Dear Friends,
Just wanted to let you know that my first book is officially available. It’s called “The Holy Spirit in Worship Music, Preaching, and the Altar: Renewing Pentecostal Corporate Worship.” The themes I address in the book relate to issues I’ve regularly wrestled with as someone who has participated and led in corporate worship services, seeing both the good and the challenging. These ideas have arisen from my experiences, as well as from research for my Master’s and especially my PhD studies. If you’re interested in getting a copy of the book, you can get it on amazon, for those in Canada just click this link here: Buy “The Holy Spirit in Worship Music, Preaching, and the Altar.” And for those in the U.S. and beyond, just click this link here: Buy “The Holy Spirit in Worship Music, Preaching, and the Altar.” Feel free to share this with those you think might be interested. Huge thanks to my family and friends who have encouraged me along the way, without whom I have no idea how I could finally put this all into print (my book includes the names of crucial people who have helped along the way – see the Acknowledgements and Dedication section). Over time, I hope to write up some follow-up posts on this subject. Stay tuned.
Here’s a description of the book from the back cover that the publisher helped put together:
“In this first study of its kind, Dr Josh Samuel probes three key expressions of corporate worship among classical Pentecostals in North America: worship music, preaching, and the altar. Part one of the study is devoted to a historical analysis, which describes key contributions to the Pentecostal emphasis on the Spirit’s immediacy in corporate worship. Part two investigates corporate worship music, giving particular attention to Contemporary Worship Music, which has become for many Pentecostals today the accepted form of worship music. The views of three influential contemporary worship music leaders are analysed, namely, those of Brian Doerksen, Darlene Zschech, and Matt Redman. Part three examines preaching and the altar among Pentecostals. The views of two classical Pentecostal leaders, Ray H. Hughes and Charles T. Crabtree, on preaching and the altar are placed into dialogue with those of an influential Evangelical Haddon W. Robinson, in order to understand better the role of place of preaching and the altar among Pentecostals. Owing to the fact that the expectation of the Spirit’s present and direct work in corporate worship is a central theological assumption among Pentecostals, and the enormous influence patterns of Pentecostal worship have had upon corporate worship of various Christian traditions globally, this critically informed analysis and evaluation is an invaluable and timely contribution. Laity, ministers, and scholars will benefit from this historical and contemporary analysis of Pentecostal corporate worship.”
To God be the glory.