Jesus Cropped from the Picture

How Does it Apply to Me?

study is to look for the unfolding drama of Christ’s Kingdom, which may have no immediate personal application to the reader at all.

Analytical Approaches to Worship Services When the how-does-it-apply-to-me attitude is extended to a local church, it becomes a personal resource center existing to “meet my needs.”

Worship as Seminar Cathy and I once attended a seminar on the differences in brain chemistry between men and women. We thought it would promote domestic tranquility and mutual understanding. I ended up learning more about contemporary approaches to worship than I did brain chemistry (although we did enjoy being together for the day). With Cathy’s experience as an audiologist, she had attended dozens of medical seminars, so she told me what to expect. There would be plenty of coffee and snacks to keep people awake. There would be warm-up jokes or exercises to get people in a learning mode. Each table would have toys to play with to keep listeners engaged. The topic would have to be interesting and the presenter sharp and entertaining, or attendees would tune out. The temperature and lighting would be maintained to create an environment conducive to learning. Finally, she said, there would be an evaluation at the end to ensure the information was presented well, and the people actually learned something they could apply in real life.

Not surprisingly, the seminar happened just as Cathy predicted. After it was over, we discussed what we had learned. We talked about the presenter, the food, the content of the seminar, and whether it had

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