Real Worship

W. Wiersbe Warren

Description

Respected Bible teacher Warren Wiersbe defines the essence of worship and discusses the key issues surrounding this often controversial topic within the church.

Sujets

• Christian worship
• Philosophie et théologie

Informations

• Publié par: Baker Publishing Group
• Date de parution: 01 février 2000
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781585582686
• Langue: English

Extrait

R EAL W ORSHIP
Other titles by Warren W. Wiersbe
Being a Child of God
Be Myself
The Bible Exposition Commentary (2 vols.)
The Bumps Are What You Climb On
The Cross of Jesus: What His Words from Calvary Mean for Us
Elements of Preaching
God Isn t in a Hurry: Learning to Slow Down and Live
The Intercessory Prayer of Jesus: Priorities for Dynamic Christian Living
Living with the Giants: The Lives of Great Men of the Faith
The Names of Jesus
On Being a Servant of God
Prayer, Praise, and Promises: A Daily Walk through the Psalms
Run with the Winners
So That s What a Christian Is! 12 Pictures of the Dynamic Christian Life
The Strategy of Satan
Turning Mountains into Molehills: And Other Devotional Talks
Victorious Christians You Should Know
Wiersbe s Expository Outlines on the New Testament
Wiersbe s Expository Outlines on the Old Testament
R EAL W ORSHIP
Playground, Battleground, or Holy Ground?
_______________________________________
Second Edition
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Warren W. Wiersbe
2000 by Warren W. Wiersbe
Published by Baker Books a division of Baker Book House Company P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
E-book edition created 2011
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means-for example, electronic, photocopy, recording-without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
ISBN 978-1-5855-8268-6
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations have been taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture marked NIV is taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION . NIV . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. www.zondervan.com
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To our choice friend Don Wyrtzen
Contents
Preface
P ART 1 I NVITATION TO W ORSHIP
1. In which the author admits his frustration
2. In which we attempt to define worship
3. In which we discuss transformation and discover how dangerous it can be
P ART 2 W ORSHIP I NVOLVES W ONDER
4. In which we get involved in the wonder of wonder
5. In which we cautiously attempt to discuss the wonder of God
6. In which we think about idolatry and discover why it is so hateful to God
7. In which we meet some believers who met God and worshiped Him
8. In which we discover the wonder of God s church
P ART 3 W ORSHIP I NVOLVES W ITNESS
9. In which we learn what it means to witness to God
10. In which we learn what it means to witness to one another
11. In which we learn that preaching is an act of worship
12. In which we try to relate worship and the arts, trusting to enrich both
P ART 4 W ORSHIP I NVOLVES W ARFARE
13. In which we recover a neglected fact about Satan and learn about spiritual warfare
14. In which we discover that God s church today is a spiritual army
15. In which we must make a difficult decision
P ART 5 W ORSHIP I NVOLVES W ISDOM
16. In which we consider the wisdom of taking worship seriously
17. In which we learn the wisdom of planning balanced worship
18. In which we consider the wisdom of tradition in worship
Appendix: Answering Some Questions about Worship
Notes
Bibliography
Preface
T HIS BOOK IS A REVISED and expanded edition of Real Worship, which was first published in 1986. I have made some minor changes in the original copy and have added the three chapters in Part 5.
I rejoice to hear that this book has been used to encourage many believers in both their personal and corporate worship. Worship leaders have shared it with their worship teams and it has been used as a textbook in several schools. I trust that this new edition will have an even wider ministry.
In the last decade, a number of excellent books on worship have been published, some of which are listed in the bibliography.
Since this book is somewhat of a journal of my own worship pilgrimage, it can t be published in a final edition because the journey hasn t ended yet. There is still much land to be conquered and I keep pressing on. I still believe that worship is the church s greatest responsibility and privilege, and that by imitating the world the church is losing spiritual power and witness. The harvest is not the end of the meeting, it s the end of the age; and the purpose of worship is the edifying of the saints, not the entertaining of religious spectators.
May our Lord help us to worship Him in spirit and in truth.
-W ARREN W. W IERSBE
Part 1
I NVITATION TO W ORSHIP
