Worship Wars On Sunday Morning : Traditional Vs. Contemporary

“Roll, Jordan, Roll”, “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Had”, “Go Down, Moses”, and “Wade in the Water” are the titles of only a handful of what were called “Negro Spirituals”, which originated during the reign of slavery in the United States (Frey). Such spirituals used call-and-response, a method of communication that was popular with slaves who brought African traditions to America, and gave way to the gospel music and unique form of preaching characteristic to the Black Church. The history of the Black Church, which began during the slave era, demonstrates the way that African Americans found refuge in Christianity, where the church became the center for African American communities (Baer). Born out of struggle and oppression, the Black Church not only became the focus for the religious practices of African American communities, but also worked to “re-member” the community through rituals such as that of call-and-response, a core element of the Black Church which served as a powerful tool for the African American community in the fight for the exercise of true freedom in America.

Such unity and self-determination was evidenced in 1801, when Richard Allen, founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church published a hymnal by and for African Americans (Costen, 81). Hymns have served black people in their everyday lives and had and have

African American religious music is the foundation of all contemporary forms of so called “black music.” African American religious music has been a fundamental part of the black experience in this country. This common staple of the African American experience can be traced back to the cruel system of slavery. It then evolved into what we refer to today as gospel music. The goal of this paper is to answer three main questions. What are the origins of African American religious music? How did this musical expression develop into a secular form of music? What is the future of African American religious music? These questions will be answered through factual research of African American traditions, artists, and various other sources.

First, we thank God for our Pastor’s inspiration and leadership. She has truly taught us what Christian fellowship is all about.

The African Methodist Episcopal Church also known as the AME Church, represents a long history of people going from struggles to success, from embarrassment to pride, from slaves to free. It is my intention to prove that the name African Methodist Episcopal represents equality and freedom to worship God, no matter what color skin a person was blessed to be born with. The thesis is this: While both Whites and Africans believed in the worship of God, whites believed in the oppression of the Africans’ freedom to serve God in their own way, blacks defended their own right to worship by the development of their own church. According to Andrew White, a well- known author for the AME denomination, “The word African means that our church was

However, a critical aspect of the liberation themes characteristic of Black worship is its ability to refrain from becoming a victim of oppression of time. Although, liberation in African-American Christian worship is also manifest in the way of music performance, with Black singers and instrumentalists seldom being satisfied to render a piece as it exists in print. Consequently, most often they elect to search for music and songs that provokes a responsive exploit in the African-American soul and

For this assignment, I was tasked with researching and discussing the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (AMEZC). Being raised attending and participating in church, and later becoming a Minister in the African Methodist Episcopal denomination, I found it interesting to research the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (AMEZC). I was interested in seeing the differences. In this paper, I will share the researched information regarding its founding, polity, dates, places, etc. I will also share its demographics, such as number of members, number of churches, number of schools, colleges, seminaries, and include significant figures as well.

While hymns and Negro spirituals have become staples in predominantly Black churches, gospel music or music based on the gospel of Jesus Christ has taken a decidedly contemporary slant. Gospel music in many white churches was interpreted in a folksy, southern way. Gospel music in Black churches was expressed with the same passion and soul that the slaves had expressed before them. Though slavery had ended, Jim Crow had begun and the struggle that segregation, poverty, and oppression had brought was expressed in these churches and in song. For a community seeking “deliverance”, singing the gospel brought them one step closer to feeling free even when their lives were anything but.

Although starkly different in dogma, Methodist and Baptist churches were able to evangelize many African Americans due to their common sharing of musical fervor. For example, in “the evangelical movements of popular reverends, John and Charles Wesley, [they] embraced ecstatic expressions; including, “speaking in tongues, fainting, [and] moving with the shakes.”(Walker, 1974). The African adoption of Christianity indelibly changed their views of the universe. However, pre-existing religious practices, particularly in West Africa, lend themselves to eighteenth century protestant denominations, in which both see music as connection to God or gods. Consequently, this legacy of cultural syncretism can be linked to twentieth century gospel music, wherein it has “certainly functioned as a catalyst for similar expressions of religious fervor.” (Wilson,

African American religious music is the foundation of all contemporary forms of so called "black music." African American religious music has been a fundamental part of the black experience in this country. This common staple of the African American experience can be traced back to the cruel system of slavery. It then evolved into what we refer to today as gospel music. The goal of this paper is to answer three main questions. What are the origins of African American religious music? How did this musical expression develop into a secular form of music? What is the future of African American religious music? These questions will be answered through factual research of African American traditions, artists, and various other sources.

OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE COMPLETION OF THE COURSE MUSC 610 – TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES FOR WORSHIP

“What makes our worship uniquely Black is our indomitable and uncanny ability to ‘sing the Lord’s song in a strange land’! (Psalm 137:4)” [“The Liturgy of the Roman rite and African American Worship,” Lead Me, Guide Me: The African American Catholic Hymnal, vol 1, 1987]

I attended the Sunday service at Tabernacle Baptist Church and made several observations about gospel music in African American churches. Music is used as a tool of worship and praise as it is sung at several points of the service. Most of the singing is done during the praise and worship section of the service. Moreover, gospel music is also used to emphasize on the message of the preacher. At times the pastor would accompany a crucial point with a song before embarking back on his sermon. Gospel music is also employed as a transition to prayer, where worship songs are sang before the congregation engages in prayer.

I am a member of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church, where the culture and worship is built around the motto, “God Our Father, Christ Our Redeemer, the Holy Spirit Our Comforter, Human kind Our Family.” This motto fits Christians around the world. However, for the AME church this motto encompasses a great summary of the principles of what our church stands for. Simply put, we worship God on all levels; we love all of God’s people and believe that without God’s love, the world would be lost. It is also our belief and duty to embrace our culture and rely specifically on the history of the church to fulfill our duty to worship God. We wholeheartedly recognize that “the relationship between Christianity and culture is such an important

Music is of God’s creation and an integral part of our lives, yet much of the current experience is one of the most emotionally charged and divisive issues facing the Christian Church, families, and individuals in America today. Pastors, worship leaders, trained musicians, and believers in general face new and powerful forces of change - forces that bring renewal to some churches and fear and schism to others. No one can sidestep the hot debate between such matters as the various styles of music, hymns versus choruses, seeker services versus worship services, choirs versus worship teams, organs versus synthesizers, and flowing praise versus singing one song at a time. With billions of