Worship Evangelism: Inviting Unbelievers into the Presence of God

Written in the mid-90's and in another continent, this book is a real mixed back for this Aussie. Morgenthaler critiques 1990's 'Baby Boomer' seeker sensitive churches, arguing that spiritual seekers can find God in a genuine worship service rather than a canned, seeker-targeted experience. While true, so much of what she writes is out of date as reaching boomers is no longer the big issue for most of the churches I know - they still like Boomers, but reaching 'Millennials' (don't you just love [...]

Even though this book was written in the 1990's, it is still very much applicable today in the 21st century. As a matter of fact, the book made several predictions about trends in worship that have come to fruition. The resounding theme of the book is that worship is the most effective tool for evangelism- the premise being that when seekers come to church, they are not looking for an elaborate production; they are looking for an encounter with God. When seekers see authentic worship, they are g [...]

What new insights did I discover in this book?Not a ton, actually. Morgenthaler’s book is almost 15 years old now and is basically a response agains the seeker services of the 1980s as popularized by Willow Creek Community Church. It is also very focused on the Boomer generation, with a chapter or two near the end on Busters. This is outdated now; the church now is grappling with Millenials. I mean, I’m 26 and I’m a millenial, so when you’re talking about reaching out to current generati [...]

Basically this book can be summed like this: it identifies and analyzes the issue well in the first half of book, but falls prey to the traps of formulas and structure in the latter half of the book that it seems to be critiquing in the beginning. I thought it is a good primer for your own explorations but not a strong source of solutions. In other words, you are going to have to experiement as a faith community in becoming more evangelistic (in the best sense of the word) through woroship.

i like this book, but the second half was really weird. the first half was primarily a critique of the seeker-sensitive movement; this author deserves quite a bit of the credit for keeping worship an authentic experience designed to create real encounters with God, not seeker-sensitive entertainment for skeptics.

Excellent. Really hits the spot.

If you are interested in this topic, the beginning of the book is very good, but I suggest bailing when she gets to the "practical applications" of her theories.

If there is a gap between the worship at your church and its evangelistic outreach . . . this author can help. Genuine worship is always going to appeal to the honest seeker.