The Holy Spirit in Worship Music, Preaching, and the Altar: Renewing Pentecostal Corporate Worship

In this first study of its kind, Dr Josh Samuel probes three key expressions of corporate worship among classical Pentecostals in North America: worship music, preaching, and the altar. Part one of the study is devoted to a historical analysis, which describes key contributions to the Pentecostal emphasis on the Spirit’s immediacy in corporate worship. Part two investigates corporate worship music, giving particular attention to Contemporary Worship Music, which has become for many Pentecostals today the accepted form of worship music. The views of three influential contemporary worship music leaders are analysed, namely, those of Brian Doerksen, Darlene Zschech, and Matt Redman. Part three examines preaching and the altar among Pentecostals. The views of two classical Pentecostal leaders, Ray H. Hughes and Charles T. Crabtree, on preaching and the altar are placed into dialogue with those of an influential Evangelical Haddon W. Robinson, in order to understand better the role of place of preaching and the altar among Pentecostals. Owing to the fact that the expectation of the Spirit’s present and direct work in corporate worship is a central theological assumption among Pentecostals, and the enormous influence patterns of Pentecostal worship have had upon corporate worship of various Christian traditions globally, this critically informed analysis and evaluation is an invaluable and timely contribution. Laity, ministers, and scholars will benefit from this historical and contemporary analysis of Pentecostal corporate worship.