Publisher's Synopsis
Successful, healthy congregations are distinguished by helpful, inspiring worship services that advance and strengthen the lives of worshipers. In Dynamic Worship, Kennon Callahan calls on the church to look both critically and hopefully at this central expression of its identity. Worshiping, he says, should be as natural as breathing, and as life sustaining. It is central to living. "Without worshiping our lives shrivel and decay; our true selves perish."
Dynamic corporate worship conveys four gifts to its participants. We gain the power to move forward and grow, the grace of sharing in community, clarity about life′s meaning, and the hope to live richly and fully in this life.
But how can a church whose worship is tired (or tiresome) overcome resistance to change and begin to transform? Callahan presents tested and proven steps for transforming uninspiring church services into experiences of dynamic worship. He focuses on five major components of a strong, healthy service of worship:
- the service is warm and winsome
- the music is dynamic and inspiring
- the service has power and movement
- the services and sanctuary help the congregation reach persons in the community in mission
- the preaching expresses the character of the gospel and the quality of compassion
Dynamic Worship shows how congregations can implement each of these five components in a strategic and systematic way through a program of incremental change. The book outlines qualities important in choirs and choir directors, characteristics of celebratory prayer and music, ways in which churches can activate the latent energy in their congregations, and much more.
Callahan writes, "There are sound and proven ways to make your congregational worship life deeper, richer, fuller, brimming with a sense of God′s presence. What is offered here . . . can help you achieve that goal."
"This book is for you to strengthen your worship life. The book is for all those throughout the world who seek to worship God. Worship is one of the most precious gifts God has given us. In healthy congregations worship is corporate and dynamic, stirring and inspiring, helpful and hopeful. It is joy and wonder, grace and peace. Through it people discover help, hope, and home." Kennon Callahan, from the preface of Dynamic Worship
"Christians want to share together in worship. What we do not want is to have to put up with a gathering that is dull, trivial, irrelevant, or full of doom and gloom. Instead we are drawn to worship that is corporate and dynamic, stirring and inspiring, helpful and hopeful." Kennon Callahan, Dynamic Worship
