Worship
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Hospitality Of God
$22.95Add to cartWhat happens when two bishops known for their liturgical sensibilities travel to study alternative Christian communities on two continents? Bishops Mary Gray-Reeves and Michael Perham traveled throughout the U.S. and U.K. to study fresh expressions of church and identify the principles that link these new forms of worship and community. The Hospitality of God captures their practical and inspiring findings and builds a bridge between fresh new voices and the institutional church.
A detailed and systematic analysis that features case studies and examines such issues as history, method, setting, scripture, prayer, music and Eucharist. Also includes liturgical texts the authors encountered on the road or created in response to their journey into emergence.
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Worship Mall : Contemporary Responses To Contemporary Culture
$32.95Add to cartReligion today is in competition with the leisure and entertainment industries. Gen Y, the postmodern generation, is open to spirituality; but most of today’s young adults have not been born into faith communities where they feel any lasting allegiance. Studies suggest that for the young, belief in God is an optional matter, a virtual consumer choice. As a result, different trends in worship and worship styles are offered by different churches to suit lifestyles, attitudes, and personal taste.
In this comprehensive and lively survey, Bryan Spinks examines postmodern worship trends including hip hop, praise and worship songs, emerging worship, blended worship, the U2 Eucharist service, the Roman Catholic rethinking of Vatican II, contemporary Celtic worship, the Zaire Mass in Africa, liquid worship, Vineyard and Hillsong worship, the snake-handling holiness churches of the American south, and other emerging forms of alternative worship.
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Worship And Mission After Christendom
$29.99Add to cartToday, as Christendom weakens, worship and mission are poised to reunite after centuries of separation. But this requires the church to rethink both “mission” and “worship.” In post-Christendom mission, God is the main actor and God calls all Christians to participate. In post-Christendom worship, the church tells and celebrates the story of God, enabling members to live in hope and attract outsiders to its many tables of hospitality.
In this passionate and thoughtful study, Alan Kreider and Eleanor Kreider draw upon missiology, liturgiology, biblical studies, church history, and the vast experience of today’s global Christian church. Academically responsible but also practical and accessible, Worship and Mission After Christendom is a much-needed guide for people who take seriously God’s call to be the church in a world where institutional religion is no longer taken for granted.
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Sounds Of Our Offerings
$31.00Add to cartThe Sounds of Our Offerings is good news about the music of the church. It recounts what has been learned from studying nine congregations where music promotes the full, active, conscious participation of the worshipers and where it has done so consistently and coherently for many years. Pastors and musicians reflect on their work together and offer rich insights about what works and what does not. Lay musicians and members of the congregation also share their experiences with music in worship.
Though no site was without its struggles, and at times difficult choices had to be made, for the most part, we see unremarkable, week to week, year to year, faithful rendering of music for prayer and praise. We see that sometimes the nature of the music took a slightly different turn, one that built upon the foundations of the past. The music choices in these churches are not restricted to one particular era or style, but rather reflect the broader church’s music repertoire, including the best recently written music.
These are the stories of churches with a reputation for their fine music programs, churches that, with their leaders and congregations, have worked out these programs in consistent, coherent ways. In most cases, the programs span multiple priests/pastors and musicians. The Sounds of Our Offerings is about excellent music and how it has found its way into the life and faith practices of these congregations.
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Resonant Witness : Conversations Between Music And Theology
$42.99Add to cartShows how music and faith can work powerfully in partnership
Resonant Witness gathers together a wide, harmonious chorus of voices from across the musical and theological spectrum to show that music and theology can partner together – and that the majesty and power of both are profoundly amplified when they do.
Examines the musical philosophy of St. Augustine
Delves into the theological imagery of J. S. Bach and Olivier Messiaen
Demonstrates how jazz improvisation can inform scriptural interpretation
Celebrates the political power of corporate song in South African worship -
Dance Gods Gift To You
$16.49Add to cart“The aroma of God is being sensed throughout the earth, awakening those who God has ordained to carry forth the anointing of the dance in the earth.” In the 21st century church, God is calling ministers of the dance in record numbers to fulfill His purpose-revealing His glory in the earth. This calling has prompted a myriad of questions in the minds of leaders and laypersons in the body of Christ. In Dance, God’s Gift to You, Dr. Crawford presents a fresh, clear biblical understanding of how God views the dance, elaborating on how and why dance should be used in the worship experience. This book will answer many questions and help open the eyes of your understanding to: * The origin and purpose of the dance * How dance is used as a powerful weapon against the enemy * How dance is used to restore and bring order out of chaos * Why God takes pleasure in the dance * How to pursue the presence of God through the dance * The healing qualities of the dance * What God expects of His ministers of the dance May this book stir the gift of dance in you and cause you to “move out” in obedience to the call of God on your life!
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Lectionary Scripture Notes Cycle A
$24.95Add to cartThis book provides guidelines and resources for homilies and sermons, worship planning, and Scripture study based on the texts in Year A (Cycle A) in The Revised Common Lectionary: Consultation on Common Texts (Nashville: Abingdon, 1992). It is a thoroughly revised and updated replacement for Norman A. Beck, Scripture Notes for Series A (Lima, Ohio: CSS Publishing, 1986). Leaders in worship and worship planning and other members of Christian congregations and communities will find this book to be helpful for use as individuals and in study groups as they prepare for more meaningful worship services each weekend.
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From Advents Alleluia To Easters Morning Light
$19.00Add to cartWeems’s lyrical poetry is a reminder to us all of the importance of true discipleship. She challenges us to look past the ongoing distractions of the “busy work” of church meetings and socials, new programs and technology, and inevitable conflict, while reminding us in her singularly expressive voice that the “institution” of the church is, at heart, quite simply all about Jesus.
This collection of poems, written to be used in worship, in personal devotions, and in discussions, is organized to follow the liturgical year from Advent through Easter.
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Heart Of Worship Files (Reprinted)
$13.00Add to cartTogether, we journey . . . to learn more and more of what it really means to bring meaningful offerings to the heart of God. Thoughts, words, deeds, and songs–the whole of our lives can be a response to His immeasurable worth. This book is for all those who find themselves on such a pilgrimage: lead worshippers, pastors, musicians, dancers, singers–anyone with a heart to pursue the depths of worship. Within these pages you’ll find a mixture of creative Bible insights and hands-on advice for how to lead worship and write congregational songs. The Heart of Worship Files will sharpen you in your quest to know Jesus and make Him known to others.
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Heaven And Earth In Little Space
$29.99Add to cartThis significant book asks whether the widespread falling away of the appeal of religious worship is connected with the simplification of liturgical practice over recent decades. Has a well-meant policy of making the language and style of worship more accessible resulted in a loss of the sense of mystery – and has this accelerated the decline? The author, who was involved with the development of Common Worship, explores the wider Catholic and Orthodox traditions where nothing like the reforms that have happened within Anglicanism have taken place. Five centuries of change in the Anglican tradition are surveyed, the altered rhythm of the liturgical year, the decline in singing, the rise of the modern worship song – and much more in an attempt to define what renewal of the liturgy for today’s church might look like and how re-enchantment would work in practice.
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Holy Conversation : Spirituality For Worship
$20.00Add to cartDespite widespread interest in spirituality, its most common corporate form, congregational worship, is rarely discussed in those terms. This book explores liturgical spirituality as a holy conversation between God and us.
Linking the themes of spirituality and worship and giving each needed focus in ways that are biblically and theologically rich and consistent with ecumenical traditions, this book specifically explores the relationship of sacred reading (lectio divina) to worship. Linman sees this practice as one element in the larger liturgical action of Gathering, Word, Meal, and Sending. Our “spiritual worship” (cf. Rom 12:1), he argues, is the holy conversation between worshipers and the triune God who leads us to greater participation in Christ and to transformation through Christ’s presence.
Raising important issues for worship renewal and interspersed with practical insights and suggestions, this book serves as a primer for those who want to more fully learn how to worship, and, through the power of the Spirit, to deepen their awareness of the encounter with Christ made known in Word and Sacrament.
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We Have Seen His Glory
$22.99Add to cartPrelude
We Have Seen His Glory: The Day Is Coming And Now Is
Glorifying The Creator And Redeemer
Worship As Sabbatical
The Legacy Of Judaism
Glorifying God In A Bolder Way
Illuminating The Good News
Work And Worship – Labors Of Love?
