Poetry In Worship

Source: The Complete Library of Christian Worship, Robert E. Webber, General Editor

More than any other type of literature, poetry pays attention to the aesthetic qualities of words. As a result, poems can compress worlds of meaning into a mere few words or lines. Poems convey ideas, images, and narratives in ways that can hardly be forgotten. Poems can paint vibrant word-pictures of even abstract images and mysteries. And poems can stimulate the imagination and convey emotion to an extent that can not be achieved by other forms of verbal language. Given this potential for...

Hymns As Poetry In Worship

The most common use of poetry in worship is the singing of poems as hymns. Despite their common use, however, hymn texts are rarely thought of in terms of their poetic qualities. Yet hymn writers are among the finest wordsmiths the church has known. Appreciating their art enriches the experience of all who sing.

Using Poetry In Worship

As a highly compact form of speech capable of stimulating the imagination, poetry can be effectively used in almost any of the various dimensions or acts of public worship. This article catalogues a variety of ways that poetry can be used in worship and gives guidelines to worship planners for selecting poems and readers.