From the Editor: "We're not exploring worship renewal"

by Herbert Tsang

Herbert Tsang, Ph.D. (Sigma, DWS candidate) is a gifted and hardworking kingdom servant, who is impacting the Chinese church in Canada and beyond. He is the music director and conductor of Sinfonia Mosaic and the Port Moody Pacific Grace MB Church Worship Choir, and serves as Dean of the Chinese Christian Church Music Institute for Worship (Canada). Herbert is busy as a guest conductor, lecturer and clinician, and is a published author and composer. Check out his Web site.

Canada is a country that is proud of being a multi-cultural society. According to the 2006 census by Statistics Canada, 31 million people called Canada their home with visible minorities making up 16% of the total population. South Asians became Canada's largest visible minority group in 2006, surpassing Chinese who had accounted for 24% of the visible minority population and 3.9% of the total Canadian population (approximately 1.2 million).

I have been living in Vancouver, British Columbia for over ten years. The Chinese community here is vibrant with the majority of the people coming from mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. On any given Sunday morning in any Chinese church, you may expect to be presented with more than one worship service that share these three characteristics: 1) a minimum of two different languages being spoken (often three, Cantonese, Mandarin and English), 2) the blurred distinction of denominational characteristics, and 3) the English service almost exclusively attended by the younger generation.  These “characteristics” are due to the influx of Chinese Christians coming from different denominations and joining together to worship.  Among these worshippers there are also many newly converted Christians. The lack of inter-generational worship services is due to the language barrier. As a result, the English service is almost exclusively attended by the second generation CBC (Canadian Born Chinese).

In most Chinese Canadian churches the highest priority has been managing the tension that results from the complexity stated above.  Therefore, I felt the need to deepen my understanding of worship and be a better worshipper.  For that reason, I pursued studies in church music, theology, and recently I started the doctoral program at IWS.  After completion of the IWS program, it is my goal to serve the Chinese church community by introducing the biblical, historical, theological, spiritual, and cultural aspects of worship, and to promote and facilitate worship renewal.

X Return to top X

On February 19, 2008, the Commission on Accreditation of the Association for Biblical Higher Education (ABHE) granted IWS Candidate Status, commending the Institute for its “progress and innovation.”

Candidate Status grants the Institute membership in the association, and also provides pre-accredited status. Pre-accredited status is granted by the ABHE to institutions that meet its Conditions of Eligibility, and provide a basis for achieving accreditation status within four years.

President Jim Hart commented, “This is a significant and critical step for the Institute.  It represents an outside independent organization’s affirmation of the quality of an IWS education, and its integrity in carrying out its mission and goals." (Click here to read more).

 X Return to top X

X Return to top X

Janie Blough, MWS (Beth 2006, DWS candidate)

Perry Chow, DWS (Theta, 2007)

Perry has accepted a visiting faculty member position at two Chinese seminaries in the San Francisco area (Christian Witness Theological Seminary and American Chinese Evangelical Seminary) where he will teach worship courses for Chinese worship leaders. Also, after serving as pastor at the Boston Chinese Evangelical Church for 11 years, God clearly led him to a new church. He has recently moved back to Hong Kong to serve as Senior Pastor at the ShauKeiWan Swatow Baptist Church.  Perry is pictured here with his wife Peggy at the 2007 IWS Commencement.

Bill Davis, DWS (Lambda, 2007)

Along with his work as Minister of Music at Thomas Road Baptist Church in Tallahassee, Bill is teaching the course Worship Alive! at the Center for Biblical Studies in Tallahassee.  Bill writes, “The [content] is basically the DWS program crammed into one course!  I am also establishing a summer worship arts camp for children in south Alabama, north Florida and Southwest Georgia to be held at The Vineyard near Dothan, Alabama this June 9-13. It will feature the premiere of the musical Makin’ Room by Dennis and Nan Allen.  The camp will also include drama, painting as a worship art, video production, stomp, and more.  The goals of the camp are to assist in igniting a passion for worship in campers and faculty, and to develop talents that can be employed for worship over a lifetime."

