WiseReader

The last four decades has produced a sometimes seismic shift in evangelical Christian worship style and content. While change is inevitable – and necessary – too often the old and familiar has been jettisoned for something that, while new, turns out to be far less substantial  theologically and musically. But the tide is turning, and a growing core of musicians and song writers are drawing us back to a better understanding of God-honoring worship. The book you hold in your hands is one example of this trend.

James Herzog is both serious about good theology and gifted as a lyricist and musician. With a healthy appreciation for many musical styles, he strives to promote the best of both the old and the new, while making his own contribution to the ever-growing body of worship resources available today.

What delights me most in recommending this volume is that James has captured the true center of worship. The fifteen songs included in this collection provide a superb example of writing and composing that lifts high the grace of God, placing the gospel where it belongs, at the centre of our worship.

Using the biblical categories of psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, James has demonstrated how each type of song provides an avenue of worship. This is a sampling of what we should all hope will be a lifetime devoted to developing worship music that stands the test of time

For those who may wonder, James composes and writes in a style similar to that of the Sovereign Grace Music people. If you want to know more about the work of James, or wish to purchase a copy of his book, contact him directly at: jamezog@gmail.com.

I heartily recommend this resource.

Worship by the Book
D.A. Carson, Mark Ashton, R. Kent Hughes, Timothy J. Keller
Zondervan, 2002
ISBN: 0310216257
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I’ve been reading books on the theme of worship in conjunction with teaching a course on that subject at the Toronto Baptist Seminary. And given the sheer magnitude of titles available, it has been challenging to settle on one or two titles to use as texts for the course.

In my view, there is far too much emphasis given to music in worship discussions. Without doubt, music plays a key role in corporate worship, but a New Covenant understanding of worship compels us to see that worship embraces all of life. My thoughts, actions, words - everything about my existence - is wrapped up in worship. I am always worshiping - and my worship is either good or bad worship. So, when it comes to corporate worship, we need more than discussions about musical instruments, licks and runs, segways from one song to another, power point vs. hymnbooks and discussions about contemporary vs. classical music.

Beginning with the spiritual state of my heart and life, corporate worship involves singing, praying, confession, reading God’s Word, the Lord’s Table, baptism, giving, and hearing the Word of God.

One text used by my predecessor in teaching the course is Worship by the Book, edited by D.A. Carson. Though it is not the last word on the subject, it is nevertheless a very good first word. As many have said, and I now whole-heartedly concur, Carson’s opening essay is worth the price of the book. I chose this as a required text for the class, and am using Carson’s essay as the core, the skeleton, around which I am building the course.

Carson begins by underscoring the challenge in providing a workable definition of worship. How the English word “worship,” in both its noun and verb forms, has changed over the centuries, along with the fact that our English Bibles use ”worship” to translate at least eight Hebrew words and ten Greek words, means that there is “no one-to-one relationship between any Hebrew or Greek word and our word worship.”

Furthermore, a survey of books and articles on the subject clearly exhibit the challenge involved in crafting anything like a sound theology of worship. Such things as the relationship between the Jewish synagogue and the early church are view differently by writers. And then there is the matter of finding unambiguous “detailed first-century evidence of an entire Christian service.” Carson contends that this evidence is just not available.

But the challenges aside, Carson does provide a lengthy definition of worship which he then, in “an apostolic number of points”, seeks to explain. I think he succeeds in doing so.

The remaining three chapters are provided by pastoral leaders writing from three distinct perspectives. Mark Ashton writes from the perspective of an Anglican utilizing the Prayer Book. R. Kent Hughes writes from the free church tradition, and Timothy J. Keller writes from the Reformed tradition. Each writer provides several samples services that illustrate their particular approach to corporate worship. 

Despite coming from three different perspectives, one is struck by the overlap among these men. In the core essentials, a conservative, evangelical approach to corporate worship looks pretty much the same wherever one may be.

This book is worth reading. Purchase Worship by the Book here.

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This article first appeared in ChristianWeek on December 1, 2008. 

