Customer Reviews

The Worship Sourcebook

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

One-line review: Buy this book if you plan worship in a Reformed or Presbyterian Church! Do it now!
This book is not primarily a book of worship services like the Presbyterian Book of Common Worship. Rather, it assumes that a worship planner in one of the Presbyterian and Reformed denominations is seeking resources to supplement materials that may be already available in denominational service books. And this book provides that: among many other selections there are 70 calls to worship and opening responses, 71 prayers of confession, 29 prayers of the people, and an equally vast number of resources for the liturgical year.
There is a valuable introduction on the practice and planning of Christian worship. Other features that make this book useful for worship planners include a large number of resources labeled "mindful of children," a sensible copyright policy, and a CD-ROM that facilitates using the contents in preparing materials for use in worship.
This book has its origin in a small Reformed denomination, the Christian Reformed Church, but it is historically and theologically rooted, alert to issues in preparing contemporary worship, and reflective of the broad mainstream of Presbyterian and Reformed worship practice. The style throughout is both classical and contemporary, avoiding both historicism and trendiness as though either was an virtue in itself.
I am frankly amazed that this resource is available it its price, and I am happy to recommend this to anyone involved in planning Sunday worship for any church in the Presbyterian and Reformed worship tradition!

I have only had this book in my possession for a short time and already it has repaid my initial investment with interest. While obviously designed with the worship needs of Reformed and Presbyterian Churches firmly in mind, this book has the capacity to enrich the thinking of worship leaders in a whole variety of Christian traditions. The sheer wealth of the riches on offer has got to be seen to be believed. This title now has an honourable place next to my copy of the Book of Common Worship [PCUSA] and Common Order [Church of Scotland]. The availability of a CD Rom in conjunction with this volume is worth the purchase price in itself. The only shortcoming in this volume is that there are no suggested service outlines for weddings, funerals and other occasional pastoral events. But this is a purely personal opininon and maybe the publishers have ideas about this for the future. An excellent resource altogether and well deserving of its 5 star status.

The Worship Soucebook provides hundreds of early (first century and following) worship documents. There is no "in depth analysis", rather the documents speak clearly for themselves. Read the Eucharistic texts, dismissal texts and many hundreds of original worship forms employed through out the history of Christianity. A special bonus is the provision of a CD-rom with the text that provides many of the prayers and responses to be easily included in your worship services. Many power point files are already created and ready to use. Permission to use them is also provided with the purchase of the book. I have used it extensively in my academic studies as well as in designing and leading worship services. I recommend it with absolutely no reservations.

As a church planter, this is coming in extermely handy. I use it with my worship leader to plan and structure our services, and for me, it has rescued many of the practices of the church from the tradition that they have become, and I am able to worship more fully and with renewed excitement.

The CD contains the whole book, which is helpful because "cut & paste" beats re-typing for bulletins or powerpoint any day.

As a new pastor, I was looking for a book that I could use in creating the liturgy for services when a fellow-pastor shared his copy of this book with me. It has multiple prayers and responsive readings for ALL aspects of a worship service, from A-Z and is well-organized and easy to follow.

After one glance, I was hooked and had to have my own copy.

Addition - May 2009 - I have now been using the Worship Sourcebook for four years. I have found many other resources, but keep this one at the very top of my list for preparing worship services. It is one of the books I would never be without.

The Worship Sourcebook is an outstanding resource for all who are responsible for designing weekly worship. The book breaksdown the service into its main components, and offers liturgies for each part. There are enough different liturgies so repetition is avoided. This resource also offers suggestions and guidelines for extemporaneous prayers of the people, while maintaining integrity within the prayer.

Because of its ease of use and outstanding selections, pastors can spend more time on sermon preperation, and less time seeking out fresh liturgical responses.

The CD-ROM makes it easy to cut and paste, so a bulletin is easy to prepare. Overall, I highly suggest this resource.

Love the cd included with the book! I keep The Worship Sourcebook on my laptop and take it everywhere I go.

This is an excellent resource. I wish I'd had something like this early in my career. Not only is the book an excellent collection, but it is all on the accompanying CD to help you prepare bulletins, text for Sunday service, etc. Superb! A good investment.

This is the finest resource for worship planning I have read in years. The essays are very helpful. The prayers are written in good English. The inclusion of a CD makes the book especially useful. Although I am a United Methodist Pastor, I highly endorse this Reformed Church resource.

Excellent resource for worship leaders! Great selection of corporate and responsive prayers and readings, also includes lectionary in appendix.