Examining the Elements of our Worship Services - Christ-Centered Worship by Bryan Chapell Book Review

What is your favorite worship song?

If you’ve never thought about why the church does what it does when it gathers together on Sunday morning, Bryan Chapell’s Christ-Centered Worship is a fantastic introduction to the elements of corporate worship and you will benefit tremendously from reading it. The book is divided into two halves - a historical survey of liturgies within the Christian tradition, and then an overview of the parts that make up a liturgy, with the focus being on how the liturgies of our worship gatherings are shaped by the gospel story.

Chapell helpfully draws out how the structures of the liturgies of Luther, Calvin, and the Westminster assembly all reflect the story of the gospel, and encourages his reader to do the same with their liturgy. Among the aspects of Christ-Centered worship that Chapell finds are adoration, confession, assurance, thanksgiving, intercession, instruction, communion and blessing. The elements tell the story of creation, fall, redemption, and new creation and ensure that the entire gospel is being proclaimed each time the church gathers for corporate worship. 

One of the things I appreciated about this book was the way that Chapell aggregates many examples of the different elements of worship. The person who is new to composing a liturgy will find many helpful resources (Scripture passages, hymns, and contemporary songs) for elements like calls to worship, benedictions and confessions of sin.

In my experience, when it comes to worship and liturgy, there are two kinds of people in today’s Christian - people who know a lot about worship and liturgy, and people who have never thought about it before. I would recommend this book as an excellent introductory read for the person who has never thought about it before, and for the person who has thought about it way too much, I’m thinking the next book I read on this topic (Worship: Reformed According to the Scriptures) by Hughes Oliphant Old) will be more up your alley.