Spontaneous Worship

I have been troubled lately.

20 years ago when I became a Christian worship in a Pentecostal or Charismatic church was different from that of other Christians. It was marked by different music, hands being lifted by worshipers often. Today that flavor of worship has been captured and enjoyed by all kinds of churches of all kinds of denominations. Somewhere in that time frame the catch word for this kind of worship became "contemporary worship."

I believe in contemporary worship. It is one of my core values. Worship needs to be stylistically relevant to people. It needs to evoke new feelings toward God. We should learn new songs so that we don't fall into a rut in our worship. Keeping worship contemporary helps the person not acquainted with the Church easily learn and enjoy the music of worship.

Here is the trouble, it has two parts. First a family from our church visited another church with relatives last week and they were amazed. They said, "Their service is just like ours!" But the church is not like ours in doctrine at all. Second, there is a trend in very large churches that have multiple services to keep the service to one hour or close to that so the next service can start. Worship is a set of very sharp, well played, contemporary songs, that must end at a certain time for the schedule's sake.

It seems to me that all kinds of churches offer contemporary worship. So what makes a Spirit Filled, Pentecostal, Charismatic worship service any better than those contemporary services?

Then it hit me!!!

I remember reading in my History and Doctrine class in Bible College about the worship of the early days of revival in the Pentecostal movement and the Great Awakening. What marked the worship was not that the music was contemporary (though in most cases it was considered contemporary at the time). The worship was spontaneous.

In thinking more and more about what the Lord would want from us in worship I think that the Lord is not so concerned about how old a song is, but about us following his direction at a moments notice in worship. Yes, I will be contemporary, it is still a core value. But, I want our worship to be marked by spontaneity because we are allowing the Holy Spirit to direct or even re-direct us in our worship times. We believe in preparation and that prayerfully! I think that we have to be very careful when coming up with a new term to describe our worship that we don't loose the real factor that makes Pentecostal worship different, that is spontaneity!