evangelism and worship

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evangelism and worship

• Goals
• To establish the fundamental link between worship
  and evangelism.
• To set out purposes of worship.
• To examine the potential negative impact of
  worship
• To examine the specific role worship has in
  people coming to and growing in faith.
• To examine the shifting role worship is playing
  in evangelism.
• Late modernity
• Early postmodernity
• To set out the new role of leadership expectations

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evangelism and worship

• 1. Define Evangelism How would you define it
• Its ultimately about the witness we provide not
  the results we experience. Its fundamentally not
  about leading people to Christ but about bearing
  witness to Christ
• Its not only about the individual but the
  church God calls and forms us a the people of
  God.
• It is about the two fold move of the spirit
  leading us out into cultures and into community

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evangelism and worship

• To offer Christ is to invite persons to share in
  the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and
  this offer is made in such a way that new
  believers can make this story their own It is an
  offer to participate in the resurrected body of
  Christ
• Stone 2007248

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evangelism and worship

• a. To focus on the process rather than the
  success the call to be witnesses means that
• We are called to visible and material foretaste
  of Gods rule.

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evangelism and worship

• To offer Christ to the world is also to offer to
  the world a people, a body that may truly be
  spoken of as Christs created and formed by the
  Holy Spirit as that space.
• Stone 2007 110

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evangelism and worship

• To focus on the process rather than the success
  the call to be witnesses
• 2. It means the belonging to the body of Christ
  is primary to salvation.

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evangelism and worship

• evangelism requires as a condition of its very
  possibility the presence in the world of a
  people, into which persons may be invited and
  formed. Apart from such a people, the good news
  will inevitably be privatized, individualized,
  interiorized, or turned into a utility for ends
  other than peace and holiness. Stone 2007 194

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evangelism and worship

• b. What then are the implications for evangelism
  and worship with this understanding?
• Worship and faithful action are inseparably
  linked Isaiah 131ff, 583 Matthew 523 Acts
  242ff
• Worship forms the community of faith and
  individual
• Worship points to the Kingdom of God and is a
  place where people encounter the presence, word,
  people, and holiness of God.
• The community is necessary for salvation and
  worship is necessary to the community
• To be a part of the church is to be engage in
  mission and evangelism. Mission shaped church is
  a redundancy

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evangelism and worship

• 2. Understanding of different purposes of
  worship

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evangelism and worship

• 6 Models or purposes of worship
• Worship as service to God
• Worship as the mirror of heaven
• Worship as affirmation
• Worship as communion
• Worship as proclamation
• Worship as the arena of transcendence
• Susan White (19972-15)
• (7) Maintaining and passing on orthodox faith

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evangelism and worship

• In each of these purposes we can see an
  evangelistic aspect of worship
• Worship as a duty and pleasure (1) orients our
  lives around the fact that we now live for God
  obediently centring not on consumerism or success
  or other Gods of the world but one the one God.
  In this we are both formed and proclaim God as a
  true alternative.
• (If worship however proclaims consumerism or
  success that the opposite is true.)

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evangelism and worship

• 2. Worship as the mirror of heaven
• This is more of a Orthodox view of worship but
  what it does emphasize is the hope of the Kingdom
  in this world and the next. It seeks to
  duplicate and embody the eternal heavenly
  worship.
• In this it instils hope in the worshipper and
  proclaims hope. Worship becomes an Icon

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evangelism and worship

• Worship as affirmation
• the purpose of worship is to affirm, inspire,
  form and support believers in living their faith
  in daily life.
• Even more as post-christendom.
• lex orandi, lex credendi

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evangelism and worship

• The anthropology of performance transforms
  individuals - to challenges and even transforms
  culture.
• Victor Turner 1986 157
• worship / ritual is an acknowledgment of ones
  true state. AA ritual. Gay persons coming out
  of the closet. It is a self-disclosure with all
  the risks and privileges. .
• Tom Driver 1998 190 Liberating Rites

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evangelism and worship

• 4. Worship as communion
• worship is a way of forming and sustaining both
  divine and human relationships.
• It creates community around Christ
• Eucharist the peace of Christ be with you
• Both of these elements are fundamental
  (indispensable) to evangelism.
• Iconic nature of worship

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evangelism and worship

• 5. Worship as proclamation
• worship is the place where salvation history is
  proclaimed and where people make their public
  affirmation and witness to that history.
• Restoried / Remembered
• Affirmed in spite of doubt
• When authentic it makes plain to believers and
  Non-believers

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evangelism and worship

• (6) Worship as the arena of transcendence - the
  purpose of worship is to encounter the
  transcendent, transforming power of God.
• Experience of God importance
• Importance of Numinous

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evangelism and worship
Drivers Explanation of Worship and Ritual
Implications for Evangelism
Ritual Mode (efficacious dimension is paramount)
Ethical mode (public and political mode is
paramount)
Confessional Mode (personal mode is paramount)
Theatrical Mode (entertainment dimension is
paramount)
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evangelism and worship

• Drivers need for contextualisation
• Stones need for decontextualisation
• Alone each would fail together they become
  evangelistic worship
• Why and how? Discuss

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evangelism and worship

• Getting Specific

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evangelism and worship

• 3. The Anti-Evangelism Danger of Traditional
  worship
• If insufficiently contextualised Christian
  worship inoculates people against responding to
  the gospel and truly engaging with God.
• Research video

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evangelism and worship

• Identification of the Christian faith with
  archaic worship practices that were irrelevant to
  their everyday life. Failure to restory their
  life in Christ.
• Traditional Methodist worship would be
  hypocritical for them to engage in and therefore
  they assume it is hypocritical for all people.

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evangelism and worship

• Turn and share your experiences of the harm of
  worship
• It may be too contextualised or decontextualised

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evangelism and worship

• 4. Examining the specific role worship has in
  people coming to and growing in faith.
• Belonging before belief The apologetic of
  worship
• The worshippers as icons (Taize, Soul Survivor)
• Sensing/experiencing the presence of God
• Practicing belief before embracing belief
• Community and friendship

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evangelism and worship
MODERN APOLOGETICS

• Behaviour

Belief
Facts
POSTMODERN APOLOGETICS worship evangelism
Experience
Behaviour
Belief
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evangelism and worship
The length of the gradual journey of faith.
Finney
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evangelism and worship

• 5. Examining the Shifting Role of Worship and
  Evangelism in example
• Seeker Service
• Mega Churches
• House Churches
• Youth Congregations
• Emerging Churches
• Liquid Church

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evangelism and worship

• With the understanding of worship and evangelism
  how might each of these be evangelistic and how
  might they be less than Gods ideal for
  evangelism?
• What can we learn from each?
• How can worship hinder evangelism? Provide a
  foundation for evangelism?
• And be understood as evangelism itself?

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evangelism and worship