Perspectives on Christian Worship: Five Views

by J. Matthew Pinson

Contemporary worship is that expression of worship within the Christian church today marked by the primary usage of contemporarily written worship lyrics and music, is sonically concurrent (to some degree) with the music of popular culture, and is used widely and increasingly across the Protestant (and to some degree, Roman Catholic) spectrum of today's globally worshiping congregations. These expressions of Christian worship music and liturgy are rooted in multiple contemporary cultural idioms, contemporary cultural soundscapes, and contemporary cultural mindsets. Contemporary worship music is typically, and increasingly, used in some proportional mix with more classic forms of worship music.