Doxology: The End And Aim Of All Things
Additional Info
We Have Seen His Glory asks – and answers – the question of what worship would and should look like in light of the eschatological future, of kingdom come. Ben Witherington here contends that it cannot be a matter of merely continuing ancient practices. Instead, it must also be a matter of preparation for worship in the Kingdom of God when it comes on earth. / “I am convinced that one of the great problems to having a more reflective and more Christian approach to worship is that even many of our ministers and worship leaders have very little understanding of what the New Testament actually says about worship, what it is meant to be, what it entails, and what we ought to do. In this study I hope to remedy some of that problem and tease some minds into active thought about what worship should look like if we really believe that God’s Kingdom is coming. . . . It is time for us to explore a more Biblical and Kingdom-oriented vision of worship.” / – Ben Witherington, from the prelude -
Our Own Time
$58.99Add to cartThe End Of The Mainline
Billy Graham (1918-)
A “New Breed” Of Presbyterians
Protestant Preaching In Black Africa
Liberation Theology In Latin America
Vatican II And American Catholic Preaching
The Romanian Revolution And The Preaching Of Joan Alexandru
Black Preaching
The Charismatics
A New Age In Britain
The Megachurch
The Young Churches Of East Asia
Additional Info
This magisterial volume is the seventh and last of Hughes Oliphant Old’s history of preaching. Here Old takes up the story with the sixties and the Second Vatican Council and follows it all the way through to the house churches of China and the preaching of the Archbishop of Uganda, known as the “Billy Graham of Africa.” Along the way he looks at the engaging preaching found in Latin America, the rise of the modern megachurch, the role of Joan Alexandru’s preaching in bringing down the house of Ceausescu, and other historically significant moments in preaching. / Full of surprising details and inspiring stories of ministry, this book is a fitting work to round out Old’s monumental, comprehensive series written by a preacher for preachers on the history of preaching in the Christian church. -
Enriching Our Worship 5
$21.95Add to cartThis unique new service book includes liturgies for blessing and healing as related to childbearing and childbirth. It includes prayers, Scripture readings and hymn suggestions organized around the blessing of a pregnant woman; loss of a pregnancy; repentance and reconciliation for an abortion; difficult decisions, unexpected or unwanted pregnancy, loss of a child, termination of pregnancy, infertility, sterilization, and adoption.
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Taste Of Sabbath
$12.00Add to cartSundays are feast days. But sometimes, that’s awfully hard to remember. We often get too busy trying to keep track of all the things we’re “not supposed to” do. Yet, as Stuart Bryan explains, this is not the emphasis of Scripture. The Lord’s Day is a day of freedom, a day defined by thanksgiving–for God’s grace, for the opportunities to share that grace with others, and for the hope we have in the glorious rest to come.
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Worshiping With The Church Fathers
$27.99Add to cartChristopher Hall invites us to accompany the church fathers as they enter the sanctuary for worship and the chapel for prayer. He also takes us to the wilderness, where we learn from the early monastics as they draw close to God in their solitary discipline. Readers will enjoy a rich and rare schooling in developing their spiritual life in this unique survey of the life of worship from the perspective of the early Church.
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Worshiping Body : The Art Of Leading Worship
$28.00Add to cartKimberly Bracken Long, by focusing on what presiders do with their bodies, eyes and ears, lips, hands, feet, and heart describes an attitude and style of worship leadership that is both firmly rooted and blessedly free. A wonderful offering for all worship presiders, seminarians, commissioned lay pastors, new pastors, and experienced pastors, The Worshiping Body is essential reading for anyone interested in how their presence and movement during worship make a difference.
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Serving The Word
$18.00Add to cartThis book invites the reader to see how God’s word can become the crux not only of the sermon but of the worship service as a whole. Over the past half-century, worship scholars have found a substantial ecumenical worship pattern in Luke’s story of Jesus’ post-resurrection appearance on the road and at the table in Emmaus. In that word-and-meal structure, the relationship between preaching and worship as distinct aspects of liturgical experience breaks down. The preached word, then, and the liturgical event within which preaching is located become integral to each other. This book invites the reader to explore how-through God’s word-preaching informs and is, in turn, supported by the worship event as a whole.
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Hymns For Today
$18.00Add to cartFew can argue with the power of music to touch the heart. Voices shared in worshipful song allow us to honor God in a truly beautiful way. Now, in Hymns for Today, renowned hymn writer Brian Wren helps us understand why this is so. Wren surveyed hundreds of hymns written since the 1960s to compile this discussion of forty hymn poems and to share the insights they provide for Christian faith. Grouped in chapters titled “Hymns? For Today?” “Jesus,” “Spirit,” “Church,” “Worship,” “Witness,” “Praise,” and “Treasure,” these contemporary hymns are analyzed for how they express Christian faith and traditional themes in fresh ways. Questions for discussion are included for each chapter, making this book an excellent group study resource.
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Prayers For An Inclusive Church
$22.95Add to cartThe author has prepared a special American edition of his book, first published in the UK, to conform to the calendar of the Episcopal Church.
Prayers are appropriate to conclude the Prayers of the People in the Eucharist
Includes a scriptural index keyed to the lectionary readings
Includes 3 Eucharistic prayers, Eucharistic preface, general confession, and post-communion prayer for each season in the church year.
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Introducing The Lessons Of The Church Year (Revised)
$36.95Add to cart3rd edition of a known and trusted guide to Scripture for pastors, deacons, and lay people.
Thoroughly revised and updated to the Revised Common Lectionary by an Episcopal and Lutheran scholar and church leader, author of many books.
A one-volume resource with multiple uses: sermon preparation, public reading of scripture, sermon discussion groups, lectionary Bible study, Christian education planning, bulletins, and web sites.
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Worshiper By Design
$14.99Add to cartFor many years, my spiritual father Apostle John W. Stevenson has poured nuggets of truth and wisdom into me regarding the subject of true worship. . . This book put brakes on my endless pursuit of “doing” worship, and sets me on a path of “being” the worshiper God created me to BE! Darwin Hobbs, Gospel Recording Artist A lot of your favorite worship leaders and artists are appreciated by you because of John’s input and insight regarding worship in their lives. My life is one of those. This book can both encourage and challenge you. I pray that you allow it to do both. Israel Houghton, Grammy Award-winning Recording Artist Pastor John W. Stevenson is a voice shaped by the lifestyle of worship and obedience to God. As a result a fresh perspective on an often-written about subject is released and is a must read for all who seek to know intimacy with God in a new way. Worshipers, you need to read this book! William McDowell, Recording Artist and Worship Pastor, The Gathering Place Worship Center The pen that has written prophetic songs has now given us a prophetic book that cuts pass our typical assumptions about worship and releases the purity of a true heart song. Worship your way through this provocative read. Bob Sorge, Author and Founder of Oasis House Ministries
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Performing The Sacred
$27.00Add to cartPerforming the Sacred is the first book-length exploration of the intersection of theatre and theology, illuminating the importance of preserving live performance in a virtual world. This compelling dialogue unfolds between a theologian and a theatre artist who revisit theatre’s rich history and paint a picture of its promising future while building bridges between theatre and Christianity.
Theologically, theatre reflects Christianity’s central doctrines–incarnation, community, and presence–enhancing the human experience and shedding new light on theology. The authors show how theatre engages viewers on multiple levels, including political, social, religious, personal, intellectual, emotional, and kinesthetic. In theatre, the presence of live human beings speaks of the incarnate nature of God’s redemption in Christ and the imago Dei. The communal nature of theatre models the Trinity, while the immediacy and transcendence of theatre performance draw out the presence of God in nature and grace.
Performing the Sacred encourages Christians to celebrate, embrace, and experiment with dramatic stories found in Scripture. This Engaging Culture series title will be a key volume for teaching theatre in the academy and influencing drama practitioners, worship leaders, and culture makers.
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Anglican Psalter : The Psalms Of David
$48.00Add to cart“Previously titled “”The New St Paul’s Cathedral Psalter”” this new edition with its new name reflects its wider purpose of resourcing parish churches in their regular worship. Use of the “”Psalms”” in worship is growing since the introduction of the Common Worship lectionary and Psalter has placed renewed emphasis on them. Here, using Coverdale’s translation of the “”Psalms”” from the “”Book of Common Prayer””, the very best of Anglican chant is married to texts that have been used to sing the transcendent glory of God in temple, synagogue and church for three thousand years. At the same time, the “”Psalms”” are ruthlessly honest in their portrayal of conflicting human emotions. Many psalters have excised the verses that speak of vengeance, hatred and anger, yet as CS Lewis wrote, these are the same feelings we find in our own hearts so here they are retained, to be included or omitted as local preference or the occasion dictates. It includes work by renowned composers past and present including Elgar, Parry, Stanford, St
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Desiring The Kingdom (Reprinted)
$26.99Add to cartPhilosopher James K. A. Smith embarks on a journey to reshape the whole notion of Christian education in Desiring the Kingdom. This text is the first of three volumes that will ultimately provide a comprehensive theology of culture. The entire set will address crucial concerns in ontology, anthropology, epistemology, and political philosophy. Desiring the Kingdom focuses on the themes of liturgy and desire. The author contends–as did Augustine–that human beings are “desiring agents”; in other words, we are what we love. Postmodern culture is saturated with liturgy, but in places such as malls, stadiums, and universities. While these structures influence us, they do not point us to the best of ends. Smith aims to recover a worldview based on counter-formation to these secular liturgies. His ultimate purpose is to re-vision Christian education as a formative process and redirect us to the summum bonum (the highest good)–namely, God himself. Desiring the Kingdom will reach a wide audience; professors and students in courses on theology, culture, philosophy, and worldview will welcome this contribution. Pastors, ministers, and other church leaders will appreciate Desiring the Kingdom as well.