Larry Ellis, MWS (Beth, 2005), DWS (Nu, 2008)

This past March Larry and his wife Jill, and Laura Ritter (IWS Registrar) enjoyed a trip to the Holy Land.  Jerry Borchert, who has led numerous trips to the region, organized the tour but was unable to lead the group due to a severe eye infection. Larry shared, "We were part of a 25-member group that went on an extensive tour of the Holy Land.  We were able to have a closing service together at the traditional site of Jesus’ tomb (one of the two claimed in Jerusalem). I was privileged to be the celebrant at the Eucharist at the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem on Friday, March 14, 2008.  While from varied backgrounds, we all received the Eucharist using the Rite II Liturgy from the Book of Common Prayer. To see and experience the many sites that are discussed in the Bible was truly life-changing for us all."  Click on the photo thumbnails below to see larger pictures.

David Leetsma, DWS (Zeta, 2005)

As of February 1, Dave began serving as Executive Pastor at Grace Presbyterian Church, Houston, Texas. His son-in-law, Brian Mann, is the Worship Director.  Click here for his new contact info.

Dan Perrin, DWS (Beta, 2002)

Dan lead a team to Spain last November where he taught sessions on worship.  Click here to read Dan's ministry report of the trip.  His current project is Generations, a musical production Dan wrote to reach Jewish audiences.  The production premiered the last weekend in April at Cedar Park Church in Bothell, WA  where he serves as Pastor of Choir and Productions.  He takes the production to Jerusalem and Tel Aviv in October.

X Return to top X  

Five new books by members of the IWS community have recently been published or are soon to be released.

Eric Bolger. Journey into Intercession: A Practical Exploration of What the Bible Says About Intercessory Prayer. www.lulu.com, 2007.  (See the Faculty Column above).

Gerald Borchert. Worship In The New Testament: Divine Mystery and Human Response. Chalice Press, (June 30, 2008).

Editorial Review: Gerald Borchert provides a unique survey of the New Testament by centering on its understanding, teaching, language, and reflections of worship. He seeks to show how worship language and action lie behind much of the New Testament and how the modern church can gain a new power in worship through renewed reflection on the New Testament. The author invites the reader to enter into the worship discussion and find ways to give depth, meaning, and hope to personal and congregational worship. At each step, Borchert underlines the deep connection between worship and life.

Brian Walrath (DWS 2002) and Robert Wood. The Message in the Music: Studying Contemporary Praise and Worship. Abingdon Press, 2007. 

The book addresses the textual and musical quality of praise and worship music.  Brian explains, “We examined the top 25 songs from the past 15 years of this genre in what we believe to be the first detailed, objective study of this worship music.” Jim Hart writes in the introduction, "This book provides an excellent framework for examining the theological and artistic content and impact of contemporary worship music. Contained herein are helpful, revealing, and at times sobering analyses.  It is an essential read for all those concerned with worship in today's church, and an important catalyst for future dialogue."

Robert Webber. Ancient-Future Worship: Proclaiming and Enacting Gods Narrative. Baker Books, 2008.

Back Cover: God has a story. Worship does God's story. There is a crisis of worship today. The problem goes beyond matters of style--it is a crisis of content and of form. Worship in churches today is too often dead and dry, or busy and self-involved. Robert Webber attributes these problems to a loss of vision of God and of God's narrative in past, present, and future history. As he examines worship practices of Old Testament Israel and the early church, Webber uncovers ancient principles and practices that can reinvigorate our worship today and into the future. The final volume in Webber's acclaimed Ancient-Future series, Ancient-Future Worship is the culmination of a lifetime of study and reflection on Christian worship. Here is an urgent call to recover a vigorous, God-glorifying, transformative worship through the enactment and proclamation of God's glorious story. The road to the future, argues Webber, runs through the past.

Robert Webber. Who Gets to Narrate the World?: Contending for the Christian Story in an Age of Rivals. IVP Books, (May 30, 2008).  

Editorial Overview: Who gets to narrate the world? The late Robert Webber believed this question to be the most pressing issue of our time. Christianity in America, he preached, will not survive if Christians are not rooted in and informed by the uniquely Christian story that is the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is the burden of Webber's final book. Convinced that American evangelicals are facing the demise of their entire way of life and faith, Webber challenges his readers to rise up and engage both the external and internal challenges confronting them today. This means that Christians must repent of their cultural accommodation and reclaim the unique story, the Christian story, that God has given them both to proclaim and to live.

Bob's books are available at a discounted rate through ancientfutureworship.com.  For fast service you may call Sheryl Watkins at 630-510-8905.

X Return to top X