Benefits Of Blended Worship?

Years later in this process of growth, I was blessed with a summer internship at a larger congregation in Dallas, Texas. Although I grew from my relationships and from the mentorship I received, I also observed that the bulk of the ministry meetings focused on changing and adapting our church’s corporate worship to be more and more “seeker sensitive.” The thought was that corporate worship was something malleable that could be altered into something more like the culture of the surrounding neighborhood, so people would want to come. “After all,” so the thinking went, “scripture provided only a rough guideline as to what the church is to do when coming together and there is little-to-no reason to keep intact what past generations did or passed down.” In essence, we sought to form our corporate worship for the purpose of evangelism. I believed that the important thing to focus on is love of God, love of neighbor, and piety. Something in the line of reasoning that insisted on changing the community worship ritual to reflect the world didn’t feel right to me, yet I could not articulate what it was. Several months later I visited an Eastern Orthodox Church as part of a course on Christian spiritual development and after a didactic

That can be done in numerous ways, but the more people who participate in the process, the more the congregation can own it, and the more unity there will be in its fulfillment . The Lord tells us in 1 Corinthians 3:9 that (paraphrasing) God has basically said that His work and His way can best be accomplished when we become co laborers together with Him. My personal philosophy of ministry builds a church through unity of heart, mind, and spirit between the Pastors, his/her staff, the lay leaders, and laity of the church who all work together to disciple believers, grow in relationship with Christ, worship, and reach the lost to build God’s kingdom. Westing states, “The church is central to God’s redemptive plan. This is the institution that has extended the meaning of Christ’s life into the world today”(Pg.

From the beginning of times, music has played an important role in everyone’s life. At first, it started with drum-based and percussion instruments made out of what was available as rocks and sticks. Our ancestors proved that human beings have an innate need of music. Nowadays, no one teaches a baby to follow the beat of a song, he just naturally lets his body get involved with the rhythm. Since the prehistoric era to Christian times, several forms of music have developed leaving a trail to new genres of music. For Christianity, hymns and plainchants were the first forms of music considered as a worship to God. As time passed by, Christian music has evolved giving way to new and fresh sounds.

Christian worship centers on meetings or services held on Sunday. These services consist of Biblical readings, communion, and music either with or without instrumental accompaniment, prayer, a teaching from the Bible in the form of a sermon and a collection of tithes. Other forms of worship, such

Looking past church’s names and denominations, that usually separate churchgoers on any given Sunday, everyone was on one accord, as all hearts and minds were focused on the one thing each had in common---their love for God and his children.

To participate in worship, a person must have a relationship with God. In other words, how can a person worship someone he/she does not know or experienced. To obtain that link an individual must become a part of the body of Christ by accepting Jesus as their personal Savior and surrender their will for God's will and plans for their life. They must also have had an encounter with God as Saul on the Damascus road and David with his many issues. However, music has a multipurpose, it drives away evil spirits, calms the mind, and drives a person toward the love and warmth of Christ.

The big question or concern that is initially raised is simply the correct concern that “many

While he does take worship to the extreme with choirs, instruments and drama, the principle is there. A lot of people will go to a church based on their worship service. The author is wise however, to keep the worship focus on God. Does it honor, inspire and show joy? In 1 Corinthians 14:25, the non-believer was convicted by the speaking of tongues.

Worship music what is it really for and is there such of thing as good or bad Worship music. Donald Williams In his Touchstone magazine article, “Durable Hymns,” Williams notes that there have been wars over music almost as long as there’s been a church. Williams says we should study the music of the past to “learn the criteria by which to discern what is worthy in the present.” I agree that we need to look in the past but we need to be careful with that too just like today music written log ago had music that was of poor quality too. One hymn I that stuck with me through my teens is “you are my all in all” by Dennis Jernigan. This song is rooted in biblical truth (You are my strength when I am weak…When I fall down you pick me up), theological

A feeling of community is a part of worship which can only be shown and not felt through televised worship. This feeling of community envelops around me everytime I’m singing during worship. To feel the whole congregation lifted up in song and singing with all of their might to the Lord presents a feeling like no other. You can almost feel the Lord rejoicing with you. It definitely is something you can’t get from television. It is something that has to be felt in the presence of people and a sense of community. In a study that was done by the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, one participant was quoted as saying, “[Singing with other people] is kind of a group expression an[sic] it’s kind of like bringing everybody together and foeed[sic] on one thing.” Another participant was quoted as saying, “I feel God’s presence in the communion with the congregation, the caring and the friendly open feeling of the congregation to

The authors point out a huge problem that is alive and well in the church. Due to personal preferences, the church has separated itself from one another. Not only are different cultures separate but the age differences within the church are separated amongst themselves. The leaders of worship within the church whether they are pastors or worship band leaders must not

Yes we are called to be unified, but unity does not mean that we can't openly wrestle and discuss our differences. We treat our political and social differences like they are only like "Pepsi and Coke" or the Bears and Packers. Sorry, people aren't going to war over their favorite sports teams, but on cultural and political issues. Its ok to be open in the Church and explore those differences. This way we can break down those barriers and achieve real unity. Listening to Paul and Patience, Bobby Dennis, and others have challenged me a lot. I don't see them as dangerous enemies but as brothers and sisters.

The common form of worship at the time was choral singing, so congregational singing was vastly different. This bonding and fellowship is the type of respect and worship that the Lord deserves. Worship is, "Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the

Worship comes in different forms depending on how the church wants the service to proceed. For the Amazing Grace Church, the service began with the congregation singing a number of worship songs to the Lord that lasted for about an hour. Christian praise and worship by music, and in fact, music is a great tool for helping them feel closer to God. Music is an emotional language because it effectively affects their emotions and the lyrics can swell their hearts. There is nothing bigger and greater than the grace of God that is delivered to them from condemnation through the sacrifice of his own Son. Thus, Christian chooses to praise and worship Him by singing. While singing, the congregation stands on their feet and they seem to be affected by the songs in some way as they raise their hands as a sign of accepting the Lord into their hearts. The emotion that was thrown from the congregation was very distinctive to us as we could see that the songs are an important tool of expression. According to the pastor of the Amazing Grace Church, singing let the people focus on the worship, helps them respond to God’s grace and also guide them to reflect on God’s glory. In his opinion, singing mean nothing if people do not respond to what they have sang and related it to God and reflect it to make them better believers.

Reflecting upon the readings of Torrance’s Worship, Community, and the Triune God of Grace and White’s Introduction to Christian Worship will deeply shape how I look at worship in the churches I now order worship for the congregations. I used one of the churches in which I serve to do the Order of Worship assignment. It is a blue collar, small membership church located in a rural, retirement/ vacation area of North Carolina, Lake Gaston. It is also predominately Caucasian. Torrance’s focus is on trinitarian worship, participating in Christ’s communion with God, the Father and Christ’s life, death, and resurrection through the power of the Holy Spirit. And White’s focus is to look at how the forms used in worship give worship its meaning. These forms include but are not exclusive of, time, space, music and art. There are implications for both focuses in the order of worship for the congregation used for my order of worship.