Worship - book review

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Book Review
Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down
by Ken Jung

Whenever my nineteenth-month-old son, William, sees a commercial on television he immediately stops what he's doing and gives it his undivided attention. Commercials make him concentrate. Commercials grab his attention. A quick glance at the table of contents of Marva Dawn's work produces the same effect. It grabs your attention.

In Part Two, for instance, she discusses themes such as "the Idolatries of Contemporary Culture" and "Worship as a Subversive Act." We can tell that we will not be reading something concocted from the evening news or the back pages of the Saturday tabloids. Peering down the page further, I observe chapter five, "God as the Center of Worship: Who is Worship For?" and six, "The Character of the Believer: Having Content or Being Content?" Worship is risky business. My personal favorite? How about chapter nine, "Worship Out to Kill Us: The Word." Ouch. Like a hot knife cutting through butter, this book pierces my heart and leaves me spiritually disorientated, displacing my ego, leaving me alone in the wilderness.

Let me first say that Dawn is not merely writing from the ivory tower of academia. True, she has a PhD in Christian ethics and Scripture from Notre Dame, but she also is a church musician. Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down was not penned by some stuffy, armchair theologian. Rather, the thoughts and words have been coined by someone who has rolled up her sleeves and has thrown herself into the arena of worship. A true gladiator indeed!

God is the Subject of Worship

The most dominant feature is her two-fold recovery of God and the nature of worship:

1. God is the subject of worship.

2. God is the object of worship. "Since salvation is entirely God's gift and not deserved or earned, Christian worship," observes Dawn, "above all makes clear who is the giver of that and every other gift, and challenges the world to respond to who he is." p.76. In other words, God is the subject of worship because he is the sole author of our salvation. He is the "Creator, Provider, and Sustainer; Deliverer, Redeemer, and Lord; Sanctifier, Inspirer, and Empowerer." p.76. From beginning to end the story of redemption provides countless examples and details proclaiming God's love in action: saving his people from their sins and giving them new life in the Spirit.

God is the Object of Worship

God is the object of worship as well. "Christian worship is about offering or sacrifice...The gifts of worship flow from God the subject, and return to God as the object of our reverence." P. 80. This spiritual truth protects us from any sense of pride and compels us to give God all the glory and honor. (The reformers of the 16th century proclaimed this same truth: "Sola Dei Gloria!" or to God alone be the glory!) "All of us are the actors and all of our worship acts are directed toward God. And yet, we must add paradoxically, because God is the subject, we always remember that we can only be actors because he acted first." p.82. This means nothing less than to treat each movement in the worship service- praise, prayer, preaching, offering, communion, and any others as acts of worship. Many regard the praise element as worship (and it is), but we need to rediscover how all the elements work together and help others worship God more fully.

Worship and Culture

Worship does not occur in a vacuum and this is one of the stronger points of Dawn's book as well. Nobody worships God freely, in the sense that we are completely independent from the world. She highlights various components of our society...television and how television affects our worship of God. While leaning very heavily on other writers, possibly too much, she still nevertheless drives her points home and they hit the target. Regarding television, she notes: "Besides extensively depriving our culture of exposition, television's nature also intensifies the appeal to emotions. Its images distort watchers' ability to reason and justify choices.... The cultivation of the television age has enormous consequences for the Church... Since television transforms the method by which people are persuaded by the truth, how will we inculcate the truths of faith?" p. 23-24.

Technology plays a role in shaping our minds as well: "Indeed, advances in technology bring us many advantages, but the advantages are always coupled with profound losses...primarily the loss of community. The computer is a good example... Separated from friends, I converse with you from my study...but I cannot hear your input nor see your face nor feel your handshake or hug." p. 27.

As a result, church worship often reflects the cultural milieu that surrounds us and becomes more of an entertainment parody rather than a service set apart for the proclamation of the Gospel and the glory of God. Is there a way out of this mess? Marva Dawn thinks so: "We could ask better questions. We could plan worship that keeps God as the subject, that nurtures the character of the believer, that forms the Christian community to be a people who reach out in God's purposes to the world." p. 304.

Overall, I recommend Marva Dawn's book and would place it in the intermediate category for the reading audience. At times, the lengthy quotes make you feel like you are reading someone else's opinion; she can come across as too cerebral, lacking heart-filled emotions; and one of her criticisms is not based on experience (she doesn't own a television). Although you may disagree with her points about culture and/or a public worship service it is impossible for you to ignore her.

As a result of reading Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down I have begun to reform the Sabbath Service in the following areas: communion, prayer, offering, and silence. Needless to say, I believe her work is worth reading and will impact your view of and how you practice public worship.

In This Issue

Introduction
Worship
Pastor's Pen

Good Worship Bad Worship
Feature

Recovering Reverence
Dance to Worship
A Sliver of God's Fingernail
You Can't Outgive God
Worship Around the World
Worship Like an Egyptian
Special Events

God is in Control
Book Review

Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down
Children's Ministry

Teaching Children to Worship
The Edge Report

The Spiritual Edge
Comic Strip


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