Christ-Centered Worship by Bryan Chappell – Book Review

4a92c7bba370aJust finished Christ-Centered Worship: Letting the Gospel Shape Our Practice, by Bryan Chappell. Bottom line — if you’re responsible for leading, overseeing, or planning corporate worship in your church, you should read this book.

Chappell divides the book into two sections, Gospel Worship and Gospel Worship Resources. A casual look at the Table of Contents could lead you to think the book is all about formal liturgies, and irrelevant for churches that come from a more “free” tradition. Not the case. In the first section he defines liturgy as “the public way a church honors God in its times of gathered praise, prayer, instruction, and commitment” (18). That applies to everyone. He says that “whether one intends it or not, our worship patterns always communicate something” (18).  That means what we do on Sunday mornings says volumes about what we believe. And when we plan our meetings, we shouldn’t imagine we’re starting from scratch.

We should not ignore the wisdom of church forebears just because it’s old, or automatically reject it just because we didn’t think of it. We consider the history because God does not give all of his wisdom to any one time or people.

The first few chapters trace the development of a gospel-driven liturgy through Rome, Calvin, Luther, the Westminster divines, and more modern expressions, focusing on the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Upper Room, or Communion. Through a helpful use of charts, Chapell shows the common and distinct elements of each liturgy, and emphasizes that each was seeking in some way to express the reality and effects of the gospel.

Chapell takes us far above the common focuses on style, order, preference, and music, and directs our attention to the primary purpose of our gatherings: to re-present and respond to the great story of God’s redemption in Christ, otherwise known as the gospel. Without becoming overly dogmatic, he demonstrates how a “gospel structure” can be seen in Isaiah’s encounter with God in Isaiah 6, Israel’s worship at Mt. Sinai, Solomon’s worship at the dedication of the temple, and in the prescribed order of sacrifices at the temple.

He breaks down this “gospel structure” down into eight basic components:

1. Adoration (recognition of God’s greatness and grace)
2. Confession (acknowledgement of our sin and need for grace)
3. Assurance (affirmation of God’s provision of grace)
4. Thanksgiving (expression of praise and thanks for God’s grace)
5. Petition and Intercession (expression of dependence on God’s grace)
6. Instruction (acquiring the knowledge to grow in grace)
7. Communion/Fellowship (celebrating the grace of union with Christ and his people)
8. Charge and Blessing (living for and in the light of God’s grace)

In the New Testament, Chapell says we find hints of a “gospel structure” in Rom. 11-15 and Rev. 4-21. But he astutely observes that “the lack of explicit detail [related to a liturgy] must reflect an intention to guide us by transcendent principles rather than by specific worship forms that could become culture-bound, time-locked, and superstition-invoking.” That means there can be variation in how these components are fleshed out. The important thing is that we have a gospel-driven purpose in why we do what we do.

He finishes the first section of the book with three chapters on the mission, aspects, and components of Christ-centered worship. This is one of the best illustrations I’ve seen of working through the “healthy tensions” that I talk about in my book, Worship Matters.

In the second half of the book, Chapell gives specific ideas for how to think about and implement different parts of a gospel-oriented meeting. While every chapter is worth reading, I particularly appreciated his thoughts on communion and his focus on rubrics, or transitions.

With so many books being written on the topic of worship today, I hesitate to recommend one so highly. Christ-Centered Worship is an exception. Definitely worth the investment of your time.

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13 Responses to Christ-Centered Worship by Bryan Chappell – Book Review

  1. Lindele September 26, 2009 at 10:03 PM #

    I was just looking at this online yesterday and thinking it looked really good – thanks for the recommendation! I think I’ll ask for it for Christmas.

  2. John Authenreith September 28, 2009 at 9:55 PM #

    Gotta check this book out, thanks for sharing. I’m reading “The Cross and Christian Ministry – Leadership Lessons from 1 Corinthians” by D. A. Carson that I picked up at Worship God 09. I blogged last week about the lessons I learned in the first few chapters of the book!

  3. Rich September 29, 2009 at 12:34 PM #

    Couldn’t agree more. It is a great, great read and resource for anyone involved in planning the worship service. Very valuable in my opinion.

    I ordered it through Westminsiter bookstore and they also sent me a free CD along with it…not sure if they’ll do that for every order, but you just can’t beat their prices!

    I wish I lived closer to you Bob, we could talk for days.

  4. Kendall Ellis October 1, 2009 at 5:51 PM #

    Thanks for informing us about this book. I would also recommend to any other worship leaders who have occasional opportunities to preach Chappell’s book Christ-Centered Preaching. As the title indicates it is refreshingly gospel-centered, and I’ve found it an extremely helpful textbook for learning the basics of how to craft a sermon.

  5. Zac Hicks October 14, 2009 at 9:33 PM #

    Great review! We’ve got one equally positive though a bit more in depth. Anyone who wants a good overview of the book should check it out:

    http://www.zachicks.com/blog/2009/9/25/review-of-christ-centered-worship-by-bryan-chapell.html

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