Worship and Witness

Every Sunday, millions of Christians worldwide gather for public worship. They may use different languages, sing distinct melodies, and perform rituals according to different traditions and in diverse styles, but there is a common element among all Christians: the practice of worship. In this book, eight Latin American Christian scholars reflect on contextual worship practices using various disciplinary lenses and methodologies. Each contributor to this book observes, describes, and interprets worship through Latin American eyes. These authors are women and men from different countries, are experts in varied academic fields, and represent a range of Protestant Christian traditions. They bring diverse religious backgrounds and worship experiences to this work. As our world becomes increasingly interconnected on a global scale, this book provides an opportunity to listen to underrepresented voices and develop a more nuanced and multifaceted understanding of worship beyond familiar settings.

When many Christian congregations are asking, "How can we draw new members into our midst?" the authors reframe the question: "How can congregations make new disciples and deepen the faith of long-time Christians?" Rediscovery of the early church catechumenate provides a means to form new disciples in today's culture. Inspiring case studies of four congregations emphasize the contextual flexibility of adult faith formation. Interviews with catechumenal leaders and participants in adult faith formation reveal how a catechumenate that is central to congregational life can energize and orient the people of God toward the mission of God. Opening windows into congregational life, especially at worship, those who had journeyed through the adult faith formation process describe their experiences and the profound changes that took place in them. Adult faith formation is a journey--not a program--of belonging, believing, and behaving that draws people into Christ's orbit for life. As one participant said, "For the first time I understood what it meant to be a Christian." Through the adult catechumenate she heard the voice of Christ, calling her to new life and a rich baptismal identity.

Sound Theology: A Reader brings to life in English for the first-time primary, curated sources associated with the pipe organ controversy in the Netherlands during the Reformation. Chief among the entries is Gisbertus Voetius's essay on Organ and Church Music from his magnum opus Politicae Ecclesiastica. In addition, other translations include professors, preachers, and laypeople's voices from archival manuscripts and first-edition monographs. Together, Sound Theology's two volumes tell a little-known but colorful and foundational story that shaped Reformed worship for centuries to come.

Christian worship emerges from and speaks back into human relationships that are necessarily shaped by power and authority. Free Churches structure and negotiate power in relation to worship in ways that reflect the decentralization, local diversity, and personal agency that characterize many aspects of Free Church theology and practice. This volume models how dialogue among scholars and practitioners of Free Church worship, as well as dialogue with the wider church, can be mutually enriching as Christians strive together to worship in ways that are faithful and just.

The OneWord Worship Model: A New Paradigm for Church Worship Planning offers a clear, concise, and collaborative approach to planning congregational worship using the biblical text as its foundation. The model engages laity and clergy in the true definition of liturgy--the work or action of the people. This text serves as both invitation and instruction for pastors, worship leaders, and congregations to plan powerful, fruitful, and transformative corporate encounters with the triune God.

Settler churches across North America have committed to the work of conciliation and reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples. Worship is a space in which these commitments are expressed and nurtured. As we are embraced by God's reconciling love in worship, we are equipped to carry that reconciling love into our relationships beyond the worship space. Worship equips us for the work of conciliation, but the liturgy itself needs to be decolonized if it is to truly honor Christian commitments to God and neighbor. This book explores the reformed liturgy in its pattern of Gathering, Word, Table, and Sending, searching it both for colonial vestiges, and spaces of new possibility. Unsettling Worship invites the reader into a conversation about reformed worship in a setting of ongoing colonization. Worship should both unsettle us, and equip us for the essential work of making things right with Indigenous neighbors.

Various Christian traditions mark their calendars to reflect the biblical and ecclesial narrative and enhance public worship. Such efforts safeguard against secularization's encroachment in the church's life. Setting the Spiritual Clock serves as a guide and traveling companion for the liturgical year, which circles the glorious Son as he breaks through the secular eclipse.

“Living the Questions of the Bible” presents questioning as a viable and faithful Christian practice. We may think the Bible is only about getting answers, but the Bible is also a question book, revealing how the life of faith is a quest with and for God. By exploring various passages in the Bible, this book attempts to invite readers into an interrogative spirituality, one in which we learn that even God questions. Faith seeks and keeps on seeking. It may reach understanding, or it may not. Either way, our questions are a way to live the Christian life honestly, faithfully, and doxologically.

Joy is elusive. Discovering, living in, and living with joy means a lifelong connection to the heart of God. This book connects the pilgrimage of life and faith to parallel movements of worship as communities gather to hear, read, proclaim, receive, and witness to the word of God. At the heart of joy, is the One who is Joy itself, the triune God who shapes and forms lives for the work and witness of justice in the world. In doing so, the author sees that the entirety of life is worship, the totality of the world is the arena of God's work of justice in which we participate, and in being connected to God and to God's work, there lies the core of joy. Worship, Justice, and Joy draws upon liturgical theology, ritual studies, and is a guide for living out faith everyday, in community, for the common good of justice in the world.

Sound Theology: Pipe Organ Power Plays among Protestants, Pulpits, Professors, and Peers surveys the liturgical soundscape during and after the Reformation with regard to the use of instruments in worship in general, and the (dis)use of the pipe organ specifically. Why were some sounds considered sacred, and others profane? The book tells the story of first-generation reformers' approaches to shaping their new Reformed worship services in regard to music, and the resulting debates, power plays, and ultimate compromises. Sound Theology also examines second-generation Protestants' affirmations, adaptations, and reversals. Sound Theology: A Reader is a companion volume of curated primary source material. Together, Sound Theology's two volumes tell a little-known, but colorful and foundational story that shaped Reformed worship for centuries to come.

This book enables worship leaders to skillfully guide spiritual novices, skeptics, and Christian veterans to the grace embedded in the timeless liturgy. Offering winsome worship hospitality, these pages provide seasoned wisdom, often in the form of pithy introductions (Adams calls these "frames") that alert worshipers to the character and purpose of various service elements. Readers get the tools to create their own frames, informed by the church of all ages, and customized to their congregation and neighborhood. This book will serve well anyone who wants to increase their missional worship IQ.