History and development of contemporary worship

Christian Worship

The History and Development of Contemporary Worship

Biblical Foundations of Christian Worship

The New Testament is, in many ways, the ultimate expression of Christian worship because the Gospels detail the life and teachings of Jesus Christ within the context and community of individuals who believed in Christ even in the midst of persecution. However, to understand the biblical foundations of Christian worship, it is important to first examine the Old Testament. The Hebrew Bible contains the most fundamental "norms of worship," for Christians, even if different churches develop unique patterns of worship consistent with their interpretations of scripture (Segler and Bradley 2006,11).[footnoteRef:1] [1: Segler, Franklin M. And C. Randall Bradley. 2006. Christian Worship: Its Theology and Practice. B&H Publishing Group, p. 11]

Old Testament worship was primarily concerned with differentiating Jewish worship from pagan and polytheistic worship (Segler and Bradley).[footnoteRef:2] Worship is the primary way believers assert and avow their faith in God, and keep their covenant with God. The God of the Old Testament not only solicits but demands worship as proof of special faith that distinguishes the faithful from the pagan. Worshipping God by eschewing other gods proves one is holy and righteous: "You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me," (Exodus 20:5).[footnoteRef:3] [2: Segler, Franklin M. And C. Randall Bradley. 2006. Christian Worship: Its Theology and Practice. ] [3: Bible: Exodus 20:5]

The various and often complex practices, rites, and rituals that comprise Jewish worship evolved over time and were not static (Segler and Bradley; Bradshaw and Hoffman).[footnoteRef:4] The Old Testament frames worship as communication with God, and engaging in an ongoing relationship with God. For example, Genesis describes the two-way communication between God and Adam; between God and Cain; between God and Noah. As Segler and Bradley put it, an "atmosphere of worship pervades the whole Pentateuch," through heavy use of religious symbolism and specific responses such as building altars and dedicating both objects and places to the Lord (13).[footnoteRef:5] The story of Abraham and his willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac represents the culmination of worship in the Old Testament: "When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son," (Genesis 22:9-10).[footnoteRef:6] [4: Bradshaw, Paul F. And Lawrence A. Hoffman. 1996. Life Cycles in Jewish and Christian Worship. Notre Dame: Notre Dame University Press.] [5: Segler, Franklin M. And C. Randall Bradley. 2006. Christian Worship: Its Theology and Practice, 11] [6: Bible: Genesis 22:9-10]

Although there are plentiful references in the Old Testament about personal or individual worship, there are also ample references to collective and communal worship. Exodus 25, for example, details God's wishes for the construction of the Tabernacle and Arc of the Covenant, which are central for communal worship. The construction of the Temple of Solomon represented the "climax" of Jewish public worship, which is one reason why the destruction of the second Temple was such a momentous period in Jewish history and led to the diaspora (Segler and Bradley).[footnoteRef:7] [7: Segler, Franklin M. And C. Randall Bradley. 2006. Christian Worship: Its Theology and Practice, 12.]

After the destruction of the second Temple, Jewish worship shifted to smaller and simpler spaces known as synagogues. Gathering in synagogues would characterize Jewish worship subsequent to the destruction of the temple. Moreover, synagogues as gathering places provided the model for Christian worship. Synagogues were the gathering places for early Christians, as Jesus too worshipped and taught in synagogues, which were traditional domains of spiritual teaching. "On the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, 'Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing,'" (Luke 4:16; 20-21).[footnoteRef:8] [8: Bible: Luke 4:16; 20-21]

When Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem was in full swing, forms of worship included "music, solos, anthems, shouting, dancing, processions, playing instruments, preaching…sacred recitations of the stories of Israel…interspersed with petitions, prayers, vows, promises…and washings," (Segler and Bradley 2006,16).[footnoteRef:9] Sacrifice was, during the Old Testament period, "a necessary condition of effective worship," (Segler and Bradley 2006, 16).[footnoteRef:10] Such practices, and other elements of worship discussed in the Hebrew Bible, would be change with the coming of Christ. The elaborate and ritualistic forms of worship were occasionally criticized as being "empty," even before the coming of Christ (Segler and Bradley, 16). When synagogues replaced worship in the central Temple, Jewish worship also changed from elaborate rituals reserved for the high priesthood to more casual, participatory, and didactic forms of communal worship (Segler and Bradley).[footnoteRef:11] [9: Segler, Franklin M. And C. Randall Bradley. 2006. Christian Worship: Its Theology and Practice, 16] [10: Segler, Franklin M. And C. Randall Bradley. 2006. Christian Worship: Its Theology and Practice, 16] [11: Segler, Franklin M. And C. Randall Bradley. 2006. Christian Worship: Its Theology and Practice.]

