Kinds of Worship Services

 

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Kinds of Worship services

Your piece on 50's-60's worshippers was superb! However in most of your writing about worship styles you show strong bias toward change, the unchurched and the next generation. I fact all over the web I can find a ton of writing on emerging worship but very little on any other style. The net message from your writing and from most others is: Get with the program and start chasing the next generation's whims in worship. Your writing on 50's 60's worshippers got me thinking about how we might seriously try to reach all generations instead of only the latest whims in worship styles. So my question is this: If we offered a broad range of worship formats to meet all the needs and preferences of today's worshippers what would the list include--what type of worship formats should we consider? --Pastor

Interesting question. I will try to summarize the formats but first I must admit that you are right in charging me with bias toward change and the emerging generation. I get the first from my boomer blood and the second from my occupation. But you are wrong about a bias toward gearing worship for the unchurched--I think seeker worship is an oxymoron. But to your question: what are the most popular formats for worship services if a church seriously tried to meet the needs and preferences of most worshippers?

 

1.     Charismatic Worship. By far the fastest growing and most popular format of worship today in North America is a charismatic style. Charismatic worship is designed for the worshipper to experience God--to come to church and meet God, feel His presence, hear from Him and "connect" with the Holy Spirit and each other. Musical praise is the dominant channel for this experience, though it includes silence, listening, meditation and in Pentecostal-charismatic formats speaking in tongues and other physical expressions like holy dancing or laughter. Non-Pentecostal churches with charismatic worship may not be so extreme but have a clear focus on coming to worship to meet God--to actually experience God, to sense His presence and receive. The charismatic format is not limited to Pentecostal denominations, but has been widely adopted and adapted by others and has left its mark (through the so-called "Praise and worship movement") on almost every church in America. This style is especially popular with new believers, many younger worshippers, blue collar workers, and the disenfranchised, poor and powerless.

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