Throughout its history of Mission House gatherings and Pietist hymnody, the Evangelical Covenant Church has found worship to be a central place where congregations join in doxology that cultivates vitality. Pastors are called to lead in Word and Sacrament toward this heavenly glory. This is no small calling; as Annie Dillard popularly notes in Teaching a Stone to Talk, “Does anyone have the foggiest idea of what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews.”

Readers will receive this issue at the 2007 Midwinter conference as pastors and congregational leaders gather around questions regarding pastoral competence and congregational vitality. We hope that the following pages begin (or continue) a conversation for Covenanters to expand our imaginations on worship and justice in order to move beyond programs and spectacle toward searching for and participating in shalom with the Triune God in all that we do.

In his book Welcoming the Stranger: A Public Theology of Worship and Evangelism, Dr. Patrick Keifert asks two central questions about worship: “Does it welcome?” and “does it liberate?” When worship loses its ability to respond to either of these two questions, one might wonder if God had been placed in a corner to mind God’s own business. In the current issue we attempt to center on these questions as well as our core theme: “What does worship have to do with God’s justice?” Three articles explore these questions in the areas of aesthetics, evangelism, and multiculturalism.

First, Michael Van Horn tackles the dilemma between extravagant aesthetics and Pietist utilitarianism. He writes, “If worship shapes and authenticates our actions in the world, then a holistic, fully incarnational, unapologetically creational worship should never detract from, but should rather, endorse our pursuit of justice in God’s world.” He wrestles with questions of stewardship and wastefulness, creation and beauty, and shalom and joy, challenging congregations to consider how we communicate God’s justice in a world suffering from mediocrity and “aesthetic poverty.”

Katie Martinez also asks readers to look beyond utility. She arrives at the worship conversation through the metaphor of the Pilgrim’s Door of Westminster Abbey. She invites us to move beyond the wants in worship and toward the whom in order to nurture a sanctuary where God is glorified by both active participants and unsuspecting “watchers.”

Finally, Sandra Van Opstal offers a prophetic and practical article calling us to participate in Pentecost-type worship where we deliberately extend hospitality to all, particularly those of other ethnic backgrounds and languages. The journey toward multi-ethnic and hospitable worship is difficult, yet multicultural experiences provide the potential for transformation. She challenges us to stop talking about “normal” worship in favor of welcoming the stranger through “linguistic diversity.”

Other contributors have provided images, stories, and ideas to stretch us into living justly through our worship. Let us together reflect on connecting justice to our worship life, bridging freedom and hospitality; as we engage in this process, may we reclaim the Holy Spirit who empowers us to remember the cruciform life of Jesus Christ as we sing glory and honor to our God, who is seated on the throne.

-"For God's Glory and Neighbor's Good."

Editors-in-Chief, Liz Mosbo VerHage & Kyle Small.