Accelerating diversity of lifestyles has created a crisis for worship designers. One size does not fit all. No worship service can be "blended" to address the complete needs of a congregation. Moreover, church "shopping" is ending as people are choosing a worship service that directly meets their fundamental anxieties about life (regardless of style). Learn to use lifestyle information in worship planning to design a service that truly reaches the people in your community. This book explains why people worship and guides leaders to design relevant worship services that address people's sense of urgency. It is both practical and theological. The decline of worship attendance in all denominations, and across all "traditional" or "contemporary" styles, is reshaping the quest for relevance. Church leaders are turning away from methods to outcomes. People will only participate in worship if it really matters to the fundamental issues that they face.

From 1991 to 2012, Nathan D. Mitchell was the author of the "Amen Corner" that appeared at the end of each issue of Worship. Readers of Worship grew accustomed to Nathan's columns as invitations to rethink the practice of Christian worship through a liturgical theology that was interdisciplinary, aesthetic, and attentive to history. With the soul of a poet, Nathan was always on the lookout for the turn of phrase, the image, stanza, or metaphor from other classic wordsmiths that could capture the liturgical insight he wanted to explore.
For the first time, this volume assembles some of the most important of these columns around the themes of body, Word, Spirit, beauty, justice, and unity. In addition, Nathan's former students offer substantive commentary through essays that invite the reader to consider how the themes raised by Nathan might develop in the coming years.
This collection is a must-read both for those who admired Nathan's contribution to liturgical studies and for a newer generation of scholars seeking to discern the frontiers of liturgical theology.
Nathan D. Mitchell is an emeritus professor of liturgy in the Department of Theology at the University of Notre Dame. In 1998, Mitchell was presented with the Berakah Award from the North American Academy of Liturgy for his contribution to the field. His many publications include the following books: Cult and Controversy; Eucharist as a Sacrament of Initiation; Liturgy and the Social Sciences; Real Presence: The Work of Eucharist; and, more recently, Meeting Mystery and The Mystery of the Rosary: Marian Devotion and the Reinvention of Catholicism.

Owen Cummings insightfully reflects this awareness through his intuitive, right-brain approach to liturgical theology, as he offers us a kaleidoscope of snapshots viewed through the lenses of a great cloud of witnesses that includes but is not limited to poets, novelists, and preachers.

A complete prayer book in the Slavonic language printed with the Cyrillic (old orthography) alphabet. Includes morning and evening prayers, the liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, various Akathists and Canons annd much more besides.

The publication in 1611 of the King James Bible, the 'authorized version', was a landmark event in English history that has reverberated down the centuries. This festival service seeks to trace through history the place of the Bible in Christian life and worship, as well as celebrating the effect the King James Bible has had on generations of Christians since its publication. The festival service is in five parts, each reflecting on a particular phase in the story of the Bible's translation and use: * The Early Church * A Bible in Every Church * Appointed to be Read in Churches * Into all the World * According to the Latest Translation It includes a varied selection of hymns and worship songs, readings and anthems, including some specially written for this festival. Includes works by: * Philip Wilby * David Ogden * Thomas Hewitt Jones * The Taize Community * Stuart Towned as well as music by Attwood, Batten, Handel and Mendelssohn.

The seasons of the soul are the seasons of the liturgical calendar. The liturgy is about a relationship, and Sr. Carla Mae's gorgeous images, poetry and prose describe how the liturgy is a means of deepening our relationship with God communally. The material comes highly recommended by RCIA coordinators as a perfect introduction to how the liturgy is the place where a loving God invites us - individually and as a body - into an ever more intimate experience of the Trinitarian relationship. This series of nourishing meditations on the liturgical seasons is written by an excellent theologian. In addition to the Introduction, which is simply flabbergasting, readers will be taken by the bodily, indeed the womanly character of her spirituality, her associating the whole cosmos with the Incarnation, and her adroit, poetic play with symbols. A profound, short book, which deserves to be read more than once.

What if the way we worship isn't just an expression of our faith, but is what shapes our faith? The Church has believed this about the way we worship and pray together for centuries: The way we worship becomes the way we believe. But if this is true, it's time to take a closer look at what we say and sing and do each week. Drawing from his own discovery of ancient worship practices, Glenn Packiam helps us understand why the Church made creedal proclamations and Psalm-praying a regular part of their worship. He shares about why the Eucharist was the climactic point of their corporate "re-telling of the salvation story." When our worship becomes a rich feast, our faith is nourished and no longer anemic. The more our worship speaks of Christ, the more we enter into the mystery of faith.

Elvis Presley. Andy Warhol. Nike. Stephen King. Ellen DeGeneres. Sim City. Facebook. These American pop culture icons are just a few examples of entries you will find in this fascinating guide to religion and popular culture. Arranged chronologically from 1950 to the present, this accessible work explores the theological themes in 101 well-established figures and trends from film, television, video games, music, sports, art, fashion, and literature. This book is ideal for anyone who has an interest in popular culture and its impact on our spiritual lives. Contributors include such experts in the field as David Dark, Mark I. Pinsky, Lisa Swain, Steve Turner, Lauren Winner, and more.

