Worship Formation

Foreword

“Worship Formation is a manual that both educates and equips. So if you’re looking for a book that wades past shallow gimmicks and superficial strategies and into the deep waters of faith and lasting change, I invite you to live in these pages for a while, and then live them out.”

Zac Hicks

“Worship Formation is an invaluable resource for all those seeking greater depth and meaning from Sunday services. This book is a must–read for all believers. I guarantee it will make you want to go to church and help you glean more from your Sunday worship experience.”

Rory Noland

“The Holy Spirit is moving powerfully in our day! Brooks’ wise insights and poignant guidance in Worship Formation are yet more clear and beautiful evidence of that. Church leadership looking to encourage faith formation more deeply will find Brooks an incisive read ‘for such a time as this.’”

Andrew Braine

“In Worship Formation, Steven Brooks rightly posits that worship is ‘the most important priority of the church’ and that through active engagement with worship, and all of the activities involved with worship, we are spiritually formed to be more like Christ. That perspective is at the very center of why we exist and how we are to live—to glorify our Creator by becoming like him. This theosis, or becoming like God in Christ, summarizes the entirety of our raison d’être. Feasting on Christ the Living Word and partaking of his Body and Blood, we become Christ broken for the life of the entire created order. Nothing is of greater importance than that. Dr. Brooks’ love for God and his passion to see God’s people adopt a posture of continuing formation through worship is evident and clear.”

James R. Hart

“For those who play a role in shepherding our worship gatherings, this book has much to offer. Brooks has clearly articulated the ways in which we are directly shaped as a result of the formative power of Christian worship. This is a clear and concise volume, effectively connecting the dots between Christian liturgical practices and the nature of spiritual formation.”

Stephen Martin

“Worship is both a taste of transcendence and proclaims our witness to the world. The Urdu term for worship is Ibadat (John 4:24)—a term denoting both that a worshiper is a slave (abd) to his Creator, and that worship is a sacrificial service to glorify God’s holiness. Whether the worship be congregational or personal, consisting of songs, Scripture reading, administering of sacraments, sermon, stillness, or supplications, all these help to offer our devotion to the Divine. Steven Brooks’ work calls readers to a pilgrimage of experiencing the power and presence of God in worship. . . . Worship Formation is an excellent resource for worshipers around the world.”

Eric Sarwar

“Worship is more than music, more than sermon, more than Sunday-morning evangelism. Worship spiritually forms us—not just content but experience as well. What are the elements, according to Scripture and the history of the church, that should be part of worship that forms us as disciples of Jesus? In Worship Formation, Steven Brooks lays those elements out for us in a thoughtful, passionate, and practical way. He does an excellent job of giving us tools to help us determine how they will form us. Through thorough research, personal insight, and practical application, Worship Formation will form you as you prepare worship that will form your people through an encounter with the living God.”

Fred J. Heumann