Contemporary to What?

Recently, I was asked to serve on a committee at my local church in San Antonio in regards to beginning a contemporary worship service at our church. The current style of worship is traditional and has been traditional for the past 150 years, so the idea of starting a contemporary service has been quite controversial to say the least. As I have served on the committee, reading members' emails and other correspondence, the question I keep asking myself is, "Contemporary to what?"

As I begin to pray about the aforementioned question, I began to think about worship in a different sense. When defined, contemporary actually means to exist along side. More often than not, contemporary and traditional tend to compete with one another. When Paul first writes to the Corinthian church, competition was alive and well. People were followers of Apollos, of Paul, of Cephas, and of Christ. Paul goes on to rebuke the church and talks to them about unity and the importance of working together for the advancement of the gospel. What does it say to a world that already things poorly of the church, when we can't seem to get along within our walls?

If we want to move away from competing worship styles, the church needs to move toward authentic worship. When juxtaposed to contemporary/traditional worship, authentic worship will win every time. When worship becomes authentic, then preference ceases to matter. When worship becomes authentic, we put aside our own interests and look toward the bigger picture, which is making Jesus the recipient of our worship.

What is authentic worship? Authentic worship is worshipping the Lord from our hearts without reservation. Rather than a style it is a matter of the heart.