Worship Matters
Digital Verbum Edition
Overview
Nothing is more essential than knowing how to worship the God who created us. This book focuses readers on the essentials of God-honoring worship, combining biblical foundations with practical application in a way that works in the real world. The author, a pastor and noted songwriter, skillfully instructs pastors, musicians, and church leaders so that they can root their congregational worship in unchanging scriptural principles, not divisive cultural trends. Bob Kauflin covers a variety of topics such as the devastating effects of worshiping the wrong things, how to base our worship on God’s self-revelation rather than our assumptions, the fuel of worship, the community of worship, and the ways that eternity’s worship should affect our earthly worship.
Appropriate for Christians from varied backgrounds and for various denominations, this book will bring a vital perspective to what readers think they understand about praising God.
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- Focuses readers on the essentials of God-honoring worship
- Brings a vital perspective to what readers think they understand about praising God
- Combines biblical foundations with practical application in a way that works in the real world
- The Important Things
- My Heart: What Do I Love?
- My Mind: What Do I Believe?
- My Hands: What Do I Practice?
- My Life: What Do I Model?
- So What Does a Worship Leader Do?
- A Faithful Worship Leader . . .
- . . . Magnifies the Greatness of God . . .
- . . . In Jesus Christ . . .
- . . . Through the Power of the Holy Spirit . . .
- . . . Skillfully Combining God’s Word . . .
- . . . With Music . . . (Part One: What Kind?)
- . . . With Music . . . (Part Two: Planning Sunday’s Songs)
- . . . Thereby Motivating the Gathered Church . . .
- . . . To Proclaim the Gospel . . .
- . . . To Cherish God’s Presence . . .
- . . . And to Live for God’s Glory
- Guiding Principles
- Transcendent and Immanent
- Head and Heart
- Internal and External
- Vertical and Horizontal
- Planned and Spontaneous
- Rooted and Relevant
- Skilled and Authentic
- For the Church and for Unbelievers
- Event and Everyday
- Always People
- Your Church
- Your Team
- Your Pastor
- Some Thoughts for Pastors
Part I: The Leader
Part II: The Task
Part III: Healthy Tensions
Part IV: Right Relationships
The moment I met Bob Kauflin I liked him (a lot!). The more I have gotten to know him, the more I have respected and appreciated him. The more I have listened to and read him on the subject of the corporate worship of our gracious God, the more I have been edified, instructed, humbled, and helped. Whether you are a choir director or minister of music in a congregation with a more traditional form of public worship or a worship team leader in a church with a more contemporary style or a pastor trying to think hard (and biblically) about congregational worship or a Christian wanting to make sure you understand the privilege of ‘giving to the Lord the glory due his name in the company of the saints’ in a way that helpfully prepares you to do just that, this book will be a blessing to you (as it already has been to me). The things that Bob addresses here transcend style and situation and point us to enduring and universal Christian priorities. I love the wisdom—the Christ-exalting, gospel-derived wisdom— displayed in the challenge Bob asks us to consider, the important things he calls us to, the tasks he reminds us of, the tensions that he bids us hold, and the right relationships he exhorts us to embrace. Very wise. Very timely. Profoundly biblical, theological, devotional, pastoral, and practical. Thanks, Bob. I am your debtor once again.
—Ligon Duncan, Chancellor, CEO, and John E. Richards Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology, Reformed Theological Seminary
Humility. Self-deprecating humor. Practical wisdom. And not just for music leaders. What a refreshing read! I’ve gained from Bob Kauflin, and if you read this, you will too. Clearly structured, well illustrated, engagingly written, biblically saturated, theologically careful, this book gives us a rich treatise on how we can follow Christ ourselves and call others to do the same. This book helps musicians, pastors, elders, and other Christians understand better what we’re called to do when we’re together.
—Mark Dever, Senior Pastor, Capitol Hill Baptist Church; President, 9Marks Ministries
God is seeking those who worship him in spirit and in truth. Bob Kauflin is a man whose passion for true worship is both infectious and instructive. In Worship Matters he offers profound and powerful observations about the task of leading God’s people in worship—observations missing from much of the conversation about worship today. Bob Kauflin is driven by a passion for God’s glory, and his reflections on music and worship are grounded in biblical truth and keen theological insight. In a day of such confusion about worship, I welcome this important book.
—R. Albert Mohler Jr., President, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky