Worship That Changes Lives

Compiles cultural, theological, and psychological perspectives on spiritual experience in worship from scholars and laity, paying particular attention to the role of the arts in facilitating spiritual transformation.

Renowned Songwriter and Author Helps Readers See Worship as a Way of Life It can be easy to have a heart filled with worship on a Sunday morning as the church band is playing your favorite song. But then comes Monday morning's commute or Tuesday afternoon's pile of laundry. So what does worship look like in real life--at work, in your family, or with your friends? Darlene Zschech has spent her life thinking and teaching about worship. With wisdom and contagious joy, she shares her thoughts on what worship truly is and how it should invade every facet of your being. Let yourself be transformed by the purpose and freedom that come from living a life of worship.

Rooted in real-life practice with accessible, non-technical text, this attractive guide inspires all worshippers to think about how worship changes us. A key part of the Liturgical Commission's Transforming Worship initiative, this guide provides a rich source of ideas for PCCs, worship planning groups and ministry teams. Not only that, it's an invaluable aid to get the whole church involved in transforming worship.

Spiritual formation is the key to the survival of our faith. There is an urgent need today for church services that are substantive and purposeful. Stigmatized by scandal, the church in North America and throughout Europe has been branded as useless and irrelevant. To stem the tide of nominal Christianity, we need to get serious about making disciples who can make other disciples. Rory Noland is a worship leader who has led in contexts ranging from megachurches to small retreat settings such as the Transforming Center with Ruth Haley Barton. Combining discipleship and worship—what Noland calls transforming worship—he offers a vision for worship as spiritual formation. We need to reclaim our worship services as a formative space, and through that we will become the light of Christ in a dark world.

No matter how great Sunday's worship service was, there's always another Sunday lurking at the end of the next week that must be planned. Church leaders often fall into ruts, working on automatic pilot just trying to get things together, which does not allow for much creativity or focus on designing services that lead to transformation for those involved in them. Engage is a step-by-step, stress-free guide to planning worship services that allow for and foster true life change. Comprehensive in scope, Engage provides teaching pastors, worship leaders, and volunteers with the tools they need to work together to develop and implement a worship planning system that improves communication, enhances creativity, and honors Jesus every week.

We, as God’s people, are not accidental. We are intentional, and our purpose here is substantial. In Worship as Life, author T. C. Gonzales shows how worship plays an integral role in our lives and how it is a part of God’s plan, a calling and a lifestyle. Worship as Life demonstrates how worship encompasses the core of our human makeup. It defines worship, explains the many ways a Christian may worship, and provides some background into the most common forms. Gonzales addresses its relationship to evangelism, spiritual warfare, sin, in the church, in marriage, in heaven, and as a way of life. This guide considers how worship identifies who we are as Christians and why worship must take place in our homes, with our children, and with our spouses. The Christian lifestyle of worship is most articulate when it is seen as the excess of God’s love overflowing from within us.

Deep down we know it: There has to be more than singing songs on Sunday morning, handing out tracts at work, or helping out at the soup kitchen. How do we integrate worship, evangelism, and justice into our lives as a whole, rather than compartmentalizing all three? Mike Pilavachi wants to see all three elements come together! With humorous prose and fascinating stories, he shows how the natural outflow of worship is telling people about Jesus, and compassionately helping them navigate the injustices of the world. We can't invite someone to church and ignore their physical needs; nor can we give out food at the local church pantry and disregard people's spiritual hunger. Says Pilavachi: "A life of passionate worship means feeding the hungry, standing up for those who suffer injustice . . . We must preach the gospel at all times, speaking and acting out God's love to a hurt and broken world."

The heart of the biblical understanding of idolatry, argues Gregory Beale, is that we take on the characteristics of what we worship. Employing Isaiah 6 as his interpretive lens, Beale demonstrates that this understanding of idolatry permeates the whole canon, from Genesis to Revelation. Beale concludes with an application of the biblical notion of idolatry to the challenges of contemporary life.