Worship

One of the biggest questions asked of a church is, “What is your worship style?” My answer on a tact free day would be, “Our style is to try to worship God every minute of the day in everything we do and think, no matter what setting we are in.” An answer from the heart, but not what most people are looking for. So lets talk musical style.

Our musical style is "modern", and uses the gifts that God has brought to Calvary Church. Modern would actually convey a different meaning from "contemporary", which has been a popular description over the past 30 years, but doesn't quite fit our current overall style. Contemporary has a very broad meaning, reflecting those who championed it in the past. To some it would include strings and horn players, with several singers singing multi-part harmonies. But a more current style doesn't usually include those elements, having fewer singers and a simpler format. All that aside, the important thing is that the style in a church is reflected by the gifts God has blessed that church with. That being said, our songs are typically guitar driven, and include many different instruments such as acoustic and electric guitar, bass, piano and synth, drums, violin, and assorted other instruments on occasion. We typically play songs written by people like David Crowder, Charlie Hall, Chris Tomlin, Martin Smith (Delirious), Matt Redmond, Jami Smith, Tim Hughes, Vicky Beaching, Darrel Evans, and many others. Although these songs might be more cutting edge, we still include other modern classics as well. But what about Hymns?

Hymns are of course an issue in any church, and ours is no different. We have found that the emerging generations like Hymns more than their predecessors who have pushed them aside in the past. And they are also of great importance to the older generations. So we include hymns as well. The difference between a hymn at Calvary and one from a more traditional church is the instruments used. We of course use the gifts and talents God has brought us, so the instruments used are the same as those used for the other songs. Once in a while a hymn has a chorus added to it, or a slightly different meter, but we try hard to keep the melody in tact making it easy to sing by all generations.

Some people ask, "Is this a charismatic church?" We are not a charismatic church in the sense that we do not practice certain spiritual gifts, like speaking in tongues, in our corporate worship services. But we are not anti-charismatic. Calvary Church is made up of people with a wide variety of backgrounds and practices in this area. We do not believe this is a matter essential to salvation, so we don't divide on this issue.