Summary: Finding resources is a constant challenge. One of the features of this blog will be to review books on worship that the author has found helpful. Today we review a newly published book, “Wise Church: Exploring Faith and Worship with Christians Around the World.
The book being reviewed today is
Wise Church:Exploring Faith and Worship with Christians Around the World. Emily R. Brink and Paul Detterman.
Faith Alive : Grand Rapids, Michigan. 2013
128 pages ISBN: 978-1-59255-786-8
1.1. Called by the Triune God
Blessed are the people of God
who are deeply aware
that they are both called by and address the triune God,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
who gathers, protects, and cares for the church
through Word and Spirit-
a God of splendour and majesty
perfectly revealed in Jesus Christ,
the “image of the invisible God” (Col. 1:15) . . . . .
Blessed is the congregation
that insists that believers gather to worship God
not, first of all, in order that God might bless them,
but because God has already blessed them.
In my last blog I reflected on the question, “What is Worship?”. This book, “Wise Church: Exploring Faith and Worship with Christians Around the World” contains a wonderful answer to that question. In fact, it impressed me so much that I bought copies to give to both the members of my Session and our Worship Team. Presently, we’re using it as a Session study and it has opened up wonderful discussions about worship.
To understand the content of the book, however, one needs to know the history behind it. In preparation for the inaugural meeting of the World Communion of Reformed Churches in 2010, of which The Presbyterian Church in Canada is a part, it was agreed to root this new “communion” in a theology of worship as worship is the glue that holds us all together. Rather than produce an essay on worship the international committee framed the statement in a series of proverbs, – “a literary form rooted in wisdom literature and embedded in many cultures for millennia.” This alone makes this document unique as well as easy to read and gives it a feel similar to The Presbyterian Church in Canada’s Living Faith: A Statement of Christian Belief. (Wood Lake Books, 1984)
“Wise Church” contains this document called “Worshipping the Triune God: Receiving and Sharing Christian Wisdom across Continents and Centuries” in its entirety. The document is 11 pages long but it is an easy read and interestingly it uses as its framework the traditional four (or five) fold order of worship that Presbyterians are so familiar with in their worship.
1.A Called and Forgiven People: Assembling in Jesus’ Name
2.Joyfully Proclaiming God’s Word
3.Responding to God in Prayer and Offerings
4.Baptizing and Feasting
5.A Blessed and Commissioned People Serving in Jesus’ Name.
After the worship statement the remainder of Wise Church contains an excellent study guide that helps us reflect on each of these five sections, plus a “B” section titled “Going Deeper,” that offers additional opportunities for conversation and reflection.
The sections of “Worshipping the Triune God: Receiving and Sharing Christian Wisdom across Continents and Centuries” includes the kind of statements you would expect in any Christian document about worship (e.g. on baptism and the Lord’s Supper) but there other sections one might not expect, such as the following:
1.7 Artistic Expression
Blessed is the congregation in which the Word is proclaimed
and prayers and praise are offered
not only through words,
but also through artistic expression:
through gifts God has given
to each local community
in music and dance,
in speech and silence,
in visual art and architecture.
Blessed are the artists
who offer and discipline their gifts
so God’s people may
testify to the goodness of God,
offer thanks, and express repentance….
Wise are artists who are grateful
both for the limitations offered by the second commandment,
and also for the example of the biblical artists called by God
and equipped by God’s people for service
according to God’s commands. (Ex. 35:30ff)
Wise is the church
that gratefully receives
the gifts of faithful songs and artworks
from other centuries and other cultures,
celebrating the catholicity of the church
and cultivating creativity
through new songs and works for worship.
I also was delighted to find a section on Hospitality and Evangelization as it relates to worship.
5.3. Hospitality and Evangelization
Blessed are communities
in which hospitality is practiced
in both public worship and in personal lives,
where strangers and guests are welcomed and embraced,
where the poor and marginalized, diseased and forsaken
can find refuge under the shadow of God’s wings.
Blessed are communities
in which all people are invited and challenged
to become disciples of Jesus,
receiving baptism and formation in the faith. (cf Matt. 28:19)
Finally, this book is well laid out and at 128 pages is an easy read. If I have one criticism it would be that the pictures are in black and white. I am unsure whether this makes them less or more powerful.
This is a great resource for Sessions, Worship Committees and Teams, and for study groups. The worship document can easily be used in worship. It is available from The Book Room of The Presbyterian Church in Canada or from Faith Alive Publications. At around $8.00 a copy, this is a book everyone interested in worship should have on their shelf.
http://thebookroom.ca/
http://www.faithaliveresources.org/
