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Melodie Rivera
Professor Jenna Campbell
ENC 1102-0040
16 February 2017
Worship: Analysis of a Textual Way of Life
The act of worship is an activity associated with religion. Christians commonly express

their gratitude and respect towards God through worship. It might seem like a ritual but for the

Nondenominational Christian community it goes beyond that. Worship has gone from this view

of an impersonal religious act to a more personal way of life. It is reflected through a persons

everyday testimony. An aspect that is overlooked is the literacy activity involved in worship.

Everyday Christians use a variety of texts and genres to enhance their personal worship

experience with God. These participants in the Nondenominational Christian community are

both the consumers and creators. These texts also help shape other participants contribution to

the literate activity of worship. Through the use of different research methods the different ways

in which worship texts change to religious reflection, deepen religious understanding and build

religious communities will be identified.

In order to gain a greater understanding of how worship texts influence personal worship

lives, I conducted multiple interviews. Since there are different levels of expertise within the

population, the interviews consisted of two sets of people. One set of interviews was conducted

with a group of worship pastors/leaders. They have a higher level of expertise due to their

education and years of experience in the field of worship. The other set of the population

interviewed is the congregation. These are people who attend church and are involved in the

worship experience both congregational and personally. The use of these two populations show

the different perspectives and how they all tie together in the act of worship. The interview

questions can be found I the appendix. The two groups had similar questions, with slight

differences in order to best fit the interviewees.

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Worship lyrics and devotionals each have a different impact on personal worship. A

common trend however is they all draw people closer to a relationship with God. Lyrics in

particular can lead to breakthroughs, which give a clear understanding of what God is doing,

as described by Elimar Gonzalez a member of a local Nondenominational Church. Lyrics help

shine a light on a different perspective of a situation which encourages religious reflection. This

can be an eye opening experience to those who partake in the worship activity. As explained by

Marielis Montanez, a worship leader at her local church in Maryland, It's really inspiring to hear

that some people can go through the same things as you do and how God can work in their lives,

and that helps you to have a different perspective in worshipping Him. It is always reassuring to

know you are not the only one going through that situation. By hearing others experiences that

relate to ones own gives a sense of hope and helps build religious communities. It was due to a

song that Kathy Serrano, member of a local church, was able to understand the greatness of

Gods love. The song was called How Great is Your Love and although it sounds simple, they

had deep words of truth. It made me really reflect on how great Gods love is not only to me, but

to my friends, and to the world. Through these different experiences the lyrics proclaim the

essence of God and deepen religious understanding. When it comes to worship texts the focus

on God's revelation, including his character and his redemptive work (Abernethy).
According to Justin Mercado, a member of a local churchs dance ministry, there's no

such thing as a "perfect" worship text but an honest one that not just connects you more with

God but also makes others around you feel and connect with that it. When creating a worship

text one of the most important parts is authenticity. Lyrics and devotionals are based on personal

experiences. Honesty is what speaks to the heart. Things that touch a persons heart during their

time of prayer are then developed into different forms of texts. Abernethy shares four qualities of

worship (1) the aim of worship is to glorify God; (2) God's glory pertains to what is revealed in
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the Christian scriptures; (3) worship is always "culturally embodied and embedded"; and

(4) worship invites full participation as we bring our whole life to worship. In other words,

worship is sharing the essence of God that is experienced in times of prayer and bible reading.

Worship goes beyond a simple act done in church, it is a lifestyle impacted by different texts.
Based on the results from the interviews conducted lyrics and devotionals are not the only

texts that affect personal worship time. Blogs, podcasts and books are all different genres that

contribute to the worship experience. Blogs can cover different topics. An example of a popular

Christian blog is The Secret Garden. This video blog is geared towards young adult Christian

women. It provides advice and different testimonies of extraordinary women who can be seen as

role models. The general ideas of blogs are to unite Christians with similar interests and tie those

interests to their relationship with God. Podcasts are also a way to share words of encouragement

with members of the Christian worship community. Each day new scriptures and devotionals are

shared, encouraging others to deepen their religious understanding. Books also share

encouraging words, such as Crazy Love by Francis Chan. This book describes the different

attributes of Gods love. Another book mentioned during the interviews was Doxology and

Theology by Matt Boswell. This book covers guidelines based on biblical principles on the life of

a worship leader and how to lead others into worship. This text mainly impacts the worship

pastor/leader community but it inadvertently impacts the congregation also because the

information read during the leaders personal worship time is implanted to benefit the

congregations worship experience. Along with these books, the Bible was the number one textual

source mentioned by every interviewee.