Early Christian worship was most certainly rooted in the Old Testament and the Jewish practices. Rites of passage and life cycle rituals present in Christian worship were initially borrowed from their Jewish predecessors. Christian worship therefore began as Jewish worship, and gradually transformed gradually into something different. For example, Christian worship stressed the importance of baptism as well as Holy Communion to commemorate the death and resurrection of Christ. Scripture evolved to include the canon of New Testament writings from the epistles and gospels, and emphasis was shifted from the Pentateuch to the Gospel accounts of the life and teachings of Christ. Christian worship changed in concrete ways, such as shifting the day of the Sabbath to the first day of the week.

Lathrop notes that Christian worship has been centered on Gospel reading and study "for a long time," and is similarly structured around the world (1).[footnoteRef:12] The four Gospels -- Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John -- provide a "kind of pillar," a "reliably recurring ritual," and a "principle locus for meaning," in Christian worship (Lathrop p. 1).[footnoteRef:13] New hymns were added to the canon of psalms in the Old Testament (Segler and Bradley).[footnoteRef:14] Lathrop suggests that the development of the codex, which evolved into the modern book format of pages bound together, arose out of the need to collectively encounter the gospel as a form of early Christian worship. Thus, the act of Christian worship gave rise to the book format of scripture. [12: Lathrop, Gordon W. 2012. The Four Gospels on Sunday. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress Press.] [13: Lathrop, Gordon W. 2012. The Four Gospels on Sunday. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress Press.] [14: Segler, Franklin M. And C. Randall Bradley. 2006. Christian Worship: Its Theology and Practice]

Jesus shifted the perspective of worship as He created a new covenant with God to supersede the old covenant. As Jesus describes the new form of worship in John 4:21: "a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem."[footnoteRef:15] Christian worship removes itself formally from the trappings of Old Testament ritual. As Ott, Strauss and Tennent put it, "Jesus decentralizes and deterritorializes the worship of God," (p. 27).[footnoteRef:16] Instead of there being a central place of worship, there was a central Person around whom worship of God could occur. This decentralization was particularly important after the destruction of the Second Temple and during the formative years of Christianity as it spread north through the Greek-speaking territories. [15: Bible: John 4:21] [16: Ott, Craig and Stephen J. Strauss. 2010. Encountering Theology of Mission. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 27.]

The New Testament also offers some concrete methods of worship that are incorporated into Christian practice. Worship is to be achieved in part by spreading the word of the gospel by preaching and soliciting new believers. Acts 1:8 states that Christians express their worship by spreading the gospel "to the ends of the earth."[footnoteRef:17] Music and hymns are parts of Christian worship that are substantiated by Biblical evidence. "Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts," (Colossians 3:16).[footnoteRef:18] Reading from scripture is one of the most universal aspects of Christian worship, which is also rooted in the Bible. " I charge you before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers and sisters," (Thessalonians 5:27).[footnoteRef:19] Jesus outlines highly specific methods of prayer, a key component of religious worship. The most obvious instructional and formal prayer is offered in Matthew 6:9-13, which is known as the Lord's Prayer.[footnoteRef:20] [17: Bible: Acts 1:8] [18: Bible: Colossians 3:16] [19: Bible: Thessalonians 5:27] [20: Bible: Matthew 6:9-13]

There is some disagreement within and among Christians and Churches as to what constitutes worship. Some, including Presbyterian churches, believe that Christian worship should only be constructed from what is directly and explicitly written in scripture; "in short, God institutes in the Bible everything required for Church worship and prohibits all other possibilities," (Smith 19).[footnoteRef:21] Others, like Lutherans, Anglicans, and Methodists argue that "worshippers may use elements of worship that are not prohibited by the Bible, whether or not they are positively commanded by scripture," (Smith 19).[footnoteRef:22] In other words, many Christians believe that unless the Bible expressly prohibits a certain type of worship, any type of worship is good. This view is known as the "normative" view of worship because the emphasis is on what is considered normative within the Church. The various disagreements over Christian worship are one of the reasons why Christianity is a diverse religion, far from monolithic. The historical development of Christian worship elucidates the ways Christianity evolved from a Jewish sect to a fully realized set of denominations that worship Christ. [21: Smith, Christian. 2012. The Bible Made Impossible. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 19] [22: Smith, Christian. 2012. The Bible Made Impossible. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 19.]

