Physical Expression Of Worship: Paul Engle And Steve Cowan

Rituals and ceremonies are the practical aspects of Christianity, which involve customary acts of special, deliberate and repeatable patterns of behaviour through the use of words, actions and symbols (Coleman, 2006). Rituals and ceremonies solidify the relationship between Christians and God as they present a practical, symbolic and comprehensible expression of their underlying beliefs (Morrissey, 2010). Baptism is the ritual of initiation into Christianity, which in essence, is initiation into a life of positive living modelled on Christ. Baptism is held within a congregation of the body of Christ where they vow to spiritually nurture the child or adult being baptised (RCA, 2012). The symbology of the water in baptism encompasses the cleansing of an individual, and it is a practical element of the ritual, which underpins a broader idea of initiating a living adherent into the religion. Another ritual present in all Christian denominations is prayer, which the baptised

“Christianity has developed into a highly ritual-filled tradition and many of its significant practices are acts of public worship associated with the sacraments.” – Living Religion, 4th edition pg. 266.

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

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

Worship is the primary action of the church. Those who are part of it assemble together to sing, pray, remember Christ, listen to the Scriptures, and contribute to the Lord’s causes (Acts 2:42, 47; 1 Cor. 16:1-2). It is one of the church’s primary purposes, and it is crucial for its worship to be in harmony with the Scriptures. In Lutheranism, worship is a spiritual exercise that outwardly expresses itself as an acceptance of God’s gift to humans (Jacobs 551). Lutherans

People of African descent in North America tend to view life as a single system, their worship is integrative, holistic, and experiential. Traditionally, it has been inextricably woven into the stuff of their life. Born in slavery, weaned under Jim Crow segregation, and reared in discrimination, African-American worship is inseparably linked with Black life.

The purpose of this project is to demonstrate how the Sacramental Life or Incarnational Tradition help me focus on my life as a harmonious unit and to illustrate how my life is impacted by my view of worship. In addition, I will give a theological analysis on how focusing on life as a harmonious unit is essential to the myself, the individuals I administer spiritual counseling to and my ministry constituents.

Celebrating the presence and power of God sets into motion by prayers, songs, and worship. Although this may be true, it requires action from the congregation, pastors, and all ministers. By serving an almighty God you are touched in a way only God can do. Some people cannot see why others put their heart into worshipping a loving God. Understanding how slaves entrusted God through their life and times of being held down surely we can do it now. Worshiping God in spirit and in truth.

It has existed for many years it used to be controversial topic among people around the world, because they all had a clear understanding that their belief or religion was better than others. Now days is not as controversial as it was back then people have a better understanding on respecting everyone beliefs and rights. In cultural anthropology anthropologists have a clear mind that religion is a social institution, it is a major part of society and it exists at a macro level scale of society. Anthropologists do not judge any religion, instead they study the characteristics and components of each religion. The United States is known as a Christian country, even though it is a Christian country does not mean every citizen has to

Praise and Worship Services - Sundays and Wednesdays. Men and women are moved by the Holy Spirit to come to the alters for deliverance from drugs and alcohol, prostitution, to get their families back, or just make some sense out of their lives.

The increase of wealth during the twelfth century allowed artists to showcase their talents in churches. The apse titled Christ in Majesty with Symbols of the Four Evangelists in the church of Santa Maria de Mur displays the representation of divinity through its subject matter, technique, and style. In the apse, the main subjects revolve around scenes from the Old and New Testament with Christ as the focal point. For technique, the artist employed fresco painting instead of mosaics to show the images. The style of the apse avoids a sense of realism by hiding the bodies of the figures in the drapery and using the hierarchy of scale.

Many of them, such as latreuo, emphasize the religious rites performed to pay homage to or venerate God (Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, pg 531-34). Others, such as proskuneo, means to literally “to kiss toward” or “to bow down,” which focus on the expression, by attitude or gesture that hold immense regard for God (Greek-English Lexicon, pg 540-541). They convey a profound sense of humility, respect, and deep love for the God they worship. Other words highlight bringing offerings, which has become a central component of our liturgy. Within the Lutheran understanding as well as the early Christian church insists that every act of worship should be understood as part of the Church’s offering to God. All the music, from prelude to postlude, offers to God instrumentalists’ talents, “producing sounds that please God and serve the purpose of helping people to worship God” (The Gift of Worship, pg 39). The prayers of thanksgiving, confession, and intercession, whether silent or spoken corporately aloud, are presented to God as a gift. When one preaches a sermon is not just the gift of the one preaching, nor are choral and instrumental gifts simply the contribution of the choir or band, all involve the offering of themselves by all members of the congregation. Therefore, it is important to keep in mind all those present when one plans a worship service so that all persons may

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.

I entered into the worship service, unaware of what to expect. I was not familiar with this church, it was a non-denominational church, but the pastor had his roots in the A.M.E. Zion Church and branched out to establish his own church. I walked into the sanctuary prepared to participate in the Sunday School. I found a seat and readied myself to engage in some meaningful discussion. After sitting for several minutes, I asked one of the gentlemen who was standing at the front of the church if they had already started and where was the lesson coming from. He looked at his watch and indicated that he didn’t know if we had time for Sunday School. A puzzled look came over my face and I couldn’t help but express my confusion as I looked at

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.