The Splendor of Worshiping God and Being Church for the World< Following up on her best-selling Reaching Out without Dumbing Down, Marva Dawn here insists that churches need to engage in a serious process of community discernment concerning worship in order to employ the best tools and forms, and she offers extensive reflections to further the discussion.

Each part of A Royal “Waste” of Time begins with a sample Scripture-based sermon, since Dawn emphasizes that the church’s worship must follow biblical guidelines and form a biblical people. In chapters on culture, on keeping God as the Infinite Center of worship, on building community, on forming character, on making choices, and on facing the challenges of “being church for the world,” Dawn convinces us that worship filled with the splendor of God will nurture in believers a way of life that reaches out in mission to the world and gives our neighbors a warrant for belief.

(I found this on a Google search after reading the following, from a pastor-friend:)

With regard to worship, I think the Matt Redman song “The heart of Worship” epitomises the problem with a lot of our songs. It says the song is “all about you, Jesus” but in fact it is all about the feelings of the songwriter. It says very little about who Jesus is or what he has done, is not Christ-centred and doesn’t lift us very far above our own humanity. OTOH I know the central theme of the song has been taken to heart by some folk.

Marva J. Dawn in a fantastic book called “A Royal Waste of Time” argues forcefully against having separate services to cater for people’s taste and against gearing services for the unchurched. She argues that instead we should have great content in all aspects of our worship and educate young and old alike to learn to respond to God appropriately, using as wide a variety of styles as possible. I found it painted the most helpful vision for being the church I have read in recent times.

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Rowland Croucher