Re-Forming Worship: A Futurology of Congregational Music for the Non-Denominational Church

There is an implicit claim in the non-denominational church, seen in both its worship and church growth movements, that forms are neutral and therefore interchangeable. But is it true? How can we tell? Drawing on the work of Christian philosopher, James K. A. Smith, Packiam develops a framework to critique this claim. He then uses the late Robert Webber's proposal of an "Ancient-Future Worship" as a corrective, outlining the challenges with implementing this proposal in the non-denominational church. Finally, the paper concludes with a case study of a non-denominational church moving to re-form its congregational worship practices.This paper was written to address a prescriptive futurology of congregational music in the non-denominational church, and was presented at a conference on congregational music at one of the Anglican colleges at Oxford University on August 1, 2013.