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Worship And Liturgy In Context
$45.00Add to cartWorship and Liturgy in Context shows how Christian worship in its many and changing forms interacts in significant and interesting ways with its varying contexts – cultural, social, political, economic. Worship, even in a secular age, shapes ethics and behaviour, and often challenges received wisdom and commonly accepted theologies. It gives special attention to Scotland, but it is challengingly relevant in other contexts today. It makes a distinctive and important contribution to the lively debate about the relation of worship, theology and ethics. It also challenges the Churches and believers to renewal of the worship of God in spirit and in truth. It is suitable for use on liturgy and worship courses, courses on church history, cultural history, practical and pastoral theology.
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Why Is There A Menorah On The Altar
$23.95Add to cartEcumenical, liturgical Christian audience-particularly Episcopalians, Lutherans, and Roman Catholics
Addresses important topic of Jewish/Christian reconciliation
Excellent resource for interfaith couples and Christian formationA desire and demand to know more about the Jewish legacy of Christian identity is growing among laity. A similar desire to foster interfaith understanding and dialogue is growing among officials of local churches.
This new book seeks to meet these demands by providing information and insight about Judaish’s legacy as it is revealed in Christian rites, rituals, and traditions. It will introduce Christians in sacramental churches to ways Judaism has influenced the structure of liturgical worship and rituals; how church sanctuaries are designed and decorated; and baptism, Eucharist, and confirmation.
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Youth Worship Source Book
$29.99Add to cartUnit Topics
1. Introduction To Worship
2. Opening And Closing Worship
3. Music In Worship
4. Prayer
5. Visuals
6. Scripture
7. Preaching
8. The Body And The Senses
9. Offering
10. The Lord’s SupperAdditional Info
Given a chance, high school youth have a lot of ideas and energy to bring to congregational worship. How can they be encouraged, trained, and involved in worship leading?This book brings education together with hands-on participation. Each of the 10 units introduces one aspect of worship-openings and closings, public prayer, visual art, and others-and offers curriculum modules that not only teach youth about it, but also put it into practice. Each unit includes helpful ideas for times when youth may be in charge of a service or involved in an element of worship.
As a “source book,” this volume is meant to be used in a modular way, allowing you to pick which elements are most relevant to the needs and structure of your group. While written with Mennonite youth in mind, the material can easily be adapted for intergenerational and ecumenical settings as well.
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Creation At Worship
$24.99Add to cartThe contemporary Church finds itself in the context of an ecological crisis. How can we be equipped to live as disciples in such a world? Chris Voke argues that public worship plays a role in shaping the vision and values of a community and empowering it for daily life. Thus the restoration of the dimension of creation and the vision of God as creator to the content of worship services will be critical in shaping communities that can face contemporary challenges. The book shows that a grasp of the links between creation and redemption and an appreciation of the significance of Jesus’ humanity will enable Christ-centred worship that gives a proper place and value to creation.This book aims to challenge present practice, to propose changes in public worship, to justify these theologically and practically and to show ways in which a vision of the Creator and his creation may be incorporated into liturgy by those responsible for planning and leading worship. Filled with theological insight and practical examples this book will be of great help to church leaders, worship leaders and theologians.
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Emergent Psalter
$32.95Add to cartMany alternative and emerging church communities have begun exploring ancient music and liturgical traditions despite a lack of high-quality, published liturgical music which does not require (or even desire) an organ and a four-part choir. The Emergent Psalter serves to provide that resource. Featuring music written for two emerging communities (Transmission in New York and Church of theApostles in Seattle),this book is an excellent resource for anyone producing an alternative worship service or thinking of starting one.
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Trinitarian Theology For The Church
$34.99Add to cartTable Of Contents
IntroductionPart One: Scripture: The Bible And The Triune Economy
1.Triune Discourse: Theological Reflections On The Claim That God Speaks, Part 1
Kevin J. Vanhoozer
2.Triune Discourse: Theological Reflections On The Claim That God Speaks, Part 2
Kevin J. Vanhoozer
3. The Gift Of The Father: Looking At Salvation History Upside Down
Edith M. HumphreyPart Two: Community: The Trinity And Society?
4. God Is Love: The Social Trinity And The Mission Of God
John R. Franke
5. The Trinity Is Not Our Social Program: Volf, Gregory Of Nyssa And Barth
Mark Husbands
6. Does The Doctrine Of The Trinity Hold The Key To A Christian Theology Of Religions?
Keith E. Johnson
7. Trinity And Missions: Theological Priority In Missionary Nomenclature
Robert K. Lang?atPart Three: Worship: Church Practices And The Triune Mission
8. The Sacraments And The Embodiment Of Our Trinitarian Faith
Gordon T. Smith
9. Preaching As A Trinitarian Event
Philip W. Butin
10. The Church?s Proclamation As A Participation In God?s Mission
Leanne Van Dyk
11. What To Do With Our Renewed Trinitarian Enthusiasm: Forming Trinitarian Piety And Imagination Through Worship And Catechesis
John D. WitvlietAdditional Info
These select essays, brought together from the 2008 Wheaton College Theology Conference by editors Daniel J. Treier and David Lauber, show both the substance and the importance of the doctrine of the Trinity for our worship, our reading of Scripture and the mission of the church. -
Purpose Of Man (Reprinted)
$17.00Add to cart“Worship is man’s full reason for existence. Worship is why we are born and why we are born again.”–A. W. TozerA. W. Tozer earned a legendary reputation as a prophetic voice, and he continues to be a bestselling author half a century after his death. A preacher at heart, he found his greatest joy in practicing the presence of God. Worship was his focus and his passion. His sermons were such a strong declaration of what he discovered during private prayer and worship of the triune God that he had both the ability and the Spirit’s anointing to move his listeners to wrestle with what God was saying to the Church. His writings carry the same message to a new generation of worshipers.The Purpose of Man is the perfect introduction to Tozer. Drawn from messages he called his best teaching, this book will also delight those already familiar with, moved by, and changed by his other classics. What Tozer offers on the subject of worship here in The Purpose of Man will challenge you to reconsider your life’s priorities while at the same time hold out a cup of Living Water for your soul.
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Liturgy Trap
$8.95Add to cartWe hear all too often that someone has decided to leave the Evangelical Christian faith and join the Church of Rome, or Eastern Orthodoxy, or High Anglicanism. The lure is liturgy and tradition, and since the Evangelical and Reformed churches so often have such poor worship, it is not hard to understand the pull exercised by those churches that have a heritage of formality, sobriety, and beauty.
This cure, however, is far worse than the disease. The answer to the weaknesses of Evangelicalism is not a run toward the fallacies and errors of Rome, Orthodoxy, and Anglo-Catholicism, but a return to biblical patterns of worship.
Just as there is true and false doctrine, so there are true and false worship patterns. In this book, James B. Jordan sorts out the true and the false in the area of worship practice, discussing the cult of the saints, the veneration of icons, apostolic succession, virginity and celibacy, the presence of Christ at His Supper, and the doctrine of tradition.
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Primer On Worship And Reformation
$10.00Add to cartA Primer on Worship and Reformation proposes that true change begins, not with a process or an idea, but through faithful worship. To witness true global change-true reformation-we must first pray the Lord that we would see worship at the center of life. The truth is that when the Word is faithfully preached, even the gates of hell tremble. When the Psalms are sung, the meek inherit the earth. When the church celebrates at the Lord’s Table, those who mourn are comforted. If we learn these lessons and believe them to be true, we will find that through renewed worship God brings change to every facet of our lives.
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Celebrations : All Age Worship
$24.99Add to cartThis book is a ready to use resource for all age worship services on the theme of celebrations. Using a wide range of innovative teaching activities, users will be able to simply and easily put on family services. It includes drama, poetry,prayers, activity
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Liturgy For The Whole Church
$28.95Add to cartThis fresh collection of group readings and simple dramas based on stories from scripture, together with meditations, story-telling methodology, and an instructed Eucharist, helps church leaders design liturgy for children and adults who worship together. Includes seasonal introductions, congregational readings, meditations, simple dramas, stories, simple sermons, and tableaux vivants.
