drive for numbers (1990s)