Gospel song is prominent in the music of Adventist churches. However, the range of music used spans the centuries from traditional masterpieces to contemporary choruses. Churches rely on a variety of instruments, from large pipe organs to electronic synthesizers. The other arts are not generally used in worship, but among a few leading churches banners, hangings, and drama have been introduced.
Music
From its very beginnings, the Seventh-day Adventist Church has witnessed a fascinating polarity in music preferences and practices. The church was forming during the period of revival and camp-meeting enthusiasm in the mid-nineteenth century. A considerable portion of music in the emerging church consisted of the white spirituals and gospel songs that one would expect from that background. Wesleyan hymns were significant, and people coming to the Adventist church from other denominations brought their hymns with them. Early Adventist leaders published hymnals and worked diligently to teach the people how to understand and use music from the great traditions of hymnody. This work continues. It would be difficult to define a Seventh-day Adventist music tradition because of the eclectic use of music in worship, although gospel song is the most prevalent genre.
Given this background, it is perhaps surprising that the use of the guitar in worship has been resisted in many places. However, a number of Adventist churches intent on renewing worship use not only guitars, but synthesizers, electric basses, drums, and various other instruments. Use of such instruments was almost negligible prior to the mid-1980s. Since the late 1970s many churches have added handbells to their worship programming. During this same period, though beginning earlier, Adventist college campus churches, as well as various other large Adventist churches have increasingly used brass ensembles and chamber groups in worship.
During the 1970s and 1980s several Adventist churches, mostly on college campuses, installed large mechanical action organs. The Rieger organ at Pacific Union College Church (Angwin, California, north of San Francisco) is the largest such organ on the West Coast, and the Brombaugh organ at the Collegedale Church (Southern College, near Chattanooga, Tennessee) is one of the largest in the United States. A number of Adventist churches also have large Casavant organs. Most Adventist churches, however, use a small electronic organ and often a piano for the accompaniment of worship.
One finds considerable musical variety within Seventh-day Adventist churches. Most typical is the standard fare of hymns and gospel songs which may be used for both congregational singing and service music. In the churches emphasizing renewal, particularly those with a celebrative type of worship, most of the music consists of Scripture songs and praise choruses. The great masterpieces of music are also heard regularly in the largest Adventist churches. Christian rock music, however, is rare.
Visual and Performing Arts
A growing, though still very small, number of Seventh-day Adventist churches are using banners to enhance worship. For example, beginning in 1987 in Waynesboro, Virginia, and in 1990 in Lakeside, California, the author introduced banners, an artistic medium that had never before been used. Although the congregation first questioned their use, they soon recognized their great benefit. In Lakeside we have produced banners for Advent, Christmas, the Easter Season (Triumphal Entry, Crucifixion, Resurrection), Pentecost, Adventist Heritage Sabbath, and Thanksgiving.
Beginning at the Sligo Church (near Washington, D.C.), and then in Waynesboro and the author’s church in Lakeside, the author has introduced table displays to illustrate, complement, or expand the morning worship theme. A few Adventist churches, including the Sligo church, have commissioned artistic wall hangings. A limited number of Adventist churches have flexible seating, and only a few of those have varied the seating from time to time to enrich worship.
Chancel drama is a recent addition to Seventh-day Adventist worship and is used in only a very small number of churches. However, its use increased notably during the 1980s, to the point where several of the renewing churches are using drama almost every week.
In 1985 the Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal (Hagerstown, Md.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1985) was published. It is the first Seventh-day Adventist hymnal or liturgical book of any kind to include extensive worship aids. Prior to that, the most recent hymnal had been published in 1941. A Companion to the Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal by Wayne Hooper and Edward E. White was published in 1988 (Hagerstown, Md.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1988).