Contemporary Worship Sources for your Essay

History and Development of Contemporary Worship


Worshipping God with prayer in a Christian manner testifies to the personal and yet transcendent nature of Christ. Christian worship is a personal or collective offering of "thanks and praise to God in and through Jesus the Christ," (Costen, Chapter 1)

History and Development of Contemporary Worship


[footnoteRef:24] Christian worship as distinct from Jewish worship had to take place in homes and in relative secrecy due to the persecution of Christians throughout the Roman Empire. In general, "Christians approach worship with an expectation that God will be made known through the liturgy," (Hauerwas and Wells: p

History and Development of Contemporary Worship


John Wiley and Sons, 55.] Worship is central to human life, religious or not (Kenneson)

History and Development of Contemporary Worship


Lathrop notes that Christian worship has been centered on Gospel reading and study "for a long time," and is similarly structured around the world (1).[footnoteRef:12] The four Gospels -- Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John -- provide a "kind of pillar," a "reliably recurring ritual," and a "principle locus for meaning," in Christian worship (Lathrop p

History and Development of Contemporary Worship


It does not require presence in a "house of God" to read scripture from a computer terminal. Therefore, technology can create virtual houses of worship that Christ would approve of given the advice to decentralize and deterritorialize worship (Ott, Strauss and Tennent, p

History and Development of Contemporary Worship


John Wiley and Sons, 62] Part Three: Practical Considerations; Problems and Solutions Unfortunately, debates about the theological nature of Christ and other Christian metaphysics have led to schisms and strife within the God-fearing community. Whether salvation occurs via works or faith alone is one example of the types of heated debates that can plague and taint Christian communities (Pelikan)

History and Development of Contemporary Worship


There may be different styles such as Byzantine or Gothic, but Churches as houses of worship began to sprout up throughout Europe. These houses of worship can be viewed as "sermons in stone," (Schaff, p

History and Development of Contemporary Worship


However, to understand the biblical foundations of Christian worship, it is important to first examine the Old Testament. The Hebrew Bible contains the most fundamental "norms of worship," for Christians, even if different churches develop unique patterns of worship consistent with their interpretations of scripture (Segler and Bradley 2006,11)

History and Development of Contemporary Worship


[footnoteRef:20] [17: Bible: Acts 1:8] [18: Bible: Colossians 3:16] [19: Bible: Thessalonians 5:27] [20: Bible: Matthew 6:9-13] There is some disagreement within and among Christians and Churches as to what constitutes worship. Some, including Presbyterian churches, believe that Christian worship should only be constructed from what is directly and explicitly written in scripture; "in short, God institutes in the Bible everything required for Church worship and prohibits all other possibilities," (Smith 19)

History and Development of Contemporary Worship


For instance, there is a meal described at a gathering point that reflects what is known as the Lord's Supper (Hauerwas and Vells).[footnoteRef:29] While a meal is not necessarily or definitively part of formal Christian worship, the fact that the believers were gathered together in His name can be interpreted positively as worship (Stringer)

History and Development of Contemporary Worship


Christian worship is a personal or collective offering of "thanks and praise to God in and through Jesus the Christ," (Costen, Chapter 1).[footnoteRef:40] Some Christians have conceived of prayer as a "dialogue" or "communication" between God and humankind," (Wainwright, p

History and Development of Contemporary Worship


] Early Christian worship, after the death of Christ and the spreading of the Gospel by His disciples, took place throughout the Greco-Roman world. New converts were from a wide variety of ethnic, cultural, linguistic, social, and economic backgrounds, making the early Christian communities diverse (White)

History and Development of Contemporary Worship


] Early Christian worship, after the death of Christ and the spreading of the Gospel by His disciples, took place throughout the Greco-Roman world. New converts were from a wide variety of ethnic, cultural, linguistic, social, and economic backgrounds, making the early Christian communities diverse (White)