Worship by the Book

This book was first published in 1992 (Baker) and republished in 2002 (Wipf and Stock). It arose from a World Evangelical Fellowship Theological Consultation. The 13 contributors represent a range of denominational, theological and geographical perspectives. The book opens with good Biblical studies by Yoshiaki Hattori (OT) and David Peterson (NT). These are followed by a range of what are presented as responses from various denominational etc perspectives. The level of responsiveness to the Biblical studies varies. The final installment(by Miroslav Volf) reviews the theology of worship from a systematic theology perspective. I found the introduction by Carson and the Peterson and Volf chapters compelling and think that its's worth getting the book just for them.The denominational etc chapters vary greatly in quality and usefulness. As Carson notes in the Introduction, there is not as much interaction between the contributors as could have been. Let's hope this book stays in print, especially given the continuing confusion and conflict re worship. It's not a full theology of worship but has plenty of material that is grist for the mill.

This book would be valuable for most Pastors to read because of its wisdom on the subject of worship. So often, the focus of the Pastor is on preparing and preaching the sermon. While this is a critical part of the worship service and should not be neglected, all of the essayists point to the need for well-planned services from start to finish. God-exalting, Christ-centered, Bible-based services are a worthy goal. This book should challenge Pastors, especially those from a free church background, to plan worship services in a more thoughtful way. The book is practical, with sample worship service outlines from different traditions. Highly recommended for all who want to honor God in corporate worship.

Introduction What is worship? If worship in our daily lives means a consecrated lifestyle that aims to glorify God, how then should our corporate gatherings look like? And further, what makes our corporate gatherings any more worship than glorifying God in the other six days of the week? Worship by the Book is a compilation of essays that seeks to respond to such issues that concern today's church. By looking back into the past to see how previous generations have done corporate worship aright, the authors look forward into the future to what biblical corporate worship should look like. Edited by D. A. Carson (research professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School), this book incorporates a biblical theology of worship in the opening chapter by the editor, which is then followed by three application chapters written by pastors from differing denominational backgrounds who set out to show how they have applied the principles of such a theology of worship in the practices of their local church. In unveiling the varying practices of different church traditions, what arises from the pages is a portrait of what worship by the Book looks like. Summary Chapter 1, "Worship Under The Word," D. A. Carson attempts to provide a theology of worship, despite the fact that there are many challenges in doing so. The author admits that worship has caused much heated debate in the contemporary church (11), that there are many diverse theologies of worship available (13), and that even though the word worship itself is found in Scripture (14), it is still hard to construct a theology of worship when biblical theology and systematic theology may give us different definitions. Be that as it may, Carson endeavors to examine the English word worship (18), as well as the underlying Greek and Hebrew words (19) and then follows with a brief examination of recent scholarship that show the challenges of writing a theology of worship (19). He gives respect to the work of Andrew E. Hill, and most adamantly confesses that the work of David Peterson's Engaging with God is the "volume that most urgently calls for thoughtful evaluation" (23). Sympathetic to and borrowing from much of Peterson's biblical theology of worship, Carson then goes on to finally defining worship, and the rest of the chapter is a full explanation his definition. His attempt at a definition is a long paragraph whose opening sentence is the precursor for its expansion: "Worship is the proper response of all moral, sentient beings to God, ascribing all honor and worth to their Creator-God precisely because he is worthy, delightfully so" (26). Carson's citing of Edmund Clowney's list of corporate worship elements from the New Testament shows that he advocates for certain distinctive elements in corporate worship, though there is no biblical mandate for any particular ordering of these elements (48-52). The author concludes his chapter with some practical implications(58-63): the impor

Too often, when Christians discuss worship, they go little further than arguments about styles of music. The "worship wars" that have plagued the modern church are a prime example of this. Many churches have fallen apart and many Christians have been deeply hurt over styles of music. Churches that have sought to be progressive and contemporary have often done away with hymns, throwing away hundreds of years of Christian tradition in the process. Other churches have refused to sing any song written in modern times, indicating an irrational bias towards days gone by. In the process worship has come to be nearly synonymous with music. Church services are often structured around a time of worship, led by a worship pastor, and this is followed by a time of apparently non-worshipful teaching led by a teaching pastor. These worship wars are a terrible distraction, for as believers who have access to the New Testament we know that worship extends far beyond music. Worship is to encompass all of life rather than only select parts. Worship by the Book is an attempt by four men, D.A Carson, Mark Ashton, Kent Hughes and Timothy Keller, to unravel the meaning of worship as well as to suggest ways that corporate worship, done as the church gathers together, can be most meaningful and most faithful to Scripture. The book begins with an essay by Carson entitled "Worship Under the Word" in which he builds a framework around which each of the other authors will write. The heart of the essay is a lengthy definition of worship and a twelve-point examination of this definition. It is an unusually long and detailed definition of worship, yet one that for precisely those reasons is exceedingly useful. Following Carson's introduction, each of the three co-authors is given one chapter to provide insight about worship within their tradition. The first of these is Mark Ashton, who is vicar of the Round Church at St. Andrew the Great in Cambridge, England. His essay is entitled "Following in Cramner's Footsteps" and he proposes that the Anglican Church recover the principles Cramner used to draft the Book of Common Prayer. He suggests each aspect of a worship service needs to meet three criteria: is it biblical, is it accessible and is it balanced? Despite coming from a tradition that seems far removed from mainline evangelicalism, I suspect the bulk of believers with agree with most of what he writes, at least until the final paragraphs where he writes about infant baptism and presumptive regeneration. I was a little bit concerned about a vague, underlying spirit of pragmatism that seemed to lie under the surface of some of what he wrote. Within the sample services, for example, is an outline of a guest service in which they have dumbed-down their Bible translation, opting for the Good News Bible in place of the New International Version. Despite this, there was much within his essay that was of practical value. The second essay was written by Kent Hughes, pastor of th

This book is worth buying for the insightful introductory article by Don Carson. He argues that there is a place for corporate worship and that church is more than sitting in a holy building and having my own little quiet time with God, or only meeting for teaching or encouraging others. In his theology of worship, he guards against some of the extremes we find in evangelical churches today. The reflection on David Peterson's "Engaging with God" is stimulating. Some have used Peterson's book to argue that in the New Testament meetings were not for the purpose of worshipping God. Carson points out that though the book shows that worship in the New Testament is meant to be a whole of life thing, and not just something Christians do on Sundays, Peterson still "wants to talk about ... corporate worship in the regular 'services' of the church."The main sections of the book are written from a variety of perspectives, from formal to fairly free, from liturgical to extemporary.Interestingly, the article by the minister from the more liturgical background, Mark Ashton, argues from his knowledge of Cranmer [the creator of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer] that churches should have more flexibility and freedom. And the articles by those from a less structured eccesiology argue for the use of some liturgy! And Carson suggests we should be using the best of the ways of worship from our brothers and sisters around the world, without becoming self-consciously Multicultural for the sake of it.Highly recommended.