Explore the vast range of titles available.

In churches today, those on the autism spectrum are often at best overlooked by neurotypical church members or at worst infantilized. Viewed as \"other,\" autistic people who feel excluded from the church community abound, and statistics show that they are less likely to attend church than others. Other autistic people do participate in worship but testify to being dismissed when asking for \"reasonable accommodations,\" and they are routinely given fewer formal roles in the liturgy. In Autism and Worship, Armand Léon van Ommen offers an in-depth analysis of the absence and ignoring of, but also the presence of, autistic people in worship. Van Ommen recounts the experiences of autistic people and considers how those experiences might reframe liturgical theology and the worship practices of the church. He identifies the \"cult of normalcy\" as the root of the marginalization of autistic people. Normalcy is boundary keeping, the protective set of dynamics that determines who belongs to the community and who is excluded. The answer to absence and ignoring is found in presence and availability, rooted in kenosis. Through the act of making himself available to humankind by becoming human, Christ participated in humanity. Believers are invited to participate in the life and prayer of Christ in turn and accordingly make themselves available to one another. The new identity in Christ redefines what is deemed normal and redefines who is \"in\" or \"out.\" Van Ommen argues that this redefinition results from a kenotic liturgical theology of availability. He illustrates this fresh vision by analyzing the Chapel of Christ Our Hope, a church in Singapore that is centered on autism and provides a paradigm for a renewal of Christian worship. Autism and Worship contributes to liturgical theology and the emerging field of autism theology as well as the practices of worshiping communities.

The Netherdutch Reformed Church of Africa (NRCA) did not escape this existential crisis of conflict. It manifests in various ways resulting in the bleeding of congregations, the exodus of congregants and the closure of congregations, as many congregants that declare themselves as members of the Church do not attend worship services or participate in the Holy Communion and exit the church. The study was conducted in the NRCA to determine the effect and response formation of observed conflict by ministers in their respective congregations. The results of the study indicate that pastors and/or ministers do suffer emotional trauma because of the conflict in the congregation which, according to their own statements results in a loss of role performance. We provide an overview of the problem statement and methodology of the study. We discuss an abbreviated, theoretical perspective on conflict as a social phenomenon. We present the findings of our study and conclude with an abbreviated process to equip pastors with the necessary emotional maturity and self-management. Contribution This study uncovers emotional trauma experienced by ministers, affecting their role performance. We offer a succinct problem statement, research methodology, and propose a scientifically informed process to enhance ministers' emotional resilience within the NRCA.

The call to care for creation is a central part of our discipleship as followers of Jesus Christ.However, language and imagery of the earth is often absent in our worship services.This book helps reconnect our commitment to creation care with our life of discipleship.

For over a century, Hong Kong Christians have sung Chinese hymns in an “out-of-tone” manner. Lyrics in traditional hymnals were translated or written to be sung in Mandarin, the national language, but most locals speak Cantonese, another Sinitic and tonal language. Singing goes “out-of-tone” when Mandarin hymns are sung in Cantonese, which often causes meaning distortions. Why did Hong Kong Christians accept this practice? How did they move from singing “out-of-tone” to creating contextualized Cantonese contemporary worship songs? What does this process reveal about the evolution of Chinese Christianity? From a Hong Kong-centered perspective, this article reconstructs the city’s hymnological development. I consider the creation of national Mandarin hymnals during Republican China as producing a nationalistic Mainland-centric and Mandarin-centric Chinese Christianity. Being on the periphery, Hong Kong Christians did not have the resources to develop their own hymns and thus continued to worship “out-of-tone”. With the decline of the old Chinese Christian center of Shanghai, the growth of Cantonese culture and Hongkonger identity, and the influence of Western pop and Christian music, local Christians began to create Cantonese contemporary worship songs. This hymnological contextualization reflects and contributes to not only the decolonization but, more importantly, the decentralization of Chinese Christianity.

Multilingual and multicultural worship can take on many models and expressions. Initially, Chinese immigration to the UK in the 1950s and 1960s led to an increased population of churches. Many Chinese church services were conducted in Cantonese, catering to the needs of first-generation immigrants, mainly from Hong Kong. Yet, the children of these older generations grew up with a bicultural hybridized identity expressed first in small English-speaking youth groups that led to English-speaking worship services within Chinese churches. Contributing to the field of worship studies through music repertoire studies over four weeks in June and July 2017 at Birmingham Chinese Evangelical Church, we raised the following questions: (1) what do the chosen worship songs represent with regards to the liturgical theology and cultural expressions of this community and (2) how is self-perception and perception of the divine expressed in the lyrical themes of these songs? Our study revealed that singing English songs from the West dominated the corporate liturgical identity of these services. Yet, through a British-born Chinese evangelical cultural reading, some lyrical themes were particularly resonant within Chinese culture, such as honor, shame, reverence, and bowing.

