The Worship Arts
The call to the worship arts involves integrating the arts in worship. Most Christians are familiar with the musical arts being used in worship. Traditional churches have their choirs, organs and hymns. Contemporary services have worship teams with a variety of musical instruments from guitars and drums to flute and violin. Many of us are familiar with Christmas and Easter plays and youth group skits and dramas and maybe choreographed dance pieces—these are the performing arts used in worship. We know that for centuries it was the church that preserved, sponsored and nurtured the visual arts. We see this in everything from the architecture of the great cathedrals, to its murals and stained glass windows to the liturgical vestments. We must not forget the literary arts in the reading of the psalms, the writing of hymns and the oratory art of sermons.