Worship Music

Definition and Meaning

Worship music is a collective term for the songs and instrumental music used in worship. It includes the hymns and gospel songs sung by the congregation, anthems sung by the choir, instrumental music at the beginning and end of the service, and short hymns of praise known as doxologies. Theologically, it is understood as praise and prayer offered to God and as a means of confessing and teaching the Word through song. Its scope is narrower than that of church music as a whole, which also includes music intended for performance. It emphasizes the congregation's shared participation within the order of worship.

Biblical and Historical Background

The Old Testament records the song of Moses and Miriam sung after the crossing of the Red Sea (Exodus 15). It also describes the Levites, who were responsible for praise in the temple, and the Psalms, Israel's book of praise. The New Testament exhorts believers to speak to one another "in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs" (Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16).

The early church sang psalms and songs honoring Christ. In the medieval church, Latin chant was sung primarily by clergy and choirs. During the Reformation, Martin Luther wrote and promoted congregational hymns in German. The church in Geneva under John Calvin sang chiefly metrical psalms. For this reason, some Reformed traditions long sang only psalms or restricted the use of musical instruments. In eighteenth-century England, Isaac Watts and Charles Wesley wrote a large number of hymn texts, and hymns of human composition spread widely.

Practice in the Korean Church

The Korean church has used translated hymns since the early days of missionary work. Today the New Hymnal (Saechansongga, 2006), published by the Korean Hymnal Society, is used jointly by many denominations.

Usage varies by denomination and style of worship.

• Presbyterian, Methodist, Holiness, and similar churches: Sunday morning services generally center on hymns, organ or piano accompaniment, and choir anthems.
• Full Gospel and other Pentecostal churches: These churches are known to have broadened their instrumentation relatively early and to have actively practiced extended sung praise accompanied by clapping.
• Anglican Church of Korea: It uses its own hymnal, and much of the liturgy (the prescribed order of worship) is sung.

As the "praise and worship" movement spread from the 1980s and 1990s onward, praise teams, worship bands, and CCM became established, particularly in young adult ministries and seeker-oriented services. Today many churches use both hymns and contemporary praise songs in each service. However, opinions within the church remain divided over musical style, instruments, and the theological content of lyrics. These issues are treated in detail in the articles Worship Music Controversy and Traditional and Contemporary Worship.