Worship and Music

This King's College London dissertation (for MA in Contemporary Worship) aims to explore how Missional Church theology might impact the practice of Christian worship. In church many settings, the relationship between worship and mission remains unclear and often the two can appear to be in conflict, or the agenda for one can consume the other. Therefore it is important to understand how they ought to interrelate, and how this relationship might be worked out in practice.

The project begins by exploring an outline of missio Dei and Missional ecclesiology, making use of theological and missiological scholarship from the past century.  It then takes two practical approaches to Missional church worship and critiques them in the light of Missional theology, and each another.  The first example is termed "outside out", the model of mid-sized, Mission Shaped Communities.  This is contrasted with the "inside out" approach, where the locus of mission is the gathered liturgical assembly.

The central argument is that these two approaches represent poles which ought to be held together in tension.  Both models have validity and can learn from each other.  The former places the emphasis on mission, and the latter puts its focus on a form of gathered worship.  The project concludes that we must not collapse these two terms into one another, but rather hold them as distinctive and yet interdependent facets of the church’s calling.

Amid current competing ideologies and priorities, Hillsong has found a formula that fuses aspects of secular consumerism and individualism with Pentecostal religious fervour. This paper will examine the ways Hillsong ARSR 20. ARSR 20.2 (2007)

Pentecostal-Charismatic (P-C) congregational music is a sonic and kinesthetic worship rite in the P-C liturgy that embodies the spirituality and affectivity characteristic of Pentecostalism. As sacramental, P-C congregational music is an opportunity for mediated encounter with God leading to transformation and union. The body in the performative action of worship and song serves as the sacramental sign, signifying the inner reality of communion, characterized by affective desire and longing for God. In offering their worship through music and song, P-C Christians experience the transformative encounter with God in their bodies and affections. As practice, Pentecostal music-making is a communal, synergistic action which, over time, form the beliefs and identity of the worshiper and community as they become oriented towards God in affective transformation. In participation with the work of God in the community, P-C worshipers are drawn deeper into the life of the Trinity and as their affections are transformed, they are thrust out in mission and witness to the world as a continued participation in God – the mission and eschatological life of the Triune God.

The copper-plate charters of the Gupta period frequently refer to offerings made to a variety of deities. These were an important feature of the grants made to those who attended to the worship of the gods. Indeed we can rightly assert that the main reason donors went forward with their benefactions was to guarantee offerings to the gods and goddesses named in the plates. And among the offerings that the endowments were meant to support, bali, caru and sattra are repeatedly mentioned. These items appear, for example, in the Kho copper-charter dated Gupta year 177 . This tells us that mahåråja Jayanåtha granted a village for repairs and 'for attending to the performance et cetera of bali, caru, sattra'. 1 More offerings are noted in the Dåmodarpur copper-plates issued to a priest named Am¡tadeva: bali, caru, sattra, milk, incense, flowers, potations and lights. Some of the charters of mahåråja ˜arvanåtha give near identical lists: bali, caru, sattra, perfume, incense, garlands and lights. These things, the charters tell us, were offered to temple-gods. 2 The ubiquity of these offerings is shown by the Nermand copper-plate, an inscription found in the foot-hills of the western Himalayas. This documents a grant for 'the giving of bali, caru, sattra, garlands, incense and lights' at a temple of ˜iva. 3 Similar offerings are again recorded in favour of the goddess ˜rï Bhagavatï P录uråjyå in distant Gujaråt. 4

This piece is the introduction to the book _The Spirit of Praise: Music and Worship in Global Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity_ (Penn State University Press, 2015). In The Spirit of Praise, Amos Yong and I bring together a multidisciplinary, scholarly exploration of music and worship in global pentecostal-charismatic Christianity at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The Spirit of Praise contends that gaining a full understanding of this influential religious movement requires close listening to its songs and careful attention to its patterns of worship. The essays in this volume place ethnomusicological, theological, historical, and sociological perspectives into dialogue. By engaging with these disciplines and exploring themes of interconnection, interface, and identity within musical and ritual practices, the essays illuminate larger social processes such as globalization, sacralization, and secularization, as well as the role of religion in social and cultural change.

