Dipping a Ladle in the Cauldron of Story: Assessing Worship Leadership as Gospel Narration
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.70927/f9ynah46Keywords:
evangelical worship, liturgical presidency, worship leadership, story-telling, TolkienAbstract
Over the past four decades, evangelical scholarship has increasingly emphasized worship's function as a narration of the Christian gospel. However, the role of the worship leader in shaping this narrative remains underexplored. Scholars such as Robert Webber, Bryan Chapell, and Constance Cherry have focused on the structural and theological content of worship yet little attention has been paid to how leaders convey and embody the story for their congregations. This paper proposes that if worship narrates the gospel story, then worship leaders are narrators. Their leadership guides congregants into the eschatological reality of God’s salvific work. Accordingly, insights into good storytelling can offer suggestive guidance for effective worship leadership.
The paper turns to the novelist, J.R.R. Tolkien for one account of good story-telling. Tolkien emphasized the storyteller's vocation as forming a cohesive literary canvas upon which the plot of the story unfolds. His theory of story-telling as "sub-creation" is particularly suggestive for successful worship leadership, implicating reflection on how tone, dialogue, and narrative flow form a tapestry upon which individual liturgical acts occur. Building on these insights, this paper suggests that story-attuned worship leading involves intentional transitions, a thoughtful interplay between form and content, and a deep personal and theological immersion in the Christian story. Such formation equips practitioners to articulate and embody the gospel's cosmic scope—from creation to new creation—thus enabling congregants to encounter the transformative power of God’s love.
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