Abstract
Over the past forty years, a new phrase has entered into the church vocabulary—‘contemporary worship’. Before this, according to Park, Ruth and Rethmeier, there was just ‘worship’!
In this new volume, examining the early development of the Anaheim Vineyard Church in California, the authors seek to explore how this influenced and characterised much of evangelical church sung worship in the West over the last 40 years. Under the leadership of John Wimber, a former member of the pop group The Righteous Brothers, this congregation has influenced many churches across North America, the UK, Australasia and South Africa in its choice and style of music. More importantly the authors explore and describe the theological assumptions and values behind the methodology and practice of this church.
Theirs was a deliberately simple service, based on the belief in the Holy Spirit’s immediate activity in worship. New songs were written and employed—songs not about the Lord, but to the Lord. A five stage process was used in the congregational gathering—a call to worship; engagement, intimacy, visitation (of the immediate presence of God), and giving of substance. The final part surprised me—the offering was seen as the climax of the service—not from a ‘health and wealth’ angle but rather from a profound conviction that ‘ministry is about giving and as we learn to give financially, we begin to discover something at the heart of God, and ministry.’
There is much to commend in this book—a helpful analysis and explanation of many of the assumptions that lie behind much of modern ‘contemporary’ worship in many churches in the USA, the UK and beyond. There are a few errors—for example the equation of what was happening in Christianity in the US as a representation of what was happening in Christianity across the world! Such a narrow and blinkered view of the worldwide church does a disservice to the authors and the majority of Christians around the globe!
But there are helpful reminders and challenges too—the assertion by John Wimber himself that ‘worship is there to bless God’ that made him dismissive of consumerist attitudes to church services; the sense of expectancy and intimacy that so many found attractive and helpful in their discipleship of Christ; and the belief in the real presence of God among His people that opened up glimpses of the not-yet Kingdom the church proclaims and embodies.