Contemporary congregational songs (elsewhere referred to as ‘praise and worship’ music, or contemporary worship music) began some forty years ago in Western Pentecostal/Charismatic contexts, but their influence is now worldwide and pan-denominational.  While professional and popular discourses relating to this genre are widespread, scholarly engagement is still nascent.  Where it is available, it is most often the examination of a specific contextualisation of the genre.  Moreover, the music of the genre is under-represented in analyses because researchers have preferred sociological, historical, or theological methodologies.  Finally, lacking from the contemporary congregational song (CCS) discourse is a research method and meta-language to facilitate a generic understanding of the genre; its texts, producers, and consumers.
This thesis provides a broad scholarly platform for CCS; a framework for their creation, analysis, and evaluation upon which future scholarship can build.  This thesis identifies, defines, and explores the CCS genre, its texts, its production and producers, and Christians’ engagement with these mediated texts as individuals, and in corporate worship settings.
The methodology employed to achieve these aims is a tri-level music semiology (Nattiez, 1990).  At the first level, twenty-five of the most popular CCS sung in churches around the world are subject to individual and collective analyses, based on their most-viewed YouTube versions.  Key lyrical, musical, and extra-musical characteristics were identified.  At the second level, Christians attending CCS-oriented churches were directly surveyed to ascertain their engagement with CCS.  Two key questions were explored: What can Christians sing? And, What do Christians want to sing, and why?  Supporting data from the 2011 National Church Life Survey (NCLS) was also analysed and cross-tabulated.  Finally, key CCS writers/producers/performers were interviewed to ascertain the degree to which they considered diverse and localised congregational engagement.
This study sheds new light on the CCS genre, articulating its musical, lyrical, and extra-musical elements in greater detail and depth than has previously been available.  It also reveals CCS as primarily a functional genre, facilitating musical worship for individual and gathered Christians.  Furthermore, CCS is a contested genre, constantly under a process of negotiation and transformation by various stakeholders.  Tensions between the new and the familiar, the individual and communal, the professional and vernacular, all contribute to the formation and evolution of the contemporary congregational song genre.

In a short time, Hillsong has become a powerful congregational presence across the world and deserves more focused scholarly attention. Hillsong Church is part of an ongoing elaboration of evangelicalism, much of which has recently merged with a softer form of Pentecostalism (often called Charismatic Christianity), encouraging sermons and songs to be more conversational, and embracing a more therapeutic emphasis on emotional well-being with the promise of immediacy to an intimate God whose Spirit-filling empowerment energizes even the most mundane activities of work and family in everyday life. Arising out of Australia, Hillsong has become a worldwide commercial enterprise, distributing music and related products to Christian consumers who are entrained to a particular rhythm of religious sounds. Hillsong is also a philosophy of ministry that represents a set of theological convictions, an approach to pastoral leadership, and a type of networked ecclesial organization. In the end, Hillsong is more than just a church, a collection of music, a style of worship, an approach to ministry, or a set of corporate entities—it is an impressive ecclesial force, a global phenomenon that builds on a set of historical developments that comprise a wave of understandings and practices zooming into our religious future.

Pentecostalism, found over the past century in the dramatic surge of “Spirit-filled Christians” across the globe, is an astounding phenomenon of religious innovation. Pentecostal believers across categories of race, class, and education congregate in passionate communities (small and large, independent and fully networked) to worship in churches often characterized as promoting emotionalism, informality, absence of historically rooted liturgical traditions, visible interaction with invisible spirits, and full-bodied participation. Certainly, there are multiple Pentecostalisms. Nevertheless, amid the variety of Pentecostal expressions, a consistently distinctive feature of their experience of worship is what I label the power–surrender dynamic.

