WorshipTraining

Course Description

Welcome to Essentials In Worship Theology. In this online course, you are about to join other worship leaders, artists, worshippers and spiritual influencers, across streams of the Church and across the world, in exploring themes in biblical worship theology. The ideas we will explore are absolutely vital to every 21st century worship leader, creative influencer and worshipper.

Theology, it is said, is “faith seeking understanding.” In other words, each of us has thoughts about God, that we are seeking to unpack in this lifetime. You and I have thoughts about God i.e. a theology, and everyone we know does as well. The vital questions for us to ask, as followers of Jesus and as spiritual influencers, are:

“How healthy and true are my own thoughts about God, the scriptures, the story of humankind and my faith?” From here, we ask,

“How healthy and true are the thoughts about God that are forming and informing my views about worship, and the how do they affect the way I lead others into worship?” Then we must ask one more important question – a question that should deeply challenge us.

“What does worship and its leadership have to do with shaping the theology and daily actions of the average person? How am I, as a creative leader, shaping others’ ways of thinking about God, the scriptures, the story of humankind, our faith and their daily life as a Christian?”

These are not easy questions to ask, nor are they easy to answer! However, if we will prayerfully pursue the heart of God in these questions, we will find Him eager to invite us into living truth – truth that can stand powerfully in a postmodern world.

Essentials In Worship Theology is a synthesis of essential theological ideas about the nature of God, the nature of human beings, and the nature of worship. Those ideas find their roots in the “self-revealing” that God has done through the scriptures, and the retelling of those understandings that span the past, present and future of the Christian worship story. Theology is an active quest to know God in all His mystery, majesty and wonder. Worldview is then the way we see the world from the vantage points along that quest.

This course is a “taste” of some of our fuller worship theological, historical and cultural work we do through WorshipTraining.com, but enough to fasten us to essential ideas that should form our daily worship activity and leadership.

We will explore ideas in Christian worldview related to God’s fingerprints on the cosmos, the biblical picture of God, Israel, Jesus and the Kingdom of God. We will also explore theological ideas important to worship expression related to the nature of God (Who we worship – Creator, King, Trinity, Savior), the nature of human beings (those who worship – SubCreators, ImageBearers, CommunityBuilders, and SalvificStorytellers) and the nature of biblical worship (what it is that we do – ideas in creational creativity, intimacy, mission, resurrection, atonement, cross, new creation, heaven and more).

The Church has lingered over these kinds of ideas for millennia, and enough books have been written about the topic of worship theology to fill many libraries. We, however, have just a handful of hours and 4 weeks, so our focus will be on re-discovering essentials – and getting those essentials deep into our creative souls.

Over a four-week period, you’ll post weekly reflections on the readings and content and an international online class will take place. At the conclusion of the course, you will create a final project that will directly serve your local church, and further the worship experience of your local community.

Through this course you’ll develop a fresh worship worldview and become an integral part of our internationally growing WorshipTraining.com Learning Community family of “lifelong learners.”

Again, a rich welcome to Essentials In Worship Theology. We’re going to have a blast learning together.

With friendship,

Dan Wilt, M.Min
Learning Director
WorshipTraining.com

Course Objectives

As a result of taking this course the participant should be able to:

1. Define terms such as worship, theology, biblical narrative, heaven, resurrection, creational theology, atonement, creator, trinity, kingdom of God, new creation and incarnation.

2. Identify the key biblical/theological ideas that have informed the worship expression of various ages of the Christian church (with an awareness of their holiday expressions in Easter, Lent, Advent, Christmas, Epiphany and Pentecost), and that should more fully inform the current expressions of the contemporary Church.

3. Demonstrate an ability to effectively converse on the topics of worship theology, biblical worldview and Christian worldview in a postmodern age.

4. Compare the theological ideas reflected in this material with the popular contem- porary theologies that guide much of the Church’s thinking about God and worship today.

5. Appreciate the challenges of negotiating the postmodern currents in various brands of traditional and emerging spirituality, and the struggle of various communities searching for fresh ways to reclaim a powerful and biblical worship theology.

6. Value the varied themes in worship theology that affect the day-to-day life of every Christian, and ultimately every human being, in our generation.

7. Retell the worship story in many fresh and innovative ways.