Music Students Discuss Structure in Worship Studies Course

October 24, 2019

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The Jubilee College of Music at Riverside campus holds its Worship Studies course for their Master's students every Monday. The class discussed the structure of worship last week.

Worship Studies is a required lecture seminar for all music graduate students which provides a general understanding of Christian worship. By reviewing the spiritual meaning, structure, the use of music and arts, the church year, styles and more, the class aims to expand students' knowledge and enable them to be more sincere in faithful worship.

The discussion was based on the story of two disciples going back from Jerusalem to Emmaus in Luke 24.

The book "The Worship Architect" by Constance M. Cherry describes four movements of the story.

1. Christ approaches his followers
2. Christ engages them in the Scriptures
3. Christ's identity is known in the context of table fellowship
4. Christ inspires them to go and tell the story

The four movements provide a good understanding of laying out the order of worship - Gathering, Word, Table, and Sending. When various elements of worship can find proper places following these fourfold, each worship can represent our journey with Christ together every week.

Students read and discussed each worship order of current campus worship. They also looked at other churches and megachurch service formats as case studies.

The class discussed different types of public reading traditions in Christianity, including lectors and lectionary which helped in understanding the reason and the purpose of scripture reading in worship. During the discussion, the students shared their opinions on how to apply the tradition of public reading in today's worship practice using various styles.

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