To Think About Questions from The Wonder of Worship
by Keith Drury
Chapter 16: Church Weddings
1. What new discovery did you make from reading this
chapter about the history of weddings?
2. Is a wedding ceremony "worship"? Should
it be?
3. Wedding ceremonies are perhaps the most conservative
of all ceremonies-with many elements surviving for more than a thousand
years. Why is that? What do we learn from this?
4. Why do many young people want a "traditional
wedding," yet do not want "traditional worship"? What
are the implications of this?
5. Was the early church mistaken by not seeing the importance
of a "church wedding" for all those years? Why did it take
so long for this idea to develop?
6. When performing a wedding, does a pastor act as an
agent of the state, the local church, or the denomination? In what ways?
What does your answer imply?
7. What limiting policies do you think a church should
have on hosting weddings? Can anyone be married in your church?
8. In your opinion, what limiting policies should a
pastor have on performing wedding ceremonies? Can a pastor refuse to
perform a wedding he or she thinks is a bad idea-not an unbiblical marriage,
just one that seems to be inadvisable?
9. Where is the wedding ceremony headed in the future?
10. If you have been married, did you consider your
wedding to be an act of worship? How was this so or not so? Would you
encourage a bride and groom to consider their ceremony "worship"?
Why or why not?
Chapter 17: Christian Funerals
1. What new discovery did you make from reading this
chapter about Christian funerals?
2. Should a funeral service be worship? Why or why not?
How?
3. How should a funeral service be different for a Christian
and an unbeliever? What are the factors influencing this?
4. Due to mobility and to other factors, cremation is
on the rise in America-rising from 7% in 1970 to nearly 25% of all funerals
today. Is cremation "just as good" as burial in the ground?
Is it OK for Christians to be cremated, or are there traditional and
theological reasons not to cremate?
5. Should the church hold funerals for stillborn babies?
Why or why not?
6. How has the arrival of a mobile society changed funeral
practices?
7. Some funerals provide for embarrassingly extravagant
praise for the departed person, describing them as something a bit less
than angelic. The Puritans and other minimalists sought to escape this
with simple rites. What are some guidelines you think a church or pastor
today ought to have to avoid the extreme flattery of the dead?
8. What do you think of the various "creative ideas"
some families invent for their funeral plans? Is the funeral "their
service and they can do what they want with it," or is it a "local
church worship service and thus the pastor/church has a right to insist
on some things"?
9. Why is it that even avowed agnostics often seek out
a church funeral?
10. Is using a funeral to present the Gospel to unsaved
family members in bad taste or acceptable in your opinion?
11. What kind of funeral would you prefer for yourself?
Do you want a worship-oriented service, an upbeat celebration of your
life, a solemn grieving service, or does "it depend"? On what
does it depend?
Chapter 18: Four Old Testament Streams of Worship
1. What new discovery did you make from reading this
chapter about Old Testament streams of worship?
2. In your own local church, where do the modern equivalents
of these four Old Testament streams of worship appear today? How does
your own local church focus on intimacy? Celebration? Remembering? Teaching?
3. Do these four streams of Old Testament worship represent a kind of
"balanced approach" to worship that we might consider today?
What is missing? What is unnecessary?
4. If the four streams do indeed represent some sort
of "balanced approach," which is the strongest stream in your
current church? The weakest? Why?
5. Why do you think the Temple-Tabernacle stream went
"underground" during the first few hundred years of Christian
history?
6. Throughout history, the church has adopted or adapted
secular, pagan, and national special days, often breathing Christian
meaning into them. In what way is this good? Dangerous?
7. Which of the four streams is most easily adapted
to evangelism? Discipleship? Fellowship?
8. What would an "order of service" for a
first-century synagogue service look like if they had used a printed
"worship folder" or "bulletin" in those days?
9. List the elements of continuity that Christian worship
and Old Testament worship share-that is, what elements of worship do
both have in common (e.g., prayer)?
10. List the elements of variation between Christian
worship and Old Testament worship-that is, what elements of worship
do Christians have that do not stem from the Old Testament? Conversely,
what elements did Jewish worship include that Christians have not kept?
11. Forty years after Christ's Resurrection, Jerusalem
was destroyed. The Jewish Temple has never been rebuilt, because Jerusalem
is the only "holy mount" upon which the Temple may stand.
Can you think of other Old Testament examples of "holy places"
or "memorials" where place is pivotal for remembering? Are
there any equivalent pilgrimage-type places today?
Chapter 19: Jewish Feasts and Festivals
1. What new discovery did you make after reading this
chapter on Jewish feasts and festivals?
2. How would you summarize the influence of the Jewish
festival calendar on the Christian calendar?
3. Make a chart of the Jewish feasts, then list Christian
or secular equivalents or parallels.
4. What brand-new feasts did the Christians come up
with that did not involve adapting Jewish festivals?
5. If you had been a first-century Jewish Christian-one
that had always had a Passover celebration with the family-how would
you have revised your observance of Passover after the Resurrection?
How would you have revised the celebration of Pentecost? The Day of
Atonement?
6. Since many Jewish feasts were both national and religious
holidays, is it then acceptable for modern countries to celebrate national
holidays as religious days? Which secular or national holidays do you
think are not appropriate for Christians to celebrate?
7. How does remembering play a part in Christian festivals
and holidays?
Chapter 20: Recent Streams of Worship
1. What new discovery did you make from reading this
chapter on the streams of worship since the 1500s?
2. What do you think of the idea in the opening story-a
church offering differing styles of worship for different worship traditions
in the church?
3. If Eastern Orthodox worship is in fact a style of
worship most in continuity with the early centuries of the church, does
that mean this style is the best way to worship? That is, should the
modern church try to worship like the first church did, or not? If not,
then how much are we obligated to keep and how much are we free to add
to these ancient styles?
4. This chapter is a bird's-eye view of material covered
in depth elsewhere in the book. Using this summary, make a chart listing
the ten streams of worship and one or more "characteristics"
or "contributions" to present-day worship you think these
streams of worship made.
5. The Puritans sought to have worship that was "biblical."
What do you think of their notion that we should do only those things
in worship that are explicitly mandated by Scripture?
6. This chapter lists the Quaker stream as the most
"radical" in departing from traditional patterns of worship
since the 1500s. While many modern Quakers do not fit into this category
(including a host of evangelical and holiness Quakers), draw some parallels
between the Quaker stream and the Charismatic stream.
7. Considering your present church worship, draw a pie
chart including as many of these streams as you see evidenced in worship-that
is, if you were making a "recipe" for your present worship,
what percentages of several of the above streams would you show?
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