Liturgical Theology: The Church as Worshiping Community

by Simon Chan

Bad worship produces bad theology, and bad theology produces an unhealthy church. In Liturgical Theology, Simon Chan issues a call to evangelicals to develop a mature theology of the church--an ecclesiology that is grounded in the church's identity as a worshiping community. Evangelicals, he argues, are confused about the meaning and purpose of the church in part because they have an inadequate understanding of Christian worship. As a remedy for this ailment, Chan presents a coherent theology of the church that pays particular attention to the liturgical practices that have constituted Christian worship throughout the centuries. With a seasoned eye and steady hand, he guides the reader through these practices and unpacks their significance for theology, spirituality and the renewal of evangelicalism in the postmodern era. Chan's proposal advances the conversation among evangelicals regarding the relationship between theology and worship. In contrast to some theologians who have tended to emphasize a sociological analysis, Chan argues that we need to consider what is essential to the church's theological identity. Drawing on the larger Christian tradition, Chan argues that we discover that identity primarily in the structure and significance of Christian worship.

Genres: Theology, Ecclesiology, Christian, Christianity, Church, Religion, Spirituality

208 pages, Paperback

First published July 31, 2006

Reviews

[R.D. Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am really torn by the this book. As far as I am concerned this is the most important book ever written by a Pentecostal Theologian. The wealth of knowledge and insight into the liturgy, church history, ecclesiology, and sacramental theology is invaluable. The sources sighted in the book is worth the price in and of themselves.

With that said the content of this book was not new to me. That is why I could only give it three stars. What makes it such an important book is the tradition from which Simon Chan writes. Coming out of the Pentecostal Tradition myself this book resonates with why I became Anglican.

There were a few things that I disagreed with Chan on though, the first thing was his take on Bishop N.T. Wright and his theology. I do not believe Wright theology is simply a "replacement" theology. Second, I am not sure that Chan really understands the classical term transubstantiation. At one point he does define it as "Body and Blood but remaining Bread and Wine." That is more what Luther advocated in his "consubstantiation" view. Finally, I also find Chan's proposal that Evangelical churches can simply accept this "view" without being part of a historical community rooted in this tradition counter intuitive. What is missing is Apostolic Succession and that is just as much a part of the Sacramental/Liturgical Church as the Eucharist. The two go hand in hand. You cannot have one without the other.

That being said, this is a very good book and I will be recommending this to all the new ordinands in the Anglican Mission, plus to all my Pentecostal friends who are willing to read it.

[Trevor Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is fantastic. I wish it was read more, that more Protestants saw the beauty of being formed in the liturgy. That more churches would jump into the stream of historical worship, rather than innovating something new in the last century. Not only does this book provide a philosophical look at liturgy, but chapters six and seven are immensely practical.

[Xavier Tan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A relatively technical book on liturgical theology. I would recommend alternatives like Horton's A Better Way rather than this book for one who is beginning to get into this area.

Chan begins by observing that evangelicals have "capitulat[ed] to the ways of the world", with "Christ as personal Savior [having] less to do with the objective truth of what he did than with how a person feels subjectively." (p 9) Chan cites Noll in attributing the intellectual demise of modern evangelicalism to three factors: Revivalism that fostered "individualism and immediatism", disestablishment of the church which led to churches competing for members and an introduction of the "free-market economy" into church life, and "a synthesis of Christianity with popular culture in order to survive in the marketplace." (p 10) Evangelicalism is thus in need of reform, and to this end, Chan suggests "that what evangelicals need is an adequate ecclesiology if they are to discover resources to deal with the longstanding problems that the critics have identified and quite ably analyzed. Attitudes can be reshaped only by a strong traditioning community; essentials are discovered in the Great Tradition of the church—the “one, holy, catholic and apostolic” church—that all Christians profess to believe in; and only within a church that is catholic and alive are truths traditioned and received as a living faith and not as abstract ideas and propositions." (p 11)