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As far back as I can remember, Christmas morning has always carried with it the hope that someone will give me a book. I simply cannot imagine life without a good book or two on the go. And though no one has asked, I’m compiling a list of books I’d love to receive this year.

Like Philip Yancey, I grew up in a strict fundamentalist home and church (though I have not made my career writing about surviving it) and I continue to cherish many memories of childhood and youth in that setting. Despite being raised to view it with suspicion, I find the renewed evangelical interest in cultural engagement fresh and exciting. My Christmas wish list includes three recent books exploring this theme.

Andy Crouch’s Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling (IVP, 2008) asks Christians to resist simply condemning, critiquing, copying or consuming culture. If asked twenty years ago what characterized my relationship with culture, I would have quickly responded: “Condemning and critiquing.”

However, in more ways than I care to admit, my practice was more like copying and consuming—though always with a veneer of Christian commitment. Crouch issues a clarion call for Christians to learn how culture works, then to become creative culture makers. One reviewer says Culture Making is “as refreshing as it is smart…a significant addition to contemporary Christian thought.”

John G. Stackhouse Jr., in Making the Best of It: Following Christ in the real world (Oxford University Press, 2008), challenges Christians to resist seeing only two options for cultural engagement: wholesale attempts at Christianizing society or cloistering themselves in sectarian fellowships.

With careful attention to the history of Christian cultural engagement, along with biblical and theological understandings of culture, Stackhouse encourages a renewed commitment to faithful and distinctively Christian living as full participants in our diverse world.

Miroslav Volf, theology professor at Yale University Divinity School, calls this a “must read for those who are concerned with the role of faith in contemporary societies.” Having appreciated several other books by Stackhouse, I now want to own this one.

D.A. Carson’s Christ & Culture Revisited (Eerdmans, 2008) examines the five “Christ-culture options” articulated in H. Richard Niebuhr’s Christ and Culture (Harper Torch Books, 1951).

Carson reminds us that Christians are called to be in the world, but not to be of the world. It’s a tough balancing act that grows harder and harder as the Church becomes further enmeshed in that culture. While Carson finds Niebuhr’s categories helpful, he nevertheless warns that they ought not to be given “canonical force.” Carson’s biblical-theological approach strives to help Christians “untangle current messy debates on living in the world.” In Tim Keller’s opinion, Carson’s treatment is “the most balanced one out there.” This one goes on my “must read” list for 2009.

In a day when polite acceptance is craved by so many, David F. Wells, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary’s professor of historical and systematic theology is a refreshingly frank voice from academia.

Already known for his bold critiques of a spiritually sick American evangelicalism, Wells has issued yet another call to return to a better, bolder expression of evangelicalism. The Courage to be Protestant: Truth-lovers, Marketers, and Emergents in the Postmodern World (Eerdmans, 2008) is a “jeremiad against ‘new’ versions of evangelicalism.” He pointedly contrasts the “doctrinal seriousness” of “historic, classical evangelicalism” with “new movements of the marketing church and the emergent church.” I have thoroughly appreciated earlier books by Wells, and am hoping that this one will soon find a place on my reading pile.

My final book in this year’s wish list is Recalling the Hope of Glory: Biblical Worship from the Garden to the New Creation (Kregel Publications, 2006) by Allen P. Ross, professor of divinity at Beeson Divinity School. The late Robert E. Webber, no stranger to the theme of worship said of this book: “Not only is this a comprehensive theological vision of creation, incarnation, and re-creation, it is also a genuine work of praise.”

John D. Witvliet, director of the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, says Ross has produced a “vision of worship that is at once luminous, transcendent, and inexhaustible.” It sounds to me like this is a substantial treatment of a topic of perennial interest to the Christian church.

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To purchase these books online, click on the links below.

Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling
By Andy Crouch / IVP Books

Making the Best of It: Following Christ in the Real World
By John G. Stackhouse / Oxford University Press

Christ and Culture Revisited
By D.A. Carson / Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

The Courage to Be Protestant: Truth Lovers, Marketers, and Emergents in the Postmodern World
By David F. Wells / Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

Recalling the Hope of Glory: Biblical Worship from the Garden to the New Creation
By Allen P. Ross / Kregel Publications