Worship should unite, professor says_111703

Posted: 11/14/03

Worship should unite, professor says

By Teresa Young

Wayland Baptist University

LUBBOCK--Successful worship requires churches to rethink their focus, their schedule and their communities of believers, according to a Texas Baptist educator.

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Posted: 11/14/03

Worship should unite, professor says

By Teresa Young

Wayland Baptist University

LUBBOCK–Successful worship requires churches to rethink their focus, their schedule and their communities of believers, according to a Texas Baptist educator.

Clell Wright, chairman of the church music department at Hardin-Simmons University, led a workshop on “Rethinking Blended Worship” during the Baptist General Convention of Texas' annual session in Lubbock.

He encouraged participants to approach worship as an avenue to celebrate diversity in the church as a global community: “Worship, the adoration and praise of God our Father, should be the one thing in our churches that unites us, but it has been a dividing wedge.”

Hardin-Simmons professor Clell Wright discusses how to make blended worship a unifying force rather than a divisive force.

Wright advocated three areas of rethinking for churches concerning worship.

The first is in the worship focus.

“We've tried to meet everyone's needs, and we often look at whether worship is successful because of what we get out of it,” he noted. “But worship is not about us or how it makes us feel; it is entirely about honoring God.”

Churches often become bogged down in a set order of service that does not always draw the congregation into worship, he warned. A service using music and Scripture to bring worshippers into a time of increasing introspection and confession helps set the tone for the sermon and encourage a worshipful service, he suggested.

Embracing the diversity of the global community of believers means often incorporating worship songs from other countries, noting that when congregations worship, their voices are joining with those who have gone before and those who will follow in a collective worship voice, the professor said.

Using a sample worship service from Logsdon School of Theology in Abilene, Wright presented examples of blending traditional and contemporary songs together for worship segments. For example, the traditional hymn “How Great Thou Art” was paired with the more contemporary “I Exalt Thee” because the two share a similar idea and complement one another, allowing for a continuation and flow of ideas in worship.

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