The book is split into two parts: the first four chapters cover theological foundations, while the next three chapters cover practices. Chan first explores the ontology of the church, beginning with creation and the Old Testament – "A better way to conceptualize the Bible’s narrative coherence is to see creation as forming the backdrop for God’s elective grace and covenant relationship rather than vice versa. God created the world in order that he might enter into a covenant relationship with humankind. And he accomplishes this with the call of Abraham and culminates his elective purpose in Jesus Christ and the church." (p 22) While evangelicals might treat the church as mainly a 'community' or 'association' while claiming absolute loyalty to Scripture via its "obvious meaning" (sidebar: Chan opines here that "what appears to be the "obvious meaning of Scripture" may in fact be a result of implicit acceptance of the reigning "plausibility structure", namely, the secular assumptions of a post-Enlightenment age." (pp 28-29)), Chan opines that this way of understanding the church "has less to do with hermeneutics as with one's preunderstanding or worldview." (p 28) The Church is, Chan argues, "a divine-humanity because of its organic link with its Head, Christ." (p 23) "This ontological status is sometimes expressed in the concept of Mother Church, made famous by Cyprian: “He who has not the Church for his mother, has not God for his Father.” That is to say, the church is our nourishing Mother, and we are entirely dependent on her for our existence as Christians. We are not saved as individuals first and then incorporated into the church; rather, to be a Christian is to be incorporated into the church by baptism and nourished with the spiritual food of the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist." (p 24) This leads to two consequences: a conception of holy communion where "The church is a communion because members are incorporated into the body of Christ; and the church becomes the one body of Christ by eating and drinking the body and blood of Christ." (p 29); and understanding tradition not just as human interpretations or unbiblical accretions that distort Scripture, but a dynamic process where "certain core values of a community... are advanced through debates" (p 30). "We can make sense of what the church is now only because it exists in historical continuity with the church then. To repudiate that historical link is to put our own identification with the “one, holy, catholic and apostolic” church into serious doubt. ... Without anchoring itself within the living and continuing tradition, the modern church will have no long-term collective memory, and therefore no self-identity, that will enable it to judge the novelties and fleeting fashions of the day in light of the enduring truth of Scripture which it purports to uphold." (p 31) The church is the temple of the Holy Spirit, causing it to be "one, holy, catholic, and apostolic" through His indwelling, guidance, and operation (p 36). But Chan laments:

But instead of trusting in and being faithful to what the Spirit is doing in the church, some have devised marketing techniques to commend a pop version of the Christian faith to its uncultured despisers. They dumb down worship to make it “seeker friendly” and congratulate themselves for successfully bringing in a crowd. Or they devise spiritual techniques to control the Spirit, as some Third Wavers have done. These are strategies that Jesus himself would have nothing to do with."

"Practically, how is the church to become the people of God, the body of Christ and the temple of the Spirit? The answer is to be found in the church's worship." (p 40)

Worship "distinguishes the church as church" (p 42) (and therefore worship is eucharistic: "The worship of the church is essentially eucharistic because it is the Eucharist that makes the church uniquely what it is." (p 71)) and "makes or realizes the church" (p 46). As Alexander Schmemann put it, "Worship is church "manifesting, creating and fulfilling herself as the Body of Christ." (p 46) "Unlike the pragmatic conception of the church, where practices are largely determined by what works in a given time place and time, the liturgical tradition insists that the church is truly formed as church if its practices what truly constitutes the church. These practices have always returned to two things, Word and sacrament" (p 47) While modern worship may emphasis a "worshipful atmosphere" and practice (almost to the neglect of theology and belief), Chan argues that "when worship is not “right worship” (which is what orthodoxy means), it won’t be long before belief itself is modified to fit a heterodox worship. The primary theology expressed in a heterodox ordo will quickly overwhelm an isolated orthodox belief, making it totally irrelevant to the life of the church. Right belief and right practice (orthopraxis) can only come from right worship (orthodoxia), and vice versa." (p 52) "True worship must reflect the reality of who God is." (p 57) "For example, in many charismatic services today worship is a continuous celebration. One gets the impression from start to finish that God is nice, accommodating and friendly, always expected to meet my needs and solve my problems. One gets to see only the divine fascinans without the tremendum, love without holiness, immanence without transcendence." (p 58) "Worship is true to the degree that it corresponds to the work of the triune God and continues and extends the work of the triune God. In other words, there are theological norms in worship. If our worship does not reveal God in his holiness and love, transcendence and immanence, as fascinans et tremendum—in short, as the triune God—then it has fallen short of the glory of God." (p 61)

