Worship Architect

M. Cherry Constance

Description

There are many books available on the topic of worship today, but few provide a comprehensive, practical method for worship design. Constance M. Cherry, a worship professor and practitioner, provides worship leaders with credible blueprint plans for successfully designing worship services that foster meaningful conversation with God and the gathered community. Readers will learn how to create services that are faithful to Scripture, historically conscious, relevant to God, Christ-centered, and engaging for worshipers of all ages in the twenty-first century. The book sets forth basic principles concerning worship design and demonstrates how these principles are conducive to virtually any style of worship practiced today in a myriad of Christian communities. It will also work well as a guide for worship-planning teams in local churches and provide insight for worship students, pastors, and church leaders involved in congregational worship.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Christian worship

Informations

• Publié par: Baker Publishing Group
• Date de parution: 01 mars 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781441213280
• Langue: English

Extrait

the WORSHIP architect
the Worship architect
A Blueprint for Designing Culturally Relevant and Biblically Faithful Services
Constance M. Cherry
2010 by Constance M. Cherry
Published by Baker Academic a division of Baker Publishing Group P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287 www.bakeracademic.com Printed in the United States of America
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.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cherry, Constance M., 1953- The worship architect : a blueprint for designing culturally relevant and biblically faithful services / Constance M. Cherry. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-0-8010-3874-7 (pbk.) 1. Public worship-Planning. I. Title. BV15.C42 2010 264-dc22
2009044949
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations labeled NIV are from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION .NIV . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations labeled NLT are from the Holy Bible , New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is dedicated in loving memory of Robert E. Webber (1933-2007), mentor and friend
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Why a Book about Worship Design?
Phase One: Laying the Foundations for Worship
1 Establishing the Foundation: Biblical Worship
2 Setting the Cornerstone: Worship Is Centered in Jesus Christ
Phase Two: Building the Structure for Worship
3 Four Rooms for Encountering God: The General Order of Worship
4 The First Load-Bearing Wall: The Gathering
5 The Second Load-Bearing Wall: The Word
6 The Third Load-Bearing Wall: The Table of the Lord
7 The Third Load-Bearing Wall: The Alternative Response to the Word
8 The Fourth Load-Bearing Wall: The Sending
Phase Three: Creating Doors and Windows for Encountering God
9 Encountering God in Prayer: Capturing the Heart of Worship
10 Encountering God in Music: Singing the Church s Song
11 Encountering God in Music: Offering Sound Musical Leadership
12 Encountering God in the Christian Year: Remembering the Whole Narrative
Phase Four: Adding Style to the Worship Event
13 Principles of Worship Style: Expressing Your Corporate Identity
14 A More Excellent Way: Exploring Convergence
Phase Five: Nurturing Hospitality at the Worship Event
15 The Hospitable Worship Leader: Engaging Worshipers as Participants
Appendix A: Ten Basic Steps in Designing Vital Worship
Appendix B: Checklist for Designing Vital Worship
Notes
Acknowledgments
I am a worshiper because of my parents, Harold and Ruby Cherry. They took me to church from infancy and showed me what worship was really about by their example, as their parents also did for them when they, too, were children. I watched my father, a lifelong pastor, lead public worship weekly. The older I get, the more I realize how much I gained from his reverent approach to holy worship. By example, Dad taught me how to be a worship leader. My mother was a fully engaged participant. Even with her hands full, trying to manage four young children in the pew, she seemed remarkably able to focus on God. I remember admiring her sweet congregational voice-which contributed well to the singing of hymns. She would sometimes sing the tenor line an octave higher as a graceful counterpart to the melody. As she prayed and sang, I always had the sense that she was in deep communion with her Lord. By example, Mom taught me how to be a worshiper. Recently her voice joined those of the heavenly host, and she continues her praises unencumbered by earthly concerns. Little did I know as a child that by simply going to church, I was learning how both to lead in worship and to participate fully as a worshiper. For these examples I am grateful.
