Dynamic Worship: Mission, Grace, Praise, and Power - Softcover

Callahan, Kennon L.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0470642092 ISBN 13: 9780470642092

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, 1997

Synopsis

In this vital guide for pastors and lay leaders, Kennon Callahan outlines the major components of effective and meaningful worship. He also suggests strategic, systematic steps for implementing improvements that transform church services into experiences of dynamic worship. By advancing and improving the worship service, the gifts of worship can transform our lives.

About this title

From the Back Cover

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."

Insights and wisdom to grow and develop your congregation′s worship life

"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

About the Author

KENNON L. CALLAHAN, researcher, professor, and pastor is one of today′s most sought–after church consultants. He has worked with thousands of congregations around the world and has helped tens of thousands of church leaders and pastors through his dynamic workshops and seminars. Author of many books, he is best known for his groundbreaking study Twelve Keys to an Effective Church, which has formed the basis for the Mission Growth Movement, a widely acclaimed program for church renewal. Callahan has earned the B.A., M.Div., S.T.M., and Ph.D. degrees. His doctorate is in Systematic Theology. He has served both rural and urban congregations in Ohio, Texas, and Georgia and taught for many years at Emory University. Ken and his wife of over forty years, Julie, have two children, Ken and Mike, and three grandchildren, Blake, Mason, and Brice. They enjoy the outdoors, hiking, horseback riding, and camping.

About this edition

• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0470642092
• ISBN 13: 9780470642092
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 168