The basic ordo consists of two parts, Word and sacrament (p 64). The word causes the sacrament to cease being an empty sign, and the sacrament "is a verbum visibile, a word made visible, and every sacrament also essentially implies verba sacramentalia, the sacred words which give to the sacred action itself not only its meaning but also its own inner reality." (p 66) "We hear the Word preached as a divine epiphany, and we is respond by eating and drinking." (p 68) The Spirit through the Eucharist "actualizes communion between Christ and his body and between the members of his body" (p 72), and the Eucharist is also a sacrifice –not in the same sense as Christ offering himself (p 74), but as a sacrifice of thanksgiving to God (p 76), sacrifice concretised in terms of care for the poor (p 76), and sacrifice in that in the Eucharist, in gratefulness, the church "offers up itself as a holy and living sacrifice." (p 77)
Beyond the basic ordo, the liturgy is also connected to time cycles – from daily cycles in daily prayers ("liturgy of the hours"), to weekly cycles (where every Sunday, Christians remember the resurrection "breaking through the earthly limitation of the weekly cycle", thus early Christians also called Sunday "the eighth day" (p 81)) to seasons in the church calendar. These cycles allow Christians to "discover the same dialectic of the now-and-not-yet, of eternity-in-time, of deep eschatological tension between the old and the new creation." (p 81) Evangelicals are no strangers to rhythm – "quiet time" and "private devotions" abound – but these are often divorced from the corporate prayer of the church today (p 161). "Daily prayers need to be theologically informed if they are to be spiritually sustaining. ... Personal devotional habits [should] be understood as a necessary preparation for better participation in common prayer. ... Daily prayers are meant to better prepare people to "realize the church" on Sunday." (p 161) The time cycles reinforce each other – "The daily, weekly and yearly cycles bear an integral relationship to each other. The liturgy of the hours reinforces and prepares for the Sunday liturgy. At the same time, the liturgical year provides a framework in which the weekly liturgy is given its distinctive shape and meaning." (p 165)

Moving into practices, Chan begins with the catechumenate. Chan laments how "The mission agenda is often reduced to the numerical growth of the church", and how "In many charismatic churches worship is reduced to praise", with "media technology [used] to turn the "praise" event into a highly entertaining experience as well as an occasion for subtle manipulation and coercion." (p 102) In contrast to this, the catechumenate "prepare[s] individuals for incorporation into the church", with long catechumenal training (with catechisms) and moral examination (p 107). The three basic components of the catechism, the creed, the decalogue, and the Lord's prayer, prepare the catechumen for worship: in worship, recitation of the creed is "making a pledge of self-giving to the God we believe in." (p 109) The Decalogue, mere law, moralism, and/or Pharisaism if divorced from worship, is "first and foremost an expression of God's grace" (see Ex 20:2) (pp 110-112), and the Lord's Prayer, a practice of private piety if divorced from worship, "is a summary of the prayer of the church", it "sums up on the one hand all the petitions and intercessions expressed in the movement of the epiclesis and, on the other, knocks at the door of the Banquet of the kingdom which sacramental communion anticipates.”" (pp 114-115) In sum, the catechumenate poses two challenges to modern evangelicalism: 1) "it challenges the notion that conversion involves simply the initial step of “accepting Christ as my personal Savior.” Conversion must be
seen as a process rather than merely a crisis event." (p 124); and 2) "through the catechumenate the ancient church inducted new converts into the Christian sacramental universe. The early catechumenate thus challenges evangelicals to rediscover what God’s world is really like and to encounter the mystery of grace in the liturgy." (p 125)

The Sunday Liturgy should constitute a fourfold structure: Entrance, Word, Eucharist, and Dismissal. The Entrance involves the greeting (with the sign of peace, not "how are you this morning?"), a call to worship "to remind the congregation why they are gathered together", and adoration – "an act of proclaiming who God is and also responding to his calling us together. The hymn should therefore possess objectivity. Our full attention must be on God alone." (p 131) This is followed by confession and absolution (though this may precede adoration, as is the order found in the Roman missal and the Reformed tradition) (p 132). The Word involves the reading (traditionally involving several parts of Scripture, eg. Old Testament, psalm, epistle, and gospel; with the gospel holding a special place in the liturgy, expressed through, eg., procession of the Bible, a kiss of the Gospel book, or the response "Glory to you, O Christ!"), sermon (which is a proclamation of more than "Jesus died for my sins", but "also the preaching of the eschatologically oriented kingdom of God" (p 139)), the Creed, and prayers of the people. The Eucharist moves from the offertory to the Great Thanksgiving (beginning with salution, then sursum corda and anamnesis, followed by the Lord's Prayer, breaking of bread, and invitation). The Dismissal consists of Benediction and sending forth.