This article, appearing in vol. 32, issue 1 (2017) of the journal Liturgy, chronicles the “style periods” of contemporary worship music in the USA from 1960s to the present, showing the range of differing, sometimes conflicting beliefs and concerns communicated by musical stylistic choices. Liturgy is quarterly journal of dedicated to pastoral liturgy published by The Liturgical Conference, intended for both scholars and church leaders.

This is the introduction to the book _Making Congregational Music Local in Christian Communities Worldwide_ (Routledge, 2018). In it, we propose the term ‘musical localization’ as a useful umbrella category to describe the processes by which Christian communities worldwide adapt, adopt, perform, and share congregational music. We first describe the related terms inculturation and indigenization, assessing their strengths and weaknesses. We then describe aspects of a methodological and theoretical approach common to each of the volume’s musical ethnographies and outline how the book’s chapters work together to flesh out four discrete but interrelated aspects of musical localization. Finally, through a self-reflexive discussion of how the co-editors selected our introductory musical example, we put forward several questions suggested by our work on musical localization that can benefit scholarly reflection on Christian congregational music.

Kate Bowler and Wen Reagan. 2014. "Bigger, Better, Louder: The Prosperity Gospel’s Impact on Contemporary Christian Worship." Religion and American Culture: A Journal of Interpretation, Vol. 24, Issue 2, pp. 186-230.

This article makes several claims about the relationship between praise and worship music and prosperity megachurches. First, it argues that the prosperity gospel has had a significant impact on contemporary worship music in America owing to its leadership in the twin rise of the megachurch and televangelism. Second, beginning in the 1990s, prosperity megachurches pioneered forms of worship music mimicking “arena rock” that capitalized on both the scale of their sanctuaries and the sophistication of their audio/visual production. The result was a progression toward music that would be a liturgy of timing, lighting, volume and performance designed for large venues. Finally, prosperity megachurches were ideally situated to benefit from this new music, both in the music industry and in their theology. Prosperity megachurches partnered with the expanding worship industry in the creation of new worship music, while the prosperity gospel theologically undergirded the affective power and performative pageantry of Christian arena rock, narrating worship music as a tool for releasing spiritual forces of prosperity. The result was a Sunday experience for the blessed that reinforced the celebration of God’s abundant blessings through music that was bigger, better, and louder.

In this paper I offer critical attention to the notion of atmosphere in relation to music. By exploring the concept through the case study of the Closed Brethren worship services, I argue that atmosphere may provide analytical tools to explore the ineffable in ecclesial practices. Music, just as atmosphere, commonly occupies a realm of ineffability and undermines notions such as inside and outside, subject and object. For this reason I present music as a means of knowing the atmosphere. The first part of this paper points to the limits of an understanding of atmosphere as a constellation of things, as proposed by Gernot Böhme. In contrast to this, Hermann Schmitz conceptualises atmosphere as half-thing which suggests movement. By expanding on this point, I argue that it is not solely an effect of music to trigger movement but that music itself is movement. Hence I propose to methodologically approach atmospheres as movements. Consequently, in the second part of this paper I closely analyse two motions as they cohere in Closed Brethren worship services: first, becoming (Deleuze and Guattari), a movement on the level of the individual worshiper; secondly, territorialisation (Deleuze and Guattari), a movement of the atmosphere towards its solidification. Here music as atmosphere is not a system of moral signification but a generative power affording intimate processes of divine encounter, whilst producing affective denominational difference.

This research article is based on the author’s doctoral research into the question of quality
criteria for Christian songs. In many Christian congregations today, the question of music is
an emotive issue as the service and its music touch the heart of people’s faith life and shapes
people’s theology. Of the many issues that were investigated in the dissertation, this article
focuses on one question only, the question of the ‘cognitive’ and the ‘emotive’ value of the
songs that are sung in a Sunday service. It will be argued that, in ‘good’ songs, there needs
to be a good balance between ‘cognitive’ and ‘emotive’ value. The general question is how to
identify songs that can nurture faith and sustain people through life. Characteristic of such
songs is, amongst many other criteria, a good balance between the cognitive and emotive value
of the text and the tune. In the discussion, the author focusses largely on her own Lutheran
liturgical and hymnological tradition as well as on the ‘Praise and Worship’ movement which
has a dramatic impact on churches all over the world. The author argues that finding songs
that balance the emotive and the cognitive component is an effective way to bridge the divides
on worship music within a congregation.
Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: Within the discipline of hymnological
studies, the article opens a ground-breaking new way to analyse and critique music used in
worship with objective tools for analysis. This is, as far as the author knows, new for this
discipline, and it also has an effect on other disciplines.

