Worship and Power: Liturgical Authority in Free Church Traditions (Worship and Witness)

by Sarah Kathleen Johnson; Andrew Wymer

Publisher:

Cascade Books

, 2023

Overview

Christian worship emerges from and speaks back into human relationships that are necessarily shaped by power and authority. Free Churches structure and negotiate power in relation to worship in ways that reflect the decentralization, local diversity, and personal agency that characterize many aspects of Free Church theology and practice. This volume models how dialogue among scholars and practitioners of Free Church worship, as well as dialogue with the wider church, can be mutually enriching as Christians strive together to worship in ways that are faithful and just.

Key Features

• Serves as a rich resource for scholars, seminarians, and pastors
• Invites readers to consider what it means to be faithful in worship
• Helps revisit, reconsider, and reimagine liturgical power and authority

Contents

• Introduction: Liturgical Authority in Free Church Traditions - —Sarah Kathleen Johnson and Andrew Wymer

Part I: Contesting Power in Society

• The Power to Resist Empire: You Are What You Worship: Worship, Identity, Power, and Mission in the Book of Revelation - Ronald J. Allen
• The Power to Reimagine Society: “Liturgical Anarchy”: A Liturgipolitic of Differently Ordered Liturgy Ordering the World Differently — Andrew Wymer
• The Power to Re-Member: The Power to Re-Member Community: Vigils in the Borderlands — Isaac S. Villegas

Part II: Negotiating Power in Ecclesial Institutions

• The Power of Naming Power: Domination, Resistance, Solidarity: An Analysis of Power in the Making of a Mennonite Worship Book — Sarah Kathleen Johnson
• The Power of Ritual to Authorize Leaders: Divine Agent in the Pulpit: An Analysis of the Charismatic Power of Korean Revivalist Preachers — Jaewoong Jung
• The Power of Tradition over Biblical Theology: Raising up the Tabernacle of David: Pentecostal Memory in Praise and Worship Theology — Jonathan Ottaway
• The Power of Claiming Biblical Authority: We Practice “Biblical Worship”: A Southern Baptist Vision of Liturgical Authority — Emily Snider Andrews

Part III: Claiming Power Through Practices

• The Power of Testimony: “Gon’ Ahead and Testify”: Black Baptist Women’s Testimony as a Reimagination of Liturgical Authority — Chelsea Brooke Yarborough
• The Power of Everyday Spirituality: Spiritual, but Authoritative?: Pentecostal Women and Liturgical Authority — Dorothy Mendez, Tanya Riches, Andrew Davies
• The Power of Shared Sacramental Leadership: Free and Frequent Communion: Worship, Power, and Laity in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) — Casey T. Sigmon

Praise for Worship and Power

In Free Church traditions, the ways worship shapes us can appear confusing to some, like theological signatures written in invisible ink, only discernible to those with he means of revealing hidden text and meaning. Worship and Power is a bold, winsome, and insightful collection of essays that changes the ink so a wider, ecumenical community can consider the swirling flow and pathways of the Holy Spirit’s power when Christians gather in numbers small and large, in spaces closed and open.

—Malinda Elizabeth Berry, associate professor of theology and ethics, Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary

As Christianity is being de-formed by ideological intersections of nationalism, capitalism, and white supremacy, Johnson and Wymer present a provocative volume addressing problematic religious histories that helped give rise to current spiritual and political locations of Free Churches. Through the lenses of worship and liturgy, Worship and Power invites readers to explore how congregational practices can inform, impact, and re-form churches, communities, and a flailing society that desperately need a church who knows where her true power lies.

—Lisa M. Allen-McLaurin, professor of church music and worship, The Interdenominational Theological Center

Addressing a huge lacuna of worship/liturgy done in and from Free Churches, this very rich collection of essays documents, questions, challenges, and lays out power dynamics within communities, the place of authority between clergy and members, and the hidden/open relations between communities and state. Always at stake, this book wrestles with power structures that determine who we are, the places we inhabit, the mission we carry, what to be a church is all about, and what it means to be Christians.

—Claudio Carvalhaes, Professor of worship, Union Theological Seminary of New York City

Product Details

• Title: Worship and Power Liturgical Authority in Free Church Traditions (Worship and Witness)
• Authors: Sarah Kathleen Johnson, Andrew Wymer
• Series: Worship and Witness
• Publisher: Cascade Books
• Print Publication Date: 2023
• Pages: 228
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
• ISBNs: 9781666727142, 9781666727159, 1666727148, 1666727156, 9781666732931, 1666732931
• Resource ID: LLS:WRSHPPWRWRWTNSS
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-11-27T19:33:39Z