Strong congregational singing has long marked common worship in the Christian Reformed Church. Psalms only were sung in the Christian Reformed Church until 1934. Since then the Psalter Hymnal has included hymns from every period of history. Today, congregations are using a greater variety of song and instrumental accompaniment in services designed with flexible liturgical forms. And once-austere buildings and liturgy are now characterized by the increasing use of visual and decorative arts.
Music
Music in the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) is guided by a Statement of Principle found at the beginning of the denominational Psalter Hymnal (1987), which reads in part: “The music of the church should be appropriate for worship—that is, it should be liturgical and have aesthetic integrity. The music of worship should serve the dialogue between God and his people.”
Congregations in the CRC continue a heritage of hearty and solid congregational singing accompanied by organ as the primary music in worship. On a typical Sunday, from three to six hymns and/or metrical psalms are sung from the Psalter Hymnal in both the morning and evening services. The organist may be a paid staff member helping to plan worship, but is more often a volunteer who accompanies the hymns and plays a prelude, offertory, and postlude.
The heritage of the CRC was one of exclusive metrical psalmody until 1934 when it added hymns in the first edition of the Psalter Hymnal. Since 1975, freedom to choose congregational songs beyond the denominational hymnal has resulted in great variety. A 1990 survey showed 78 percent of congregations printing additional songs in bulletins and 37 percent using overhead projectors at least occasionally. Informal song services in the evening are also common.
Beyond congregational singing, choirs are common in congregations in the United States but are rare in Canadian congregations, where exclusive congregational singing is still the norm. Yet most choirs function as anthem choirs, not service choirs participating every Sunday. Children’s choirs and bell choirs are growing in popularity.
Congregations seeking worship renewal have often begun with changes in music, with recent changes in music being evident in three areas:
- Repertoire. The 1987 edition of the Psalter Hymnal introduced great stylistic variety, with songs both new and old, European-based and from around the world, challenging and childlike. Though the complete Psalter is present, hymns by far predominate in practice. Most congregations supplement the hymnal with contemporary hymns and choruses, especially in the “praise and worship” style. In a few congregations, hymnals have disappeared in favor of songs projected on overheads.
- Instrumental and Vocal Variety. A growing number of congregations have adopted a more contemporary style of music; some have replaced the organist with a variety of instrumentalists, sometimes forming “praise teams” with pianos and/or synthesizers and drums as well as wind and stringed instruments. The traditional anthem choir is shifting its role by more often enhancing congregational singing and helping the congregation learn new songs. There is a growing desire to use members’ gifts and to increase congregational participation in worship.
- Liturgical Role. Rather than hymns, and perhaps an anthem, filling the same slots in an unchanging liturgical structure, congregations are increasingly making varied musical choices on the basis of a more flexible structure. There is a growing interest in thematically designed worship, in which every action flows in a unified structure so that the people of God understand their role in the meeting between God and his people. The church year is followed most carefully during Advent/Christmas, and increasingly in the Lent/Easter cycle.
The Arts
The traditional CRC building is plain, stained glass windows and carpeting perhaps offering the only variety in color. Even flowers are unusual, except those kept after a wedding or funeral. The typical CRC resembles an auditorium, with fixed pews in rectangular sections facing a raised platform containing a large pulpit with pulpit Bible, baptismal font, Communion table, and a couple of chairs—often all matched in style and containing visual symbols as part of the furniture design. A few have divided chancels or a pulpit and lectern. Flags are sometimes still found in local churches. More affluent churches have added carpeting and padded seats, most often with detrimental acoustical effects.
But the traditional reluctance to visual symbols beyond pulpit, font, and Table—a reluctance rooted in the iconoclastic reforms of the sixteenth century—has faded significantly in the past generation. The most common additional symbol is the cross. A 1990 survey reveals that 82 percent of CRCs use banners for special occasions, 44 percent use banners for the church year, and 24 percent use paraments or Communion table runners. Most ministers wear business suits, a few wear robes, a very small minority wear clerical collars. Vestments are even rarer.
Many churches are designing more flexible worship spaces, with less of a division between platform and pew. With a growing emphasis on gathering around the Word and Table, moveable chairs or pews curving in sections more nearly facing each other are replacing the straight lines and rectangular shapes.
Drama in worship is beginning to grow, especially in evangelistically designed “seeker services.” But even in congregations that have not introduced drama, greater attention is paid to dramatic readings directly from the Scriptures. Children’s messages, found in over 80 percent of congregations, often include a dramatic component.
Liturgical dance is rare, but growing insofar as it is used as a visual accompaniment to congregational singing of the praise-and-worship style.
Resources
The primary resource for congregational worship in the CRC is its denominational Psalter Hymnal, for which many supporting resources are also published, including instrumentations, recordings, a bibliography of organ music, and concordance. A handbook/companion to the Psalter Hymnal is in progress. A new children’s hymnal and an accompanying leaders’ guide for a church education program are also in progress.
The main resource for music and the arts produced by the CRC is Reformed Worship, a quarterly journal designed to provide worship leaders with guidance and practical assistance in planning, structuring, and conducting congregational worship in the Reformed tradition. Although produced by the CRC, Reformed Worship enjoys both authorship and readership from many different denominations.