Part Two: Historical Development of Christian Worship

The Gospels provided not so much "direct scripts" for worship but rather, a structure of belief that "presumes" that people have gathered together in the name of Christ (Lathrop 5).[footnoteRef:23] This is because Jesus was clear on the simple nature of worship: "For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them," (Matthew 18:20).[footnoteRef:24] Christian worship as distinct from Jewish worship had to take place in homes and in relative secrecy due to the persecution of Christians throughout the Roman Empire. In general, "Christians approach worship with an expectation that God will be made known through the liturgy," (Hauerwas and Wells: p. 30).[footnoteRef:25] [23: Lathrop, Gordon W. 2012. The Four Gospels on Sunday. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress Press, 5] [24: Bible: Matthew 18:20] [25: Hauerwas, Stanley and Samuel Wells. 2011. Christian ethics and informed prayer. Chapter 1 in The Blackwell Companion to Christian Ethics. John Wiley and Sons, 30.]

Early Christian worship, after the death of Christ and the spreading of the Gospel by His disciples, took place throughout the Greco-Roman world. New converts were from a wide variety of ethnic, cultural, linguistic, social, and economic backgrounds, making the early Christian communities diverse (White).[footnoteRef:26] Furthermore, Stringer points out that Christian worship varies considerably because "throughout most of the first three hundred years of Christian history there is often fifty years or so between one text and the next, and the texts…are written as far apart as Antioch in Syria, Lyons in Gaul, and Carthage," (28).[footnoteRef:27] Given the remarkable diversity of early Christian worship, it is surprising that there would be any unity among Christian practices at all. Yet all Christian worship bears core elements that provide a unifying force. [26: White, James F. 1993. A Brief History of Christian Worship. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press.] [27: Stringer, Martin D. 2005. A Sociological History of Christian Worship. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 28]

Baptism would be the most fundamental and basic type of Christian worship as it evolved from an offshoot of Judaism into its own cohesive set of practices. Whereas the old baptism represented by John was a baptism purely and merely of water; the new baptism, which is in Christ, is a baptism of the spirit. "I baptize you with[a] water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire,'" (Matthew 3:11).[footnoteRef:28] As White points out, baptism remains one of the most meaningful and universal forms of Christian worship. Baptism can be presented as a form of Christian worship that also parallels a Christian rite of passage or life cycle ritual. A Christening ceremony of an infant is another type of Christian baptism that, while it cannot mean the conscious cooperation of the child, does mean that the child is initiated into the community of Christians. [28: Bible: Matthew 3:11]

In his first letter delivered at Corinth (1 Corinthians), Paul explicates the nature of Christian worship that would give rise to the Eucharist ritual. For instance, there is a meal described at a gathering point that reflects what is known as the Lord's Supper (Hauerwas and Vells).[footnoteRef:29] While a meal is not necessarily or definitively part of formal Christian worship, the fact that the believers were gathered together in His name can be interpreted positively as worship (Stringer).[footnoteRef:30] The Lord's table is "intended to draw together and reconcile those whom society divides," thus underscoring the universalist message of Christian tolerance (Hauerwas and Vells, p. 61).[footnoteRef:31] [29: Hauerwas, Stanley and Samuel Wells. 2011. Christian ethics and informed prayer. Chapter 1 in The Blackwell Companion to Christian Ethics. John Wiley and Sons ] [30: Stringer, Martin D. 2005. A Sociological History of Christian Worship. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press] [31: Hauerwas, Stanley and Samuel Wells. 2011. Christian ethics and informed prayer. Chapter 1 in The Blackwell Companion to Christian Ethics. John Wiley and Sons, 61]

In fact, a deeper meaning of worship is an "informal gathering" or "coming together" that can include a ritual act of eating like the Eucharist (Stringer 30).[footnoteRef:32] Early Christian worship consisted of emboldening the community, widening it, and thereby expanding the cause of Christ. Spreading the Word of the Gospel was, and remains, the core component of Christian worship. Meals and eating are mentioned throughout scripture as a formal expression of Christian belief, as in Acts 2:42: "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer."[footnoteRef:33] [32: Stringer, Martin D. 2005. A Sociological History of Christian Worship. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 30.] [33: Bible: Acts 2:42]

Gathering together to listen to the Word, such as by speaking about Jesus's life, teachings, and parables, was the earliest form of Christian worship. This most basic type of worship is central to Christianity two thousand years later. Similarly, Christian worship has retained an "enthusiastic" characteristic that manifests variably through songs, music, and other types of self-expression of the love of Christ (Stringer, p. 31).[footnoteRef:34] It was not until the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great adopted Christianity as the official religion of Rome -- and thus spanning more than one continent -- that Christian worship blossomed. Christian worship would take on political, economic, and social dimensions. [34: Stringer, Martin D. 2005. A Sociological History of Christian Worship. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 31]

