Next Wave: Worship in a New Era

by Bob Sorge

The global shockwaves that began in 2020 have awakened us to the realization that our world will never return to what it was.

The rate of global change is accelerating. It’s a new era for virtually everything—worship and church included.

God had shut our doors, and I couldn’t help but ask, “Lord, is there something about our worship that You’re wanting to address?”

Online worship is just not the same as in-person worship. Sometimes it feels distant, sterile, non-engaging, or flat.

we’re struck by how significantly the corporate worship expressions of the Church have changed over the past sixty years.

The changes are stunning, remarkable, almost cataclysmic. Never has the Church’s worship seen such enormous changes in so brief a period of time.

God is preparing the Church for a new wave of Holy Spirit visitation.

God wants us to catch a vision for where He’s taking us because, when we see it (even if just partially), we can cooperate with His grace and press toward the prize.

Because we can’t fully understand where we’re going until we appreciate where we’ve come from. Yesterday positions us for tomorrow.

The leaders on the platform didn’t try to stir up or exhort the people to praise. They didn’t have to because the Spirit was energizing the song in the people and no one could hold them back. The momentum of the crescendos felt something like the energy that must have carried the praises at Christ’s triumphal entry.

Singing in the Spirit produced a great divide in the Body of Christ in the 1970s. Let me explain.

Glossalalia—

which is the New Testament Greek word for speaking in other tongues as experienced widely in the early church

Spirit. Because of the glossolalia controversy, many churches chose not to participate in the Charismatic movement and its new expression of worship. Hence, the worshiping church divided into two groups.

When they experienced speaking in tongues in Charismatic gatherings, some believers left their churches because they were no longer welcome, and they found churches where speaking in tongues was accepted.

what name shall we give to the group that accepted singing in the Spirit?

the Charismatics

the group that didn’t accept singing in the Spirit,

Baptists.

I’m lumping together all the churches that didn’t support speaking in tongues

and calling them the Baptist group.

Thus, the worship practices of the Church divided into two different streams, and the two rivers would run parallel for the next thirty years.

the Lord gave me a desire to train worship leaders for ministry. At that time, the idea that a Bible school would train worship leaders was altogether novel. Nobody was doing it in 1981, and nobody was writing books to support that kind of curriculum.

The meeting would commence with known songs or new songs, with much energy and passion in the room.

And then, between songs, they would often flow into singing in the Spirit. The conference delegates would sing in the Spirit to one sustained chord as was typical for the 1970s, and the symphony

Thus, two elements were added to the sustained chord of the 1970s:

rhythm and chord changes.

When the symphony got on a chord progression, it provided the worshipers with musical and melodic variety.

Everyone could sing their own song to the Lord, and melody lines could cover the range of the human voice, all being sung spontaneously and simultaneously.

By adding rhythm and chord progressions to the 1970s model of free worship, the 1980s model provided for more interest, ...

I organized and led my first worship conference at Elim Bible Institute in 1983. Similar conferences began to arise all over the nation, popcorn style. Almost immediately, other nations got on board, and worship conferences began to convene all over the world.

What I’m describing about 1980s worship—worship teams moving in free worship with rhythms and chord progressions—was present only among Charismatic churches.

Around the 80s, several groups began to publish worship music in cassette form. The Vineyard churches (under John Wimber) began to distribute the worship songs coming out of their movement.

Hosanna’s Integrity Music had their launch in the mid-80s, and quickly gathered momentum.

Launched from CFNI Dallas, Marty Nystrom’s 1984 song, “As the Deer,” became an international hit.

Exploring Worship: A Practical Guide to Praise and Worship

The worship movement continued to gain momentum in the late 1980s, but still, if you wanted to experience great worship, you probably had to go to a worship conference. It would take another decade for worship to go viral.

AMONG CHARISMATIC CHURCHES, the worship emphases of the 1980s continued to grow and spread.

many churches practiced free worship supported by chord progressions and rhythm, musicians grew in their interest to lead worship, and songwriters increasingly honed their skill at writing new worship songs.

Then a new phenomenon surfaced: Churches began to hire worship leaders to serve in a full...

Something happened in 1992 that changed the worship movement in a powerful way.

The release of Ron Kenoly’s worship album, Lift Him Up (Integrity Music). Compact discs (CDs) were just emerging, and this recording was available not only in cassette—you could also get it in CD! Lift Him Up went platinum, and not only put Integrity Music solidly on the map but put the worship movement on everyone’s radar.

Here’s why the album Lift Him Up changed everything:

America’s Christian music industry awoke to the realization that the worship movement was more than a temporary fad. Instead

The styles of worship didn’t change much in the 1990s; what changed was the reach of worship music.

By the latter part of the 1990s, worship music was everywhere—at the conferences, on the radio, on the TV, in the homes, in the cars, and in the churches.

Worship in the 1990s was passionate and spirited.

With a contemporary sound, it was characterized by both vocal and physical freedom of movement.

Love for Jesus was finding greater freedom of expression in more and more churches around the world. It was a grea...

AT THE TURN of the millennium, worship went mainstream.