This paper examines worship from the perspective of humanity’s creation in the image of God. It synthesizes several historical interpretations of the doctrine of the imago Dei and proposes a vocational understanding. This approach views humanity’s created purpose as a calling to display and embody the glory of God. As believers understand their vocation as a life of worship, this transforms individual spiritual disciplines and corporate worship. The Holy Spirit works to spiritually form believers into the image of Christ, who is the glory and supreme image of the Father. Therefore, all corporate and private worship is at its core, Christ-centered. The paper concludes with several suggestions to transform public worship, including prayer, congregational song, Scripture reading, and the proclamation of the Word of God.

Resumo / Abstract D esde o início, a Igreja Adventista do Sétimo Dia possui uma identidade associada à autoridade bíblica e às suas crenças fundamentais, tais como o grande conflito, o santuário celestial e a missão como igreja remanescente. Contudo, com o passar dos anos, os adventistas divergem de sua identidade, ao passo que conferem maior importância ao culto carismático, normalmente orientado pelas emoções e não pelas Escrituras. Este artigo procura analisar a identidade adventista em sua situação atual e o processo de carismatização que a afeta. Por fim, compreende-se que, apesar de possuir uma identidade bem definida, o adventismo é influenciado por práticas e doutrinas evangélicas, e sofre, assim, um processo de carismatização e secularização. Palavras-chave: Adventismo; carismatização; identidade; igreja emergente. S ince the beginning, the Seventh-day Adventist Church has had an identity associated to the biblical authority and its fundamental beliefs, such as the great controversy, the heavenly sanctuary and the mission as a remnant church. However, over the years Adventists have been diverging from their identity, by giving more importance to the charismatic worship, usually emotion-oriented instead of Scripture-oriented. This article analyzes the Adventist identity in your current situation and the charismatization process, which has affected it. Finally, it is understood that, despite of having a well-defined identity, Adventism has been influenced by evangelical doctrines and practices, and thus has suffered a process of secularization and charismatization.

Singing from choirbooks was once an unremarkable, even humdrum, part of everyday performance practice. Although they varied greatly in size and splendour, the common
feature of choirbooks was their placement upon a lectern, visible to a single group of singers huddled around the same book. Although this mode of performance fell from favour in the Protestant countries of northern Europe, it persisted in some cultures
until within living memory. Very few modern performers sing ad lectrinam, however,
while academic interest in Renaissance choirbooks has tended to focus more on the
notational syntax of their contents than the practical and spatial implications of their
formats. Recent investigations suggest that lectern singing brings practical benefits to
performers (in terms of ensemble and confidence); the lectern also provides a strong
focal point within the performing space, and therefore a context for certain polyphonic
genres which combined lecterns and desks in the same musical formation, such as the in
medio chori style cultivated under Queen Elizabeth I of England.

Recent studies of the canonical Psalms have generated a number of memorable metaphors for grasping the power of Psalmic prayer. Walter Brueggemann, after Paul Ricoeur, speaks of the spiritual struggle to maintain equilibrium, a struggle worked out through the sequence of orientation, disorientation, and reorientation. 1 John Goldingay, in response, describes the life of prayer as an ever-repeating cycle, or spiral, of praise and prayer, prayer and praise. 2 These approaches to the function of psalms in the life of faith echo deeper structures in the texts of the canonical Psalms themselves. Hence, N. H. Ridderbos, a generation ago, perceived a "golden cycle" of praise and prayer in the Psalms, 3 while Claus Westermann identified the "two poles of praise and lament" 4 around which the Psalms are constructed. What these metaphors and analytical grids have in common, I would argue, are four essential insights.

