John D. Witvliet - Worship Seeking Understanding: Windows Into Christian Practice

2003 by John D. Witvliet

Published by Baker Academic

a division of Baker Publishing Group

P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287

www.bakeracademic.com

Ebook edition created 2013

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ISBN 978-1-4412-0700-5

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Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New International Version. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com

Scripture quotations identified NRSV are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission.

Contents

Acknowledgments

M y first thanks are owed to my chief liturgical mentors, my parents, John L. and Betty Witvliet. My dad, from the pulpit, and my mom, from the pew next to me, taught me much about the beauty and power of Christian worship. If this volume bears any fruit for Gods kingdom, it is because they faithfully planted and watered the seeds of my young faith.

I am grateful to worshiping communities that have nourished and sustained our family at very different points along the way. In some congregations, such as the South Bend Christian Reformed Church (South Bend, Indiana), Neland Avenue Christian Reformed Church (Grand Rapids, Michigan), First Jenison Christian Reformed Church (Jenison, Michigan), I have had the privilege of leading worship and its music. I am grateful for the opportunities these congregations provided and for all I learned from many individual members. We owe particular thanks for the remarkable hospitality, encouragement, and support of the South Bend congregation during our graduate school years. Each week for the past several years, we have been grateful for the ministry in Word, sacrament, and acts of justice of the Church of the Servant Christian Reformed Church (Grand Rapids, Michigan). The opportunity to worship each week in this congregation has provided more spiritual nourishment than I can express.

I am very grateful to many colleagues at Calvin College and Calvin Theological Seminary for their collegial support and contributions to these essays, including those involved with the chapel program: Dale Cooper, Cindy de Jong, Steve Garber, Cherith Fee Nordling, Robert Nordling, Neal Plantinga, Ron Rienstra, and Sue Rozeboom; musical colleagues: Judy Czanko, David Fuentes, John Hamersma, Linda Hoisington, Merle Mustert, Joel Navarro, Charsie Sawyer, Pearl Shangkuan, Calvin Stapert, and Dale Topp; and Worship Institute co-laborers: Joyce Borger, Emily Brink, Emily Cooper, Norma de Waal Malefyt, Kent De Young, Betty Grit, Cindy Holtrop, Ed Seely, Kathy Smith, Lisa Vander Molen, Howard Vanderwell, and Kristen Verhulst. Cindy Holtrop and Emily Cooper were particularly close collaborators during the completion of most of these essays.

I could easily list dozens of faculty members at Calvin College and Calvin Theological Seminary as indirect contributors to this volume. I am grateful to the following for specific conversations that directly informed essays presented here: Claudia Beversluis, John Bolt, Harry Boonstra, Carl Bosma, James Bratt, John Cooper, Robert De Vries, Rebecca De Young, David Diephouse, Charles Farhadian, Ronald Feenstra, Susan Felch, Duane Kelderman, Arie Leder, Henry Luttikhuizen, Karin Maag, Richard Muller, Ronald Nydam, Neal Plantinga, Debra Rienstra, David Rylaarsdam, Quentin Schultze, Howard Slenk, Laura Smit, Pieter Tuit, and Calvin Van Reken. I am very grateful for the strong administrative support of Robert Berkhof, Gaylen Byker, Joel Carpenter, Janel Curry-Roper, Henry De Vries, Steve Evans, Shirley Hoogstra, and Tom McWhertor to the work of both the chapel program and the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, as well as of seminary administrators Gary Bekker, James De Jong, Henry De Moor, Duane Kelderman, and Neal Plantinga.

I also want to express heartfelt gratitude to Lilly Endowment Inc. and staff members Chris Coble, Craig Dykstra, and John Wimmer and to the Luce Foundation and program officer Michael Gilligan. Although this book is not a direct result of grant-funded programs or research, the relationships made possible by grants from these organizations have been enormously enriching and instructive.

I am very appreciative for the wisdom of several friends, colleagues, mentors, and collaborators in congregations, colleges, seminaries, and publishing companies in so many places. As I skimmed these essays again, so many individuals came to mind: Alison Adam, Anton Armstrong, Craig Barnes, Dorothy Bass, Robert Batastini, Tom Beaudoin, Carol Bechtel, Jeremy Begbie, John Bell, Roy Berkenbosch, Eleanor Bernstein, Barbara Boertje, Sandra Bowden, Horace Clarence Boyer, Paul Bradshaw, John Bright, Doug Brouwer, Wayne Brouwer, Timothy Brown, Philip Butin, Ron Byars, Jim Caccamo, Constance Cherry, Paul Colloton, Melva Costen, Jonathan Crutchfield, Carl Daw, Marva Dawn, Lisa De Boer, Paul Detterman, Michael Driscoll, Arlo Duba, Bill Dyrness, Randall Engle, Patricia Evans, Margot Fassler, Alfred Fedak, John Ferguson, Ted Gibboney, Justo Gonzalez, Fred Graham, Michael Hamilton, Sam Hamstra, Nathan Hatch, C. Michael Hawn, Margo Houts, Mary S. Hulst, Martin Jean, Robert Johnson, Todd Johnson, Trygve Johnson, James F. Kay, Helen Kemp, Barry Krammes, Charlotte Kroeker, Robin Leaver, Jorge Lockward, Thomas G. Long, George Marsden, Martin Marty, Nathan Mitchell, Martha Moore-Keish, Sally Morgenthaler, Richard Mouw, John Paarlberg, Alvin Plantinga, Bert Polman, Jon Pott, Robb Redman, Jack Roeda, Anthony Ruff, Lester Ruth, Don Saliers, Greg Scheer, John Schuurman, Tom Schwanda, Joachim Segger, Bryan Spinks, Carl Stam, James Steel, John Sutton, Martin Tel, Karen Westerfield Tucker, Annetta Vander Lugt, Leonard Vander Zee, Leanne Van Dyk, John Van Engen, Amy Van Gunst, Lukas Vischer, Grant Wacker, Geoffrey Wainwright, Karen Ward, Robert Webber, Paul Westermeyer, James F. White, John Wilson, Nicholas Wolterstorff, Rodney Wynkoop, and Randall Zachman. Wisdom from each of them is scattered throughout the book.

I am grateful for the interest of Baker Academic in publishing these essays and, in particular, to editors Robert N. Hosack and Melinda Van Engen for their assistance in the publication process.

I offer particular thanks to several student research assistants who contributed to aspects of these essays, including Joyce Borger, Michael Borgert, Carrie Titcombe, and David Vroege. I owe a special word of thanks to Joyce Borger for extraordinary efforts to track down elusive citations and for her very perceptive comments on nearly every essay included here.

Most significantly, I offer loving thanks to my wife, Charlotte, for so many gifts in all aspects of life. She has both directly and indirectly honed many of the ideas presented here. Her patience and persistence made our graduate school yearsduring which most of these essays were begunmore of an adventure than a burden. Far more than that, our marriage has brought, in times of both grief and happiness, a deep and abiding solidarity and joy that leaves me with unspeakable gratitude.

Each previously published essay is printed with permission of the original publisher, with minor adaptations.

Chapter 1, The Former Prophets and the Practice of Christian Worship, was published in Calvin Theological Journal 37 (2002): 8294. This paper was developed for a conference on the Former Prophets held at Calvin Theological Seminary in the summer of 2000. I am grateful to Prof. Arie Leder for the invitation to participate in this event and for his helpful comments on this paper.