Worship as the heart of missional congregationalism: Children and adolescents. This article examines the role of worship services and liturgy in the faith formation of children and adolescents. The first section explores how young children's experience of God can be nurtured within a worship-like environment, as opposed to the 'teaching-and-learning' structure typically associated with 'Sunday school'. The Godly Play approach is considered as a viable and creative option. The second section addresses the faith formation of adolescents, emphasising the need for open communication between Scripture, the faith community, culture, and youth culture. This open dialogue is essential for adolescents to perceive worship services and liturgy as engaging and safe spaces that support the development and maturation of their faith. Effective communication involves both listening and speaking. Adolescents should not be confined to a passive listening role within the faith community. Their voices, language, and the way in which they experience perspectives on faith and the world can enrich the spiritual growth of all worshippers and contribute to the missional identity of the faith community as a whole. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications In this way, all worshippers, regardless of age, can be inspired to become the best person they can be and contribute to making the world a better place. A life of worship need not be limited to the church building. Young people, who have a vested interest in the future of the planet and humanity, can express their faith through acts of service and social justice; thus bridging the gap between worship and discipleship.

Church music commonly used in worship services in Indonesia tends to follow musical traditions originating from outside the local culture, particularly Western traditions. As part of society, churches have generally not made significant contributions towards contextualisation through the use of traditional music. This study employs qualitative data using a cultural and church music approach. The Gereja Kalimantan Evangelis (GKE) [Evangelical Church of Kalimantan] was chosen as the research site because it is one of the dominant Protestant churches in Central Kalimantan and has actively contributed to contextualising church music through the integration of karungut, a traditional form of orally transmitted music that functions as a cultural identity marker for the Dayak Ngaju people. Karungut rohani refers to karungut compositions specifically adapted for use in worship, intended to support and strengthen the faith of congregants. Its transformation into church music requires intentional lyric composition aligned with Christian theology, a serious performance attitude, and motivations focused on glorifying God rather than self. The process of contextualising karungut rohani in worship involves three primary groups: church leaders or pastors as policy-makers, karungut rohani artists as cultural agents and the congregation as listeners and participants. Contribution: The novelty of this study lies in the discovery of the concept, application and form of karungut rohani as church music. The contribution of this research is to serve as a reference for the contextualisation of church music and to encourage church communities to integrate traditional music with church music in worship services, so that the congregation can experience worship more deeply and meaningfully within their own cultural context. The contextualisation of worship through karungut rohani is expected to serve as a new concept or model for the development of church music and liturgy using traditional musical forms.

Abortion is a continually debated legislative issue in the United States. We aimed to assess opinions toward abortion access amongst reproductive age adult women in Georgia, a state where abortion is banned after the detection of embryonic cardiac activity (around 6 weeks). Participants were enrolled in the cross-sectional Policies and Social Stress (PASS) Study (N = 177). Sociodemographic characteristics, political orientation, religious characteristics, county of residence, and abortion views were assessed using self-reported questionnaires. Regarding abortion views, participants were asked about their opinion on the legality of abortion generally, and at 6, 14, and 24 weeks. We used logistic regression to examine whether sociodemographic factors, political orientation, religious characteristics, and county of residence were associated with odds of thinking abortion should be legal or illegal for each weeks' gestation. Most participants (84%) reported supporting the legality of abortion in all or most cases. Though, that support decreased for specific weeks' gestation (6 Weeks: 76%; 14 Weeks: 60%; 24 Weeks: 31%). Conservatives and moderates had higher odds of thinking abortion should be generally illegal compared to liberals (odds ratio [OR]=10.2, 95% confidence interval [CI]=4.1-27.3). Those who attended religious services more often and those who resided outside of the Atlanta area were more likely to believe abortion should be illegal compared to reference groups (OR=7.2, 95% CI = 3.0-17.9; OR=6.0, 95% CI = 2.5-16.3, respectively). However, the differences between groups attenuated as the weeks of pregnancy increased. In a sample of reproductive age women in Georgia, we observed that opinions regarding the legality of abortion were nuanced with regards to gestational age. Fewer participants supported abortion access after fetal viability (i.e., around 24 weeks). Further, attitudes differed mostly along political, religious, and geographic lines. While 76% of adult women in our sample supported abortion access at six weeks of pregnancy, less than one-third supported abortion at 24 weeks of pregnancy. These findings suggest that Georgia's state policy that limits abortion after six weeks' gestation does not reflect the views of the women in our sample.