What language is most appropriate for worship? Should it lean to the colloquial, perhaps targeting those attending worship for the first time? Or should it be a language with deeper roots, the language of a community that already loves the God to whom worship is offered?
Ronald Byars here argues that the communal worship speech that truly honors both the majesty and the intimacy of God is, in fact, biblical language. Far from limiting worship, biblical language encompasses a vast range of speech from poetry and prose to parable and narrative. Byars explains how this language pushes us beyond what we already think we know, requiring us to think about death and resurrection, beginnings and endings, and how to hold on to faith. It is the language of relationship, both in community and in worship.
The book comprises four parts: (1) Gathering, (2) The Word, (3) The Eucharist, and (4) Sending. Written for both leaders of worship and individual worshipers, this book offers a rich understanding of communal praise. Part of the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship Liturgical Studies Series.
The Calvin Institute of Christian Worship Liturgical Studies Series is edited by John D. Witvliet. This series is designed to promote reflection on the history, theology, and practice of Christian worship and to stimulate worship renewal in Christian congregations. Written by pastoral worship leaders from diverse communities and scholars from a range of disciplines, these volumes seek to nurture worship practices that are at once spiritually vital and theologically rooted.
