For All God's Worth: True Worship and the Calling of the Church [Paperback]

N. T. Wright (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1997

All Christians worship God, but many do not fully understand what worship means. This insightful book by Wright explores both the meaning and the results of worship. Based firmly on sensitive and creative readings of the biblical text, these chapters issue a timely and provocative call for renewal in the worship of todays church.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

A biblical scholar (The Original Jesus, Eerdmans, 1997), Wright focuses here on the significance of Christian worship. He explores biblical texts in light of what they mean for a living faith, particularly the doctrine of justification by faith, which he believes is a call for Christian churches to put aside differences in order to worship together. He reflects on the important role that churches play in transforming individuals through worship, reminding Christians that they can be agents of change in the larger world. A passionate and thoughtful book, suitable for theology libraries.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

All Christians worship God, but many do not fully understand what "worship" means. For All God's Worth is an insightful exploration of both the meaning and the results of worship. Part 1 (The God Who is Worthy of Praise) focuses on God and on what worshiping God actually means. Part 2 (Reflecting God's Image in the World) addresses a range of church-related issues that arise from the activity of worship. Based firmly on sensitive and creative readings of the biblical text, For All God's Worth is an inspiring call for renewal in the worship and witness of today's church. N. T. Wright is a New Testament theologian of international standing, a committed Christian, and (as For All God's Worth clearly demonstrates) an outstanding communicator. -- Midwest Book Review

Product Details

• Paperback: 143 pages
• Publisher: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company (April 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802843190
• ISBN-13: 978-0802843197
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #70,098 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #70 in Books > Christian Books & Bibles > Evangelism > Sermons

More About the Author

N.T. Wright is Bishop of Durham and was formerly Canon Theologian of Westminster Abbey and dean of Lichfield Cathedral. He taught New Testament studies for twenty years at Cambridge, McGill and Oxford Universities. Wright's full-scale works The New Testament and the People of God, Jesus and the Victory of God, and The Resurrection of the Son of God are part of a projected six-volume series entitled Christian Origins and the Question of God. Among his many other published works are The Original Jesus, What Saint Paul Really Said and The Climax of the Covenant. He is also coauthor with Marcus Borg of The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions and the volume on Colossians and Philemon in The Tyndale New Testament Commentary series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An intellectual study of worship and calling, April 14, 2007

By 

Dr. John Laughlin (Glenn Dale, MD) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: For All God's Worth: True Worship and the Calling of the Church (Paperback)

Nicholas Thomas "Tom" Wright is an Anglican bishop and a leading conservative British New Testament scholar. He has written 43 books including one with the liberal scholar, Marcus Borg of the Jesus Seminar, entitled The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions.

The word worship is a contraction of "worth-ship." It means giving God all he's worth. This book is a call to renewal of worship and witness--not in the sense of adopting this or that fad or introducing this or that new music, but a renewal that begins with a better knowledge of God. The book's first half entitled, "The God Who is Worthy of Praise," dwells on the greatness and love of God as these shine forth in the death and resurrection of Christ. The second half, "Reflecting God's Image in the World," shows how worship from the heart and mind leads to mission. "Are we ready," the author asks, "to speak up for the truth of the gospel over the dinner-table, and in the coffee-bar, and in the council-chamber?" In a January 2002 interview Wright compared prayer and worship to drinking a glass of fine wine:

If you have a wonderful bottle of wine, you could simply drink it out of a tea mug. But that isn't how you want to drink wine. Doesn't show it off to a good advantage, doesn't set off the flavor? It's best if you have the right sort of glass. It's the same way with . . . worship of the Almighty God -- you can worship him anywhere. You can worship him in a bathroom, you can worship him in the back room of a pub. Really, God is everywhere and wants you to worship him. But if we really want to do it, wouldn't it be wonderful to have a building that was designed for it, and preferably one that has been prayed in quite a bit already, so it has the resonance and the memory.

