Mastering Worship
Overview
Leading the People of God into the presence of God.
One of the most important functions you have as pastor is leading your congregation in worship. Yet if you’re like most, you’ve had little training in the art of leading worship. Mastering Worship, the fourth volume in the Mastering Ministry series, will give you a multitude of helpful ideas for enriching your congregation’s worship experience.
Mastering Worship begins with preparation—how to design a meaningful worship experience, and, equally important, how to prepare yourself for worship. You’ll learn how to lead people into the presence of God … even when you feel spiritually dry and unworthy.
Next you’ll look at the service itself, with special emphasis on congregational singing, public prayer, and preaching. Guidelines are also given for incorporating classic and contemporary expressions of worship and for getting lethargic worshipers actively involved.
Finally, Mastering Worship shows you how to make those special occasions, such as Christmas, Easter, Mother’s Day, meaningful times of worship.
Throughout, Mastering Worship achieves a careful balance, reflecting the diversity of worship styles used today while focusing on the common concerns of most churches.
Top Highlights
“If we don’t prepare spiritually for worship, it’s highly unlikely that the Spirit will be felt in the service, or that the individual parts of the liturgy will rise and converge into an exciting whole.” (Page 19)
“But the most important ingredient of all was present: the minister and his people were prepared spiritually to come before God.” (Page 18)
“In that sense, no one can master worship, for worship is a process whereby we become mastered by Another.” (Page 8)
“As we well know but sometimes forget, our greater care ought to be about how God regards our worship.” (Page 19)
“Unfortunately, too much worship is constructed and performed with little such spiritual preparation.” (Page 18)