Book
Alexis D. Abernethy, ed. Worship That Changes Lives: Multidisciplinary and Congregational Perspectives on Spiritual Transformation. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008.
Reviewer
Marlene Kropf, Associate Professor of Worship and Spiritual Formation, Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, IN
What makes this book stand apart is its focus on the relatively unexplored territory of spiritual formation in worship. While much has been written about worship theology, and many fine resources for public worship are published each year, much less has been written about the space between – the middle territory, the lived experience of worship where people meet God and lives are transformed.
Edited by Alexis Abernethy, professor of psychology at Fuller Theological Seminary and a psychotherapist in private practice, this multidisciplinary collection of essays examines the relationship between worship and spiritual transformation.
The essays were written in response to a collaborative ethnographic research project called Spiritual Experience in Worship (SEM), sponsored by The Brehm Center for Worship, Theology and the Arts (Fuller Theological Seminary) with The Institute for Christian Worship (Calvin College). Organized into three sections, the essays discuss a theology of worship and spiritual growth, the role of the arts in spiritual transformation, and findings from the SEM research.
Two opening chapters provide a theoretical framework for defining and exploring spiritual transformation in worship.
“Worship as a locus for transformation” by Clayton J. Schmit, professor of preaching at Fuller Seminary, engages the intriguing yet difficult question of how we can know that transformation has actually occurred in worship – whether on the personal or communal level. In another chapter, John D. Witvliet, Director of the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, describes formation in worship as “nonstop soul-shaping” (44). He encourages us to pay attention to the cumulative power of transformation, not just to immediate results. He also argues for a fuller understanding of the Holy Spirit’s role in worship that includes both the dramatic and spontaneous as well as the ordinary or subtle manifestations of God’s presence and power.
The middle section of essays explores spiritual transformation in worship through the arts – drama, dance, visual arts, music, and film. In addition, transformation is examined through the lens of various racial and cultural groups – emerging church experience in both the United States and the United Kingdom, along with African-American, Asian, and Hispanic congregations.
The final section of the book interprets the results of the SEM study. Surveying a wide variety of congregations and denominations, the project used questionnaires and interviews to probe people’s lived experience of worship.
Interviewees were monitored physiologically – their heart rate and skin conductance were measured -- as they were asked to remember and visualize significant worship experiences and respond to follow-up questions. Specifically, researchers were seeking to identify key conditions that contribute to worship experiences and to assess whether these experiences have behavioral outcomes.
Does worship change lives? Researchers found ample evidence of cognitive, affective, relational, and behavioral transformation.
Although no significant differences were found between ethnic groups or denominations in the level of positive changes associated with worship, the study found that younger individuals (people in their 30s and 40s) and women tended to report more positive changes than other groups. Researchers also pondered the significance of their finding that sadness is often what people bring to worship and what precedes a transformational experience.
Though pastors and worship planners and leaders will find much to stimulate their thinking in this book, the best result of reading it might be inspiration for exploring how worship forms and transforms people in our own congregations. We likely assume that worship is making a difference, but if we were to ask people questions similar to those used in the research study, we might be surprised by what is and isn’t happening in worship.
And while this book will be of significant interest to artists who use their gifts in worship as well as emergent churches and congregations of varying races and cultures, it could also provoke meaningful conversation in interchurch settings. Without judging differences of worship style, the researchers probed the deeper dimensions of what happens as we sing, pray, and encounter God in scripture and preaching. Their findings offer language and concepts that could contribute to interdenominational dialogue.
I doubt if many laypeople will wade through this volume. In many ways, it reads more like a reference work than a compelling discussion of spiritual formation. Nevertheless, it would be a useful addition to the libraries of those who teach worship and of pastoral leaders who are responsible for planning worship.
This volume also makes a ground-breaking contribution to interdisciplinary conversation among theologians, psychologists, and those engaged in intercultural studies.