Transforming Worship: Planning and Leading Sunday Services as If Spiritual Formation Mattered
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
Spiritual formation is the key to the survival of our faith.
Stigmatized by scandal, the church in North America and throughout Europe has been branded as useless and irrelevant. To stem the tide of nominal Christianity, we need to get serious about making disciples who can make other disciples. There is an urgent need today for church services that are substantive and purposeful.
Rory Noland is a worship leader who has led in contexts ranging from megachurches to small retreat settings such as the Transforming Center. Combining discipleship and worship—what Noland calls “Transforming Worship”—he offers a vision for worship as spiritual formation. We need to reclaim our worship services as a formative space, and through that we will become the light of Christ in a dark world.
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- Combines discipleship and worship
- Explores how to reclaim worship services as a formative space
- Offers a vision for worship as spiritual formation
Part One: Biblical, Historical, and Theological Foundations of Transforming Worship
- It All Started at Sinai
- Updating the Ancient Formula for Sunday Services
- How to Edify Believers and Evangelize Unbelievers
- Reclaiming Sunday Morning as the Church’s Primary, Formative Event
- Recovering a Sense of the Sacred in Modern Worship
Part Two: Distinctive Elements of Transforming Worship
- Let Us Pray!
- Engaging the Preached and Unpreached Word of God
- Corporate Confession: The Gift of an Unfettered Conscience
- Lord’s Supper as Spiritual Nourishment
- Living in Your Baptism
- Epilogue: We Get To Do This!
- Appendix A: Responsive Scripture Reading
- Appendix B: Reader’s Theater Scripture Reading
- Appendix C: Corporate Prayer of Confession
- Appendix D: Checklist for Transforming Worship
In Transforming Worship, Rory Noland makes an excellent case for reenvisioning corporate worship as a spiritual practice that will actually transform and restore people’s souls. His reenvisioning of worship is historically grounded, deeply thoughtful, and spiritually challenging. I wish that every worship leader in the world would read this vital book!
—Manuel Luz, author of Honest Worship and Imagine That: Discovering Your Unique Role as a Christian Artist
Rory Noland skillfully invites us beyond entertaining worship or informative worship into what he calls ‘transforming worship.’ But he’s not merely arguing for a new style or brand. Instead, Rory brings his vast knowledge of church history together with forty-plus years of church ministry experience to invite us into a robust biblical worship that transforms us from the inside out. You will learn from the wisdom of many different Christian streams, and more importantly, discover practical ways to integrate them in your particular context. I truly believe that the church of the future will live at the intersections of multiple Christian traditions rather than choosing one against all others. Rory’s book Transforming Worship offers a biblical and historical road map for this constructive, generative journey that forms us into Christlikeness for the sake of the world.
—Aaron Niequist, liturgist and author of The Eternal Current
About one hour a week. That is the time we get to make a discipleship impression on many (not all) people every seven days. Reading and discussing this book with your ministry team will cause you to reexamine the focus of your ministry to make this time invaluable. Whether you have been a part of ministry for a short time or are seasoned, filtering your ministry philosophy and your service elements through Rory’s thoughts can transform not only the corporate worship you are a part of but your personal worship as well. Rory’s gift for sharing his heart for worship ministry is beautiful and challenging once again through this book.
—Darcy Ruscitti, executive director of central ministries at The Compass Church, Naperville, Illinois