The purpose of the present study is to try to find answers to how active worshipers of different ages experience the praise song as worship in the worship service. What does the song of praise mean to them and what purpose and function it fills. Song and music have always been a central part of Christianity and the Church of the World, and not least in its worship services. If this testifies to the infinite amount of songs and songbooks that emerge because of the church's rich music life. Likewise, singing vocals today is also strongly associated with the church just underlines this even more (Fahlgren, 2013). But what are the underlying factors that matter when singing or playing these songs and what function does it fulfill for the worshipers?  The method of the survey is a qualitative interview study. The study comprises seven people, three men and four women, all of whom have been active in an Equmenia congregation for at least five years.  The result shows that the biggest difference in respondents' view of worship and their view of it lies in the age difference. Where the older participants consider themselves less dependent on the emotional touch during the song of praise. And uses more worship to mission. While the younger participants in the study claim to be more dependent on "feeling a feeling" when they worship, and that the songs, should be available to all.

Este trabalho analisou o culto aos antepassados okinawanos Sosen Suuhai, procurando compreender seus significados à construção identitária dos okinawanos no Brasil. Para isso, as entrevistas e os dados de campo foram trabalhados sob duas perspectivas: 1. Uma histórica: que analisou as relações entre o governo e a sociedade brasileira, na Era Vargas, especialmente, durante o período do Estado Novo. 2. Uma de análise do culto baseada no animismo e xamanismo, cujos rituais de manipulação do corpo complementam os significados do Sosen Suuhai. Percebeu-se que a simbologia do corpo (sangue e sêmen) mostra-se concatenada à percepção de sagrado e profano no culto, que, por sua vez, repercute na distinção de papéis sociais a partir de dicotomia de gênero. Nesse caso, pode-se dizer que essa simbologia reflete a importância da patrilinearidade na sucessão do butsudan e a importância das mulheres na comunicação, tanto no sentido religioso, quanto na perpetuação da tradição e da memória familiar. Também foi possível notar que o pertencimento okinawano, movido pelo culto, opera a partir de dois pontos de vista: a religiosidade e a história. Em algumas famílias, o butsudan representa a comunicação com os ancestrais e as crenças no poder de influência deles na vida familiar. Em outras famílias, porém, o butsudan seria visto muito mais como um lugar da memória, reverência à historicidade dos ancestrais, o que coloca em evidência as especificidades okinawanas no processo de imigração ao Brasil. Essa forte presença da historicidade nos discursos dos interlocutores relaciona-se à construção de uma identidade okinawana no Brasil que busca exaltar suas características de expansão e alegria em contraposição às características de reserva e frieza dos japoneses. Essas diferenças, construídas no discurso identitário, foram lidas na baila da cultura, em que hábitos e costumes nativos passam a ser acionados como estratégia de afirmação e de reconhecimento do grupo na sociedade / This paper describes the Sosen Suuhai, which is a ritual of the Okinawans ancestors. It seeks to understand its meanings in the construction of the identity of Okinawans in Brazil. In order to achieve this, the interviews and the field data were analyzed from two perspectives: 1. A historical one, which examines the relations among the Okinawans and the government and the Brazilian society in the Vargas Era, especially during the Estado Novo. The process of identity affirmation of Okinawans in Brazil and the extension of the Sosen Suuhai, especially since the arrival of new immigrants in the postwar period, was discussed. 2. An analysis of the Sosen Suuhai focused on animism and shamanism. It was perceived that the symbolism of the body (blood and semen) appears concatenated to the perception of sacred and profane within the Sosen Suuhai, which have repercussions on the social distinction, like gender dichotomy. One can say that this symbolism is reflected in the importance of the patrilineality in the butsudan succession, and the importance of women in communication, in a religious sense, as in the perpetuation of tradition and family memory. It was also noted that the Okinawan belonging, moved by worship, operates from two points of view: the religion and history. In some families, the butsudan signifies communication with the ancestors and beliefs in their power of influence on family life. In other families, however, the butsudan would be seen more as a \"place of memory\" reverence for ancestors history, which highlights the specificities in Okinawan immigration process to Brazil. This strong presence of historicity in the speeches of speakers is related to the construction of an Okinawan identity in Brazil that seeks to exalt their expansion and joy characteristics as opposed to the reticent and coldness features of the Japanese. These differences, built in the discourse identity, were read within the \"culture\" in which habits and native customs become triggered as a statement of group strategy and recognition whitin the society

To extend research on Baumrind’s parenting styles, a scenario study was conducted to determine if the gender of a stimulus child and the parenting style employed by stimulus parents would relate significantly to biblical interpretation style and preferred worship style. A 2x3 independent groups factorial design was employed for analysis in two different procedures. Respondents (152 undergraduate students) were provided with one of six scenarios, each of which varied by gender of stimulus child and by one of three parenting styles employed by the stimulus parent. Respondents were then directed to complete the Scriptural Literalism Scale (Hogge & Friedman, 1967) and the Worship Style Index, which provided measures of biblical interpretation style and worship style respectively. The results suggested that parenting styles relate to how one comes to interpret the Bible and worship style and that gender also relates to worship style. The authoritarian and authoritative parenting styles related more and the permissive parenting style the least to a literal approach to biblical interpretation and to a structured worship style.