Lastly, Chan explores what it means to actively participate in the liturgy. First, it is to understand the what and why of the liturgy – answering what does each part of the liturgy mean, why we do what we do, etc. (p 150). Second, it involves participation of the people, including attentiveness (p 155), singing, chanting, etc. (p 156), and the systematic pursuit of liturgical formation "to forge a regular pattern of living" (p 159). Chan does not deny that "sometimes a single service may evoke a powerful religious affection", but he points out (astutely, in my opinion) that "More often[,] the effect comes over a period of time as we participate regularly in the liturgy." It is not unlike eating, where "it is the regular practice of a balanced died that will bring long-term benefits" rather than "the immediate satisfaction of an exceptionally good meal" (p 159).

Final thoughts
I think Chan has done a good job in critiquing evangelical worship, especially with its "domestication of transcendence" through "marketing strategies and seeker-friendly services", requiring "reminding that Aslan is “not a tame lion”!" (p 58) This, I think, is sorely needed in our current climate. However, I find it the inaccessibility of this book a pity. Chan has produced a beautiful theological piece, but I fear that it is too technical for the congregant who is most beholden to the errors Chan seeks to remedy. Still, I think this book is a great addition to the church and her theological life, and I pray that the audience it can reach (theologically trained pastors, church staff, and some congregants) will be inspired by Chan and the vision he paints of what the church is called to be – the divine-human body of Christ and temple of the Spirit, a worshipping community, which worships the transcendent God while looking back to Calvary and looking forward to eternity. O Lord, make haste to help us.

[Радостин Марчев · Rating 5 out of 5]

Давам пълна петица не понеже съм съгласен (или поне на този етап не мога да кажа дали съм) с всичко, което авторът казва, а понеже много добре е изложил своето виждане.
Нямам съмнение, че доста голяма част от твърденията в книгата почиват на предварителни презумпции и е много трудно или дори невъзможно да бъдат доказани. (Всъщност на някои места авторът ясно признава това.) От друга страна с течение на годините аз се чувствам все по-силно привлечен от литургично богослужение и намирам във вижданията му доста неща, с които съм съгласен. Но съгласни или това е гледна точка точка, която евангелските християни (в България) трябва поне да чуят.

[Donner Tan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simon Chan has given us here a challenging proposal that takes the evangelicals' self-searching mode a huge step forward as regards its worship and liturgy. In the intro, he evaluates the recent calls for renewal of the evangelical movement by theologians such as David Wells, Donald Bloesch and Stanley Grenz. Taking off from the works of Grenz and Robert Jenkins, the fresh insights he brings to the table include the need for the evangelical church to go beyond discussing style and technique and develop a more robust self-understanding that is rooted in the perichoretic union with the Trinity ie. the ontology of the church. What is interesting is his view of the church as prior to creation in the divine economy. This in his view has far reaching implications for the ecclesial life. Rather than being co-opted as a handmaiden to the world's agendas, the church's raison detre is found in God's irrevocable gift of election to the praise of his glory.

This means that the church is most clearly herself at worship. Drawing largely from the Great Tradition (of the first five centuries), he sees the normative liturgy as constituted by Word and Sacrament, flanked on both ends by the welcome and the dismissal. Within this order, he sees the Eucharist as the basic centre that gives shape and orientation to the liturgy. This is a corrective to the evangelicals' tendency in seeing the whole service as revolving around the sermon. It is the Eucharist, he contends, that realizes the Church in her most basic character as communion.

Chan then fleshes out his proposal as he looks at Christian initiation (Catechism)and the Sunday Liturgy and concludes with some thoughts on how the church can be formed spiritually through 'active participation' in worship. His program is a far cry from the mass appeal, humanly contrived and instant gratification models we see so much in the popular evangelical scene but if taken seriously and with perseverance, the church may for those rare times find herself buoyed up again by God's own Spirit to be what she has been called to be from before the foundation of the earth.

Chan's writing is eloquent and lucid, evident of a first rate theological mind with both feet planted firmly on the ground. His relatively simple prose may mask deep insights that can be mined only through patient listening (lectio divina!), ruminations and further readings. My only small 'complaint' is that the book is too short, leaving some assertions less rigorously argued than I would wish for (but he did make clear that this is not a full-blown work on liturgical theology) and this gifted teacher needs to write more and bless the Church with his refreshing insights.

[Jeremy Manuel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just couldn't really get into Simon Chan's Liturgical Theology no matter how hard I tried. Sadly, I think he lost me from the very beginning. I feel like there is a tendency among Christians to turn our areas of focus and enjoyment into the only thing that the church needs to do to return to our glory days. For Simon Chan that area of focus is ecclesiology, with a particular focus on the liturgy of the church.

