Application of Biblical Worship Principles in the New Life Seventh-day Adventist Church in Nairobi

182 Pages·2017·1.15 MB·English

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DDiiggiittaall CCoommmmoonnss @@ AAnnddrreewwss UUnniivveerrssiittyy
Dissertation Projects DMin Graduate Research
2011
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ddaayy AAddvveennttiisstt CChhuurrcchh iinn NNaaiirroobbii,, KKeennyyaa
Thomas Masimba
Andrews University
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Masimba, Thomas, "Application of Biblical Worship Principles in the New Life Seventh-day Adventist
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ABSTRACT
APPLICATION OF BIBLICAL WORSHIP PRINCIPLES IN
THE NEW LIFE SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH
IN NAIROBI, KENYA
by
Thomas Masimba
Adviser: Stanley E. Patterson
ABSTRACT OF GRADUATE STUDENT RESEARCH
Project Dissertation
Andrews University
Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary
Title: APPLICATION OF BIBLICAL WORSHIP PRINCIPLES IN THE NEW LIFE
SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH IN NAIROBI, KENYA
Name of researcher: Thomas Masimba
Name and degree of faculty adviser: Stanley E. Patterson, Ph.D.
Date completed: September 2011
Problem
The New Life Seventh-day Adventist Church has practiced the traditional style of
worship since its establishment in 1986. In this style of worship, reverence is expressed
through silence, and both emotional expression and congregational response are
discouraged. Neither clapping of hands nor applauding ministers is acceptable.
Seemingly, the new generation of members has embraced the opposite. As a result, the
church is experiencing a conflict as to which style of worship should be observed.
Methods
A literature review of contemporary authors, the Bible, historical Adventist
writings, commentaries, and relevant articles concerning style of worship were examined.
A questionnaire was developed and administered to ascertain the attitude of members in
the New Life Seventh-day Adventist Church relative to traditional and contemporary
worship, and to how the conflict could be resolved in a biblical way that would enhance
church unity.
Results
The results gathered from the questionnaires that were administered in the New
Life SDA Church indicated that there was general support for contemporary worship
across age differences. Many who indicated strong or very strong support for
contemporary worship also reported satisfaction with the traditional model. Overall, 66%
of the church indicated support for the contemporary model, which leaves 34% either
neutral or favoring the traditional model, thus revealing the possibility for significant
conflict over the issue of worship style in the New Life SDA church.
Conclusions
For the New Life SDA Church to adhere to its missional purpose and maintain
church unity while understanding what the Bible speaks about true worship, there is an
urgent need for education and intervention by means of a seminar on the biblical worship
principles to establish a theological foundation for the practice of worship.
Andrews University
Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary

APPLICATION OF BIBLICAL WORSHIP PRINCIPLES IN THE NEW LIFE
SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH IN NAIROBI, KENYA
A Project Dissertation
Presented in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Doctor of Ministry

by
Thomas Masimba
September 2011
©Copyright by Thomas Masimba 2011
All Rights Reserved
APPLICATION OF BIBLICAL WORSHIP PRINCIPLES IN THE NEW LIFE

SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH IN NAIROBI, KENYA

A project dissertation
presented in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree
Doctor of Ministry

by

Thomas Masimba

APPROVAL BY THE COMMITTEE:

________________________________ _____________________________
Adviser, Director of DMin Program
Stanley E. Patterson Skip Bell

________________________________ _____________________________
James J. North, Jr. Dean, SDA Theological Seminary
Denis Fortin

________________________________ _____________________________
Larry Lichtenwalter Date approved
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF TABLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x
Chapter
I. INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Personal Life History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Life Journey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Call to the Ministry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Final Decision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Temperaments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Type of Characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Leadership Challenge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Statement of the Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Statement of the Task . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Justification of the Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Expectations From This Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Delimitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Definition of Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
II. BIBLICAL PRINCIPLES OF WORSHIP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Worship in the Old Testament . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Worship at the Beginning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Worship in the Pre-patriarchal Period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Worship and the Patriarchs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Abraham and Worship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Isaac and Worship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Jacob and Worship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Transformational Worship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Worship in the Sanctuary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
God Pre-planned Worships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
iii
Free Offering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Worship and the Consecration of Priests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Washed with Water and Linen Coats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Worship in the Holy Places . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Morning and Evening Worship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Burnt Offering Altar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Worship and the Laver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Worship and the Table of Showbread . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Worship and the Golden Candlestick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Worship and the Altar of Incense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Worship Beyond the Veil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Worship Principles in the New Testament . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366
Worship in the Synagogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366
Order of Worship in the Synagogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377
Jesus’ Worship in the Synagogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388
The Apostles’ Worship in the Synagogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
All Nations Worship in the Synagogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400
Worship in the Sanctuary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
I am That I Am . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Worship in the Early Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Order of Worship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444
Koinonia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455
Breaking of Bread . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466
Prayers in Worship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Music in Worship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
The Purpose of Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Effective Spiritual Singing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Music Enrichment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Worship in the Writings of Ellen White . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533
Grounds for Worship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533
Focus of Worship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 555
True Worshipers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Place of Worship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
The Worshiper’s Conduct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Family Worship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Music in Worship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
The Theme of Singing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Theology of Worship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Definition of Worship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
The Hebrew and Greek Meaning of Worship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
The Object of Worship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 655
Jesus as the Object of Worship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 677
The Holy Spirit as the Object of Worship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Grounds of Worship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Application of Biblical Worship Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Word of God the Standard of True Worship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 722
iv