“It’s Your Breath in Our Lungs”: Sean Feucht’s Praise and Worship Music Protests and the Theological Problem of Pandemic Response in the U.S.

In response to U.S. government restrictions imposed as part of a nationwide response to the COVID-19 pandemic, charismatic worship leader Sean Feucht began a series of worship concerts. Feucht positioned these protests as expressions of Christian religious freedom in opposition to mandated church closings and a perceived double-standard regarding the large gatherings of protesters over police violence against Black and Brown persons. Government restrictions challenged the sine qua non liturgical act of encounter with God for evangelicals, Pentecostals, and Charismatics: congregational singing in Praise and Worship. However, as Feucht’s itinerant worship concerts traversed urban spaces across the U.S. to protest these restrictions, the events gained a double valence. Feucht and event attendees sought to channel God’s power through musical worship to overturn government mandates and, along the way, they invoked longstanding social and racial prejudices toward urban spaces. In this essay, I argue that Feucht’s events reveal complex theological motivations that weave together liturgical-theological, social, and political concerns. Deciphering this complex tapestry requires a review of both the history of evangelical engagement with urban spaces and the theological history of Praise and Worship. Together, these two sets of historical resources generate a useful frame for considering how Feucht, as a charismatic musical worship leader, attempts to wield spiritual power through musical praise to change political situations and the social conditions.

“My Worship Has Been Hijacked”

Chapter 1 combines historical research with autoethnographic narrative to contextualize the dramatic musical shifts that have taken place in evangelicalism over the last four decades. In the 1980s and 1990s, “praise and worship” music—a genre with roots in the Pentecostal and charismatic movement—began to enter the evangelical mainstream. Evangelical churches struggled with how to negotiate the ethos and aesthetics of these new songs into their services, leading to a period that many commentators dubbed the “worship wars.” Subsequent developments, including the formation of Christian Copyright Licensing International (CCLI), a concerted push by secular distributors to sell worship music to churches, and the rise of new kind of performer (the “celebrity worship leader”), exacerbated internal congregational tensions and debates.

Protestant Congregational Song in the Philippines: Localization through Translation and Hybridization

Historically, the language of Protestant congregational song in the Philippines was English, which was tied to that nation’s twentieth-century colonial history with the United States. The development of Filipino songs since the 1970s is linked to this legacy, but church musicians have found ways to localize their congregational singing through processes of translation and hybridization. Because translation of hymn texts from English has proven difficult for linguistic reasons, Papuri, a music group that produces original Tagalog-language worship music, bypasses these difficulties while relying heavily on American pop music styles. Word for the World is a Pentecostal congregation that embraces English-language songs as a part of their theology of presence, obviating the need for translation by singing in the original language. Day by Day Ministries, the third case study, is a congregation that translates beyond language texts, preparing indigenous Filipino cultural expressions for urban audiences by composing hybridized songs that merge pre-Hispanic and contemporary forms.

Musicking as Liturgical Speech Acts: An Examination of Contemporary Worship Music Practices

This article examines the genre of Contemporary Worship Music (CWM) within worship contexts in terms of its formative and purposeful nature. In CWM settings, the worship leader plays a particular role in the selection and facilitation of CWM repertoire to be led by praise bands. Through the leader's consideration of the message of the CWM lyrics, and the relational nature of CWM practices, a worship leader's pedagogical decisions are integral to contributing to a space of dialogue for worship musicians. Drawing on previous literature addressing liturgical language in worship, I analyze the CWM context as a particular case where liturgical language shapes musicians’ spiritual formation. This examination of CWM practices includes an analysis of musicians’ engagement in relational musicking and meeting through I-Thou encounters. I therefore explore both the need for worship leaders to consider the multitudinous theological implications of their actions, as well as the way musicians are shaped and formed intimately through their musical engagement with CWM.

TINJAUAN TEOLOGI ATAS FENOMENA MUSIK KRISTEN KONTEMPORER DARI PERSPEKTIF ALKITAB

Music is an inseparable part of worship, as much as prayer in worship. Music as a part used for worship and praise for God, through the glorified music of God.Contemporary Christian music can now function to bridge this world and the church. However, what needs to be considered is that it is not permissible to stop on this bridge, but must grow and develop towards the quality of music that should be.The point is music is a tool to deliver and help people in expressing and proclaiming the fellowship between God and His people. As long as the music adopted is still within acceptable limits and in accordance with the Bible.

Pengaruh Pujian Penyembahan Dan Musik Iringan Terhadap Minat Kehadiran Ibadah Remaja Di Gbi My Home Tanjung Pinang

The purpose of this study is to reveal and analyze the influence of worshipaccompaniment music on the interest in the presence of youth. YouthTransformation has a great influence on young people today. The methodused in this research is survey research with a quantitative researchapproach. The population in this study were all teenagers who worshiped atYouth Transformation GBI My Home Tanjungpinang aged 15-18 years asmany as 50 people. The results showed that worship and accompanimenthad a positive and significant effect on interest in attending worship.Description Praise Worship and Accompaniment Music shows good results.Likewise, the description of Youth Worship Attendance aged 15-18 years atGBI My Home Tanjung Pinang showed good results, and the correlationvalue of Praise Worship and Accompaniment Music on Youth WorshipAttendance was in a strong position.Keywords: Praise, Worship, Music, Interest, Teenager.