We are living in a time when worship has become a distinct priority for the Christian community. For years the church has emphasized evangelism, teaching, fellowship, missions, and service while neglecting the very source of its power--worship. Recently, however, many churches are experiencing a Spirit-led renewal in their understanding and practice of the praise and worship of God.
Rediscovering the Missing Jewel is a small-group course of study designed around thirteen easy-to-understand sessions. Part One, The Biblical foundations of Christian Worship, explores worship in two sessions--one for the Old Testament and one for the New. Part Two, Worship from the Time of the Early Church through the Nineteenth Century, consists of six sessions that trace important developments from Justin Martyr to the congregations of African-American slaves in North America. Along the way, sessions are devoted to Eastern Orthodox, medieval Catholic, Reformation, and Protestant free church worship. Part Three, Worship Renewal in the Twentieth Century, traces strands of Christian experience that directly influenced worship in many congregations today: Pentecostalism and the charismatic renewal, liturgical renewal stemming from Vatican II, the "praise and worship" movement, and a more recent approach that deliberately blends newer and older elements of the Christian worship tradition.
Robert E. Webber (1933 - 2007)
was an American theologian known for his work on worship and the early church. He played a key role in the Convergence Movement, a move among evangelical and charismatic churches in the United States to blend charismatic worship with liturgies from the Book of Common Prayer and other liturgical sources. Webber began teaching theology at Wheaton College in 1968. Existentialism was the primary focus of Webber's research and lectures during his first years at Wheaton. However, he soon shifted his focus to the early church. In 1978 he wrote Common Roots, a book that examined the impact of 2nd-century Christianity on the modern church.In 1985 Webber wrote Evangelicals on the Canterbury Trail: Why Evangelicals Are Attracted to the Liturgical Church, in which he described the reasons behind his own gradual shift away from his fundamentalist/evangelical background toward the Anglican tradition. Webber faced an enormous amount of criticism from evangelicals in response to this book. Nevertheless, his work was highly influential, and his ideas grew in popularity in evangelical circles. During the latter half of his life, Webber took a special interest in Christian worship practices. He wrote more than 40 books on the topic of worship, focusing on how the worship practices of the ancient church have value for the church in the 21st century postmodern era. Among his books are Ancient-Future Worship, Ancient-Future Faith, Ancient-Future Time, Ancient-Future Evangelism, The Younger Evangelicals, and The Divine Embrace.
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