The Place of Music in Liturgy and Worship

By Robin G. Jordan

With this article I am beginning a new article series on church music and the Book of Common Prayer. One of my readers, David Ball suggested the idea for this series a while back. It was a great idea. I must apologize to David for not having gotten to it earlier.

I was involved in music and worship ministry in and outside of the Episcopal Church for 20 odd years. In this article series I am going to share what I have learned during the past 25 years not only as a participant in music and worship ministry but also as an observer of other people’s music and worship ministries. My hope is that they will benefit my readers in their own music and worship ministries.

Music historically has played two roles in liturgical worship. First, it has been a part of the liturgy itself in the form of Psalms, canticles, and service music. Second, it has been used to embellish the liturgy. Metrical Psalms, Scriptural paraphrases, hymns, gospel songs, spirituals, anthems, motets, organ voluntaries, and the like have typically been used for this purpose. In so-called non-liturgical worship music plays a third role: it forms an important part of the worship service itself. It is the chief means by which the congregation takes part in the service.

A more accurate description of non-liturgical worship is locally determined liturgical worship since it is liturgical in so far that it generally follows the same pattern every Sundays with minor variations from Sunday to Sunday. The pattern is determined by the local church—by the pastor, worship team, local traditions, etc., and is not formal, that is, it is not prescribed by a Prayer Book or service book. It may or may not incorporate fixed forms like the Apostles’ Creed, the Gloria Patria, and the Lord’s Prayer.

With the adoption of Common Worship and New Patterns for Worship in 2000 the Church of England has made locally determined liturgical worship the norm for Church of England parishes and churches. In the Anglican Diocese of Sydney locally determined liturgical worship has also become normative. In extra-mural Anglican bodies like the Anglican Church in North America, the Anglican Mission, and the Church of England in South Africa, it is a discernable trend. Even in the Continuing Anglican Churches in North America in which The American Missal and The Anglican Missal are used to supplement the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, it has become commonplace.

Locally determined liturgical worship in Anglicanism is not a new development. Since the nineteenth century and even earlier Anglicans have been making unauthorized additions, subtractions, and alterations to the official liturgy, as well as the minor changes permitted by canon or authorized by the ordinary. In recognition of this tendency as well as the need for greater flexibility more recent Anglican liturgies contain a larger number of optional variables than older liturgies.

Even in formal liturgical worship music in most churches has become an important part of the worship service and a chief means of congregational participation In the choice and use of music in our worship services it is important to recognize this fact. We can no longer view music simply as an embellishment to the liturgy, that is, something that beautifies or adorns the liturgy. We need to take the congregation into consideration in our selection and planning of music for worship services. The congregation, not the choir or the praise band, should be viewed as the church’s primary musical resource. The congregation, not the organ, the piano, or the electric guitar and the drum set, should also be regarded as its principal musical instrument. In a number of African provinces congregations sing in natural four-part harmony without any accompaniment except foot stamping. This highlights the central role of the congregation in the music of the local church’s worship services.

Few US churches are able to take this view or sustain it if they do take it due to the demand for “concert” quality music in both traditional and contemporary churches. Modern church music, whether traditional or contemporary, is measured by the entertainment standards of secular culture. The expectation is that musicians and vocalists must at least be semi-professional if not professional in the way that they perform. They must be as good as if not better than the performers heard on the Internet, radio, and TV and at live concerts, and whose music is downloaded and played on people’s I-Pods or sold on CDs. If the music does not meet these expectations, people do not gong the choir or praise band off the stage. They vote with their feet and go to another church that caters to their expectations.

This development has been particularly hard on the small membership church with limited musical resources. Nowadays attendees of worship services tend to see themselves as the audience—as the consumers of a product. Those involved in music and worship ministry have come to see them in the same way. However, the real audience at which our Sunday morning worship should be directed is not the congregation. It is God. The real performers are not the choir or praise band. The congregation is. Most importantly their worship is to be more than a performance. It must come from the heart—from their innermost being. The congregation must be worship the Father in spirit and in truth. They are not putting on a show for God. God looks at the human heart, not at outward appearances.