"I am increasingly convinced that the decisive question that demands an answer from us is not so much how believers experience the liturgy, but whether believers "live from" the liturgy they celebrate."With these few words Goffredo Boselli captures the essence of this present work.Believers can celebrate the liturgy throughout their lifetimes without ever really drawing their lives from it. And this is true of "all" believers--laity, clergy, or monastics. More than a century after the start of the liturgical movement and half a century after the start of the postconciliar liturgical reform, we must ask the difficult question of whether the liturgy has or has not become the source of the spiritual life of believers. For only by living from the liturgy can they receive the nourishment necessary to maintain a life of faith in today's world.In "The Spiritual Meaning of the Liturgy," Goffredo Boselli--one of Europe's foremost liturgical theologians--offers an accessible and important guide for both scholars and interested laypeople to understand the meaning that permeates the liturgy and its implications for daily living. Readers will find here a resource to help understand the liturgy more fully, interiorize it more effectively, and live it more authentically.

Who is it that can make life better, circumstances turn around, make all things good and bring healing? It is our Mighty Father, our Jehovah God, our Strong Tower. So when we recognize where this power comes from we give glory to Him who is above all. Who sits high and looks down at us? It is our Father. Not only is He able to look down but He is able to be around us, looking at us face to face in the Spirit, in discernment, in those small nudges in our soul, in love, in intervening for us. He stops stuff from happening to us, He takes the wheel of our vehicle, He stirs us in the right direction when we pray.

How would the history of Roman Catholic worship look if it were viewed first from the perspective of the "people in the pews" rather than through the deliberations of popes and church councils or the writings of theologians? How did the "common people" down through the ages understand what they were doing when they came together in worship--and was this understanding always the same as the "official" interpretation of the church authorities? In Local Worship, Global Church, Mark Francis explores the history of the liturgy from "the bottom up" rather than from "the top down" and comes to conclusions that complement our understanding of the history of the liturgy and its relationship to faithful Christians from the first century CE to our own time.

What are Vespers? Where have the consecration bells gone? Why do some liturgical ministers vest and others don't? Blinking sneakers on altar servers, Christmas trees in January . . . what is that all about? These are some of the candid questions that Catholics and others often wonder about the liturgy. In "What's the Smoke For?" expert liturgist Johan van Parys offers helpful and engaging answers. Based on church teaching and rooted in sound theology, Johan's responses invite inquiring minds to continue to think about what is happening in the church and to be engaged in learning more about liturgy and the arts.

The introduction of Common Worship services in the Church of England has gone remarkably smoothly, considering the immensity of the task. But despite its overall success, the sheer variety of material, coupled with the complex rules about what is and is not allowed, have left some parishes, clergy and Readers wondering if this is really the best way to produce good worship. A question such as, 'How do we use Common Worship for a Messy Church service of Holy Communion?' focuses the issue - but it is a question being asked in different ways in lots of different places. In this book, Mark Earey turns to the future, asking whether the framework of canon law, notes and rubrics within which Common Worship operates is any longer fit for purpose. In a mixed economy Church in which fresh expressions of church, alt.worship and new monasticism all sit alongside traditional parish churches, he asks whether it is time for the current rules-based approach to Church of England liturgy to make way for an approach based on trust and accountability. Such an approach would allow for more local flexibility and creativity, but raises big questions about how such worship can be truly indigenous yet authentically Anglican.

In Liturgy and the New Evangelization, Timothy O'Malley provides a liturgical foundation to the church's New Evangelization. He examines questions pastoral ministers must treat in order to foster the renewal of humanity that the New Evangelization seeks to promote. Drawing on narrative, as well as theological concepts in biblical, patristic, and systematic theology, O'Malley invites readers into a renewed experience of the liturgical life of the church, learning to practice the art of self-giving love for the renewal of the world.

Resurrection Power is a devotional book that deeply examines the events and conversations surrounding Jesus from Resurrection until Pentecost. Each chapter opens with a beautiful photograph of the morning sunrise, then delves into the narratives that transformed the history of the world. Music producer-turned-worship pastor Rob Still shares a down-to-earth perspective converging divergent sources of inspiration, from theological commentaries to modern song lyrics. Anyone desiring a fresh viewpoint to grow deeper in their faith will benefit from this book.