Now I don't want to act like there is nothing good about this book. Chan makes a number of interesting statements that I found I agreed with. One that stood out the most for me is his advice not to focus so much on our intentions, because who can know them fully in the first place? This is of course within the context of spiritual practice of the liturgy, but I found it to be a useful and insightful thought. There are other nuggets of wisdom I found within Chan. In addition I found that he does a good job of breaking apart a lot of the parts of liturgy in Chapter 6 and does a fairly good job at explaining their meaning.

The downside of all of this is that I felt like I was searching through a small swamp in order to find these shiny nuggets. His overstated argument that he starts with puts a very authoritative tone to the book which I found hard to swallow. Simply because if liturgy was to be the main shaping agency of our spirituality then why doesn't the New Testament give us a more formed liturgy? It does present us with parts that are important like Baptism and the Eucharist/Communion/Lord's Supper but nowhere is there a full list of what a liturgy should look like. While I'm also fine with looking toward tradition to form a liturgy I still felt it undermined his main argument.

This is also a fairly scholarly book and often feels a little too wordy. This makes it feel like a book that has a very narrow audience. It's an academic book trying to encourage a practice at the church level, which means it would be primarily for pastors, I would assume. However, I think the academic nature of the book doesn't really present a good way for starting a stronger liturgy in your church even if you agreed with Chan's direction.

So overall, I didn't really enjoy Liturgical Theology. I felt it was a book that overstated its premise from the start. I do believe the the liturgy can be a great tool for our spiritual formation, but I do not believe that it is the sole or even main reason that churches are lagging. However, due to this overstated argument the tone and the academic nature of the book made it a hard book to get through. If you really like theology and/or the liturgy than you may enjoy this more than I did.

[John Nash · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant work by Simon Chan.

Balancing a (painfully relevant) critique with well reasoned solutions is not an easy task, but it's one I think Chan manages to pull off in this work. The Evangelical tradition is in desperate need of historical grounded theology to guide it forward and what better way to find this than in the weekly liturgical movements of the church.

A difficult part of liturgy is that in its description we see its purpose, beauty, and effectiveness, but do we see these actually materialising in liturgical communities? Most Anglican and Presbyterian churches near me are dying. Congregations are dwindling down to a cynical few with little to no room for growth coming available. Chan, in chapter 5, wonderfully describes the elements of liturgy and their purpose -- the great depth in our responses, readings, actions, etc... but anything sounds good in theory. If the liturgy is so powerfully formative and necessary for Christian development and formation, then why do the communities who so rigorously attend to liturgy seem to be the most stagnant?

Of course, such a critique us typical of a post-Modern Christian. Chan himself recognises this in his introduction and I think he does the best he can. Ultimately, the failure of the liturgy seems to fall on the ministers. Clearly there has been a gross inability to imbibe the great Christian tradition by the churches leaders, leaving congregants disconnected and malformed (reading a prayer written 400 years ago by Thomas Cranmer is always going to have difficulty landing in the heart of a rural New Zealander...). A failure to disciple and catechise (creatively!) the people to whom the liturgy is subjected has no doubt produced the stilted emptiness we see today.

We need a new generation of ministers to rise up. Ministers who are creative in their appropriation of the Christian tradition while deeply orthodox in their confession; willing to walk alongside those they pastor as they direct them towards the ancient paths that have formed Christians so well for thousands of years. Chan makes a great case for a more explicit liturgy (for all churches are liturgical, whether the liturgy is explicit or not!) that is grounded in the beautiful tradition of the church. We ought to pay attention to this one.

[Trey West · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chan asserts "Bad worship produces bad theology..." and that is very true but also bad theology can produce bad worship. Chan is off to a good start of creating the latter with this book. Its premises about the church as a worshiping community are grounded and I find them agreeable but the Calvinistic routes he wishes to take to further this worshiping community of evangelicalism is not one to which I can ascribe.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I expected when I bought this book was a light cheerleading read about how great the liturgy is. What I got was so much more. Chan's book is a short but rich theological examination of liturgical practices, and specifically how evangelical and charismatic churches would gain so much of what they presently lack by seriously studying these topics. This book is definitely aimed at an audience with a prior theological background, but its message is applicable to the whole church.

[Derek Kempa · Rating 5 out of 5]

ótimo livro

fala sobre a importância da liturgia na vida cristão e na sua formação, bem como a centralidade dos sacramentos nessa empreitada. De fato, faz críticas a igreja evangélica moderna por sua forma desenraizada na teologia e na tradição de fazer liturgia. Muito profundo porém de fácil leitura

muito recomendado!

