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Coming to Know and Follow Jesus

Beyond the Worship Wars: Building Vital and Faithful Worship

Beyond the Worship Wars Book Cover Beyond the Worship Wars: Building Vital and Faithful Worship, Thomas G. Long, The Alban Institute, Bethesda MD, 2001. ISBN 1-56699-240-0.

 From the first chapter: I had the intuition that some congregations had managed to avoid the hardened battle lines and had, by plan or providence, discovered a "third way" in worship between historic Christian worship and worship that is genuinely responsive to the present cultural environment and is accessible, attractive, and hospitable to religious seekers and questers outside the church.

 What I was looking for were congregations that had created a new thing in the earth—a service of worship completely attuned to the American cultural movement but also fully congruent with the great worship tradition of the Christian church; a service that attracts young people and seekers and the curious and those who are hungry for a spiritual encounter, but does so by beckoning people to the deep and refreshing pool of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as it has been understood historically in the church... I began to build a list of congregations that were managing to carve out another path.  We will explore these congregation, discern how the characteristics [of vital and faithful congregations] are embodied in their worship, and how these elements can be transplanted in new topsoil in other congregations.