The New Pastor's Guide to Leading Worship

Good tools.

Only thing on there was the sticker on the back which came off very easily.

Very big help for a pastor called to their first church or for a pastor changing churches.

This is a great resource book to use in following the guide lines of worship for all of us. We learn by imitating.

Excellent resource guide. Highly recommended to all pastors no matter your years of service. This title will be a blessing on you shelf.

Thank you

Finally, all those who teach worship in the seminary setting have the book we need to fill out our first semester syllabi. It bridges the well-known gap between the liturgical studies and the lived reality of the new worship leader in the local congregation. It is a book of well-earned wisdom, covering the realities that all new worship leaders will face: how to arrange the order of service, how to anticipate and negotiate mistakes and disputes, and how to gradually lead a congregation into shared worship ministry. Barbara Day Miller's prose is direct and accessible, especially because of her adoption of the second person. It is ideal for beginning seminary courses, course-of-study programs, and other ministry training programs, and I will certainly use it in my classes.As a layperson who leads worship, I am sorry that the book adopts the assumption that those reading this book will have felt the "call to pastoral ministry" (9). It is certainly not my experience that all those who are given the opportunity to lead worship feel so called or identify with the pastoral role. This is particularly true in smaller congregation where lay leadership is common and among some seminary students (many of whom are not training to be clergy) who are sent out to lead worship in small local churches. The book makes other assumptions that reflect Miller's residence in the post-Vatican 2 liturgical renewal movement, for example, that worship will follow (official) mainstream denominational patterns such has organizing itself under the four movements of gathering, hearing, thanksgiving and communion, and going forth. Similar assumptions are present in the short chapters on Communion and Baptism. The difficulty here is that many new worship leaders come to churches where practices are idiosyncratic (to put it mildly) and the elements of worship are all over the map. Certainly in congregational-polity churches the patterns can vary even more widely without any felt obligation to make them conform. There is no wisdom here about what the new leader should do with widespread practice of the "children's moment," which are burdened by great expectations and hidden minefields. Nor is there any real mention of emerging church or contemporary worship patterns that are influencing local church worship, even in more traditional congregations. Of course, addressing all of these issues would have complicated the book and perhaps made it less useful for its intended audience in the mainstream churches.These shortcomings are mitigated by chapter 3 which enjoins the leader to pay attention to local practices: "Rituals: 'The Way we Do it Here;" by good chapters on leading worship change in a congregation; and by wise words about good leadership style. Two Appendices direct the reader to internet and book resources that broaden its focus. In sum, this useful book will help countless newcomers to the ministry of worship leadership.