When contemporary Christians worship (be they Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox or Pentecostal), they engage in a variety of ritual acts whose diversity and complexity may at first puzzle the observer. A closer look reveals that worship incorporates a limited number of major components which, repeated, form the backbone of the ceremonies Christians enact when they meet on Sundays. The refined typology of ritual acts described here focuses on six elementary forms: praise, prayer, sermon, sacrifice, sacrament and spiritual ecstasy. 'Sacred Games' argues that the essential meaning of Christian ritual is embodied in these six elements, all of which have their roots in ancient, pre-Christian ritual life. Each has its own constituents, dynamics, meaning and distinct story. Accordingly, this book is divided into six interpretative sections which, using French, German and English sources and contrasting past experience with the present, European with American, and Catholic with Protestant, explain the meanings of each. Lang uncovers their ancient biblical roots and follows their course through history with special emphasis on biblical, historic and contemporary forms.This is a pioneering book and a major scholarly achievement: the first full-scale history and interpretation of a collective spiritual act fraught with meaning. Well-illustrated, written in a highly readable style and geared to the informed general reader as well as to students and scholars, it should become an indispensable additon to the broader study of Christianity. Bernhard Lang is Professor of Religion at the University of Paderborn, Germany and has taught in Tubingen, Mainz, Philadelphia (Temple University) and Paris (the Sorbonne). He has written many books, including (with Colleen McDannell) 'Heaven: A History', published by Yale University Press and translated into seven languages.

With this new lectionary commentary series, Westminster John Knox offers the most extensive resource for preaching on the market today. When complete, the twelve volumes of the series will cover all the Sundays in the three-year lectionary cycle, along with movable occasions, such as Christmas Day, Epiphany, Holy Week, and All Saints' Day. For each lectionary text, preachers will find four brief essays--one each on the theological, pastoral, exegetical, and homiletical challenges of the text. This gives preachers sixteen different approaches to the proclaimation of the Word on any given occasion. The editors and contributors to this series are world-class scholars, pastors, and writers representing a variety of denominations and traditions. And while the twelve volumes of the series will follow the pattern of the Revised Common Lectionary, each volume will contain an index of biblical passages so that nonlectionary preachers, as well as teachers and students, may make use of its contents.

It is a great help towards more, thoughtful worship if we know something about the great company of men and women who wrote the classic hymns of Britain - some thing about their lives, their spiritual stories and their records as authors. This book gives us the essential facts together with a critical commentary.). The result is a fresh introduction to a most interesting slice of history, ptures. from Isaac Watts publishing his `songs before unknown' in 1707, ,hrough the Wesleys and the Catholic Revival, to the death of the prolific John Ellerton in 1893.

Edition of rare surviving litanies from the middle ages, providing evidence for monastic worship. The litanies of the monastic orders in England, above all those of the Benedictines, are key witnesses of devotion to the saints of the British Isles, whose relics and shrines were mostly in Benedictine abbeys and cathedral priories. However, although many of the calendars of the Benedictines have been published, litanies are more rare, and the majority of those within this volume are presented as text editions for the first time. The majority of the textsare Benedictine, but the few surviving litanies from the other monastic orders, Carthusians, Cistercians and Cluniacs, are included, and also those of the Order of Fontevrault. This volume, the second of a set of three, contains the litanies from the Cluniac Priory of Pontefract to York, St Mary's Abbey. Nigel Morgan is Honorary Emeritus Professor of the History of Art at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Corpus Christi College.

With this new lectionary commentary series, Westminster John Knox offers the most extensive resource for preaching on the market today. When complete, the twelve volumes of the series will cover all the Sundays in the three-year lectionary cycle, along with movable occasions, such as Christmas Day, Epiphany, Holy Week, and All Saints' Day. For each lectionary text, preachers will find four brief essays--one each on the theological, pastoral, exegetical, and homiletical challenges of the text. This gives preachers sixteen different approaches to the proclaimation of the Word on any given occasion. The editors and contributors to this series are world-class scholars, pastors, and writers representing a variety of denominations and traditions. And while the twelve volumes of the series will follow the pattern of the Revised Common Lectionary, each volume will contain an index of biblical passages so that nonlectionary preachers, as well as teachers and students, may make use of its contents.

'Most illustrious Prince, I have considered that the Supper of the Lord (which has been violated by many and great superstitions, and turned into gain) should be renovated and restored according to the institutions of our Saviour Christ; and I have considered that all should be performed according to the Divine Word and of the Ancient and Holy Church, the care and instruction of which belong in some part to my office'. (Thomas Cranmer, Dedication to King Edward VI, A Defence of the True and Catholic Doctrine of the Sacrament.) In this fascinating and practical study, Nigel Scotland looks closely at the Service of Holy Communion in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, and with further illumination from earlier versions of the Prayer Book and Cranmer's other writings, draws conclusions which may refresh and challenge our contemporary practices. The aim of this 'Anglican Foundations' series which focuses on the Formularies of the Church of England and the elements of the different services within the Prayer Book is to highlight what those services teach about the Christian faith and to demonstrate how they are also designed to shape the practice of that faith. As well as providing an account of the origins of the Prayer Book services, they offer practical guidance on how such services may be used in Christian ministry. Nigel Scotland has spent the greater part of his life lecturing in Church History at what became the University of Gloucestershire. He has served as rector of four country parishes and led a Fresh Expressions church plant for 13 years. Since 2006 he has taught theology students at Trinity College Bristol. He is married to Anne and in their leisure time they enjoy music, walking in the Cotswolds, gardening, visits to the gym and enjoying times with their grand-children. He studied at McGill and Bristol Universities and earned a doctorate at Aberdeen University. He is the author of eighteen books mostly in the area of Christian history.