A grand piano, three guitars, a flute, a string bass, and a tambourine. Eight vocalists, dressed in black slacks and white shirts, all under the age of 25. An upbeat musical style.

Where are we? In church, where a group of musicians is accompanying the songs of the Christian liturgy. The congregation sings along enthusiastically: “Lord, Have Mercy,” “Glory to God,” “Holy, Holy, Holy,” “Lamb of God,” and the “Psalm of the Day.”

Some people call it blended worship. It brings together worship forms that have been tested and tried in Christian churches for centuries and joins them to contemporary musical styles. Blended worship is one way Lutheran churches can retain public worship’s historic emphasis on gospel proclamation and at the same time accompany that proclamation with music many people understand and enjoy.

Maintaining traditional forms

Although you won’t find the term “blended worship” in the writings of Martin Luther, his worship reforms demonstrate the concept. Luther treasured the historic Christian liturgy but saw the advantage of presenting it in different settings. His first version retained the traditional Latin language and Gregorian chant music. Luther also retained some of the traditional church music in his second setting of the liturgy but added songs from a musical tradition that, although well known in Germany for hundreds of years, had not often been used in public worship. He was careful about what he chose (he supervised the selections himself and even composed some of the music), but saw no reason why music that the common man knew and loved could not accompany the great songs and hymns of the liturgy.

Blended worship is different from the kind of contemporary worship we might find in many Protestant churches today. Lacking a biblical understanding of how the gospel interacts with faith, most Reformed churches have never been interested in the gospel-proclaiming forms of the Christian liturgy. Especially among Pentecostals and Evangelicals, public worship is for stimulating people to make decisions about Christ and Christian living. Experience tells them that there are better ways to achieve their goals than using historic worship rites.