Whilst Christian congregational music has long been an object of reflection and study it has often been pushed towards the margins of the various disciplines that it inhabits. In this article I survey some of the challenges such study has faced before suggesting that recent disciplinary developments have served to prepare the ground for increased study of Christian congregational music. I suggest that ethnomusicology, in particular, has played an important role in motivating recent enquiry across a range of disciplines although not without facing a number of further challenges itself. I suggest that a field of Christian congregational music studies is beginning to emerge and finish by outlin- ing recent contributions to scholarship from a range of perspectives.

Through study of music in doctrine, systematics and church history, this paper defends the hypothesis that music is an essential attribute of congregational Christian worship.

In the first part, a sensible rationale of the word essential is offered, then the parameters of intelligible music and congregational worship are explored. The implicit methodology behind the question is then analysed and refuted and an exegetically grounded alternative offered. This first part demonstrates the theological and practical weaknesses of the negative position.

In the second part a deductive, theological argument is constructed from three premises, which together contain and defend our working hypothesis. The first premise offers a holistic biblical exploration of the purpose of music; the second applies this specifically to the eschatological congregation of heaven; and the third surveys these theological implications throughout church history. This second part offers a deductive case for the affirmative position.

Congregational worship is essential to the life of the Christian, and the moving parts that constitute it should be firmly grounded in scripture and carefully investigated in light of relevant experience.

This is not a wholly abstract question, and its results should help one recognise the immense difference a biblically grounded approach to music can have on congregational Christian worship.

The theology of the Franciscan friar Bonaventure of Bagnoregio (c. 1221-1274) 1 contains some of the most symbolic and richly illustrative imagery of any medieval thinker. Influenced by a variety of sources, among them Augustine, Hugh and Richard of St Victor and a variety of Neoplatonic thinkers including Dionysius the Areopagite, 2 Bonaventure's approach to theology was one that treated the process of growing in wisdom (sapientia) as the path to holiness. 3 While it is fashionable at times to recount the medieval theological endeavors of the scholastic schoolmen as esoteric and removed from practical matters of everyday living, such a consideration betrays one's anachronistic projection more than elucidates the mindset of medieval thinkers. Bonaventure was very much committed to connecting the lived experience of faith with what has Daniel P. Horan, a Franciscan friar of the Holy Name of Jesus Province, teaches at Siena College in Londonville, New York. 1 The most recent study of Bonaventure's chronology is Jay Hammond, "Dating Bonaventure's Inception as Regent Master," Franciscan Studies 67 (2009)

This paper traces the relationship between worship music and denominationalism, with particular attention given to North American evangelicalism. The paper begins with an examination of differences in worship theology as key denominational distinctives, while demonstrating that psalmody and hymnody have traditionally provided appropriate unity across denominational lines. It then reveals two recent developments in worship music that blurred denominational distinctives: the Church Growth Movement and the Praise and Worship Movement. The thesis of the paper is that traditional psalmody and hymnody unifies Christians while preserving appropriate denominational distinctiveness, but seeker-sensitive worship philosophy and Praise and Worship Music contribute to denominational decline in the name of ecumenical unity.

This thesis claims that Contemporary Christian Worship (CCW) currently does not include songs of lament that were significant in the worship of Israel and the Early Church. Moreover, a proper understanding of both the genre and function of lament can play a formative role in the enrichment of CCW. It begins with an overview of the biblical usage of lament in the Old and New Testaments, with special emphasis given to the way Jesus transforms the lament for a New Testament context. Through a quantitative analysis of the most popular songs in the CCW movement the thesis shows that lament is missing from its music. Since this thesis argues that lament should be sung in CCW services it also demonstrates the importance of singing for Christian worship. Using four lament psalms as examples of the genre it focuses on four primary lessons that laments teach the contemporary Christian, concluding with the creation of two laments in CCW style music as examples of how the genre can be used in a contemporary context.

