Perkins School Of Worship Essay

The most pressing theological topic that I plan to explore at Perkins School of Theology is worship. More specifically, I want to investigate what the United Methodist Church believes is accomplished in corporate worship and why we deem the patterns and styles of worship that we employ as most effective toward reaching that end, and, if we don’t, why we use them. I believe that there is immense value and wisdom in the Methodist tradition, but I also believe that doing things a certain way because, historically, that is how we have done them is nonsensical. Countless people that I know, and respect have graduated from Perkins School of Theology and preside at the Lord’s Table with poise, wisdom, and reverence. I want to attend Perkins so that

Having been raised Southern Baptist, I was not introduced to the high church liturgical tradition until I visited my first United Methodist church in 2011. I was captivated by the choreography and intentionality that I saw, but I couldn’t escape the question, “Why?” Why are we singing the Gloria Patri every week? Why do we stand for it? What is the Gloria Patri? I believe that one of the reasons I am so drawn to the liturgy and its expression in worship is that I lacked it for so long. The church in which I grew up would sing a few hymns, the sermon was three points and a prayer, and once a quarter we would have the Lord’s Supper. Hymns were tracked by the music office so that the congregation didn’t become bored by redundancy. To go from that worship style to, what appeared to me at the time to be, grandiose, intentional redundancy was jarring. So, I needed to begin my investigations into why someone would worship this

Burton-Edwards, I turned to the United Methodist Book of Worship and read the section titled, “The Basic Pattern of Worship.” I learned that our worship is informed and inspired by first century Christians adapting the synagogue worship of their day. “...the Christians held an adapted synagogue service and broke bread when they gathered on the first day of the week. Such a combined service of Word and Table is described in Acts 20:7ff.” This, however, failed to clarify the staples of worship that I have experienced and led. I understand that we read scripture because it is an ancient and current revelation of God in our world. I know that we celebrate the Eucharist because it is a means of grace and a way to experience the real presence of Christ. But, I still want to know more. Would Rev. Burton-Edwards endorse a worship service that omitted the