Great worship study resource
If you’re looking for a great resource to study worship in both the Old and New Testaments, this might be your book. It’s thorough and well annotated, both literary and scriptural.
But it’s not dry and purely intellectual. Author Allen Ross illuminates the glory of the God we are to worship, which makes these writings not only informative but also engaging. My book review is here.
: : :
Excerpt from Recalling the Hope of Glory
Too many Christians have settled into a familiar routine called worship; they are not comfortable with change, and they are afraid to do things that might look like what other denominations do.
But worship is one of those aspects of the Christian faith that must continue to grow and flourish, or it will cease to have the dynamic impact it can have on believers who must cope with life in this world.
There is no reason for individual congregations to change everything they have been doing; but there is every reason for all congregations to evaluate everything they are doing to see how they can do it better.
And the test for this evaluation is how well the worship activities transform the lives of believers for service in this life and fit them for glory.
. . . The church, believers, must always be discovering more meaningful and more glorious ways to worship God, for worship is essential to the spiritual life.
– Allen P. Ross
: : :
Tradition is one thing, but true worship is beyond routine.
What a true statement, Floyd. I had a great morning of worship today that was anything but routine. Definitely beyond!
Thanks so much for the review here, Lisa. xo
You’re welcome, Dianna. It’s been about 3 years since I’ve read this one so it was good for me to go back and look back through highlights. It’s a meaty book, but a great one for anybody wanting to do a thorough research on all the places that worship is mentioned in the Bible, as well as get a better grasp on our own worship today.
Funny, I read this after my comment on a later post about not liking it so much when the pastors change up the services. 🙂 But I like what Floyd said in his comment that true worship goes beyond routine. Since there is no routine described in the Bible about how to conduct church services, we have great freedom in how we do things. But I do tend to get comfortable in my little ruts. 🙂 I do need to learn to put that aside and look beyond the order of what we’re doing and whether it’s the same as what we did last week and remember WHO I am supposed to be focusing on in worship.
It’s funny that I didn’t correlate the two posts at all until you left this comment. 🙂 You’re right that we all need to concentrate more on WHO we’re gathered for anyway, whether it’s the same old routine or something different every week. It’s about him, not us.