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Melodie Rivera
Professor Jenna Campbell
ENC 1102-0040
25 January 2017
Worship: A Way of Life
Worship is an activity associated with religion. Christians commonly partake in this

activity. Worship is a way to express gratitude and respect towards God. It might seem like a

ritual but for the non-denominational Christian community it goes beyond that. Worship has

gone from this view of an impersonal religious act to a more personal way of life. It is reflected

through a persons everyday testimony. This can be achieved through a variety of texts and

genres. The primary text used in the literate activity of worship is the Bible. The Bible can be

read in numerous ways. It can be read in a literal account; historians usually partake in this form

of reading. For this specific literacy activity, the Bible is interpreted to fit modern time

circumstances. Other text examples include lyrics, and devotionals that are influenced by the

Bible. Everyday Christians searching for ways to enhance their worship experience with God are

both the consumers and creators. These texts help shape other participants contribution to the

literate activity of worship. Due to technological advances the sharing of worship materials has

been facilitated. Now Christians from all over the globe can communicate how God is working

in their lives and share their experiences with others. Through the use of different research

methods, I will identify the different ways in which worship texts contribute to religious

reflection, deepen religious understanding and build religious communities.

Entering the Worship discourse community is much like Stuart Greenes example of

entering a parlor (29). This conversation has been going on since man began to write about God.

According to Harry Farley the oldest Biblical texts found are roughly between 2,500-3,000 years

old. That is a very long time and it can quickly become overwhelming trying to piece the
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different arguments together. Now, after sitting for a while listening to all the different

conversations I have finally found something to say.

The focus of the Christian Worship community has been geared towards an impersonal

religious act. The weekly routine of reciting hymnals and the monotonous act of reading the

scripture. Through the years worship seems to have become a ritual done to please others, even

more so than to please God. Instead of focusing on this point of view, I would like to draw

attention to a different and more modernized view of worship. Non-denominational Christians

are a branch of Christianity that have decided to move away from the traditional sense. They see

their practice of Christianity go beyond a religion. It is establishing a personal relationship with

God. Like every other relationship, the more you love somebody the more time you spend with

them. For Christians, their love of God is constantly pushing them to get to know Him. This is

done by reading the Bible, which is also known as the Word of God. Considering this book is

thousands of years old, it can sometimes be hard to understand. Other forms of texts are

developed to assist in the reading and interpretation.

Devotionals are a form of text in the worship literacy community. They are developed

when a member of the community sits down and analyzes the bible. He then writes down

thoughts based on his understanding of the reading. From there it can remain as a personal note

or it can develop into a word for a congregation of the church. Many times, it is done to share a

word of hope and empowerment with the congregation which leads into the worship service.
During those services, and even on the participants personal time of worship, music is

generally involved. Where there is music, there are lyrics. These lyrics are different than what is

usually heard on the radio. They are still a creative outlet to express oneself, and are usually

drawn from personal experiences but the message is different. The lyrics are brought forth by

what they call encounters with God. This can be from sitting in awe of His creation to His

faithfulness in times of trouble. The lyrics retell personal stories and experiences through the
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journey of Faith which others going through similar situations can identify with and relate to.
Overall lyrics within this community are used as a form of religious reflection. This

religious reflection surpasses cultural barriers and is shared across the world. Song lyrics are

used to communicate and encourage others of the Christian faith through the different continents.

In the big picture aspect, this can be seen through the Grammy Award nominated Hillsong Young

& Free. They are an Australian worship group that has influenced the Christian community in

multiple countries. They are constantly traveling sharing their touching lyrics with thousands of

eager young adults searching for a way to get to know more of God. It might seem crazy but they

are just one example out of the many worship groups and people actively sharing their Godly

encounters with others. It helps establish religious communities, that encourage one another even

outside of the church. This goes back to the view that worship is no longer an activity, it has

become part of everyday living.

Now that there is enough background evidence to understand the topic it is time to discuss

the research. When looking at the texts presented above, some questions arise concerning the

creation of such texts. What experiences do these writers use to make their texts emotionally

evoking? What leads to a successful worship text? How can these texts surpass cultural barriers?
Taking into consideration the fact that worship in the sense being studied is a personal

experience, the research methods of observational study, interviews and textual analysis will be

the most helpful when searching for answers to the proposed questions.
When conducting research, there are certain guidelines one must follow. These rules and

regulations will all be covered in the CITI training. The research process will begin by taking a

sample population of five people. These five people will be non-denominational Christians who

actively participate in Worship. Going into detail about the five research participants there will

be a variety of backgrounds. There will be a worship and arts pastor, a general pastor, a Christian

artist, a writer and an eager young adult. Within this pool of people there are different levels of
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experience. This will be useful in understanding the different impacts of worship texts.
The five participants will each be observed while in the creating process of their personal

worship text. An observation how the worship texts are produced will give insight into what is

done during the creation process. While taking notes, and observing the different techniques an

interview will also be conducted. Interviews are a way to collect personal accounts and the

different perspectives on the influence of worship texts. The questions will be along the lines of

their inspiration and understanding of the Bible. Other questions will be geared towards their

personal views on the worship community. Everyone of their comments will be taken into

account. The last question will be consent to textually analyze what was produced. Through a

textual analysis the different rhetorical strategies used can be identified. The reader is the one

who adds meaning to a text and by personally experiencing it out one can effectively contribute

to the discourse community.

With this broad topic of worship, it can be hard to contribute to a conversation that has

been going on for thousands of years. However, through Stuart Greenes process of framing one

can take a lens and narrow down the conversation. Using this strategy as a positive constraint,

narrowing the topic to the impact of worship texts on the non-denominational Christian

community. This is a challenge considering worship has been seen as an impersonal religious

ritual done merely to follow traditions. That has already been established, so my focus will be to

draw attention away from that point of view and introduce a new perspective on worship.

Worship has gone past religious acts and is now considered more of a way of life. This can be

seen through different acts of service both inside and outside the church. There are thousands of

people who share this perspective and it would be time consuming to get feedback from each

person, that is why the research will be conducted with a population sample of five people. This

will assist in lowering the intensity of the necessary research conducted. Through the research
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process of observational studies, interviews and textual analysis I hope to show the impact of

worship texts on religious reflection, deepen religious understanding and build religious

communities.
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Work Cited
Greene, Stuart. Argument as Conversation: The Role of Inquiry in Writing a Researched

Argument. Writing About Writing, edited by, Elizabeth Wardle, Doug Downs,

2014, pp. 27-39.

Farley, Harry. How Old Is the Bible? Christian Today, 19 Apr. 2016,
http://www.christiantoday.com/acrticle/how.old.is.the.bible/84327.htm. Accessed 26 Jan.

2017.