Paul F. M. Zahl writes about “Formal-Liturgical Worship”, which he also calls Bible-based verticality. He defines the concept formal as “dignified service that is not governed by the spontaneity of the moment or the spontaneity of the officiant. It means service in a form, within a mold. It is not off the cuff or as mood would govern. Rather, it accepts the constraint of a consistent and predictable pattern.” And, liturgical means it is a “prescribed worship, service that is required for a given occasion.” He insists on the prominence of the Bible as the source for all kind of worship. It must be based on the Word. Theology has to precede the act of worship, he says.

Branding is increasingly acknowledged as a marketing strategy used by transnational religious institutions commonly known as 'megachurches'. Commentators on this phenomenon often view the branding process as an artificial driver of organisational growth rather than as concomitant with the evolution of a group of people. This article examines the history and development of the music and branding of the Australian megachurch Hillsong. Within the space of twenty-six years, Hillsong evolved from a 'local' Australian congregation into a transnational enterprise. During each phase of its development, its music communicated the vision, values, and focus of its leaders and congregation visually, aurally, and sonorously. Hillsong's branding has thus proceeded organically, both driving and being driven by the church's growth.

This thesis explores the importance of communal contemplation that facilitates listening to God. The practices of the Christian contemplative tradition are grounded in biblical, historical, and theological foundations and should be an integral part of the worship life of the local church. The project focused on integrating contemplative practices into the worship life of Church at Charlotte, an Evangelical Free Church. The design of the project featured an eight-week study course on the contemplative life. Participants in the course planned and led a contemplative prayer service entitled, “A Night of Quiet.”

In his article titled “Why Pastors Should Be Learned in Worship and Music” in volume one of Artistic Theologian, Kevin T. Bauder offered nine propositions outlining the necessity of musical and doxological training for pastors. The present work serves as a companion piece to Bauder’s thoughtful rationale and seeks to offer a similar argument for the theological training of worship leaders and church musicians. My observations and insights emerge from more than fifteen years of worship leadership in the local church and nearly a decade of graduate theological training. Whereas Bauder proposes the immense benefit of musical and worship instruction for a pastor without deeming it a necessity, it is my belief that a worship leader cannot possibly hope to have a long-term ministry that guides a congregation in worship informed by biblical principles, provides a vehicle for spiritual formation, and serves as a consistent Gospel witness without some level of theological training. The essential nature of theological training for the worship leader finds support from the witness of Scripture, the nature of worship itself, the structure and content of worship, the pastoral role of the worship leader, and the example of hundreds of years of Christian history.

The marriage of popular music and Pentecostal worship is well documented. Its advocates point to meaningful experiences for the worshiper, or more broadly church growth and the younger demographics of Pentecostal congregations as evidence of its efficacy. Its opponents highlight popular music's secular or profane associations, or the contemporary congregational song (CCS) genre's commercialisation, individualisation, and lack of theological weight in its lyrics. These are the battle lines drawn for the " worship wars " of the 1990s and 2000s. While some of the more acrimonious contentions have dissipated in recent popular and academic literature, underlying presuppositions and arguments have not necessarily been resolved. This paper seeks to freshly reexamine the marriage of popular music and Pentecostal worship from the perspectives of Pentecostal theology and musicology. This paper begins by exploring popular music's somatic, emotive, and metaphysical qualities. Those qualities are also identified in the contemporary congregational songs (CCS) utilised in Pentecostal worship. Following this, the Pentecostal values of embodiment, experience, and encounter are introduced. An alignment will be drawn between somatic popular music and the Pentecostal theology of embodiment. Similarly, a link will be drawn between the emotive capacity of popular music, and the experiential orientation of Pentecostalism. Finally, popular music's unlanguable and liminal elements will be aligned with the Pentecostal theology of encounter. In so doing, this paper proposes a justification for the marriage of popular music and Pentecostal worship. At the same time, it raises the problematic nature...