Restoration and Renewal! Does that sound familiar? If you desire constant inspiration in your journey to total restoration and renewal this thanksgiving season, this devotional is for you. This devotional looks up!! It conveys through anecdotes, stories, wisdom applications and Godly life-principles this simple but powerful truth. Be thankful always! This is not just as a seasonal devotional for thanksgiving, it is a priceless gift to the reader activating a genuine heart of gratefulness as a lifestyle in the process of restoration and renewal. Come along with us as we take you along this incredible journey of restoration and renewal. / https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu_books/1086/thumbnail.jpg

Songwriters have been creating music for the church for hundreds of years. The songs have gone through many stylistic changes from generation to generation, yet, each song has generated congregational participation. What measurable, traceable qualities of congregational songs exist from one generation to the next? This document explores the history and development of Congregational Christian Song (CCS), to discover and document the similarities between seemingly contrasting styles of music. The songs analyzed in this study were chosen because of their wide popularity and broad dissemination among non-denominational churches in the United States. While not an exhaustive study, this paper reviews over 200 songs spanning 300 years of CCS. The findings of the study are that songs that have proven to be successful in eliciting participation all contain five common elements. These elements encourage congregations to participate in singing when an anticipation cue is triggered and then realized. The anticipation/reward theory used in this study is based on David Huron’s ITPRA (Imagination-Tension-Prediction-Reaction-Appraisal) Theory of Expectation. This thesis is designed to aid songwriters and music theorists to quickly identify whether a CCS can be measured as successful (i.e., predictable).

The Reformed tradition, following Zwingli and especially Calvin, excluded images from the churches. Calvin rejected the sacred images of his day as idolatrous on the grounds that they were treated as making God present, that the necessary distinction between God and God’s material creation was not maintained, and because an image, which rightly was to be mimetic of visible reality, could not truthfully depict God. Calvin approved the Renaissance notion of visual art as mimetic and he understood that artists’ abilities were gifts of God and were to be used rightly. He also had a very keenly developed visual aesthetic sense in relation to nature as the “mirror” of God’s glory. However, the strong human tendency towards idolatry before images, he believed, meant that it was not expedient to place any pictures in the churches. Reinterpretation of key biblical passages, particularly the first and second commandments (Calvin’s numbering), together with changes in the understanding of what constitutes visual art, of the relationships between words and visual images, and of the processes of interpretation and reception not only of texts but of all perceived reality, lead to a re-thinking of the issues. The biblical narrative with its theological insights can be interpreted into a visual language and used by the church as complementary to, but never replacing, biblical preaching and teaching in words. Attention to the visual aesthetic dimensions of the worship space is important to allow for this space to function as an invitation and call to worship. Its form, colour, light and adorning may give aesthetic delight, which leads to praise and thanksgiving, or it may provoke other response which helps people prepare to offer worship to God. The world and its people depicted in visual art/image may inform the praying of the church and the visual representation of the church (the saints) may provide congregations with an awareness of the breadth of the church at worship in heaven and on earth. In the present diversity of views about visual art and the work of the artist there is freedom for the artist to re-think the question of vocation and artists may find new opportunities for understanding and exercising their vocation not only in secular art establishments and the community but also in relation to the worship of the church.

This thesis is an exploration of the extent to which Paul�s terminology of Inheritance [(...)] in Romans, and its associated imagery, logic and arguments, functioned to evoke socio-political expectations that were alternative to those which prevailed in contemporary Roman imperial discourse. There are two parts to this study. The first is to take seriously the context of Empire and the claims being made by the Roman Empire in the first century. In particular, what were some of the messages conveyed by the Roman Empire with regard to the structure and purpose, the hopes and expectations, of first-century society? The Christians in Rome were daily exposed to the images and message of Caesar and his successors and there is therefore a need to consider how Paul�s language of Inheritance would have sounded within this environment. Second, this study gives attention to the content of Paul�s use of the word "inheritance" as it occurs in Romans. In order to address this question, three interrelated ideas are explored. First, for Paul, what does the inheritance consist of? The traditional understanding is that the concept is an entirely spiritualised or transcendent reality. This study proposes a more this-worldly, geographical nature to the word. Second, there is the closely related question of the political nature of inheritance. If it is the case that the language of inheritance has to do with the renewal of the land, then who inherits this land? These two questions raise a third issue-how will the inheritance transpire? Paul�s inheritance language contributes to notions of lordship, authority and universal sovereignty for the people of God. Conceivably, the path to this dominion could mirror the hegemonic intentions of imperial Rome which envisages the triumph of one group of people (the strong) over another (the weak). Is this the case with Paul�s inheritance language, or does it somehow undermine all claims to power and control? There are five undisputed uses of [...] and its cognates in Romans-Rom 4:13, 14; Rom 8:17 (three times) and there is one textual variant in Rom 11:1 where the word [...] is used in place of [...]. This study finds that, to varying degrees in each of these texts, the inheritance concept is not only a direct confrontation to other claims to rule, it is also simultaneously a reversal of all other paths to lordship and rule. This study then considers the use of the concept in the two other undisputed Pauline letters where it occurs (Galatians and 1 Corinthians) and also in the disputed letter to the Colossians. The overriding impression is that there is nothing in Galatians, 1 Corinthians or Colossians which significantly challenges the this-worldly, political nature of the language of inheritance in Romans. In these epistles and in Romans Paul employs the language and politics of inheritance in order to subvert the message of Empire.

Thesis (D.W.S.)--Institute for Worship Studies, 2005. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 116-119).

Thesis (D.W.S.)--Institute for Worship Studies, 2005. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 161-175).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, 2005. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 113-117).