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Gods Eye View
$18.99Add to cartIn God’s Eye View, Tommy Tenney explores how worship lifts us up to see the trouble we face from God’s perspective instead of being trapped in an earthly, time-bound viewpoint. The higher we go, the smaller our problems seem. Tenney also teaches the Principle of Magnification: The closer you get to something, the bigger it appears. In other words, worship not only “shrinks” our problems; it also magnifies God in our lives and to others. Worship doesn’t really change our problems; it just minimizes their influence over us as we focus on God. He doesn’t promise to remove all of our circumstances, but God does assure us that in His presence and from His perspective–we can see things as they really are and not how they appear to be. In the book of Revelation John was instructed to “behold the Lion,” but from an earthly perspective John saw only the Lamb. The heavenly perspective reveals that the Lamb is the Lion, the babe of Bethlehem is the “ancient of days,” and the dragon is really a weakened lizard. God’s eye view is higher than man’s. Higher than a bird’s eye view, higher than a man’s eye view is God’s eye view.
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Lectionary Worship Aids Series 4 Cycle B (Revised)
$20.95Add to cartWhat an asset! Imagine having a person on your staff doing weekly research on thematic materials for worship. What a time-saver to be able to turn quickly to suggested calls to worship, prayers, and hymns appropriate for the lectionary Sunday. Jim Wilson’s book of resources is like having him on your staff. Sharp, to the point, thematic, clear.
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Ancient Future Worship (Reprinted)
$23.00Add to cartWith the many models of worship available, choosing a style to worship God can be a bit overwhelming. Is it better to go with traditional or contemporary models? Christians may find themselves asking how early believers worshiped and whether they can provide insight into how we should praise God today.
Rooted in historical models and patristic church studies, Ancient-Future Worship examines how early Christian worship models can be applied to the postmodern church. Pastors and church leaders, as well as younger evangelical and emerging church groups, will find this last book in the respected Ancient-Future series an invaluable resource for authentic worship.
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Names Of God
$16.99Add to cartLord… Door… Rock… Redeemer… Way… Truth… Life… These are a few of the 45 names of God that Mary Foxwell Loeks illuminates in this classic collection of meditations. Short and succinct, thought-provoking and memorable, these praise pieces provide an aid to both private and corporate worship. Each meditation includes examples of the Names in scripture, a thoughtful life application and a closing prayer.
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Bread For The Journey
$9.95Add to cartWorship involves the senses. The light filtering in from the stained-glass windows, the colors of the vestments, and even the words we read in our Bibles and prayer books fascinate us visually in worship. The sounds of musical instruments and voices raised in song grip us audibly. The feel of the wood on the pews and the altar or the leather on our Bibles can engage our sense of touch. All of these sensations come together to form our worship experience.
In Bread for the Journey, Rolf Svanoe has sought to attract our other senses, enhancing our encounter with God. This Lenten worship series offers sermons for Ash Wednesday, each week in Lent, and services for Holy Week and Easter. This book also includes recipes for breads that can be baked and distributed during the services, each scent and taste offering an additional insight into the Lenten worship experience. Whether it is the sweetness of Welcome Bread or the bitterness of Betrayer’s Bread, each bread takes us on a journey through the season of Lent, culminating in the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Pastors and other ministers will be able to use this resource to draw their congregations into a deeper and more fulfilling Lenten worship. Bread for the Journey is a resource that will feed a congregation, both spiritually and physically.
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What Language Shall I Borrow
$24.99Add to cartWhat language is most appropriate for worship? Should it lean to the colloquial, perhaps targeting those attending worship for the first time? Or should it be a language with deeper roots, the language of a community that already loves the God to whom worship is offered? Ronald Byars here argues that the communal worship speech that truly honors both the majesty and the intimacy of God is, in fact, biblical language. Far from limiting worship, biblical language encompasses a vast range of speech from poetry and prose to parable and narrative. Byars explains how this language pushes us beyond what we already think we know, requiring us to think about death and resurrection, beginnings and endings, and how to hold on to faith. It is the language of relationship, both in community and in worship. Written for both leaders of worship and individual worshipers, What Language Shall I Borrow? offers a richer understanding of communal praise.
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God Against Religion
$33.99Add to cartIn God against Religion Matthew Myer Boulton outlines a Christian theology that takes worship as its basic framework, conceiving worship as the occasion of not only an approach toward God in piety, but also separation from God in sin. Drawing on the thought of Martin Luther, John Calvin, and especially Karl Barth, Boulton rethinks the broadest themes of Christian theology through the lens of Christian worship. He offers three groundbreaking thoughts: that the catastrophe of “sin” is liturgy’s original and continual work, that the miracle of “reconciliation” is liturgy’s decisive transformation in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, and that the glory of “redemption” is and will be liturgy’s end. The result is a fascinating proposal of a systematic, liturgical theology in the Reformed tradition. It will lead scholars, pastors, and anyone interested in thinking about Christian theology and Christian worship in fresh, critical, challenging directions.
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Family : All Age Worship
$24.99Add to cartThis is a ready-to-use resource for all-age worship services on the theme of Family. Using a wide range of innovative teaching activities, users will be able to simply put on family services. It includes drama, poetry, prayers, activity ideas and lots of humour. It will make life easy – you can either use the ideas straight from the page or adapt them by adding your own ideas. Topics covered include: Mums and Dads, siblings, money, work, conflict and household jobs.
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Baccalaureate : Guidelines For Inspirational Worship Services To Honor Grad
$8.95Add to cartPreface
Introduction
Time Line For Baccalaureate Preparations
Student Participation
Sample Informational Letter To Local Pastors
Sample Letter Of Invitation To Faculty And Administrators
Sample Informational Letter To Seniors
Sample Formal Invitation
Sample Press Release For Local Newspapers
Sample Public Service Announcements For Radio And Television
Order Of Worship With Explanations
About The Bulletins
Sample Bulletin
Music For Baccalaureate
Bouquet Of Thanks
Scripture Challenge
About The Meditations
Sample Meditation: Dispelling The Darkness
Sample Meditation: The Clean Slate
Sample Meditation: Light For Our World
Sample Meditation: Becoming A Follower
Gifts For The Seniors
Reception Guidelines
Funding For Baccalaureate
ReferencesAdditional Info
Graduation is a time of new beginnings. The old chapter has come to an end, and the time has come to turn the page. The Baccalaureate service offers loved ones a time to pray a blessing over graduates of high school and university and to send them on their way. It reminds them to seek guidance from the Lord as they start down a new path.This resource contains everything needed to get a Baccalaureate service up and running. It includes:
A time line for preparation (part of the FREE excerpt — click to download)
Sample letters and press releases to churches, schools, and local media
An order of worship (with music suggestions)
Sample bulletin
4 sample sermons
Reception guidelines
much more
Download FREE excerpt (includes FREE “Time Line For Baccalaureate Preparations”)The components of this resource book will ensure that your service is a success. Baccalaureate: Guidelines for Inspirational Worship Services to Honor Graduates is essential to reviving the Baccalaureate service tradition in your community. With this volume you’ll be covering your new graduates in prayer and blessings as they spread their wings and take flight.
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Chant Made Simple Second Edition
$19.95Add to cartThe purity and simplicity of Gregorian chant is what fed the musical and liturgical life of Christianity for more than a millennium before there were any Protestants. But after the reforms of the Vatican II concils in the 1960s, chant went into disuse.
Gregorian chant is back, and more popular than it has been in the last forty years. This handy book is for musicians of all denominations and levels of ability to sing chant, and to understand it more than ever before.
New for the second edition of this classic work are: an entirely new interior design that is easier to navigate and read, many additional chants, and historical and spiritual introductions to each of them.
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Message In The Music
$22.99Add to cartFew things influence Christians’ understanding of the faith more than the songs they sing in worship. Woods and Walrath help worship leaders plan authentic, scripturally sound, and relevant by exploring the content of dozens of praise songs.
Helps pastors, worship leaders, and worship teams more carefully assess the quality of the music they choose for worship. -
Eucharist : Bodies Bread And Resurrection
$29.00Add to cartBieler and Schottroff bring together the best of contemporary scholarship on ritual theory and practice, Eucharistic origins, the Eucharist and eschatology, the Eucharist and world hunger, the global economy, and the dynamics of torture in a dramatic new vision of the transformative power of the Eucharist for our world. Reflection questions lead readers into the issues raised in each chapter.
