tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-123201127846687942.post1810266527261417781..comments2023-03-31T02:46:26.242-07:00Comments on A View from 6000 Feet: Christ-Centered WorshipMark Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11508112109135549871noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-123201127846687942.post-33701729435027242142010-03-12T05:54:56.507-08:002010-03-12T05:54:56.507-08:00I found Bryan Chapell's book, "Christ-Cen...I found Bryan Chapell's book, "Christ-Centered Worship", on Amazon.com and ordered it. <br /><br />Thanks very much!Andrew Ceronihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17043971521151031595noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-123201127846687942.post-67585934456082913512010-03-10T07:12:36.164-08:002010-03-10T07:12:36.164-08:00“Christ-Centered Worship” – at first, I’m tempted ...“Christ-Centered Worship” – at first, I’m tempted to ask “What other kind is there?”, but in doing so, I know I would be denying my own life experience. For instance, spending my childhood years in the Roman Catholic Church, I was surrounded in church by statues, and paintings of Mary, the Saints, the Stations of the Cross, and yes, Jesus… but there while there was indeed a proliferation of biblical persons and events to worship, there was never a Bible in the pew for prayerful reference. Then, there were also Purgatory, Limbo, the Ascension of Mary into Heaven, etc., and other things I could never find in Scripture, but that is another discussion. If the purpose of the church is to worship God, study His Word in God-breathed Holy Scripture, and provide prayerful fellowship, how can this be done without a focus on Jesus?<br /><br />Re: “Not only does the shape of the liturgy tell the gospel, but the gospel drives our decisions about how we do worship. He writes, ‘Since our worship should have a gospel pattern and purpose, the only biblical way of prioritizing legitimate, but competing, worship concerns is to consider how our worship practices are consistent with our understanding of how we would present the gospel in our context’ (p.122))” I attended the “New Life” Church once. Once was enough. I felt as though I were at a concert and should have paid some amount of cash for the privilege of being there, hearing the music, feeling the rhythm, swaying to the music. I could almost hear James Brown shouting out, “I feel good! Just like I knew that I would…” Christ-Centered Worship… not for me. Do we at Village Seven express the meaning of God’s Holy Word by singing all six verses of a hymn instead of three and then five verses of the next instead of two, or singing the Refrain/Chorus three times? Does repetition serve a purposeful intent of our Liturgy. Sometimes, I wonder.<br /><br />Re: “A church also has not future if leaders only consider how to minister to the present generation.” I would assume the reverse is also true, i.e., what does this say of the church future if we minister only to those who saw pictures weekly of Presidents Truman and Eisenhower in their Sunday papers. One of the things that caught my attention even as a young man wandering from his journey’s beginnings with the Catholic Church were the old Hymns. I love them. I think we need a good balance of new and old to sustain a meaningful liturgical service. On the website of the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Lancaster, PA, I noted the statement that more than 40% of all PCA congregations are less than 25 years old, but as the 20th Century ended, “the membership of PCUSA was shrinking annually with young people leaving in droves, either to no church or to evangelical churches” such as PCA. I suspect logic would shout at us that these folks are searching for something, something like a more “Christ-Centered Worship”. We at Village Seven can give them that.<br /><br />This sounds like a good book. I will seek it out. Thanks!Andrew Ceronihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17043971521151031595noreply@blogger.com