Christianity is characterized by advancements and growth from traditional to postmodern Christianity. Contemporary Christianity is characterized by the attempt to modernize the church to accommodate the extensive nature of modernity. The aspects of modernity affect Christianity and the foundations of Christian faith raising controversies. Some elements of contemporary Christianity such as sexuality and worship styles are at the forefront of the discussion concerning the legitimacy of modern Christianity. Some are of the opinion that contemporary Christianity as gone too far in incorporating modernity to the extent that it has altered the primary principles of Christianity. Other feel that without integrating modernity in Christianity then Christianity becomes irrelevant since modernity will keep advancing. Therefore, there is a need for contemporary Christianity to keep Christianity relevant (Kalu, 2008). Contemporary Christian worship is one of the areas raising a lot of discussion and controversy in religion. Christian worship has advanced from traditional Christian worship to modern worship and is progressing further to postmodern worship. An analysis of Christian worship and contemporary Christian worship reveals the underlying issues raised by contemporary Christian worship.
Worship is central to Christianity and Christians perceive worship as part of humanity and service to God. However, in respect to the Bible, Mass goes beyond service to God to a pathway to restoring the human relationship with God “Where two or three come together in my name, there I am with them” (Mat 18:20). On the surface, worship is perceived in the songs of praise and worship. However, religion goes beyond music to the actions of humans. That is to say that the way of life of a Christian is a mode of worship. Therefore the way of life which is a person's culture affects worship. Over the years, culture as grow expanded and diversifying and so as for worship. Traditionally, religion took a more general for that was widely accepted as a means of honoring God. However, with the changes in beliefs, incorporation of new of social practices, civilization, and psychological advancements, people have embraced new forms of worship for the contemporary worship styles. After role, Christianity played a significant part towards development and improvements, and modern Christianity can only be termed as the results of early Christian pursuits (Dryness, 2009). There is a need to look at different parameters of contemporary Christianity worship styles, particularly music to determine its justification and criticism.
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Inarguably, music is integral to congregational worship, but conflict arises on the aspects of culture and structure of music. The church efforts are geared towards attracting more youth into the church. Methods such as the use of modern genre Christian music and other contemporary styles of worship are applied to achieve the objective. However, the current nature and style of music raise conflict in any denominations. The ideal form of praise according to tradition is worship following a liturgy instead of a particular historical sequence of services instituted in early Christianity. The ceremony includes an invocation, confession, absolution, creed, offertory, sermon, and benediction as a defined process. On the other hand, contemporary worship follows no particular order and does not adhere to the traditional liturgy with the aim of reaching a diverse audience. Music, for instance, is accompanied with modern instruments that affect modern beats and genre of music as opposed to the traditional hymn music that followed a particular tune and rhythm (Johnson et al., 2010). Therefore, contemporary worship style breaks the norms on worship and are regarded divergent of the planned system of prayer "God is a spirit, and His worshippers must worship in the spirit and the truth" (John 4:24). The issue is therefore not worshiping but how to worship.
Contemporary worship styles are criticized as nonreligious primarily because of their tunes, beats, and rhythms among others. Opponents of modern forms of music blame it for destroying the sacredness of worship to God. However, advocates of contemporary music argue that Christian music is not about the tunes, the lyrics or the type but the heart lifestyle and spirituality. Thus, modernity describes Christianity as music created by Christians as a dedication to God regardless of the tune, beat, genre or instrumentation. The underlying factor is that Christians write and produce music according to their perspective and conviction about God and Christianity. Christian music purpose goes beyond worship to God to entertainment in the current world, and thus the two aspects need to stay synonymous to continue the growth of Christianity (Berita, 2009). Among the genre of music that raises criticism to the modern worship song is the pop culture. The pop culture is increasingly growing within Christian music. Pop Christian music portrays the forms of worship music besides the popularity of distribution and use. Pop culture as affected Christian in that the lyrics of the song employ the lyrical formats of secular pop music and the culture. The only variable is that Christian pop music is dedicated to God. Also, the pop culture integrates informality in Christian music contrary to the traditional songs. The example of pop culture is an illustration of the changes and differences between traditional and contemporary worship songs and a representation of the issues raising concern (Ruth, 2015). The problem is that the similarity of modern worship styles with secular styles raises concerns about the preservation of the concept of worship to represent in the Bible "…Worship in the spirit" (John 4:24).
