Worship: 9.5 Theses

Gary Parrett, associate professor of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, wrote a thought-provoking article on worship for ChristianityToday.com in February 2005.  I know him as "Pastor Gary" from my NJ days when I was a young youth pastor and he was a well-respected and well-loved pastor working among Korean Americans. I have a great deal of respect for Dr. Parrett and was pleasantly surprise when I can across this article by providence. The title of the article "9.5 Theses on Worship: A disputation on the role of music." Please read it and comment on it here.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 5th, 2006 at 4:15 am and is filed under Worship. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “Worship: 9.5 Theses”

  1. Billy Park Says:
    May 10, 2006 at 5:26 pm

    Here are the 9.5 Theses by Dr. Gary Parrett in summary:

    1 Our heavenly Father wills that the whole life of believers should be worship.

    2 The word worship, when applied to public gatherings of the saints, must not be reduced to a synonym for singing praises to God.

    3 Worship involves a rhythm of revelation and response: God graciously reveals himself to us, and we faithfully respond— all the elements must help worshipers participate in this rhythm.

    4 Those who lead the congregation in song must be theologically equipped for this important task.

    5 Faithful response to God involves more than praise—we need a much broader range of songs available for congregations.

    6 The body of Christ in worship is more than an assembly of individual worshipers— we need more we songs.

    7 The body of Christ is far bigger than what we see in the gathered community—and our songs should reflect this.

    8 Those who lead the church in song are called to assist the congregation in its singing, not to replace it—technologies such as amplification must be used with theological and pastoral sensitivity.

    9 The Seeker that we must serve in our worship services is, first and foremost, God himself.

    9.5 In its services of public worship, the church must obey such Scriptures as Philippians 2:3-4: "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others more important than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others."

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