Religion is that which binds a man. Every man is bound somewhere, somehow, to a throne, to a government, to an authority, to something that is supreme, to something to which he offers sacrifice, and burns incense, and bends the knee.
-G. C AMPBELL M ORGAN ,
T HE W ESTMINSTER P ULPIT
(L ONDON : P ICKERING I NGLIS, N.D .)
VOL . 8, P. 248
One
I NVITATION TO W ORSHIP
In which the author admits his frustration
P LEASE UNDERSTAND from the beginning that the writing of this book was a frustrating experience for me, and the revising and expanding of it wasn t any easier.
At first, I blamed my frustration on the breadth of the subject, and I wondered if any writer was capable of dealing with so vast a theme as Christian worship. Besides that, certain aspects of worship are not easy to define or explain. At times I felt like a man trying to lay sunbeams in a row while evening was marching inexorably in.
Then I decided that the problem was not the vastness of the subject but the narrowness of my own experience. After all, most of my worship experience has been in the fundamentalist independent church tradition, where the word worship was found only on the cover of the hymnal. If not by word, at least by example, my peers taught me to be suspicious of liturgy and to major on winning the lost and sending out foreign missionaries. Even my ministerial training added little to my appreciation of Christian worship.
Imagine my surprise years later when I discovered that every church followed a liturgy, either a good one or a bad one, and that I could learn a great deal about the worship of God from churches that I had excluded from my fellowship. What a rude awakening!
In recent years I have participated in worship experiences in many and varied settings: mission stations and churches in Africa, South America, Central America, and Europe; English cathedrals; Brethren assemblies; churches of one denomination or another across the United States and Canada; house churches; camps and conferences; and even a few denominational conventions. At the same time, I ve been closely studying the lives and ministries of the great preachers and missionaries of the evangelical tradition, people as far apart on the religious spectrum as Charles Haddon Spurgeon and John Henry Newman, and I think I have developed a sympathy with and an appreciation for what is best in their ministries.
Believe me, it wasn t easy! More than once I longed for those days of comfort and security, when all truth was safely tucked into my notebook, every question was answered, and every Christian was accurately identified and pigeonholed. The writing of this book has reopened old wounds in my heart, recalled painful growth experiences, and forced me to find the courage to say what I think needs to be said, even though some of my best friends might disagree with me.
No, this book isn t a spiritual autopsy in which I confess my past ministerial faults and announce that I am making some dramatic theological or ecclesiastical change. I still hold to the fundamentals of the faith, and I plan to continue worshiping in the free church tradition. But I want to enrich my experience of spiritual worship, both in my private devotions and in congregational service. And I want to be able to appreciate the worship experiences of my brothers and sisters in Christ, even though we may have our minor differences when it comes to matters liturgical.
In fact, you and I may disagree on some aspects of Christian doctrine, but I am sure there is one thing we definitely agree on: You and I personally, and the church collectively, are desperately in need of transformation. We are weary of business as usual. We need and want a transforming experience from the Lord, the kind of spiritual visitation that will help to heal our broken homes and our split churches; that will strip away our religious veneer and get us back to reality; that will restore true spiritual values and replace the cheap counterfeits we ve been foisting on ourselves and the lost world; that will, most of all, bring such glory to God that the world will sit up and take notice and confess that God is truly among you (1 Cor. 14:25).
I love the church. I devoted nearly a quarter of a century to pastoral ministry in three churches. In my present ministry, I often speak to local congregations, pastors conferences, and denominational meetings of one kind or another. My wife and I have tried to be faithful members of the local church where we hold our membership. In my preaching and writing ministry, I have attempted to encourage pastors and church leaders and to emphasize the importance of the church. If I have a quarrel with the church, it s a lover s quarrel.
However, my love for the church has not made me blind to her spots and wrinkles. I have no intention of listing here all the things that are wrong with too many churches today. It would be too painful for me and not too profitable for you. Churches ar