# Help...Resources for Worship Liturgies



## sdesocio (Sep 7, 2010)

I am a pastor and church planter in the PCA, working through the order of worship for a new church. I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel, and I would like to incorporate historic patterns in our worship practices. By this I mean order the parts of the service in a way incorporates historic prayers and responses.

Does anyone know of any good books with examples of different liturgies or orders of worship. The only thing that I have found that seems to be close is the Worship Sourcebook. Books or websites would be very helpful.


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## Willem van Oranje (Sep 7, 2010)




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## Covenant Joel (Sep 7, 2010)

I believe that Bryan Chapell's new book, _Christ-Centered Worship_, offers some examples of what you suggest. I haven't read it though, so I can't comment on the appropriateness of all of them.

You also might look at the church websites of many of the people on this board or of other Reformed churches to look at examples of their bulletins.


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## dannyhyde (Sep 7, 2010)

Bard Thompson, Liturgies of the Western Church
Terry Johnson, Leading in Worship
Hughes Oliphant Old, Leading in Prayer
Book of Common Prayer


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## dfranks (Sep 7, 2010)

*Resources from MARS*

While not all of these books have outlined liturgies and order of worship to follow I think they could be helpful. I just started taking a Liturgics (first day was today!) class at Mid-America and the course texts are as listed:

*Tremper Longman III "Immanuel in Our Place"
*Samuel Miller "Thoughts on Public Prayer"
*Hughes Oliphant Old "Worship"
*Philip Graham Ryken "Give Praise to God"
*Abraham Kuyper "Our Worship"
*Various Authors (Christian Focus Publications) "The Worship of God"
*Westminster Directory of Public Worship
*Robert Rayburn "O Come, Let Us Worship"
*D.G. Hart/ Muether "With Reverence and Awe"

I personally have read much of Longman, Old, Hart/Muether, and The Westminster Directory and would highly recommend them. 

Also I believe a more historical approach (Lutheran author) is Frank Senn "Christian Liturgy"


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## sdesocio (Sep 8, 2010)

Some good suggestions so far. Im not as much interested in a theology of liturgies as I am in examples of historic orders of worship. I have the underpinnings and now Im looking to reflect on church tradition as a secondary matter to Scripture.


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## jwithnell (Sep 8, 2010)

Here's an article  you might appreciate.


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## raekwon (Sep 8, 2010)

The Open Sourcebook


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## Willem van Oranje (Sep 8, 2010)

I understand that there have been discoveries of ancient Christian liturgies in recent times, and I'd like to know where to find them.


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## Edward (Sep 8, 2010)

As to the original question - Have you looked at these threads on Orders of Worship?

http://www.puritanboard.com/f67/post-your-church-order-worship-29993/

http://www.puritanboard.com/f67/what-your-order-worship-liturgy-church-you-attend-48967/


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## 21st Century Calvinist (Sep 8, 2010)

All good suggestions so far. There are some good historic liturgies in the books mentioned. Chapell's book will place historic liturgies side by side and how the similarities/differences between them. The worship source book is good for finding prayers and the copy/paste feature from the CD Rom is helpful. 
Personally, I would design a liturgy for corporate Sunday morning worship around Calvin's Genevan liturgy. You could look at some PCA websites as a number post their order of worship on the site. My own church doesn't publish the liturgy on the website but they do email it to members in advance. I could forward it to you. If you need any further assistance in designing a liturgy feel free to get in touch.


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## Wayne (Sep 8, 2010)

Terry Johnson's book, _Leading in Worship_ (as mentioned above), is the one you want.

A fairly brief (185pp.) red cloth hardback, at least in the edition that I have in the Historical Center.

The CE&P bookstore has it in red leather for $27.95 or the Westminster bookstore has it for a buck less in hardcover.


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## beej6 (Sep 9, 2010)

_Worship by the Book_, edited by DA Carson, is another possible resource.


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## sdesocio (Sep 9, 2010)

Maybe what is comes down to is that Ive already been exposed to most of the above resources and I need to just leverage what I have.


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## Willem van Oranje (Oct 8, 2010)

It would be really nice if someone would put together a handy book packed full of historic Reformed and Presbyterian liturgical forms and prayers (optional, of course) in one small but reasonably extensive volume. This could be really useful. Kind of like a Book of Common Prayer for Presbyterians. It should be useful for any kind of worship or devotion service: public, private, family, etc. What's the most useful thing anyone knows of along these lines? (I mean not just a library-bound compendium of historic liturgies with introductions and examples in extremely archaic language/orthography, but one that presents them prepackaged in as useful a form as possible, ready for reading/recitation, and in a handy, durable volume.)


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