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African American Christian Worship (Expanded)
$20.99Add to cartCosten again delights readers with a lively history and theology of the African American worship experience.
An update of the 1993 classic, with an expanded discussion of ritual practices in African communities and clarification of the ritual use of music in worship. -
Its So Christmas See
$29.95Add to cartThis anthology provides a wide range of dramatic and worship material for seasonal celebrations. There are numerous Thanksgiving resources, including a children’s Sunday school learning event, a children’s message, a brief responsive reading, a one-act drama, and a sermon. For Christmas there are six plays of various lengths for a variety of ages and cast sizes, as well as a “hanging of the greens” worship program and an engaging story that can either be read to young children or performed as a play.
* Come! See What God Has Done is designed to heighten children’s awareness of God’s many blessings. Six learning centers — each featuring posters, projects, a guided experience, follow-up activities, and a closing prayer — focus on such topics as families, nature, our religious heritage, and our bodies. Intended for kindergarten through sixth grade, this is an ideal activity for your church school and can be held during a single session.
* What Are You Thankful For? is a one-act drama portraying two families as they gather for Thanksgiving dinner. It utilizes a cast of fourteen characters with a wide range of ages, and guides audiences from self-centered complaints to a positive attitude of thankfulness.
* Thanksgiving for Our Day, a brief responsive reading, and Recalling Our Blessings, an interactive children’s lesson, are perfect for use in ecumenical Thanksgiving worship services.
* Is It Still Wonderful?, a sermon for Thanksgiving Day, reviews some common Thanksgiving clichi 1/2s and concludes that to demonstrate true thankfulness we need to become less jaded and rediscover a sense of awe and wonder.
* Welcome the Spirit of Christmas enables the entire congregation to participate in adorning the sanctuary with holiday decorations for the Advent and Christmas seasons. This “hanging of the greens” worship program includes complete instructions plus many additional ideas, making it easy to adapt the material to individual circumstances.
* The Christmas Stranger and The Christmas Stranger Returns are two full-length dramas depicting events in the lives of a typical American town’s leading citizens. Each play features a multi-generational cast of around 20 characters and has a running time of approximately 60 minutes. In The Christmas Stranger, an amiable handyman brings joy and laughter to the home of a prominent businessman who is consumed by his work and hates Christmas. With the stranger’s aid, the businessman’s family tries to break t
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Warrior Poets Of The 21st Century
$10.99Add to cartThis book is about worship. It s about how absolutely important worship is and how, perhaps, it is the highest calling and occupation of the believer. But it s not about excellence of musicianship in played and sung worship. It s not about personalities or individuals, or specially gifted folks, or style, or technique. It s not a how to book, or a work book, or a here s a service schedule that s bound to work type book. It s about how God calls us all to be His worshippers and how, perhaps, every single one of us can, through a deeper understanding of worship, make an impact and a difference in the society in which we live.
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Prayer And Worship
$17.99Add to cartWhen thinking about the Christian life, two things stand out: prayer and worship. These are experiences unique to the religious life, and they compose the heart of the devotional life. This guide, which focuses deeply on the Psalms, often considered the prayer book of the Bible, illuminates new ways to understand the life of prayer and worship, and how growing these two elements of faith life brings us closer and closer to God.
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Worshiping Artist : Equipping You And Your Ministry Team To Lead Others In
$24.99Add to cartWhether you serve as a vocalist, instrumentalist, technician, dancer, actor, or in some other role, you know what a blessing it is to serve on your church’s worship team. But you also know that some days you’re more technically prepared than you are spiritually prepared for the ministry of leading others in worship. In the midst of rehearsals, setup, and myriad distractions, not to mention the busyness of daily life, it’s easy to miss the forest for the trees. How can you and your fellow team members be prepared to worship in spirit and truth as well as lead others in worship with integrity?
With thirty years of experience in worship leading, Rory Noland knows the issues-in both the private life of the worship team member and the public ministry of a worship team. In this readable book, he offers practical insights on how to * Grow as a private worshiper * Encounter the character of God during worship * Respond to the character of God during worship * Be transformed by the character of God * Learn from ancient worship leaders … and more.
So relevant you’ll think the author was eavesdropping on your last church service, The Worshiping Artist is ideal to read either by yourself or as a team.
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Spoken Worship : Living Words For Personal And Public Prayer
$17.99Add to cartThis collection of forty poems is designed to provide a new and moving expression of worship. The poems are intended not to be merely read in silence, but to be spoken aloud in a way that can provide a new and refreshing experience of worship in any setting-personal devotions, group and church settings, or one-on-one.
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Architecture Of Immanence
$32.99Add to cartBaroque, Gothic, Romanesque, Greek. These traditional architectural styles are easily recognizable both in public buildings and especially in houses of worship. Each has a particular influence on sacred space, and all tend to highlight the utter transcendence of God. In An Architecture of Immanence Mark Torgerson asserts that modern architecture has heavily influenced the construction of new sacred spaces, producing a new way of building that emphasizes God’s coming near to us. Torgerson begins by discussing a proper understanding of God’s transcendence and immanence and showing how church architecture has traditionally interpreted these key concepts. He then traces the theological roots of immanence’s priority from liberal theology and liturgical innovation to modern architecture. Next, Torgerson illustrates this new architecture of immanence through particular practitioners, focusing especially on the work of theologically savvy architect Edward Anders SAvik. Finally, he addresses the future of church architecture as congregations are buffeted by the twin forces of liturgical change and postmodernism. A celebration and exploration of the modern conception of sacred space, An Architecture of Immanence will interest architects, liturgists, and all Christians who seek to read the sacred spaces of the recent past.
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Traveling Calvarys Road
$21.95Add to cartThis anthology provides an abundance of services, dramas, monologues, and sermons for use from Ash Wednesday through Easter. Using such things as newspapers and candles, these services will leave a lasting impression. Easy to stage and perform, these programs use varying numbers of people, and flexible hymns. Copy privileges are granted.
Traveling Calvary’s Road includes:
Ash Wednesday Services:
Into The Wilderness by Anne W. Anderson
We Are But Ashes by William LuomaPalm Sunday/Sunday of the Passion Services:
Your King Comes by Janice Bennett Wyatt
Crown Him Lord of All! by William LuomaMaundy Thursday Services:
Like a Rose by Lynne Cragg
A Table, A Garden, And A Courtroom by Leonard V. KalkwarfGood Friday Services:
It Seems Like Just Yesterday! by Pamela D. Williams
Faces by Michelle Griep
Extinguished A Tenebrae Service by Anne W. AndersonEaster Sunrise Services:
Sing To The Lord A New Song by Howard Eshbaugh
He Is Risen Indeed! by William LuomaEaster Monologue
The Big Secret by Michelle Griep -
Africana Worship Book Year A
$27.00Add to cartWhat is worship? For the Africana community, worship is the time or place where God “shows up and shows out,” affirming that an active God embodies human lives through companionship and communion. This type of worship allows God to enter into worshipper’s lives with an openness to respond with swaying of the body, tapping feet, weeping eyes, and heartfelt emotion.
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Wedding Of Worship
$13.49Add to cartWhether you are pre-married and planning a wedding, married and planning to renew your vows or single and preparing yourself for the moment in time that God presents you to your husband, Wedding of Worship will challenge your mind, refresh your spirit and above all bring you heart to heart with God. Ariel shares a new perspective from her own personal experience as to how the heart of the bride-to-be affects the entire wedding planning process. Wedding of Worship is an eye-opening work that speaks to honoring God during your ceremony, idolizations that can occur, the importance of selecting honorable wedding attendants and applying biblical principles during the planning process. Wedding of Worship is a necessary read for any Christian woman that truly seeks after God.
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Prayers Of The People
$14.99Add to cartThis book of prayers is based on the three year common lectionary. All of the texts for each Sunday are listed and the suggested preaching text is highlighted. Most of the prayers which follow reference the text. They are helpful for the busy pastor who gets one of those “weeks that was” with little time to prepare a prayer along with a sermon. They are equally helpful for the lay person who wishes to deepen his/her devotional life. And they are helpful for the seminarian anticipating a first call.
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Shaping The Christian Life
$36.00Add to cartThis insightful study explores how worship practices can transform and renew the lives of those who worship. Emphasizing how religious affections provide us with orientation in the world, Hotz and Mathews show how worship can shape our religious affections so that we can live to the glory of God and in a harmonious relationship with God’s creation.
