{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Why The Early Church Didn't Have Worship Services: A Conversation with Dr. Tom Wadsworth","description":"As a young worship leader, I used to ask myself the question: \u201cWhy is worship such a big deal?\u201d Not in the sense of \u201cGod isn\u2019t worthy of it\u2026\u201d but I realized there were no worship leaders in the Bible. Lots of singing. And our church gatherings are built around worship. And there\u2019s a worship industry. And a constant stream of songs and songwriters. It\u2019s a big deal in our modern church culture. I consoled myself with the thought that God is worthy of it. We sing so much because he\u2019s worthy. We write so many songs because he\u2019s worthy. We have so many services because he\u2019s worthy. And while that might not be wrong\u2026 has our emphasis on worship led us to an imbalance in our gatherings? Has our emphasis on worship being all about God, led us to neglect the very real horizontal aspects of ministry and discipleship? I wanted to talk about it. My guest today is Dr. Tom Wadsorth, New Testament scholar whose doctoral dissertation was why the first century church did not use worship language when it described its gathering. I know that is controversial. This is a worship podcast. You may be a worship leader. You may be a songwriter who resources the church with new songs. We\u2019re not talking about removing worship and singing from the church. That would be an obvious Biblical misinterpretation. What we are looking at is how did the first century church view its gathering and what can we learn from it today? Because I don\u2019t know about you - it\u2019s possible to worship, listen to sermons, and give in the offering for a lifetime and not mature in my faith. Our churches are full\u2026 and growing numerically\u2026but are people maturing in their faith?  What would it look like for us to reimagine our gatherings? This is controversial. You may disagree some. But I think it\u2019s a healthy theme for us to wrestle with. Topics Covered: What constituted the gathering of first century Christians Why worship language would be foreign to the first century church When the shift happened in church history from edification to worship Power and control dynamics throughout church history Why preaching is not a New Testament concept How to balance mega and small church Resources Mentioned: Show Sponsor: Planning Center Tom Wadsworth 7 Part Series on The Christian Assembly Show Sponsor: Planning Center My goal in this podcast is to help you grow as a worship leader. Of course that includes your formation, but it isn\u2019t limited to that\u2014it\u2019s also with practical tools to help you in your ministry. It\u2019s hard to talk about being a worship leader without mentioning Planning Center. As you know, I\u2019m a huge fan. A lot of you are already using Planning Center Services to schedule your volunteers, plan your worship services, and give your team the tools they need to learn their music. But with Planning Center People, you can stay even more engaged with your volunteers and anyone looking for how to get plugged in. First, some good news: People is completely free with any Planning Center subscription. No, you didn\u2019t hear me wrong\u2014it\u2019s free. Second, some better news: you can use People to add new volunteers to your teams quickly and automatically. In People, you can make forms for anyone interested in volunteering, put them in a step-by-step training workflow, and then automatically add them to Services to schedule them for the right team. And that\u2019s just one way you can use People. From sending automated emails and seeing church-wide engagement to organizing your member database and ","author_name":"Beyond Sunday Worship Podcast","author_url":"http:\/\/beyondsunday.libsyn.com","html":"