Worship And Related Ministries Among The Churches

In this section we find that across the panorama of churches and denominations in North America, one encounters great variation in the degree to which the worship life of the local congregation is integrated with other ministries such as evangelism, Christian education, social outreach and witness, spiritual formation of members, pastoral care, women's issues, and children's ministries. Some Christian groups have historically sought to develop the relationship of worship to a wide spectrum of other church concerns; for other groups, this is a fairly recent effort. In some traditions, the worship service itself has been driven primarily by other emphases such as evangelism or education. In others, the worship tradition itself has been dominant in the shaping of local church life, so that all other ministries serve the liturgy. This chapter presents a discussion of worship and related ministries from the standpoint of most of the major Christian traditions and denominations found in Nort…