Christian music is widespread throughout the human and continues to gain popularity. However, the concept of Christian music encompasses the traditional sequential mode of worship. Modern Christian worship is merely gospel. Christianity is a way of life, not just a religion. The current forms of music do not represent as perceived the idea of Christianity as a religion and ore so a culture hence the impression of the music as just gospel. The concept of standards for praise and worship songs is to be congregation driven, and modern songs rhythms do not reflect that. Praise and worship song is supposed to be simple, melodious and easy to capture in lyrics. The current songs are however complicated and hard to memorize making them unsuitable for the congregation to learn and sing to (Leon, 2010). For Christians, faith is an emotional thing, and that is expected to be enhanced through spiritual feeding. Christian music is likely to integrate with the religion and beliefs of the congregation and help sustain their faith. When the music in church or religious gatherings does not feed the soul, then the crowd will lose interest in the church as an institution to fulfill their spiritual needs. Christian worship songs, therefore, need to cater for emotive and cognitive aspects to reach Christians accordingly (Tonsing et al., 2015).
All in all, lately churches are embracing a blend of contemporary worship music and traditional procedural worship music. The blending is to allow for diversity and freedom of choice. Otherwise, modern churches have a more significant following then the conventional based churches. However, most songs played in blended churches represent the traditional style of music. Churches still embrace the hymns and chorus books for traditions set of songs while the contemporary song is shown on large screens for the congregation to be able to sing along. Instruments are however widely incorporated in all the setups which include traditional, blended or contemporary. The use of instruments has increased, and technologically advanced devices are accepted (Hudson, 2017). The word of God allows for the purpose of music players in praise and worship, “Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals! ...” (Psalms 150: 1-6). Besides, genuine faith is conceived not inherited. By remaining true to traditions only because they are what is considered acceptable, Christians present faith like an inheritance. Given the modern climate of educational elites and inquisitive attitudes, people are bound to seek to justify their practices and procedures. Ultimately, if the only justification is tradition, Christianity will lose hold on people as they seek alternatives they can defend their faith. Therefore, allowing Christianity to take in modernity signifies the acknowledgment that faith is individualistic and will be expressed according to the beliefs of its believers (Wilberforce and Beltz, 2007). Nevertheless, The Bible calls upon Christians to exercise their gift of discernment is such matter as concerning faith and its aspects, “But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.” (Heb 5:14).
In conclusion, contemporary styles of worship are a significant topic of debate in religious oplatfors. However, worship to an extent is an individual matter, and whatever form a person embraces is really up to the person and God. The important aspect of worship is to honor and acknowledge the place of God in one's life. People will often derive perspectives fro their point of view and seek to justify events through their convictions. Therefore, it is not practical to discredit the modern styles of worship. Contemporary Christianity represents the developments and advancements that have taken place in all aspects of human life not only religious life. Therefore it would be impossible to hold on to preserve traditional styles of worship while the other aspects of life are rapid developments. The critical aspect is that Christians can respect God and the sacredness of worship through their music depending on what they consider sacred. Furthermore, everyone has the freedom to worship and to choose how to worship based on their faith.
References
Berita, A. (2009). Contemporary Melanesian Christian music. Melanesian Journal of Theology, 25 (1), 84-98.
Dryness, W. (2009). A primer on Christian Worship: Where we have been, where we are, where we can go . Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing.
Hudson, J. (2017). Book review: Church and worship music in the United States: A research and information guide, (2 nd Ed). Journal of Religious & Theological Information , 16(3), 115–116. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/10477845.2017.1315557.
Johnson, T. L., Rudd, J., Neuendorf, K., & Jian, G. (2010). Worship styles, music, and social identity: A communication study. Journal of Religion & Communication, 33 (1), 144-174.
Kalu, Ogbu (2008). Interpreting contemporary Christianity: Global processes and local identities . Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing.
Leon, N. (2010). Contemporary Christian music and the “Praise and worship” styles. Journal of singing, 67( 2).
Ruth, L. (2015). How are "Pop" the New Worship Songs? Investigating the levels of popular cultural influence on contemporary worship music. Global Forum on Arts and Christian Faith, 3 (1), A1-A20.
Tönsing, J. G., Wepener, C. J. & Vos, C. (2015). “The “cognitive” and the “emotive” component in Christian songs: Tracing the shifts in traditional and contemporary songs’, Verbum ET Ecclesia 36 (1).
Wilberforce, W. & Beltz, B. (2007). The state of contemporary Christianity. The Christian Broadcasting Network . Retrieved on 5 April 2018 from http://www.cbn.com/special/amazingGrace/Articles/Beltz-Wilberforce-Ch1.aspx.