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Foundations Of Christian Worship
$48.00Add to cartProviding structure for thinking seriously about worship as a part of Christian faith and experience, Foundations of Christian Worship addresses the questions “What is Christian worship?” and “Why do Christians worship as they do?” Beginning with an overview of the theological, biblical, historical, and anthropological foundations of Christian worship, Susan J. White then turns to discussing its components-prayer, creeds, music, time, ritual, and art. Later, she delves into the nourishment of the Christian life and the major worship events throughout the human life cycle. Finally, she discusses contemporary challenges to Christian worship-such as ecumenism, pluralism, and the connotations of worship language-and concludes with case studies for further exploration. With helpful appendixes and a glossary of liturgical terms, Susan White’s Foundations of Christian Worship is an excellent primer for seminary students and ministers early in their careers.
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New Pastors Guide To Leading Worship
$17.99Add to cart14 Chapters
Additional Info
This practical book is for new pastors as they move into the role of worship leader and planner. When faced with the weekly rhythm of planning and leading worship, new pastors sometimes find themselves overwhelmed with the tasks. Barbara Day Miller centers on pastors and their identity as worship leader, on guidelines for leadership, and on the “why” and “how” of the worship service. She also explores the pastor’s role in guiding the planning of the worship service and the connecting of the congregation with the historical practices of the church. Brief narratives from other church leaders provide encouragement and useful guidelines for grounding worship-leading in the historic model of the liturgy. -
Lectionary Worship Aids Series 7 Cycle C
$26.95Add to cart“Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105).
This all-new edition of a perennial CSS favorite is a valuable resource for busy pastors, worship planners, worship service planners, and worship resource planners. It’s an easy-to-use reference offering several prayers relating to the assigned scriptural passages for every Sunday and major observance in Cycle C of the Revised Common Lectionary. For each First, Second, and Gospel reading there’s a call to worship, a collect, a prayer of confession, and suggested hymns — plenty of inspiring material for the creation of fresh, meaningful worship services. Supplemental resources include numerous prayers for general use, worship material for Mother’s Day, and a brief service for hunting season that highlights the connection between responsible hunting and God’s creation. In addition, there are alternate verses for use with several familiar hymns plus hymns from the Brethren tradition. This complete collection offers a wide selection of practical aids for creating sincerely reverent, thematically unified worship experiences in which hymns, prayers, and scripture all work together to illuminate the powerful connection between God’s Word and the daily lives of the people in the pews.
These are not words to be admired. They are words to be prayed. This is all about talking to God. Just as importantly, it’s about listening to God talking back…. I hope that people use times of silence, both in worship and in life, to allow the opportunity for God to speak. There is, of course, no controlling God. We cannot pull on a chain and ensure a reply. That would be magic. But we can at least work on the assumption that prayer is a conversation — not a harangue, part medical report and part Santa wish list. We can also work on the assumption that this is the Lord of the universe we are speaking to, awe-inspiring and majestic, yet somehow marvelously secure as a God who encourages us to speak on an intimate basis.
(from the Introduction) -
Services For Special Days
$18.95Add to cartLooking for worship material specifically tailored for holidays and other special, out-of-the-ordinary occasions? If so, then you’ll draw on this compendium of services for fresh ideas throughout the year. Each of these 13 services actively involves the congregation through the singing of several hymns, as well as scripture and dramatic readings which can be performed either with or without costumes. Because these flexible services can be presented with as few or as many participants as desired, they are ideal for both large and small congregations. Many of these versatile pieces can even be used without a pastor, so this is an excellent resource to have on hand for pastoral vacations or other occasions when the laity is in charge of worship. Best of all, this collection couldn’t be more convenient to use — every service comes with brief instructions and a sample form for your worship bulletin.
Services are included for:
* New Year’s Day
* Valentine’s Day
* Ash Wednesday
* Lent
* Palm/Passion Sunday
* Maundy Thursday
* Good Friday
* Easter
* Pentecost Sunday
* Trinity Sunday
* Reformation Sunday/All Saints’ Day
* Thanksgiving
* Christmas Eve -
Where 20 Or 30 Are Gathered
$29.00Add to cartWhile worship is the primary purpose of all churches, worship in the small church is distinctive. Whether a house church, a new church plant, a rural church along a country road, or a city church whose neighborhood demographics have shifted, these small faith communities present unique opportunities and challenges for worship leaders.
Peter Bush and Christine O’Reilly draw on their passion and experience equipping lay people to plan and lead worship to answer the question, what makes for effective worship leadership in family-size congregations, where fewer than 50 people gather Sunday by Sunday to worship? Addressing the needs of small churches in rural, suburban, and urban contexts, the authors discuss the characteristics of family-size congregations, the variety of ways they are organized, the joys and challenges of worship and preaching in small congregations, and best worship practices in small congregations. The challenges of the multi-point or yoked pastoral charge and of congregations without clergy receive special consideration.
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More Services For The Advent Wreath Cycle C
$17.95Add to cartThe Advent wreath is a powerful symbol that draws our attention to the coming of Christ — past, present, and future. But while it’s a traditional element of Advent worship, the Advent wreath is often vaguely linked to the rest of the service, especially for those who follow the lectionary. Building on his successful volume Services For The Advent Wreath, Robert Jarboe offers a wide selection of adaptable resources that firmly place the Advent candles in the context of the day’s scripture readings. There are complete orders of service based on each Cycle C lectionary text for every Sunday in Advent, as well as Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Each service is conveniently formatted, with reproducible sheets that can be given to participants as well as bulletin inserts with congregational readings. It’s everything you need to make this important symbol a centerpiece of the worship celebration — all in one place!
Each service includes:
* litanies
* scripture readings
* prayers
* an original musical introit -
Christmas Journey : Advent Christmas Resources
$14.95Add to cartThis complete set of seasonal material offers everything you need for an exciting Advent and Christmas program. With dramatic monologues, sermons, children’s messages and worship liturgies, a Sunday school program, and a pair of Christmas Eve candlelight services, there’s something for everyone, whatever your congregation’s size or worship style.
An Unlikely Cast (Alan E. Siewert) is a set of dramatic monologues that reveal the inner thoughts and feelings of five characters who were deeply involved in the unfolding divine drama of the nativity: Joseph, Mary, John the Baptist, the innkeeper, and a shepherd. The monologues can be used in midweek Advent services, special programs, or Sunday morning worship. Staging and costuming suggestions are included, to help you bring these exciting accounts to life.
The Colors Of Christmas (H. Michael Nehls) is a creative series of six sermons and children’s messages in which each week features a different color. The sermons use the color idea to stress such Christian themes as royalty, sacrifice, and holiness, while the children’s messages utilize the inventive device of passing out ribbon swatches of the color of the day; as the youngsters receive the various ribbons, they can collect a “ribbon rainbow.”
Is This The Road To Bethlehem? (Judy Gattis Smith) is an Advent worship liturgy in which children are the main participants. The centerpiece is an “action/sermon” featuring six brief readings using illustrative wooden figures. All the elements of a typical worship service are present — but in a manner that focuses on the interests and expressions of children, allowing them to experience worship rather than just listen and watch.
Producing Christmas (Jennifer Hockenberry Dragseth) is a humorous children’s play which casts the Christmas story as the ultimate Hollywood blockbuster. Everyone wants to be a part of the big movie — and they all have ideas about how to make it a hit, only to finally learn why the coming of the Christ child is truly the “greatest story ever told.” With participants ranging in age from junior high to preschoolers, this flexible piece is perfect for a brief Sunday school program.
A Christmas Journey and Christmas Letters (Rod Tkach) are imaginative Christmas Eve services weaving together carols, prayers, scripture readings, and several brief meditations. In A Christmas Journey, the reflections guide worshipers on a journey from being home alone to the ultimate destination of the
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Wonder Of Worship
$22.99Add to cartWorship is ground zero for spiritual warfare and affects every part of the believer’s life. The Wonder of Worship defines true, acceptable worship, its real purpose, and the three things necessary for worship to occur. Starting with the basics of what it means to worship God in spirit and truth, The Wonder of Worship discusses the relationship of the Christian’s private worship and public worship experiences. In the process it explores the practical side of worship, worship preparation, and even the format for public worship. Ultimately, worship that is pleasing to God does not depend on the contemporary believer’s worship practices or preferences. It all comes down to the Person of worship. Jesus is the One who makes true worship a wonder to enjoy, now and in eternity. He is the Wonder of Worship.
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Wonder Of Worship
$14.99Add to cartWorship is ground zero for spiritual warfare and affects every part of the believer’s life. The Wonder of Worship defines true, acceptable worship, its real purpose, and the three things necessary for worship to occur. Starting with the basics of what it means to worship God in spirit and truth, The Wonder of Worship discusses the relationship of the Christian’s private worship and public worship experiences. In the process it explores the practical side of worship, worship preparation, and even the format for public worship. Ultimately, worship that is pleasing to God does not depend on the contemporary believer’s worship practices or preferences. It all comes down to the Person of worship. Jesus is the One who makes true worship a wonder to enjoy, now and in eternity. He is the Wonder of Worship.
