Christ-Centered Worship: Letting the Gospel Shape Our Practice

by Bryan Chapell

Publisher:

Baker Academic

, 2009

Overview

The church’s worship has always been shaped by its understanding of the gospel. Here, Bryan Chapell, author of the influential Christ-Centered Preaching, provides churches with a Christ-centered understanding of worship that enables them to transcend the traditional-versus-contemporary worship debate and unite in ministry and mission priorities. Churches will learn how to shape their worship based on Christ’s ministry to and through them—and will be challenged to let the gospel shape every element of their corporate worship.

Chapell brings historical and biblical perspective to discussions about worship, demonstrating that the gospel has shaped key liturgical traditions and should also shape contemporary worship. He encourages readers to identify their church’s specific gospel calling as the basis for making decisions about worship. Ideal for professors, seminarians, pastors, worship leaders, and worship-planning committees, Christ-Centered Worship includes practical reflections on the relationship between worship and the church’s mission as well as resources for worship planning.

In the Logos edition, this volume is enhanced by amazing functionality. Important terms link to dictionaries, encyclopedias, and a wealth of other resources in your digital library. Perform powerful searches to find exactly what you’re looking for. Take the discussion with you using tablet and mobile apps. With Logos Bible Software, the most efficient and comprehensive research tools are in one place, so you get the most out of your study.

Key Features

• Takes the familiar approach of Chappell’s Christ-Centered Preaching
• Unites the church’s mission with a philosophy of worship
• Transcends the traditional/contemporary worship debate
• Encourages readers to make their church’s “gospel calling” the basis for decisions about worship

Contents

• Gospel Worship
  • The Gospel of Structure
  • The Roman Story
  • Luther’s Story
  • Calvin’s Story
  • Westminster’s Story
  • The Modern Story
  • The Gospel Story
  • Christ’s Story
  • “Re-presenting” Christ’s Story
  • The Mission of Christ-Centered Worship
  • The Aspects of Christ-Centered Worship
  • The Components of Christ-Centered Worship
• Gospel Worship Resources
  • Call to Worship
  • Affirmation of Faith
  • Confession of Sin
  • Assurance of Pardon
  • Rubrics: Transitions
  • Historic Components
  • Scripture-Reading History and Practice
  • Christ-Centered Sermons
  • Benedictions and Charges
  • Worship Service Examples
  • Communion Services
  • Musical Styles

Top Highlights

“The structure of a church’s worship service is called its liturgy.^{4” (Pages 17–18)}

“Liturgy tells a story. We tell the gospel by the way we worship” (Page 19)

“As early as the second century,⁷ records indicate that the church divided its worship into two major segments: the Liturgy of the Word (see chart 1.1 on page 23) and the Liturgy of the Upper Room (see chart 1.2 on page 24).⁸ Today we think of the Liturgy of the Word as the portion of the worship service that culminates in preaching. We think of the Liturgy of the Upper Room as the part of the worship service that includes the Lord’s Supper, or Communion.” (Page 19)

“The main architectural change that occurred when Protestants took control of such churches was the replacement of a cross on the spire of the church with a rooster, symbol of the new dawn of the Reformation.” (Page 15)

“Despite their obvious differences, all these Liturgies of the Word have a sequence in common: Adoration, Confession, Assurance, Thanksgiving, Petition, Instruction, Charge, and Blessing. But, if we did not know this sequence was describing a liturgical pattern, we would probably think it was describing something else: the progress of the gospel in the life of an individual. This is a key observation.” (Pages 97–99)

Praise for the Print Edition

This will now be the first book I give people—or turn to myself—on the practice of understanding, planning, and leading in corporate worship.

—Tim Keller, senior pastor, Redeemer Presbyterian Church

No one will agree with everything he has written here, but only the most ignorant could not profit enormously from this thoughtful and stimulating book.

—D.A. Carson, research professor of New Testament, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

Here we have a solid, comprehensive, well-focused resource for the doxological and devotional shaping of Reformed church worship in today’s North America. Thank you, Dr. Chapell.

—J.I. Packer, Board of Governors’ Professor of Theology, Regent College

Product Details

• Title: Christ-Centered Worship: Letting the Gospel Shape Our Practice
• Author: Bryan Chapell
• Publisher: Baker Academic
• Print Publication Date: 2009
• Logos Release Date: 2015
• Pages: 320
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subject: Worship
• ISBNs: 9781441248565, 9780801036408, 9780801098116, 1441248560, 0801036402, 0801098114
• Resource ID: LLS:CHRSTCNTRDWRSHP
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-29T22:40:14Z

About Bryan Chapell

Dr. Bryan Chapell is the senior pastor of Grace Presbyterian Church in Peoria, Illinois and president emeritus at Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri, where he has served in leadership capacities since 1985. Dr. Chapell is an internationally renowned preacher, teacher, and speaker, and the author of many books, including Christ-Centered Worship, Each for the Other, Holiness by Grace, Praying Backwards, The Hardest Sermons You’ll Ever Have to Preach, and Christ-Centered Preaching, a preaching textbook now in multiple editions and many languages that has established him as one of the nation’s foremost teachers of homiletics. He and his wife, Kathy, have four children.