History of Contemporary Praise & Worship

by Lester Ruth, Lim Swee Hong

Christianity Today 2023 Book Award Finalist (History & Biography)

New forms of worship have transformed the face of the American church over the past fifty years. Drawing on a wide range of primary sources, including interviews with dozens of important stakeholders and key players, this volume by two worship experts offers the first comprehensive history of Contemporary Praise & Worship. The authors provide insight into where this phenomenon began and how it reshaped the Protestant church. They also emphasize the span of denominational, regional, and ethnic expressions of contemporary worship.

368 pages, Paperback

Published July 25, 2023

Reviews

[Mark DeJesus · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent deep dive into the history of what we know of as praise and worship. The authors do a very thorough job of laying out the origins of latter rain charismatic influence as well as the surge of contemporary worship designed to reach people evangelistically. I always appreciate a historical book that lays out the history with no sense of bias, which allows me to take in the history and develop my own perspectives and convictions. I highly recommend this read for those who want to understand how we got here. What will the future be?

[L W · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read it to write this paper: https://academia.edu/resource/work/12...

A very helpful resource to understand how we ended up with the “contemporary praise and worship” church services in many churches today.