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A theology of sung worship
DOI link for A theology of sung worship
A theology of sung worship book
A theology of sung worship
DOI link for A theology of sung worship
A theology of sung worship book
ABSTRACT
Pentecostal worship takes many forms as evidenced in the chapters so far, yet there are a number of practices in common. This chapter has a focus on the practice of singing in worship from a theological perspective, proposing a pentecostal theology of sung worship. Indeed, for many pentecostals worship simply is sung worship and so this is a good place to begin in considering a theology of worship. 1 Further chapters will consider other aspects of pentecostal worship that should also to be recognised. At the outset it needs to be acknowledged that for many pentecostals sung worship is a matter of practice rather than theology. There is often an encouragement simply to choose forms of sung worship that fit with particular cultural situations without any thought as to how this relates to theology. In this, human choice and past understandings of God tend to dictate worship content. Yet pentecostal sung worship is also vitally seen in terms of the Holy Spirit guiding in the present. In other words, there is a theological driver to worship – it is dependent upon the nature of God’s creative action. This theological nature is worthy of exploration as a counter to simply pragmatic considerations and this is the task of the present chapter.