The Worship Sourcebook

by Faith Alive Christian Resources, Calvin Institute of Christian Worship Staf

The Worship Sourcebook offers a collection of more than 2,500 prayers, litanies, and spoken texts for every element of the worship service throughout the seasons of the church year. This valuable resource for worship planners and pastors includes texts that can be read aloud as well as outlines that can be adapted for your situation. Teaching notes offer guidance for planning each element of the service. Thought-provoking perspectives on the meaning and purpose of worship are great for discussion and reflection. A companion CD makes it simple to cut and paste excerpts into bulletins, PowerPoint slides, and more.

Genres: Reference, Church

843 pages, Hardcover

First published June 16, 2004

Reviews

[Marcus]

Substance: 3/5
Readability: 4/5

I'm a seminary student and this was required for reading for class.

Brink and Witvliet are up front and honest about what Worship Sourcebook is: “…instruction about various elements of worship and on ways in which texts could function in worship.” As a future pastor clueless on certain formalities or patterns of worship services, the work strikes me as a great resource. The information is organized, categorized, and explained in such a way that it lends itself to using the work as a reference resource.

Because we are only required to read 75 pages, I chose to read the initial preface, prologue, and opening of worship. I treasured the Prologue and Brink and Witvliet’s efforts to define worship before leaping into the actual content. The Prologue, ironically, may be the information I reference the most in returning to the content. The information and rationale is invaluable for vision casting worship and reminding leaders – pastors, music leaders, scripture readers, etc. – what it is that is happening throughout the duration of the worship service.

[David Goetz]

A contemporary, Reformed, and well-organized sourcebook for pastors and other worship planners. Prayers are a nice mixture of formal and informal, traditional and new, biblical and theological, demanding and simple (e.g., the sourcebook includes one or two prayers for children in each section). Explanations of the different elements of the liturgy and of the different seasons in the church year are concise and theologically rich. And the content, though definitely square in the Reformed tradition, is easily adaptable to other contexts if necessary.

Highly recommended.

[Sandy]

Good reference for worship planning.