Tom Schwanda

Hughes Oliphant Old. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998. Vol. 1, 383 pp. $35.00; Vol. 2, 481 pp. $42.00.

We live in an image-saturated society—a reality that brings both blessings and challenges to the church. One of the benefits is the recent avalanche of videos in the area of worship, some of which are described on these pages.

This sampling is exactly that, a sampling. Rather than attempting to view all the current possibilities, I limited my selection to those recent Protestant productions that are available through the following sources:

The Larger Catechism of the Westminster Standards (1648) asks and answers a very important question in Q&A 167:

Q. How is our baptism to be improved by us?

A. The needful but much neglected duty of improving our baptism, is to be performed by us all our life long, especially in the time of temptation, and when we are present at the administration of it to others...

Paul B. Brown. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992.176 pp., $12.00.

Horton Davies. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1993. 274 pages, $18.99 (paperback).

Roger E. Van Harn. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1992.162 pages. $14.95 (hardcover).

The sermon is a most amazing and curious entity says author Van Harn, one that preachers and laypeople alike tend to have strong ideas about. But many of our perceptions of the sermon are unbib-lical and off target.

Things are not going smoothly at First Church. Everything was quite peaceful and predictable until the new pastor arrived. He hadn't been on the job for more than a few weeks before changes started creeping into the liturgy.

Craig Douglas Erickson. Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1989, 223 pp.

Many contemporary voices are seeking to make worship more appealing—a tendency that often transforms services into performances in which the congregation is entertained. The basic thrust of this book is to counter that movement. Erickson asserts that worship needs to become more participatory through the inspiration and guidance of the Holy Spirit.