Algoritmos de aprendizaje autónomo supervisado

One of the most important ways churches set the tone for the service each week is through the lyrics, pace, and style of the music. This portion of the service is called “worship” within evangelical communities and does not include the announcements or sermon. As the first section of each service, the worship creates the ambiance, establishes theological parameters, and defines the image of the service. As the single longest element of each service, worship is critical to branding and marketing of the church, even though the pastor himself is often either in the audience or absent altogether during this time. The length of worship varies, but for Lakewood, Oasis, and Victory it usually runs 30-45 minutes. The pastors are sometimes in the congregation looking on, or in the case of Osteen, off-stage and away from the eyes of the congregation. Based on the style and volume of the worship in all three churches, this is not your grandma’s tradition. Music at all three churches is loud, emotional, and electric. While there is a mix of slower and faster paced songs, they are bolstered by electric guitars, lights, ten to twenty singers, sometimes a choir, and a large drum kit.

The audience’s enthusiasm varies among and within all three churches with Oasis and Lakewood having numerous audience members actively participating through dance, clapping, hands raised, and swaying. Victory Family Church has the same style of worship being presented, and if you were to only watch their worship via video you would see a high energy, heavily produced, and vibrant worship team leading each week. The first few rows of

congregants continue this trend and are highly engaged in the worship experience with many people lifting their hands and moving to the music. Examining the Victory congregation as a whole, however, shows a more reserved group than the worship band projects. Most people are singing along, but there is not a lot of physical engagement in terms of dancing, raising hands, or swaying to the music. Located in Cranberry Township in the exurbs of Pittsburgh, this very conservative location might be influencing how the audience is responding to the worship leadership. Regardless, the worship team at Victory is attempting to create a vibrant, energetic, worship experience for their church audience.

In the oral histories, each church’s pastor expressed a commitment to a high standard of quality from their worship team, and Oasis in particular emphasized a commitment to excellence, in part due to their location in the entertainment capital of the world. The church’s singers and musicians are often professional, and as a result, create an incredible worship experience for the audience. The congregants respond in kind to the high caliber experience and are actively involved in singing, dancing, waving hands, and swaying. The worship team includes soloists, featured singers, and a variety of instruments. Oasis prides itself on providing a stellar experience for the audience. The word “experience” comes up a lot in evangelical speak, and refers to a desire on the part of the leaders to have the church service be more than just ritual or tradition. They believe each person in the audience should have an “experience” that inspires them and helps them feel closer to God. The rhetoric relies heavily on feelings rather than thoughts.

Like Oasis, the caliber of singers at Lakewood Church is professional grade, and the worship leader, Israel Houghton, has won several Grammys for his gospel albums. Houghton has been with Lakewood for over a decade and is a staple member of the church’s staff. In an

October 2012 interview, Houghton defended Osteen by dismissing concerns by some that Osteen was just a “positive-thinking” motivator.¹⁴⁹ He went on to say that he would “rather offend Christian leaders who think Osteen doesn’t preach enough about sin than the many non-Christians who are attracted to Osteen’s message of God’s love for them.”¹⁵⁰ Clearly, Osteen is on the same page as his worship leader, and together they are creating an incredible independent force. Lakewood’s worship team and leader, Houghton, have received numerous awards and sell CDs of their work to great acclaim. Clearly, the church is creating a positive worship

“experience” for the congregants as well as the millions of people watching beyond the church walls via television and the Internet.

The lengthy worship segment is typical for evangelical/non-denominational churches, where worship is a critical component of the service and takes up approximately as much time or more as the sermon. At Lakewood and Oasis, tithes and offerings are collected after/during worship while Victory conducts its collection at the end of the service. The Lakewood money collection is not included in the edited version of the television broadcast, and the worship portion in general is either pared down significantly or omitted altogether. The songs at all three churches are scheduled and designed around the service with faster and slower songs placed within the service where appropriate, and with slower songs playing in the background when pastors speak. Usually the songs begin fast-paced, and get slower as the service progresses. The entire worship portion of the service is scheduled and designed as a means of creating emotional responses and setting the tone of the service for the audience.

149 “Lakewood Worship Leader Defends Joel Osteen,” Accessed August 24, 2013,

http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/lifestyle/religion/lakewood-church-worship-leader-defends-joel-osteen.

150 Ibid.

There is some overlap in the songs that are played among the three churches with many of the songs coming from the famed Hillsong Music collection. Hillsong is a music company featuring music written and performed at Hillsong Church, an evangelical, megachurch in Australia that has become one of the largest providers of Christian worship music globally.

Hillsong music can be heard across the country at countless churches and there is an annual Hillsong conference where pastors and other members of ministry meet to get ideas for effective worship, hear new music, and compare notes to improve the worship experience at their respective churches.

Among all three churches, much of the musical content focuses on general praise to a good God who wants to bless you and protect you. The lyrics support the churches’ general mission and goals. The songs tend to be about praising God, being faithful to him, and having him bless you. In a nutshell, this is the philosophy, to varying degrees, of each of these churches. The worship, then, is an effective way for the churches to reinforce their message and prepare the congregants for the content of the upcoming sermon. In many ways, the worship acts as the “opening act” for the main event: the sermon.