What we believe about God makes a great difference in the way we are in the world. If God is a distant being, one who made the world and left it, or intervenes rarely, then we have a banished god, a vacuum in our life that comes to be filled with the gods of war, money, sex, power or whatever else we come to worship with our time and energy.

I was talking to somebody not long ago who said, "You know, I used to believe in God; but then, as I grew up, I found it harder and harder to think of this old man up there in the sky, so far removed from all the pain and suffering down here in the world." And I said to him, "I don't believe in that god either! The God I believe in is the god I see in the middle of the pain and the suffering down here in the world. Without Jesus, the crucified Jesus, sharing and bearing the pain and sin and suffering of the world, I don't actually know who on earth or in heaven God might be at all." You see, if you envisage a god up there in the sky, detached from the reality of the world, any worship you offer will simply be a distant acknowledgment of majesty, like the ploughboy doffing his cap as the great nobleman rides by ignoring him. And if you go the other route, as my friend was inclined to, and say that therefore the word "god" can only refer to the impulse of goodness inside ourselves, then you'll find it pretty hard to sustain any real sense of worship at all. All you're left with is the ploughboy imagining himself to be a nobleman. But if Jesus is to be the lens through which you glimpse the beauty of God, you will discover what it means to worship, because you will discover what it means to be loved.

Wright says we are all called in one of three levels or varieties. First, we are all called to hold onto God with one hand and embrace those around us in prayer, generosity, teaching and caring. There is no one that we meet who does not need healing of some kind and the pain we all suffer is remarkably alike. Who in their lifetime has not stood close to Jesus feeling beaten, mocked, crucified and in the wilderness? This kind of healing does not take miracles or a life of spiritual heroics, for the best healers are weak and wounded -- just look at Paul, who was not all that healthy. This healing can be expressed in the ordinary ways we care for another, in cooking, humor, visiting and even playing.

The second level is to those who are called to Church Ministry. The church is desperate for ordained clergy, but it also needs people to step into leadership positions, as teachers, worship assistants, youth directors, etc.

The third level of calling is in prayers for those caught in crises and trapped in the middle of war, prison, unemployment, poverty, sickness. We need healing prayers to bring about the social and political changes that will bring the peace of the Lord to all. These three varieties can be seen as means to build a Christian community and bring God and the teaching of Jesus into all parts of the world. This is all about sharing and bearing the pain, the thorn in our sides.

G. K. Chesterton one of the most prolific and gifted writers of the 20th century said that the purpose of an open mind is like the purpose of an open mouth: that it might shut on something solid. Tom Wright (www.ntwrightpage.com) is as solid a writer on Paul and the New Testament as you can digest and I hope you will make this or one of his many other works part of your reading for pleasure and knowledge.

John Laughlin. Ph.D. author of Reading Thomas Mertohn

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Challenge To Focus Mission, May 15, 2003

By 

Sam Simpson IV (Greensboro, NC United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: For All God's Worth: True Worship and the Calling of the Church (Paperback)

Wright is a skilled academic and researcher. He also is a man very committed to faith in action based on his deep understanding of the New Testament. For All God's Worth is Wright's call to all Christians to focus on worship and mission and to end divisive behavior. Wright recalls the healing and redemptive actions throughout the ministry of Jesus to illustrate how Christians should continue His work. He sees the redemptive consequence of Jesus as the Christians call to bring about the Kingdom Of God on Earth as it is in Heaven. Believers do this when they begin reflecting the one true God and not other gods of today.

This book is an easy read and can be broken into parts (each chapter is about 25 pages). It will inspire clergy, academic, and layperson alike.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Beautiful Vision of the Holy God, May 25, 2000

By 

Timothy M. Edwards - See all my reviews

This review is from: For All God's Worth: True Worship and the Calling of the Church (Paperback)

A challenging and invigorating read, this book renews the christian's vision of God.

It made me think again about what Worship truly entails. I shall have to come back to this book and re-read it and meditate on what it says.