Called to Worship – a Review
Vernon M Whatley, who is the Director of the Center for Worship for Liberty Univeristy has written a very thorough book on worship: Called to Worship.
Here’s all you need to know…. I received my copy of Called to Worship back to review back in the early part of the summer. I started it but set it aside as I got bored and keep trying go back if only so i could review it and get another book to review. It’s not that it was bad. In fact i enjoyed his first chapter on Creation and intial call to worship. But after a while it felt like I was sitting in a Sunday school class in the South.
I stopped at the lessons from Saul when Whatley started to preach:
“Yet people try constantly. ‘Oh I’m a Christian,’ they say. Every weekend, they’re in God’s house, singing enthusiastically along with the worship leader, perhaps raising their hands, or shouting hallelujah. Like Saul, they are making a show of worship. But then these same ‘worshippers’ go home and worship at the feet of internet pornography or sex-filled romance novels. their TV viewing is uncensored; the movies they watch, abhorrent. Their speech is laced with profanity – and gossip. Alchol hides in their cupboards; lust and evil lurk in their hearts. They are worshippers, all right but of whom/ Themselves. They are certainly not worshipping God, because they are endeavoring to worship above the law, and that’s idolatry.”
Perhaps he should have added… “Lord I thank you I am not like those sinners.”
So the book is not bad. I am sure Dr. Whatley is well meaning and many will benefit from this biblical overview. Just not what I enjoy or what draws me into worship. I tend to be drawn to God by authors who are vulnerable and put themselves in the place of one seeking and not having all the answers.
Save your money.