Jesus himself drew this fact to the attention of his disciples. He pointed to their attention that the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law went out of their way to show their fellow Jews how devote that they were. What made things worse was that they knew better. They had studied the Law and the Prophets. They knew that God saw through their act. But they were more interested in receiving the admiration of those around them than they were in doing God’s will. Jesus taught the disciples that their attitude toward whatever they did was that they were only doing what God expected of them.

Our worship of God must also extend beyond one hour on Sunday morning. It must also be reflected in our daily lives. To worship is to recognize the worthiness of God and give him the honor due to him, not only during that one brief hour but every waking moment of our lives. (If our lives are truly lives of worship, we will also be worshiping God in our sleep—in our dreams.)

Hearing a great praise band, singing along with the vocalists, and hearing an inspirational speaker on Sunday morning is not worship. It may or may not lead to worship.

We can also say the same thing about “traditional worship.” We can sing hymns, hear Scripture readings and a sermon, recite the Creed, offer prayer, put our money in the plate, and receive communion and not worship God. We can go through the activities that we associate with worship, traditional or contemporary, but our hearts and our minds may at the same time be far from God.

We may come away with warm fuzzy feelings about God. We may come away with warm fuzzy feelings about our pastor, our church, our neighbors, the world and ourselves. But when the warm fuzzy feelings subside over dinner at the Cracker Barrel, we are no different than we were before we went to church. We are no different than the other diners at the Cracker Barrel, those who did not go to church.

Our worship of God here on earth prepares us for our worship of God in heaven. The Revelation to John gives us a glimpse of that worship.

And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; 1Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. Revelation 5:11-13 KJV)

“After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.” (Revelation 7:9-12 KJV)

“And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.” (Revelation 7:13-17 KJV)

Note one thing about this scene. Those thousands upon thousands are not listening to the angels, the beasts, and the four and twenty elders sing God’s praise. They are “before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple.” They are joining in the worship, not vicariously experiencing someone else’s worship and as a result thinking that they have worshiped too. They are taking an active part in honoring and glorifying God. Our worship in this life is preparation for our worship in the life to come.

Singing, however, is not worship. Playing a musical instrument is not worship. Bowing our heads at the name of Jesus is not worship. They are means that we use to worship God. But they are not worship. We can have a beautiful voice and training in its use, receive a stipend as a section leader in the choir, and perform solos and other special music and not worship God in what we do. Likewise we can be the master of the organ or the electric guitar, and still not worship Him. Bowing our heads at Jesus’ name means nothing if we are not bowing the knee of our hearts.

Our first task in really involving everybody in worship, the clergy and the choir or praise band—whoever leads the local church’s worship services, as well as the congregation is to teach them the true meaning of worship. Everything that they do, everything that they say, everything that they think, even everything that they feel, if it recognizes God’s worthiness and honors Him with the honor that he is due, is an offering to God. It is a spiritual sacrifice.

We may do our best to live our lives and conduct our conversations in a way that recognizes God’s worthiness and honors Him. But hidden from our fellow Christians, inwardly in our hearts, we do not give God’s worthiness as much recognition as we ought and we have thoughts and feelings that dishonor Him. We recognize that they are wrong but we continue to harbor them. They are like weeds growing in the garden of our hearts. We know that we should pull them up, root and all, but we are loath to do so. This is the infection of nature that remains even in those who in Christ are reborn. It constantly wars against the spirit. Yet God has given us grace through Christ to have a good will to obey and please Him. His grace continues to work within us to maintain that good will. He has given us His own Spirit to guide, help, and strengthen us. The more we spending time with Him each day, in prayer, in fellowship with Him, in His Word, the less difficult we will find the task of weeding our heart’s garden. It is in this garden that Christ is present by the power of the Holy Spirit, and it is here that we offer him our true worship. As we bend to the task of pulling up the weeds, we also bend the knee to our Lord and Master--to Him who the bore the weight of our sins upon the cross. The more we weed our heart’s garden, the more we make room for the flowers of the Spirit to grow there and to bear fruit in our lives. A good gardener knows that where flowers grow in abundance, weeds have themselves no room to grow. Let us not forget that the grace and the good will to so tend our heart’s garden comes from God and to Him, as it should be, belongs the glory.

In future articles I will further explore this theme together with other themes relating to music, liturgy, and worship.