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With One Voice (Reprinted)
$21.00Add to cartEvery Sunday morning people all over the world look up at a screen, open a hymnal, or simply take a breath … and sing. Why? Are people just participating in the service or is there something more behind church music? With One Voice examines the theology of song in worship and looks at how music is used to relate to God. Whatever the style, song has the power to bring believers into the company of the Savior himself and allows them to participate in the very redemption of all creation. Between these pages, worship leaders, church musicians, and all churchgoers will discover not just the history of song in worship but why believers continue to sing in worship today.
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Designing Worship Together
$29.00Add to cartThis book draws on more than two decades of collaborative worship planning by pastor Howard Vanderwell and musician Norma deWaal Malefyt of the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, offering thoughtful, field-tested processes and tools for planning, implementing, and evaluating life-enriching weekly worship.
The authors enter into the trenches of weekly congregational life with this book, offering helpful insights into the process of how worship services are planned and led. DeWaal Malefyt and Vanderwell’s approach to worship arises from the biblical narrative, using the language of the Christian tradition and emphasizing that worship tells the story of God’s efforts through history to show us the path to union with God.
Designing Worship Together is also deeply connected to the experience of local congregations. DeWaal Malefyt and Vanderwell understand that the way in which God’s saving deeds are proclaimed will differ from church to church, from place to place, and from culture to culture and they present a process for designing worship services that is equally applicable in a wide diversity of congregations.
Foreword writer Robert Webber writes of Designing Worship Together, “In a day when worship, born out of an antihistorical attitude focuses on the self-what I need, what I want, what I do-it is refreshing to find a book that focuses on God yet is deeply concerned about the people engaged in worship.”
While many books are available about the theology of worship, worship styles, and issues of music, there are few resources on the value of careful worship planning. DeWaal Malefyt and Vanderwell offer the practical nuts-and-bolts that worship planners need, but this book is far more than a how-to for worship planners. In addition to describing best practices for worship planners, they clarify the role of vital worship in the life of a healthy congregation; identify the biblical assumptions underlying Christian worship; highlight the importance of team work in worship planning; name the issues and barriers worship planners must overcome; and suggest a variety of models for worship planning and evaluation.
This invaluable resource also features more than a dozen field-tested tools and a selected bibliography for worship planners to use as they continue to develop their ministries.
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More Services For The Advent Wreath Cycle B
$14.95Add to cartThe Advent wreath is a powerful symbol that draws the attention of worshipers to the coming of Christ — past, present, and future. But it can be a challenge to link this traditional element of Advent worship to the rest of the service, especially for those who follow the lectionary. Building on his successful volume Services For The Advent Wreath, Robert Jarboe offers a wide selection of adaptable resources for any size congregation that firmly place the Advent candles in the context of the day’s scripture readings. There are complete orders of service based on each Cycle B lectionary text for every Sunday in Advent, as well as Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Each service is conveniently formatted, with reproducible sheets that can be given to participants as well as bulletin inserts with congregational readings. It’s everything you need to make this important symbol a centerpiece of the worship celebration — all in one place!
Each service includes:
* litanies
* scripture readings
* prayers
* an original musical introit -
Lectionary Worship Aids Series 7 Cycle B
$23.95Add to cartYour word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path. (Psalm 119:105)
Coming up with fresh, meaningful worship material each Sunday that illuminates scripture and preaching themes is a pressure-filled responsibility. That’s why busy pastors and worship leaders will love this all-new edition of a perennial CSS favorite. It’s an easy-to-use reference offering several prayers relating to the assigned scriptural passages for every Sunday and major observance in Cycle B of the Revised Common Lectionary. For each First Lesson, Second Lesson, and Gospel text there’s a call to worship, a collect, a prayer of confession, and suggested hymns. Supplemental material includes alternate verses for several familiar hymns, as well as an anointing service, a communion and feetwashing service, and a lamentation service for the anniversary of 9/11. This complete collection offers a wide selection of practical aids for creating sincerely reverent, thematically unified worship experiences in which hymns, prayers, and scripture all work together to dance in and around God’s Word.
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Prayz In The Garden
$13.49Add to cartPrayz in the Garden is not just a book. It is a call. This book was possible because my ex-wife was given a vision of me when I was dying from a drug overdose. I was literally prayed back to life-truly an Elijah story. Prayz in the Garden is a place: where we give back that hour in the garden where we can water the Lord where dreams come true where the cost has been counted where we belong as holy priests where there are divine prayers and agony in worship where deep spiritual healing and cleansing are found where there is unified freedom in diversity Best of all, it is a place in which we had always believed as children and as adults we have hoped. It is He who placed eternity in our hearts and gave light to all who came into the world. In the garden we shall find the heart and call of God. In deep union at the master’s table we shall find purpose, for it is only at His table that it can be found. It is a lamentation in which the Father is bestowing upon us. Your Shepherd in Christ, Li’l Drummer Boy
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More Profound Alleluia
$23.99Add to cartTwo questions lie at the heart of this rich, suggestive book: What are the theological implications of worship? and What are the liturgical implications of theology? Convinced that worship and theology are integrally related, the authors of A More Profound Alleluia show in practical terms how liturgy and doctrine fruitfully illuminate each other.
Each chapter pairs an element of the worship service with related Christian teachings, clearly demonstrating how the great doctrines of the faith find their natural expression in the drama of worship and how the liturgy in turn finds its corollary in doctrine. The interrelation of theology and worship is illustrated with anecdotes from congregational life, resources drawn from church history, and themes from novels and films. Each chapter also includes two hymn texts that exemplify orthodox doctrine communicated through song.
A More Profound Alleluia will be a valuable text for courses in theology or worship, will help worship leaders to plan services with greater theological depth, and will enhance worship for Christian believers generally.
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In Spirit And In Truth
$47.00Add to cartMelva Wilson Costen examines various genres of music used in African American worship and current practices and emerging trends in music ministry in African American churches. In addition, she explores the use of global songs by African American congregations and provides suggestions to worship planners for listening for the Holy Spirit as they prepare for worship.
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Visualizing The Parables
$7.95Add to cartIf you want an intriguing resource that can help you bring a fresh, contemporary perspective to some of Jesus’ most enduring stories, then Visualizing The Parables is just what you’re looking for. Originally conceived as a Lenten series, this set of brief plays updates five familiar parables, placing them in a modern context that suggests new ways of understanding these familiar texts. Written in an easy, conversational style and easily adapted to your individual circumstances, these scenes are simple to produce and can be used in a variety of settings. In addition to worship services, they are also excellent for classroom use or as openers for church council or congregational meetings — and they’re a great way of involving your church members (especially youth) in programs or worship.
Parables dramatized include:
* The Ten Bridesmaids (Matthew 25:1-12)
* The Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32)
* The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37)
* The Rich Man (Mark 10:17-27)
* The Great Banquet (Luke 14:16-24) -
Worship : His Love Endures Forever
$12.99Add to cartWhy do we worship?
Do we do it simply because it’s part of a church service, or does it spring from a heart of genuine praise?
The Bible gives us a clear picture of what worship is–and isn’t–about. In eight studies Sundee Tucker Frazier helps you dig into the Bible, learning how to worship with your whole life and taking you to the heart of the matter–the character of the God who loves you.
This LifeGuide Bible Study features questions for starting group discussions and for meeting God in personal reflection, together with leader’s notes and a “Now or Later” section in each study.
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Healing Liturgies For The Seasons Of Life
$65.00Add to cartAre you looking for a new way to renew your worship, respond to the needs of the church and community, connect with people in their passage of life-both chronological and crisis? This book offers a rich resource to you, both as a tool for worship and also devotionally as you face the deepest questions of life. Here you will find one way that the church can renew and rediscover its healing ministry. Abigail Evans, a leading specialist in bioethics and health ministries, explores how God’s gift of healing is available during all seasons of a person’s life and how the power of hope and healing are affirmed and redirected through liturgical services, sacraments, and rites. This distinctive resource features specific healing liturgies for injury, illness, death, separation, retirement, and a host of other major life events, from a wide variety of religious traditions.
