Christian Formation for Participation in Worship

Course Syllabus

This seminar explored the nature of “full, conscious, and active participation” in Christian worship and asked what role Christian teaching ministries can play in nurturing it. Seminar discussions focused on both the content of Christian worship and the pedagogical processes best suited to enhance it.

Notes

• Ahead of the seminar, I recommend studying Cornelius Plantinga, Discerning the Spirits, Leanne Van Dyk, A More Profound Alleluia, and chapters 1, 2, 10, 11, 13, and 15 in Worship Seeking Understanding.
• Morning break and lunch will be spent in communal fellowship with members of all on-campus seminars.
• In the afternoon, I look forward to individual or group discussions with many of you.
• Plan on spending roughly two hours of your time each day preparing to discuss the next day’s readings.
• The rest of your time is yours to spend in rest, prayer, and in development of teaching materials, sermons or other resources for your congregation, college, or seminary. Along the way, we’ll offer opportunities for you to present your questions and comments to the group for feedback.
• On the Sunday between our two weeks of study, we’ll organize some optional visits to local congregations together.
• Choosing these books was nearly impossible. There are 29 more we could add! Rest assured that we can talk about many more types of resources, and we’ll have access to many of them during the seminar.
• We can’t begin to cover all these books in their entirety.  In most cases, we’ll focus on a 2-3 key chapters. Part of my aim to expose us all to a range of literature.