As Schaff (1867) points out, art and architecture would also become integral parts of Christian worship.[footnoteRef:35] While the formal qualities of art and architecture would vary from Greece to Spain, the underlying element of worship remains. There may be different styles such as Byzantine or Gothic, but Churches as houses of worship began to sprout up throughout Europe. These houses of worship can be viewed as "sermons in stone," (Schaff, p. 541).[footnoteRef:36] Even though Christian worship is, as Christ affirmed, "not bound to place," having specific places of worship that were consecrated and holy meant that Christians could gather in His name in regular intervals. This helped to reaffirm the faith, attract new converts, and carry out the specific and evolving rituals that were used to affirm Christian identity. Christian worship is paradoxically tied to houses of worship (the sermons in stone that churches can be) and simultaneously abstract in nature in accordance with the term ekklesia (the Greek word for Church that refers more to the symbolic structure of Christ's community).[footnoteRef:37] [35: Schaff, Phillip. 1867. History of the Christian Church. Volume 3. New York: Charles Scribner and Company.] [36: Schaff, Phillip. 1867. History of the Christian Church. Volume 3. New York: Charles Scribner and Company, 541] [37: White, James F. 2000. Introduction to Christian Worship. 3rd Edition. Nashville: Abingdon.]

Sermons are integral to Christian worship, and have been since the time of the gospels (Segler and Bradley).[footnoteRef:38] Forms of Christian worship that began in the first few centuries after Christ and which persisted through the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and even after the Reformation include alms-giving, open confessions, baptism, sermons, scripture reading, and prayer (Segley and Bradley).[footnoteRef:39] [38: Segler, Franklin M. And C. Randall Bradley. 2006. Christian Worship: Its Theology and Practice. B&H Publishing Group.] [39: Segler, Franklin M. And C. Randall Bradley. 2006. Christian Worship: Its Theology and Practice. B&H Publishing Group.]

Prayer is, of course, a consistently relevant form of Christian worship. Mentioned throughout both Old and New Testaments, prayer as a form of worship is both collective prayer issued as a community and also personal, private prayer. Prayer is an act that automatically affirms God, allowing the individual to also enter into a relationship with God. Worshipping God with prayer in a Christian manner testifies to the personal and yet transcendent nature of Christ. Christian worship is a personal or collective offering of "thanks and praise to God in and through Jesus the Christ," (Costen, Chapter 1).[footnoteRef:40] Some Christians have conceived of prayer as a "dialogue" or "communication" between God and humankind," (Wainwright, p. 10).[footnoteRef:41] [40: Costen, Melva Wilson. 1993. African-American Christian Worship. 2nd Edition. Nashville: Abingdon Press, Chapter 1] [41: Wainwright, Geoffrey. 2006. The Oxford History of Christian Worship. New York: Oxford University Press, 10.]

Both the personal and the collective are critical components of Christian worship that persist throughout Christian history from the time of Christ until the 21st century thereafter. Christians "affirm that all human life -- including gatherings for engaging in intentional and ritually focused practices and worship -- has as its ultimate horizon the glory of the triune God," (Hauerwas and Vells, p. 62).[footnoteRef:42] Methods of Christian worship may change over time, but their underlying truths remain. [42: Hauerwas, Stanley and Samuel Wells. 2011. Christian ethics and informed prayer. Chapter 1 in The Blackwell Companion to Christian Ethics. John Wiley and Sons, 62]

Part Three: Practical Considerations; Problems and Solutions

Unfortunately, debates about the theological nature of Christ and other Christian metaphysics have led to schisms and strife within the God-fearing community. Whether salvation occurs via works or faith alone is one example of the types of heated debates that can plague and taint Christian communities (Pelikan).[footnoteRef:43] Interpretations of scripture can influence the interpretations of Christian worship. The most important problem facing ministers today is how to manage a spiritual community within an age of extraordinary diversity and heterogeneity. In addition to heterogeneity, modern ministers contend with the Christian community's access to a plethora of information that can be conflicting, contradictory, and full of temptation. [43: Pelikan, Jaroslav. 1971. The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine. Volume 1. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.]

Worship can and does assume many forms in the Christian community, such as how to perform a baptism, what types of life passage rituals to perform and how, and whether or not a Eucharist is offered. Furthermore, there remains much disagreement over what constitutes proper worship of God in terms of how a Christian service should look and what incense should be burned. Whether women are allowed to conduct services or not is another contentious issue related to Christian worship. Catholic worship assumes a different form than does Eastern Orthodox and Protestant worship. Ultimately, all Christians worship Christ even if their worship manifests in different forms and with different features.