YouTube has enabled music and religious practice to become conjoined in new and complex ways. This chapter explores the social life of a particular Christian video genre: the worship music video. Worship music videos bring music, text, and images together into a new form of online ritual practice that challenges the distinctions between public and private piety, online and offline worship, and audiovisual consumption and production within evangelical Christianity. Drawing from a selected field of YouTube worship videos, this chapter demonstrates the ways in which these videos have inspired new Christian audiovisual devotional practices and have influenced trends in Contemporary Worship Music and congregational singing. This chapter extends previous work on music and social media and online religion by showing how YouTube enables the musical broadcasting of beliefs and practices, and, in doing so, forms religious and musical selves and publics.

Church music plays significant roles in social, religious, and social gatherings in Africa. God gave people the gift of music and commanded its usage for the edification of man. The term “Church music” covers three major aspects of ministry within the context of a local church, namely; Congregational music, choral music, and instrumental music. A piece of music with appropriate biblical text can serve as a response of prayer, praise, a testimony of God’s faithfulness, or a response to an initial revelation of God during worship, or any Christian convergence. Although there may be a lot of confusion on what may be termed as church music, this study seeks to identify the term and discuss the ideals of church music in worship and other Christian convergence from physical and non-physical (spiritual) perspectives of Church music and ministry addressing the problem of lack of structure in the organization of church music ministry. Church music ministry allows Christians to be stewards of their gifts and is a valid medium of propagating the gospel. The study adopts literary and theological approaches and notes that music gives room for the edification of Christians, contributing its quota in building a network of musicians as they unite with other church leaders in raising offerings of praise and thanksgiving to God. It notes that church music should carry a message, express heartfelt praise to God, and/or a divinely inspired message of God to parishioners. It argues that Church music, of necessity, should be from disciplined Christian minds, to prepare true worshippers, reconciling them back to God.

What might we be doing to our hearers as we use language in corporate worship? Does it matter how we speak in and of the Lord's Supper? What is happening when the words "This is my body" are spoken in a congregation? One approach to answering these questions is by using the tools of speech act theory. Dan Block makes the bold statement, "The Lord's Supper is the defining ritual of the Christian community."  This statement can be helpfully explored by conceiving of the Supper as consisting of liturgical speech acts. The speech acts at the Lord's Supper have multiple, simultaneous illocutionary forces that have significant formative, perlocutionary potential. Though evangelical theologians have primarily used speech act theory for hermeneutics, it has usefulness for examining the performative speech of corporate worship. Originally conceived by J. L. Austin and further articulated by John Searle, speech act theory focuses on the intentions of the speaker, or what one does with words. Speech act theory utilizes the categories of locution, illocutionary acts, and perlocutionary effect. Liturgical speech acts are one way of construing speech act theory for examining the language of congregational worship, and they are the subject of my dissertation research.

Is there a place for sadness in contemporary praise and worship music? Should there be a place for sadness in contemporary praise and worship music? How can pastors, church leaders, and songwriters create a place for sadness in a contemporary worship service?

There appears to be little room for sadness in the contemporary praise and worship music. Creating collective religious rituals for lament is not only an effective way of mitigating sadness but also consistent with the rituals of lament found in the Psalms. Christians can find ways to express lament, even while confessing sin, remaining patient in hope, and joyful in expectation. However, with a few simple yet intentional changes, songwriters, worship leaders and pastors can play a role in creating a place for Christians to express sadness, and to do so not as ‘those without hope’.

This article aims to further the ethnomusicological study of pilgrimage by examining the role of music in two US evangelical Christian conferences. Through congregational singing, participants imagine the conference gathering to be an embodiment of the heavenly community, bringing heaven to earth through song. Examining lyrics, musical style, and social organization as forms of eschatological discourse reveals several crucial differences in how social relationships in heaven are imagined, which carries strong implications for how the religious community on earth is formed. Examining music in conference pilgrimage shows how twenty-first century evangelicals understand community, negotiate difference, and construct a religious imaginary.