The number one text used in the Nondenominational Christian community is the Bible.

This text is plays a vital role because it is considered the Word of God. The Bible is revered very

highly in the community. Due to the importance of the Bible, all the other texts used by the
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community revolve around it. An example of this can be seen in worship song lyrics. Based on

research the majority of song lyrics are based off a biblical text. In order to support this claim I

picked a song to rhetorically analyze. According to the iTunes Hot Tracks the number one song

at the moment in the Christian & Gospel genre is What a Beautiful Name by Hillsong

Worship.
In order to understand the context of the song I gathered information on the writers of the

text. Hillsong Worship is the praise and worship group of a local church in Australia, that

through the years has grown and impacted many people. They are a very successful group who

have obtained the chance to travel the world sharing their unshakeable belief in the power of

Jesus Christ. Despite the pain, sorrow and tension of this world, Jesus is not threatened by the

darkness (hillsong.com/worship). Through the lens of their beliefs, I rhetorically analyzed the

song What a Beautiful Name.

It was stated earlier that many of the texts in the community revolve around the Bible.

This reigns true in the song, which starts by stating You were the Word at the beginning which

relates to In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God

(New International Version, John. 1.1). This automatically establishes credibility within the

Christian community because it is referencing the main text. By stating One with God the song

then goes on to reference the Holy Trinity. The Holy Trinity is a concept in which God is three

people in one. The Father, God, the Son, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Jesus explains this when he

states I and the Father are one, (New International Version, John. 10.30). The overall motif of

the song is to exalt the greatness of Jesus Christ. They constantly proclaim the beauty of all His

works. The diction used in the lyrics such as You didnt want heaven without us/So Jesus, You

brought heaven down, Death could not hold you and You are raised to life again show that
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Jesus greatest work is considered to be His crucifixion and resurrection. All of these phrases are

biblical references.
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Appendix

1. How have lyrics and devotionals personally impacted your worship life?
2. What other textual sources affect your personal worship experience?
3. What leads to a successful worship text?
4. What is your writing process?
5. What type of experiences are the texts based of?
6. How do you use the Bible within text creation?
7. What causes these texts to surpass cultural barriers?

Figure 1. Interview questions for Worship Pastors/Leaders.

1. How have lyrics and devotionals personally impacted your worship life?
2. What other textual sources affect your personal worship experience?
3. What do you think leads to a successful worship text?
4. Do you write lyrics, devotionals, or any other worship related texts?
5. If so, What type of experiences are the texts based of?
6. How do you use the Bible within your personal worship time?

Figure 2. Interview questions for Members of the Congregation.

1.10.17
Sometimes God places us in very difficult situations. Such as being in jail like Paul. But those situations are not
meant to bring us down. Instead they are part of God's perfect plan. By trusting in Him we are able to share the
gospel with people. It might seem like an unconventional way of doing it but God is not a conventional God, he
will do whatever needs to be done to help those who are seeking something greater. These situations help
build up our faith and our courage so that we can proclaim the Good News without shame. (Philippians 1:12-
18) Spread God's love and do it based on experience. Everything God does he does with love for us. (John
3:16)

Figure 3. Personal devotional example.

Work Cited

Abernethy, Alexis D., et al. "Corporate worship and spiritual formation: insights from worship

leaders." Journal of Psychology and Christianity, vol. 34, no. 3, 2015, p. 266+.

Religion and Philosophy Collection login.ezproxy.net.ucf.edu/login?

auth=shibb&url=http: //go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?

p=PPRP&sw=w&u=orla57816&v=2.1&id=GALE%
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7CA454485083&it=r&asid=a5eff9a64f3ccaaa9f022c1347dcc84f. Accessed 16 February

2017.

Gonzalez, Elimar. Personal interview. 15 February 2017.

Hillsong Worship. What a Beautiful Name. Let There Be Light, Capitol CMG Label

Group/Sparrow Records, 2016, http://hillsong.com/lyrics/what-a-beautiful-name.

Loja, Cristinel. The Mystery of the Holy Trinity and the Experience of God in Liturgy Dogma,

Spirituality and Liturgy in Orthodoxy. International Journal of Orthodox Theology, vol.

2, no. 1, 2011, pp. 106-116, www.socwork.net/sws/article/view/60/362. Accessed 16

February 2017.

Mercado, Justin. Personal interview. 16 February 2017.

Montanez, Marielis. Personal interview. 15 February 2017.

Serrano, Kathy. Personal interview. 15 February 2017.

The Bible. New International Version, Biblica Inc., 2011.