Last year I had the opportunity to deliver a series of lectures and conversations about the diversity of expressions of worship in the Christian Church. I wanted to create a space where we could reflect on our own experiences of liturgy and worship as well as explore a few different approaches and practices that would challenge us to learn from each other. I had a great and engaged group of learners for the journey with the Ottawa School of Theology and Spirituality – and now I’m preparing to offer this teaching through the Atlantic School of Theology‘s continuing education series in May-June 2022. I am pretty excited.

In the course that I delivered for OSTS I presented the following lectures and conversations:

  • Worship in the Contemporary Church: Which began with some defining of terms (worship, liturgy, etc.) and then introduced the primary metaphor for our exploration – Len Sweet’s Garden, Park, Glen, and Meadow approach to situating different contemporary expressions of Christianity. My goal was to create a posture of openness to other expressions and giving us tools to engage with these expressions in constructive ways.
  • Historic and Modern Innovations in the Practice of Worship: Where we explored briefly the historical development of worship practices, paying attention to what precipitated the evolution of liturgy. We paid special attention to Eucharistic celebration and the role of music in worship.
  • Enlightenment, Modernity, and Seeking the Story in Worship: Where we continued our conversation about music leading into a discussion of what I call liturgical formation, the ways in which the liturgies we are surrounded with set our expectations of what constitutes worship. After our break we explored two trajectories in the evolution of worship: the Reformation and the Ancient-Future Worship tradition following the work of Robert Webber.
  • North American Liturgical Diversity: We made a brief foray into the evolution of worship in the North American, especially among those traditions that form the coalition called Evangelicalism. We looked at two modern branches of this evolution: The Seeker movement and The Missional Church movement.
  • Word, Sacrament, and the Future of Christian Worship: We did a quick recap and then focused on the central role that Scripture and Sacrament play in Christian worship. Finally we turned our eyes to the future. Recognizing that the history of Christian liturgy and worship is diverse, can we expect even more diversity in our future? It is hard to say for certain what the future holds, but if we can see diversity as a gift then we are well situated to embrace all that the future holds for us and our congregations.
church book on piano
Christian liturgy has a rich and diverse history.

I am looking forward to a new and diverse group of learners to explore these areas with again! Want to join in? Let me know and I’ll connect you with the right people.