Torgerson begins by discussing God's transcendence and immanence and showing how church architecture has traditionally interpreted these key concepts. He then traces the theological roots of immanence's priority from liberal theology and liturgical innovation to modern architecture. Next, Torgerson illustrates this new architecture of immanence through particular practitioners, focusing especially on the work of theologically savvy architect Edward Anders Sövik. Finally, he addresses the future of church architecture as congregations are buffeted by the twin forces of liturgical change and postmodernism.

An Architecture of Immanence will interest architects, liturgists, and all Christians who seek to read the sacred spaces of the recent past.

A probing but clearly written book, Calendar will find an appreciative audience beyond academia and clergy to the laity of the church: choirs and their directors, worship planners, adult study groups, and others who want to understand better the church's times of preparation and celebration.

Calendar centers largely on theological meaning and parish practice in relation to liturgical time. Deliberately, almost no attention is given to detailed historical development, much of which is exceedingly complex in its origins and technical in its detail. An appendix entitled "Forgetting What You Were Always Taught (Or, This Book in a Nutshell)" aptly describes the radical reordering that Stookey believes occurs when our understanding of time and the story of Jesus takes its bearings from the Incarnation. So, just as the Christian week begins with Sunday, the day of Resurrection, Stookey follows the Christian year beginning with the season of Easter, and only then Lent; Christmas, then Advent. Illuminating discussions of Ordinary and Extraordinary Time, and the Sanctoral Cycle follow.

"Plug & Chug" is the way churches have planned worship for years. You start with the same order of worship for every service, plug different hymns and readings into their respective slots, and chug right along. It makes the job of worship planner, usually done by the senior pastor, seem much easier. In a church in which the senior pastor or staff member does everything, worship needs to be cranked out lest it cause burnout.

The problem with "plug & chug" is that it leads to "bore & snore." Worship becomes routine, and the encounter with a holy and transcendent God, domesticated. If worship is to become transformative, an offering of everything we are and have to God, then the "by-the-numbers" approach to worship design must find its place in the dustbin of bad ideas. The best way to achieve dynamic, authentic worship is to take its planning out of the hands of isolated individuals or functionary committees, and locate it with groups of people who are convinced that worship is a life-or-death matter.

In this groundbreaking work, Cathy Townley demonstrates how worship teams-- comprised of diverse groups of clergy and laity, long-time Christians and new believers, core and fringe members--are transforming the practice of Christian worship throughout North America. She shows the reader how worship teams come together around a core passion for the encounter with the Holy, how they channel the chaos of multiple understandings of God into a common experience of worship, and how the worship that comes out of such teams is rapidly becoming the primary way to reach the pre-Christian population of North America.

Much more than a how-to approach, this volume offers worship leaders and teams guidance to transform the experience of worship into a life-changing time spent in the presence of God.