Customer Reviews

How Shall We Worship? (Vital Questions)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Dr. Dawn draws a line between church services that are popular entertainment and real worship services that praise the triune God. She says that our worship should use practices and music appropriate to the dignity and beauty of our God, and not be "dumbed down" into raucuous entertainment by following the popular culture. She explains why traditional church music is proper for worship and the modern "rock 'n roll Jesus" complete with a drum kit are not.

Marva Dawn, a courageous woman who speaks much truth to evangelical churches in this media-driven age, makes a Biblical case for separating worship from evangelism. She goes beyond debating which type of worship music to use and instead, gives a framework for asking better questions. This is a wonderful boook and Bible study (on Psalm 96) for those brave and open enough to begin a much needed dialogue.

Clearly this is the most thoughtful, biblically-centered treatise I have read on the subject of worship and what it should be. Dawn challenges the church to take seriously its own history, as well as changing culture. Whatever your bias, Dawn will make you think new thoughts about what it means to proclaim the glories of the Lord. She is not primarily writing about "traditional" or "contemporary" but pushes the reader to think about how to worship in a way that includes the global church. God is the important part of her discussion, not styles. She gives ideas of how to make a worship service creative with the worshppers involved, rather than spectators. Highly recommended. We are buying multiple copies to share with leaders.

I have been in music ministry all my life, and have been a Director of Music and Liturgy in the Catholic Church since 2003. I have read scores of books and magazine articles on this topic, most from Catholic publications. Although Marva Dawn isn't Catholic (so there are some doctrinal differences that would need to be explained from a Catholic viewpoint if used as a catechetical reference book,) this is hands-down, the BEST, most well-rounded, easy to understand and thoroughly satisfying resource I've ever found, and I've been searching for just the right one for six years now.

I like it so much that I'm seriously thinking of buying a copy for each choir member at my church (and we have 40+ active members right now) so I can use it as a resource for a music ministry retreat in the Fall, and explore it section by section throughout the year.

Any church director who has struggled with worship style wars can benefit from reading this very diplomatically written book. Outstanding!! I believe this book will contribute to the healing of some residual tensions within our own music ministry since we have undergone considerable changes in the way our parish worships over the past few years due to the arrival of a new pastor and staff (including myself.)

"How Shall We Worship" provides concise, easy-to-explain, concrete reasons for the decisions we make, so that I can discuss this topic calmly with parishioners without resorting to quoting church documents or going into complex explanations as I'm prone to do. Highly recommended!

Marva Dawn's book How Shall We Worship? is one of the most incredible worship books I've ever read. Written in a conversational tone, she delves into deep issues of worship from biblical, theological, and cultural perspectives. Best of all, she does so in a way that is accessible to lay person and clergy alike.

This book contains good questions and good ideas that ministers and churches should consider when evaluating their worship services. Unfortunately Dawn's opinions creep in and they tend toward very traditional practices. Her opinions are good, but their is a bit a of bias. She asks excellent questions, but doesn't always leave room for different opinions. The book claims to be biblically based, but it really isn't. Psalm 96 forms an outline for the book in that each chapter is based on a set of verses from the Psalm. Dawn manages to then stretch that verse or verses to whatever topic she chooses. It's pretty conservative theologically, but these verses just don't back up her ideas.

In short, wonderful concepts and discussion, poorly executed.