Winds of worship change are blowing in the Wesleyan Church, but not always in the same direction. Different as they may seem, the trends toward celebrative worship on the one hand and a more liturgical framework on the other are both encouraging signs of life in corporate worship, and both emphasize music and the arts as key elements in renewal.
Music in Worship Renewal
A century ago, Wesleyans were singing “All My Life Long I Had Panted for a Draught,” a new gospel song from the pen of Clara Tear Williams, a Wesleyan song evangelist. Gospel music and the Holiness movement grew up together, and in the hundreds of rural and small-town Wesleyan churches, as well as in scores of summertime camp meetings, it is still standard fare.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the contemporary musical scores of Wesleyans Derrick Johnson and Otis Skillings advanced the revolution on the youth scene that Ralph Carmichael had begun. Much of today’s popular praise-and-worship music is derived from that sound, and much of the church is singing it, especially in younger congregations.
In every age, Charles Wesley’s hymns are at home in churches of the Wesleyan tradition. “O for a Thousand Tongues” opens the Wesleyan hymnal as it opens hymnals worldwide in the Methodist family of churches. A recent gathering of Wesleyan ministers sang only Wesley hymns at a three-day conference, and the response was uniformly positive. The great hymns of the church are alive and well in Wesleyanism—at least in this generation.
The point is, of course, that the music of Wesleyan worship is very eclectic. Hymns of Faith and Life, the denominational hymnal published in 1976 in cooperation with the Free Methodist Church (the third such joint venture this century), may be joined in the pew rack by a gospel songbook, or supplanted entirely by a contemporary hymnal from an independent publisher offering the latest in praise choruses and Scripture songs. For some, the sounds of renewal are a classic hymn, a choral anthem, and the voices of the congregation united in the doxology. For others, a synthesizer has replaced organ and piano, drums and brass accompany congregational singing, and special music relies on taped tracks.
Wesleyans appear to be a people of one heart, but not one ear. (Observation of the broader church scene would seem to indicate that they are not unique in that regard.) The good news is that both wings of the renewal movement are seeing success in restoring worship as a priority of congregational life.
The Arts in Worship Renewal
Wesleyan architecture and sanctuary furnishing have historically reflected (and probably helped to perpetuate) the simple, free worship style of the church. They still do, but it is also true that art and design are playing a greater role in the church than ever before.
New sanctuaries do not automatically mimic the traditional “concert stage” arrangement, although the central pulpit is almost universally employed as representative of the centrality of the Word. There is a significant trend toward hangings—paraments on pulpit and Table, banners for seasons of the Christian year—and a growing awareness of the significance of liturgical colors. Wesleyan clergy do not wear vestments, but choir stoles may be selected with liturgical colors in mind.
In a related trend, more Christian symbols are likely to grace the sanctuary once reserved for Sallman’s head of Christ or Hunt’s depiction of Christ at the door. Not all new sanctuaries are designed for fixed furnishings. Many congregations opt for the flexibility afforded by a multipurpose room, where the art is as movable as the seats. Here, too, are alternative renewal movements at work.
Musically, Wesleyan worship is a medley. Artistically, it’s a mosaic.