Purpose Pattern and Character of Worship

<p>Within the broad range of Christianity we find diverse understandings of what makes for "good worship." <strong><em>The Purpose Pattern and Character of Worship</em></strong> develops a typology of Christian worship to provide a method of assessing the decisions of congregations and leaders in forming and changing the orders of their worship.</p><p> </p><p>Among contemporary western Protestants we identify at least six discrete characteristics of worship:</p><p> </p><p>-the Revival</p><p> </p><p>-the Sunday School</p><p> </p><p>-the Aesthetic Revival</p><p> </p><p>-the Pentecostal/holiness movement</p><p> </p><p>-the Prayer Meeting</p><p> </p><p>-the twentieth-century Catholic Liturgical Renewal.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>These patterns define contemporary expression as:</p><p> </p><p>-Seeker Worship</p><p> </p><p>-Creative Worship</p><p> </p><p>-Traditional Worship</p><p> </p><p>-Praise Worship</p><p> </p><p>-House Church Worship</p><p> </p><p>-Word and Table Worship.</p><p> </p><p>Absent an overall authority for the structure of worship (such as the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer) many Protestant congregations have developed a "conflation of patterns" which often creates incoherent worship. This book helps leaders define the purpose character and pattern of their community's worship.</p><p> </p>