by Swee-Hong Lim and Lester Ruth. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2017. 161 pp. $29.99.
Few subjects have had as broad an impact yet received such little research focus as the Contemporary Worship Movement. Authors Swee-Hong Lim, sacred music professor at Emmanuel College in Toronto, and Lester Ruth, research professor of Christian worship at Duke Divinity School, hope to shed light on the phenomenon of contemporary worship with the presentation of their book Lovin’ on Jesus: A Concise History of Contemporary Worship. In this work the authors endeavor to “tell the story of a multifaceted worship style . . . that within the last several decades has come to be an identifiable, widespread liturgical phenomenon” (1). More than simply worship that is a new representation of historic forms, Lim and Ruth posit that contemporary worship contains distinct, definable qualities that have, in many ways, redefined the nature of Christian worship based on key theological shifts that have taken place.
Lim and Ruth begin by providing a foundation and definition of contemporary worship, followed by details on the issues of time and space of contemporary worship. Next, acknowledging music’s substantial influence in connection to the movement, they devote two chapters to its development over the last several decades. Further, the authors provide explanations of prayer as well as the Bible and preaching in the context of contemporary worship. The final chapters deal with the developments of new forms of sacramentality and concluding thoughts about the future of the movement.
From their research Lim and Ruth have discerned “nine qualities of contemporary worship, organized into four larger groupings” (2–3):
- Fundamental presumptions
- Using contemporary, nonarchaic English
- A dedication to relevance regarding contempo- rary concerns and issues in the lives of wor- shipers
- A commitment to adapt worship to match contemporary people, sometimes to the level of strategic targeting
- Musical
- Using musical styles from current types of popular musicExtended times of uninterrupted congregational singing
- A centrality of the musicians in the liturgical space and in the leadership of the service
- Behavioral
- Greater levels of physical expressiveness
- A predilection for informality
- Key dependency
- A reliance upon electronic technology
Likewise, they identify at least five sources for the movement’s origins: youth ministry, Pentecostalism, the baby boomer generation, the Jesus People Movement, and church growth missiology (16–22). These two segments of classification are critical to the construction of their argument; accordingly, Lim and Ruth focus the remainder of their writing tethering each topic presented back to these qualities and sources.
Just as the classification “fundamental presumptions” suggests, all three qualities in this grouping are evident and foundational for every area identified within contemporary worship. The first, “using contemporary, nonarchaic English,” coincides with the influx of new Bible translations that began in the middle of the twentieth century (107) and a renewed focus on intelligibility (5). This quality affects everything that happens in a worship service, especially regarding the music (chapters 4 and 5), prayers (chapter 6), and the use of Scripture and preaching (chapter 7). The second and third qualities are likewise prevalent throughout every topic discussed within the book.
The second grouping deals specifically with the musical qualities of contemporary worship. While the effects of music are mentioned throughout the work, chapters four and five focus particularly on this topic. Here the authors provide evidence of how the fourth quality, “using musical styles from current types of popular music,” evolved into common practice. The fifth quality, “extended times of uninterrupted congregational singing,” proves to be essential in the development of the concept of “flow” (32–36) in a worship service, which is also an important aspect of “time in contemporary worship” (chapter 2). Sixth, “a centrality of the musicians in the liturgical space and in the leadership of the service,” plays a key role in the chapter on “space of contemporary worship.” The third grouping focuses on behavioral patterns and is, once again, evident through each topic of discussion. The seventh quality, “greater levels of physical expressiveness,” is especially relevant in Lim and Ruth’s discussion of the “sacramentality of con- temporary worship” in chapter eight. Likewise, the final quality, “a reliance upon electronic technology,” as the authors state, is a key dependency which they argue has “grown so much over the phenomenon’s history that it would be rare to find a worship service not deeply reliant upon a machine or even on electricity itself” (7).
One particular strength of the work is the method in which the authors continue to remind the readers of the nine identifiable qualities throughout. Likewise, they illuminate how some of these qualities have become almost universally presupposed. One example of this can be seen with the first quality of “using contemporary, nonarchaic English”; Lim and Ruth demonstrate that this shift has affected virtually every Christian. This quality has affected the style of language that is used throughout a worship service (115–19). However, it has affected churches of vast denominations and backgrounds and is now presupposed as normal practice. This is just one example of how the contemporary worship movement has be- come “an identifiable, widespread liturgical phenomenon” (1).
Perhaps the greatest weaknesses of the work come as no surprise, since Lim and Ruth acknowledge them from the outset of the book (ix–xi). First, it is difficult to tell the history of a movement which has had so little scholarly research. What adds to this difficulty is the reality that “contemporary worship had neither a single point of origin nor solitary influence shaping it” (1). One additional challenge comes with the concise nature of such a history. For example, in chapter five the authors brilliantly identify the British and Australian “invasion” of contemporary worship music. Both of these influences have had innumerable effects on the music of the movement, but the authors spend very little time providing the background and developments of each (74–78). The reader is thus left wanting more.
Lim and Ruth have accomplished their task of providing a significant introduction and primer to the Contemporary Worship Movement. Additionally, they have raised many important questions that open the door for further research in areas that will be essential in shaping future practices of worship. This work should become a staple resource for all serious students of worship.
