Worship is the right, fitting, and delightful response of moral beings—angelic and human—to God the Creator, Redeemer, and Consummator, for who he is as one eternal God in three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—and for what he has done in creation and redemption, and for what he will do in the coming consummation, to whom be all praise ...

Many churchgoers assume that worship is inherently boring, something we need to make exciting. But as Jonathan Landry Cruse shows, churchgoing only seems monotonous and mundane because our eyes are blinded to the supernatural wonder that is taking place all around us. In this book, Cruse helps us perceive the significance of worship and guides us through the spiritual actions of a worship service. Once you recognize how God is doing something to us and for us and through us in each element of the service, Lord’s Day worship will become the highlight of your week! Table of Contents: Foreword by Michael S. Horton Part 1: Introduction 1. What Happens When We Worship? Part 2: A Brief Theology of Worship 2. The Most Important Thing We Will Ever Do 3. We Are Being Shaped 4. We Meet with God 5. God Renews His Covenant 6. We Submit to God’s Agenda 7. We Commune with the Saints Part 3: The Parts of the Service 8. God Calls Us 9. The Verdict Is Pronounced 10. Jesus Gets Up to Preach 11. God Feasts with Us 12. We Get a New Name 13. We Sing a New Song Part 4: Conclusion 14. Extraordinarily ordinary Worship 15. Preparing for Worship

“What is at stake is authenticity. . . . Sooner or later Christians tire of public meetings that are profoundly inauthentic, regardless of how well (or poorly) arranged, directed, performed. We long to meet, corporately, with the living and majestic God and to offer him the praise that is his due.”—D. A. CarsonWorship is a hot topic, but the ways that Christians from different traditions view it vary greatly. What is worship? More important, what does it look like in action, both in our corporate gatherings and in our daily lives? These concerns—the blending of principle and practice—are what Worship by the Book addresses.Cutting through cultural clichés, D. A. Carson, Mark Ashton, Kent Hughes, and Timothy Keller explore, respectively:· Worship Under the Word· Following in Cranmer’s Footsteps· Free Church Worship: The Challenge of Freedom· Reformed Worship in the Global City “This is not a comprehensive theology of worship,” writes Carson. “Still less is it a sociological analysis of current trends or a minister’s manual chockfull of ‘how to’ instructions.” Rather, this book offers pastors, other congregational leaders, and seminary students a thought-provoking biblical theology of worship, followed by a look at how three very different traditions of churchmanship might move from this theological base to a better understanding of corporate worship. Running the gamut from biblical theology to historical assessment all the way to sample service sheets, Worship by the Book shows how local churches in diverse traditions can foster corporate worship that is God-honoring, Word-revering, heartfelt, and historically and culturally informed.

Hughes Oliphant Old masterfully summarizes the worship of Israel and the early church and traces the development of worship through the period of the Reformation. He provides a sterling historical study that will be highly useful for pastors and church study groups as well as for scholars and students interested in Reformed worship. An extensive bibliography of resources for the study of Reformed worship adds to the value of this book.

This book offers a discussion of the Reformed worship tradition, its history, theology, and rationale. The authors discuss the characteristics of Reformed worship and focus on theology and the practice of the sacraments and ordinances of the church. They provide concrete suggestions as to how this tradition can be the basis of meaningful worship in American congregations today.

"Worship the Lord." Too many churches assume that those in their pews and those who pass through their doors know what worship is and why the Lord commands it. The purpose of this booklet, then, is to educate and acquaint members of Reformed churches but most of all those who inquire within their walls, with a basic knowledge of what Reformed churches mean when they say, "Worship the Lord." In knowing what to expect, the worshippers' response of praise and thanksgiving will be more active, joyful, and meaningful.

"Worship the Lord." Too many churches assume that those in their pews and those who pass through their doors know what worship is and why the Lord commands it. The purpose of this booklet, then, is to educate and acquaint members of Reformed churches but most of all those who inquire within their walls, with a basic knowledge of what Reformed churches mean when they say, "Worship the Lord." In knowing what to expect, the worshippers' response of praise and thanksgiving will be more active, joyful, and meaningful.

The first part of this work describes the development of Reformed Worship from 1500-1542. The story begins with liturgical reforms of the Christian Humanists in Alsace, continues through the establishment of the first Protestant worship services in the Swiss cities of Zurich and Basel, joins with the currents of French evangelical thought flowing from Meaux, and finally reaches Geneva with the publication of Calvin's first psalter. Reformed worship is presented as the fruit of an inner-church liturgical renewal movement begun well before the Reformation which was then cultivated by the Rhineland Protestant Reformers. In order that we might be clear about how patristic literature affected this process, we turn next to discover what the Reformers knew about the church fathers. We show evidence of the impressive patristic knowledge of such men as Zwingli, Brucer, Hedio, Oecolampadius, and Calvin. An extensive bibliography of patristic editions known and used by the Reformers concludes the second part of the book. Finally we analyze each element of Reformed worship to show its development and to indicate its scriptural and particularly its patristic roots. The Prayer of Confession, the Prayer of Intercession, the Communion Invocation, and the Benediction are studied to show their liturgical purpose. How the Reformers understood their use of the lectionary, the sermon, psalmody, and hymnody is presented in the light of their understanding of the practice of the ancient church.

In this RCS companion volume, Karin Maag takes readers inside the worshiping life of the church during the Reformation. Exploring several aspects of the church's worship, she considers what it was like to attend church, reforms in preaching, the function of prayer, how Christians experienced the sacraments, and the roles of both visual art and music in worship.