God At the Crossroads: The Four Movements of Transformational Worship

by Jeff Patton

Worship is crucial to the Christian life. Yet fewer and fewer people are in our buildings worshiping. Why? Perhaps we aren’t meeting their needs, aren’t speaking their language, and, therefore, aren’t relevant or meaningful. In trying to respond to the needs of the community, “worship wars” sometimes erupt, and rarely does anyone win. Styles are only tactics, says Jeff Patton, and, apart from a sense of God’s transformational presence, empty at best. 

Transformational worship occurs when worship is indigenous, speaking to the whole person in a particular culture at a specific time regardless of style. Patton describes four aspects of life (the Holy, the void, the lived world, and the self) and sees in these four aspects a “divine intersection” where the Holy invades our reality and brings us to a deeper, transformational experience of God’s love, presence, and purpose.

136 pages, Paperback

First published September 30, 2005

About the author

Jeff Patton has designed and developed software for the past 12 years on a wide variety of projects from on-line aircraft parts ordering to electronic medical records. Jeff has focused on Agile approaches since working on an early Extreme Programming team in 2000. In particular Jeff has specialized in the application of user centered design techniques to improve Agile requirements, planning, and products. Some of his recent writing on the subject can be found at www.AgileProductDesign.com and Alistair Cockburn’s Crystal Clear. His forthcoming book to be released in Addison-Wesley’s Agile Development Series gives tactical advice to those seeking to deliver useful, usable, and valuable software.

Jeff works currently as an independent consultant, is founder and list moderator of the agile-usability Yahoo discussion group, a columnist with StickyMinds.com and IEEE Software, and a winner of the Agile Alliance’s 2007 Gordon Pask Award for contributions to Agile Development.