Worship sets an assembly in motion movement towards God in response to God's movement towards humans thus creating a resilient and caring community. Worship as Body Language brings the African community's experience of the body and its gestures together with the Christian liturgy, since worship and social action are closely related. The body language" or gestures of praise, adoration, contemplation, ritual dance, and care of the neighbor are meaningful to the ethnic group; African Christians tune into these body motions to express the one Christian faith. In Worship as Body Language, Father Uzukwu details how patterns of African ritual assemblies and sacred narratives have merged with Jewish, gospel, and early Church traditions to create living Christian communities and liturgies. Using a socio-historical method, this book sheds new light on liturgical action and theology, and suggests more transition rituals. It also provides samples of emergent African Christian liturgies that emphasize intense community participation with appropriate gestures. These local liturgies attest to the patristic principle that different customs actually confirm the unity of our faith in Christ. Scholars teaching and researching the foundations of the liturgy and liturgical inculturation, graduate students, and those organizing workshops on the regional, diocesan, or parish level will find Worship as Body Languagea ready handbook on the liturgy. It is also a useful textbook for introducing college students and seminarians to the anthropological, historical, and theological dimensions of the liturgy. Elochukwu E. Uzukwu, CSSp, ThD, lectures in liturgy and African theology in seminaries and Catholic universities in Nigeria, Congo, Zaire, and France. He is the author of Liturgy: Truly Christian, Truly African,and the editor of Bulletin of Ecumenical Theology. "

Learn to develop and deliver a biblical sermon that connects with today's audiences. Preaching God's Word is a user-friendly and practical homiletics textbook that integrates hermeneutical principles and stresses the importance of a strong exegetical foundation. It teaches you how to understand your audience, develop powerful applications, use illustrations well, and communicate effectively. Preaching God's Word addresses: How to develop and preach a biblical sermon Common issues with biblical preaching and how to avoid them Unique challenges and opportunities of preaching from specific biblical genres New Testament preaching Old Testament preaching Whether you are a student who is new to preaching or a veteran looking to brush up on your skills, you will benefit from this hands-on approach to preparing, developing, and delivering the sermon.

A book of prayer helps and exercises designed to invite readers into new ways of being with God. Intended for all of us who thought we knew only one way to pray, the book presents a wide variety of prayer types, gleaned from centuries-old practices of Christian spiritual leaders and mystics, and updated for easy use by modern readers.

Doing theology Under the Palaver Tree, in honor of one of Africa's foremost theologians, Elochukwu E. Uzukwu, is a momentous undertaking, which draws from the diverse African continent, her various peoples and rich natural resources. A down-to-earth God-talk that evokes the reign of God among us, the book is a theological treasure trove. The quality, depth, and range of the conversation partners in this volume represent a high-water mark of the best scholarship in Africa today on ecclesiology and the future of the African church and the world church. The authors, through dialoguing with multidisciplinary dimensions of theological thoughts, offer new language with which to engage foundational issues in theology, liturgical practices, communion and community, leadership and charism, the relationship between the local and universal church, and social engagement and cultural questions as well. In exploring the depth of this tome, with its methodological approaches in interpreting, understanding, and evaluating the changing faces of Christianity, scholars and theologians will be challenged to reflect on some of the most pressing current questions and issues facing the church in Africa and the world, in rebirthing the image of the people of God, and a synodal church under the iconic and symbolic African palaver tree.

Why do you lead worship? Often the motives are mixed. You find yourself wanting to point people to Jesus but also feeling a desire to be noticed and praised, to make yourself the center of attention. Stephen Miller is the worship pastor for a large church of young, energetic Christians. He and his band record albums and lead worship for conferences all over the country. He knows the temptation to make himself the show, to pursue fame, to seek the applause of other people. And he has learned to want nothing to do with it. In this book, Miller exhorts his fellow worship leaders to make Jesus the center of all their efforts. He teaches how to do this with Scripture, teaching, prayer, story, and song. In all, Miller’s call for worship leaders is to lead worship, whole-hearted and whole-minded exalting of God, rather than making a spectacle out of it. Worship Leaders, We’re Not Rock Stars will encourage and challenge worship leaders by clarifying their purpose and identity, and by doing so will bless those they lead.

Everyone worships. But Jesus tells us that God is seeking a particular kind of worshiper. In True Worshipers, a seasoned pastor and musician guides readers toward a more engaging, transformative, and biblically faithful understanding of the worship God is seeking. True worship is an activity rooted in the grace of the gospel that affects every area of our lives. And while worship is more than just singing, God’s people gathering in his presence to lift their voices in song is an activity that is biblically based, historically rooted, and potentially life-changing. Thoroughly based in Scripture and filled with practical guidance, this book connects Sunday worship to the rest of our lives—helping us live as true worshipers each and every day.

In studying the history of the vernacular in worship beginning with the Christian Scriptures, Dynamic Equivalence uncovers the power of a living language to transform communities of faith. How we pray when we come together for common worship has always been significant, but the issue of liturgical language received unprecedented attention in the twentieth century when Latin Rite Roman Catholic worship was opened to the vernacular at Vatican II. Worshiping in one's native tongue continues to be of issue as the churches debate over what type of vernacular should be employed. Dynamic Equivalence traces the history of liturgical language in the Western Christian tradition as a dynamic and living reality. Particular attention is paid to the twentieth century Vernacular Society within the United States and how the vernacular issue was treated at Vatican II, especially within an ecumenical context. The first chapter offers a short history of the vernacular from the first century through the twentieth. The second and third chapters contain a significant amount of archival material, much of which has never been published before. These chapters tell the story of a mixed group of Catholic laity and clergy dedicated to promoting the vernacular during the first half of the twentieth century. Chapter Four begins with a survey of vernacular promotion in the Reformation itself, explores the issue of vernacular worship as an instrument of ecumenical hospitality and concludes with some examples of ecumenical liturgical cooperation in the years immediately preceding the Council. The final chapter treats the vernacular debate at the Council with attention to the Vernacular Society's role in helping with theimplementation of the vernacular. Chapters are "A Brief History of the Vernacular," "The Origins of the Vernacular Society: 1946-1956," "Pressure for the Vernacular Mounts: 1956-1962," "Vernacular Worship and Ecumenical Exchange," "Vatican II and the Vindication of the Vernacular: 1962-1965" Keith F. Pecklers, SJ, SLD, is professor of liturgy at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and professor of liturgical history at the Pontifical Liturgical Institute of Sant 'Anselmo. He is the author of The Unread Vision: The Liturgical Movement in the United States of America 1926-1955, and co-editor of Liturgy for the New Millennium: A Commentary on the Revised Sacramentary, published by The Liturgical Press.