The influence of Robert E. Webber on my understanding of worship cannot begin to be calculated. In 1998 I was in the first class of graduates who received the Doctor of Ministry in Christian Worship degree from Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, a program designed and led by Dr. Webber. It proved to be an excellent choice for me, as I was not only deeply shaped by Bob s philosophy of Christian worship-which is why I chose this program- but was assigned Dr. Webber as my doctoral thesis supervisor. On the day I graduated, Bob approached me about serving on the faculty of a school he was forming, the Institute for Worship Studies (now the Robert E. Webber Institute for Worship Studies), which was still in the concept stages. His vision for a nontraditional, graduate-level degree program in worship became a reality in 1999. My spiritual and intellectual growth is challenged by the students and my distinguished colleagues as together we attempt to carry on Bob s legacy. A few weeks before Bob died, I had a surprise phone call from him in which he offered advice and encouragement for the book that you now hold in your hands. I am eternally indebted to him.
The churches of which I have been a part have formed me spiritually beyond measure. Not only have the friendships I have gained enriched me in every way, but these congregations have afforded me infinite opportunities to lead in various aspects of worship-first as a fledgling and later as a so-called professional. It was at the First United Brethren Church of Lansing, Michigan, the church of my childhood and early youth, where I made my first attempts at leading the music of worship. This church will always have a special place in my heart. I am grateful to the dear people of Grant United Methodist Church of Fairmount, Indiana, whom I serve as pastor and worship leader today. Their generous and charitable spirit allows me great flexibility as I live out my calling to both the academy and the local church. I look forward to worshiping with them every single Lord s Day. To each of the congregations I have served, thank you for helping me to become a better, more theologically grounded and skilled worship leader.
I offer my sincere appreciation to Indiana Wesleyan University for the gift of a place to teach, to the worship majors who push me intellectually and help me to laugh, and to all my colleagues in the School of Theology and Ministry-you are the best!
As I undertook this book, many friends and relatives surrounded me with encouragement and pledged their prayers. In particular, I thank Eric and Daisy Vollrath, who provided the upper room where I could write in quiet surroundings, interrupted only by the church tower clock down the street that chimed the hour. Their generosity and kindnesses I will never forget.
I also wish to sincerely thank those who helped in support roles as I endeavored to complete the manuscript, especially Kelly Bixler and Joyce Thornton, who gave many hours of help with reading, editing, and formatting; Emily Vermilya for special assistance at the university; and Melissa Fipps for her work with gaining citations permissions. Two architects, Timothy Bechtol and Jeffrey Morgan, were most generous in allowing me access to their thinking so that I could develop the metaphor for this book. Their insights have been invaluable.
Last, I express my most sincere appreciation to Baker Academic for their trust in giving me this opportunity for publication. I am most grateful.
It is my prayer that this book may be of some small use for the church until Christ returns and we worship the Triune God perfectly.
Introduction Why a Book about Worship Design?
Vast numbers of Christian corporate worship services are designed and led weekly all around the world. They appear on every continent on the earth and in most languages under heaven. Indeed, From the rising of the sun to its setting the name of the LORD is [being] praised (Ps. 113:3) somewhere among faithful Christians. Yet for as many services as we design, and for as many occasions of public worship as are offered, worship leaders still struggle with how to go about planning worship. Is it simply a matter of selecting the right songs to sing and programming the right special music ? Is it a matter of shuffling the cards and laying them out in new configurations so as to intrigue worshipers from week to week? Do we adopt one tried-and-true order of service and stick with it, come what may? Or is worship design a free-for-all that requires little or no preparation, where the Spirit is expected to deliver the order of service on demand?
Those ministers and laity charged with the leadership of Lord s Day services know the work involved in designing and leading regular worship services. They feel the crunch of the cycle of seven days; one benediction is hardly concluded before another prelude has begun. They know the burden of coming up with the stuff for another service. Worship leaders from non-liturgical traditions carry a heavier load than sisters and brothers from liturgical churches. The order and much of the content of liturgical worship services are prescribed through prayer books and denominational sources. But for those worship leaders from traditional, Free Church, Pentecostal, and contemporary traditions, two approaches for designing worship seem to have emerged. The trend is either (1) to use a routine order of service with changes from week to week only in the musical selections and sermon titles, or (2) to design every serv