[Noelle Romberger · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a great book if you want to grow deeper in your understanding of liturgy in the church and the purpose behind liturgy.

[Jeremia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Detta bok förändrade mitt liv!

[Ingrid Cribbs · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best explanation of sacramental theology I have ever read and is important for every denomination to read and consider the importance of mystagogy in our church communities.

[Jason Custer · Rating 5 out of 5]

The central thesis for this book is that the church is defined as the "worshiping community" of the Spirit - and thus worship is central to what the church does. How the church worships defines who she is, and thus affects her role in the world. He says, "Mission does not seek to turn sinners into saved individuals, it seeks to turn disparate individuals into a worshiping community." The point of church is not to simply "save individuals" but rather to bring people into the people of God who will then worship God as he is - it is about creating a community.

Chan critiques evangelicals and their lack of any form of ecclesiology (theology of the church) and claims that a good ecclesiology is central to the church. Within that, how a church worships (its liturgy) will form the church, and thus "liturgical theology" is very important for the church. So Chan spends some time taking the readers through a form of liturgy and explaining the purpose behind it.

Overall, I found the book quite interesting and it challenged many of my notions of what the church is. I read it for my ecclesiology class at seminary, and it really helped me think through my own ecclesiology and the importance of worship (and how we worship) for the mission of the church. If you want to think differently about church, I'd recommend you read this book. You may not agree with everything Chan says, but it will definitely make you work through your pre-conceived definition of the church.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book years ago when I was a pastor in a Pentecostal Church. It was a time when I was being drawn to spiritual formation and hungry for more than what I was teaching and leading at the time. It was life-giving at the time because I was reading a Pentecostal challenging me as a Pentecostal.

I was absorbing the idea of liturgy, true form in worship.

Fast forward a few years and I have joined an Anglican Church and I am so thankful for this fresh reminder. Liturgy is beautiful. It creates a rhythm in our lives that becomes deep habit.

Rituals may not be "dead." It may just be US.

We need this fresh challenge in our lives as American Christians today.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read a review of this book in Touchstone Magazine and it piqued my interest, especially since the author's background is as an Asian Pentecostal. I have been extrememly impressed by the book so far, though it is written in scholarly language and should not be classified as a "light reading". Chan methodically lays out the reasons a liturgical renewal is necessary for the evangelical world. His broad knowledge of the traditions in the Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant communities lend a welcome ecumenical flavor to the book.

[Jasonlylescampbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent and difficult (scholarly) read. It seems very, very important for our church. I am reading it slowly and will definitely need to process it once I finish. The large point that is, indeed, very important is that evangelicals don't have any solid ecclesiology. That is why there is such a tendency toward individual conversions ... forgetting that the church is ultimately a people.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Placing such a high value on the deep historical liturgical practices of the church, it would be hard to guess that the author, Simon Chan, is a Pentecostal Theologian. This is exactly the sort of thinking that more Evangelical pastors need to be engaging with for the sake of greater vibrancy and stability in their churches.

[Kerry Buttram · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a rewarding study by a Pentecostal theologian who has dug deep. As an Anglican, I received a great deal of help in better understanding the wonderful shaping power of liturgy which reflects the glory of the Trinity, is rooted in Scripture, draws from Millenia of worshiping tradition, teaches us to pray, celebrates the sacrament, and lifts up the people of God into the heavenlies.

[Kenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

As an Anglican, I found this work very helpful in articulating the wonderful shaping power of liturgy in language more understandable to evangelicals. It is spot on in so many ways. Highly recommended. His previous work, Spiritual Theology, is also fantastic.

[Jason Addington · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this to be a great book, packed with insights into liturgical worship. What makes it even more interesting is that Chan is an Assembly of God guy!

[Kenneth Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book opened my eyes to liturgy and its importance in the church. Excellent book written by a remarkable church theologian.

[Colleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. Thorough history of the development of liturgical theology as well as the hot-button issues.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a well written book on Liturgical Theology and it was certainly worth my time. I would also recommend Alexander Schmemann's book "For the Life of the World."

[David Gill · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent challenge to those in broadly evangelical churches to discover liturgical practice for the first time.

[Richard Fitzgerald · Rating 5 out of 5]

Important. Dense. Well conceived. Challenging.

[George Martzen]

A solid text, reflecting current research in worship as ecclesial practice and theology, from an Asian evangelical perspective.

[Lainie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent exploration of Ecclesiology, especially, and what that means for our liturgical tradition and practice.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thought provoking. Well worth a read.