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Exploring The Worship Spectrum
$24.99Add to cartA presentation and discussion of differing worship styles This book helps readers appreciate the richness of worship practiced in the six most prevalent models used in North American churches today: formal liturgical, traditional hymnbased, contemporary musicdriven, charismatic, blended, and emerging. Each model is presented by an advocate of that point of view and then is critiqued by authors from the other perspectives. The lively discussions sort through the tensions of past vs. present, Bible vs. culture, and permitted vs. forbidden. Churches often choose a style of worship for Sunday services that reflects the vision of the founders, matches a particular target audience they want to reach, or is most true to their understanding of the Bible. Thus there is great diversity in worship today_diversity that has often led to tension and even divisions between believers. This book is designed to help readers understand and evaluate different styles of worship, including strengths, weaknesses, blind spots, inconsistencies, and commonalities. This new volume in the Counterpoints: Church Life series is intended to be a forum for healthy dialogue among church members. Discussion and reflection questions for each chapter facilitate group use of this book. EDITOR: Paul Basden
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Wonderful Words Of Life
$31.99Add to cartAlthough the use of hymns in many evangelical congregations seems to be declining, Richard Mouw (in the introduction) predicts a resurgence of hymnody in the future. Other notable contributors examining the various historical and theological dimensions of hymns in American Protestantism include Mark Noll, Susan Wise Bauer, Kevin Kee, and Jeffrey VanderWilt. The essays probe the influence of Isaac Watts, the practical implications of hymns for living the Christian life, and the character of hymns as bearers of good (or bad) theology. Wonderful Words of Life provides an engaging treatment of an often neglected field of study, which bridges the gap between Christian belief and practice.
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Gathered Before God
$26.00Add to cart1. Worship At The Center Of Congregational Life
2 .Experiential Learning In Congregational Life
3. How Congregations Worship
4. Prayer And Spiritual Disciplines
5. Study And Instruction
6. Ministry And Mission
7. Leadership In Worship-Centered Congregational LifeAdditional Info
What is the central purpose of the church today? How can churches experience renewal through worship? In Gathered Before God, Jane Rogers Vann answers these important questions by studying ten vibrant small, medium, and large churches. Her findings, she argues, show worship is the most important thing churches do and is vital to the renewal of congregational life. Vann explores how these congregations changed into worship-centered churches and how their experiences can help other churches do the same. Gathered Before God offers resources for pastors, worship leaders, and Christian educators to reflect on their worship, leading to an openness to change and processes to help church leaders support each other during the periods of reform and renewal. Moving beyond the “contemporary versus traditional debate,” Gathered Before God is an earnest call for us all to reclaim worship as a central act of our life together as Christians that expresses clearly what the church believes about God, itself, and the world. -
Come Follow Me Student Book (Revised)
$19.95Add to cartAcolytes can be much more than just cute little kids who light and extinguish the candles on Sunday morning — they have a very important role as congregational worship leaders. But acolytes can only fulfill that responsibility if they understand what worship is, why it is important, and how we do it.
Come, Follow Me is an excellent teaching tool that helps prepare young people to become effective acolytes. It provides a thorough overview of worship — its specifics, its history, and its significance. Students will grow in knowledge and faith as they learn about the meaning of worship, the sanctuary, ritual and liturgy, Christian symbols, and the sacraments.
The teacher’s guide of this completely revised and updated edition includes extensive aids, such as practical suggestions on how to organize an acolyte program, a brief service of consecration, and several quizzes and tests that can be used “as is” or adapted to individual needs. And the material for students is presented in clear, easy-to-understand language appropriate for junior high age youth. Each chapter also includes a brief “How Much Do You Remember?” summary that facilitates review.
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Come Follow Me Teachers Guide (Revised)
$17.95Add to cartAcolytes can be much more than just cute little kids who light and extinguish the candles on Sunday morning — they have a very important role as congregational worship leaders. But acolytes can only fulfill that responsibility if they understand what worship is, why it is important, and how we do it.
Come, Follow Me is an excellent teaching tool that helps prepare young people to become effective acolytes. It provides a thorough overview of worship — its specifics, its history, and its significance. Students will grow in knowledge and faith as they learn about the meaning of worship, the sanctuary, ritual and liturgy, Christian symbols, and the sacraments.
The teacher’s guide of this completely revised and updated edition includes extensive aids, such as practical suggestions on how to organize an acolyte program, a brief service of consecration, and several quizzes and tests that can be used “as is” or adapted to individual needs. And the material for students is presented in clear, easy-to-understand language appropriate for junior high age youth. Each chapter also includes a brief “How Much Do You Remember?” summary that facilitates review.
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Worship Innovations 3
$17.95Add to cartDedicated to providing fresh ideas for busy ministers and worship planners in a variety of settings, the Worship Innovations series offers practical resources that will bring the Bible to life and brighten your worship services. The easy-to-produce dramas and programs can be used in any size church, yet are flexible enough to fit almost any worship style. And each user-friendly resource comes with detailed instructions, including a complete list of everything you need to prepare for.
In this Worship Innovations volume, the focus is on the Lent and Easter season. Like the first two books, this is a rich storehouse that will supply you with many seasons worth of compelling, scripturally authentic material. Included are:
* The Paths to Calvary — a series of six short dramatic monologues for the weeks leading up to Easter in which biblical characters tell of their encounters with Jesus
* Our Place at the Table — a dramatic re-enactment of the events preceding the Last Supper, culminating in a congregational communion service
* A Passover to Remember — a complete Maundy Thursday service with a modified Passover seder as the centerpiece
* A Growing Darkness — a Good Friday tenebrae service featuring seven readings about the day’s events, brought to life with several costumed monologues
* Seven Words to Die By — based on Christ’s seven last words, this tenebrae service finds meaningful truths in the somber events of the crucifixion through monologues, scripture readings, music, and prayers
* Surprise at Sunrise — an Easter sunrise service depicting the resurrection discovery in four vignettes using child actors
* The Week of Weeks — a set of interactive scripture readings for each of the Sundays between Easter and PentecostOther titles in the Worship Innovations series:
Hanging The Greens For Christmas
Easy Bible Drama -
Worship Resources For Special Sundays
$12.95Add to cartHere’s a practical collection of thoughtful material to help you celebrate several special occasions during the fall and winter months: Rally Day, Reformation Sunday, All Saints’ Day, Thanksgiving, Advent, and Youth Sunday. Included are:
* The Saga Of Bobby Wildgoose, a service and sermon specifically tailored for the fall kick-off of Sunday school and commissioning of new Sunday school teachers. The message relates the inspirational story of the beginnings of the Sunday school movement, illustrating the difference that one person can make in the lives of young people.
* Facing The 21st Century With A 16th Century Faith, a message and service for Reformation Sunday that examines what motivated Martin Luther in his disagreements with the established church and suggests that Luther’s ideas about the authority of the Bible, the priesthood of all believers, and justification by faith alone remain the durable bedrock of our Christian faith today.
* Running With The Cloud, a stirring All Saints’ Day sermon and service reminding us that we who are living are only a small segment of the church universal, and noting that we can draw great strength from the lives of the “saints” who have gone before us.
* A Solid Place To Stand, a Thanksgiving message and service that explores how the Bible’s promise of God’s presence with us gives us a firm foundation to base our lives on.
* The Measure Of A Man, A Heart Prepared, Night Watch, and Tidings, a set of four first-person monologue sermons for Advent that tell the old, old story with a twist. We see the birth of the Christ child unfold through the eyes of Joseph, the innkeeper’s wife, a shepherd, and an angel. Key Advent themes such as watching, preparation, and righteous action are raised as each character struggles to make sense of extraordinary events.
* A Youth Sunday worship service with a charming children’s story honoring the presence and participation of the church’s young people. The service celebrates their fresh vision and courage in risking, praying, and creating the future.
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Lectionary Worship Aids Series 6 Cycle C
$22.95Add to cartPreparing to lead a congregation in worship each Sunday is a formidable and pressure-filled responsibility. That’s why busy worship planners will love this all-new edition of a favorite CSS reference. It’s a handy, easy-to-use resource with several prayers and a worship theme relating to the assigned scriptural passages for every Sunday and major observance in Cycle C of the Revised Common Lectionary. For each First Lesson, Second Lesson, and Gospel text there’s a call to worship, an invocation/collect, a prayer of confession, an offertory prayer, and suggested hymns. This complete collection offers a wide selection of practical aids for creating sincerely reverent, meaningful worship.
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How Sweet The Sound
$25.99Add to cartIVP Print On Demand Title
Rediscover the profound insights of Christian hymnody with this exploration of the messages of twenty-five hymns of the Christian faith.
You will never sing these hymns the same way again. With careful exposition and thoughtful reflection, the author shows how biblical truths are encapsulated in a hymn’s lyrics, stanza by stanza or even in a single line of a single verse.Some of these hymns are: A Mighty Fortress Is Our God; Holy, Holy, Holy; Great Is Thy Faithfulness; O Come, O Come, Emmanuel; Amazing Grace; Fairest Lord Jesus. Softcover, 190 pages.
