Make Love, Make War: Now Is the Time to Worship

By Brian Doerksen

Worship elevates us into God's presence, renews our spirits, and expresses our deepest love for our Savior. Yet worship can also be a call to arms, a battle cry, a salvo in an ancient spiritual... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1434766829
• ISBN13: 9781434766823
• Release Date: August 2009
• Publisher: David C Cook
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.4" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Unique, Thought-Provoking Look at Worship & Worship Songs

Unique. Thought-Provoking. Personal. Christ-centered. All these words come to mind when reading the new book Make Love, Make War by songwriter Brian Doerksen. Although you may not have heard his name, if you listen to contemporary worship you certainly have heard his songs such as "Come, Now Is The Time to Worship" and "Hallelujah, Your Love Makes Me Sing." Brian has given the church a wealth of wonderful songs and ministry over the past twenty years, and Make Love Make War is another creative gift. Each of the twelve chapters is structured around one of his songs. After introducing the song, he talks about the circumstances of his life that led up to the song, whether it was a wise-cracking comment to a fellow songwriter or the dark valleys of raising two special needs sons. He then digs deeper, going into the theological underpinnings of each song and how he views both the church's needs and responses to the song. He ends each chapter with a series of practical tips for songwriting based on the song as well. This book worked for me on multiple levels. First, I appreciated getting to know Brian as a person, his joys and struggles, his transparency and his love for Christ. Second, although I am not a songwriter, his descriptions of his creative process and tips resonated with my own as a devotional prose writer. But the greatest value of this book are his insights on the nature of worship in the church today. He is frank in his discussion of both what is right and what is wrong in much contemporary worship with comments such as: "When we worship, we do what Satan abandoned long ago-- and the enemy does everything he can to stop us from worshipping, because when we worship, he remembers." and... "The modern worship culture of the megachurch makes it much easier to sing the big, shiny, happy anthems. But that culture of happy appearances and upbeat performances is keeping some brokenhearted people away from churches of all sizes." Make Love Make War is must reading if you're involved in worship ministry, and it is a great read for anyone. I enjoyed this book, but more importantly I was challenged by this book. Highly recommended.

Instructional Book on the Theology & Inspiration behind Worship Songs

Doerksen offers a refreshing view of contemporary worship music and one of its leading writers and worship leaders. Doerksen writes to all Christians and especially to those involved in leading worship as musicians or ministers. He offers specific songwriting tips for musicians who write or want to write worship songs. As the title of the book indicates, Doerksen views worship as first and foremost about loving God. Secondly, he views it as a form of spiritual warefare consisting of praise and adoration of God and declaring our faith in him and hope in his kingdom. As Doerksen devotes each chapter to expounding upon a particular worship song he has authored or co-authored, he elaborates on his ideas of love and warfare in worship. He explains the origin of each song, the theology behind it, his hopes for the songs effect on worshipers and God. In explaining his songs, Doerksen shows contemporary worship music at its best. His songs and theology of worship are not all "happy clappy," self-centered, repetitive or superficial. He points to the Scripture behind his songs and where he sees them fitting into the relationship between God and church. I was immediately impressed with the depth of Doerksen's theology in the book and the fact that he draws upon not just texts often identified with worship. He embraces Biblical theology as a whole, that means he includes grief, laments, disappointments, failures and other realities of life into his worship context. Experiences from his life play a significant part in his writing, especially from his own family. He shares how he and his wife have six children, two of whom are special needs boys. He has experienced church splits, dry seasons, times of doubt, grace and mercy. He works all these into helping readers develop a genuine worship habit. This book is not self-congratulatory at all. It is not self-centered writing but effectively helps readers re-center their worship on God and engage in self-examination about worship or lack of worship. Doerksen draws upon Scripture for the basis of almost any point he makes. I think this book will help people be more honest in worship and worship more in line with the leading of the Holy Spirit. I would especially recommend this book for musicians and worship leaders. Doerksen has something helpful to say to any Christian who takes the worship of the Lord seriously.

You've Heard The Songs, Now Be Challenged By The Songwriter To Go Even Deeper

Brian Doerksen can be described as a modern-day psalmist much in the way David was back in Biblical times. Inspired by the Lord to author some of the most memorable praise and worship songs of our day like "Come, Now Is The Time To Worship," "Refiner's Fire," and "Hallelujah (You're Love Is Amazing)" among others, he certainly has his pulse on what goes into a good quality song worthy of being sung in churches worldwide. Now with his provocative new book MAKE LOVE, MAKE WAR, Doerksen shares from his heart and soul where the idea for so many of his songs came from with a behind-the-scenes look into all the intricate parts of bringing the music and lyrics together in one harmonious tune. But even more than that, he challenges you to go even deeper than the song itself to see what message God may have in store for you. Each of these chapters focuses on one of Doerksen's incredible songs and provides teachable lessons to apply to your own life. I especially enjoyed the part at the end of each chapter where he gives "songwriting tips" for the aspiring writer who wants to hone the skill of writing a good song and make it the best it can possibly be. This kind of practical tutoring from someone who has done it successfully for so many years writing for Vineyard and Integrity Music is like getting an education in magic from David Copperfield himself. This book is a MUST-HAVE for all worship leaders, songwriters, and anyone interested in learning more about what goes into creating the songs we know and love to sing at church.

Mix between a meditation on worship and Songwriter's guide

Brian Doerksen is a Canadian-born song-writer and worship leader who became deeply involved with the Vineyard Churches, and has written some of the most recognizable songs from the current "worship movement" in Evangelical Christianity. His most widely-known song is "Come, Now is the Time to Worship", but odds are if you are in a church that sings worship choruses then you have sung something he has written. Mr. Doerksen here enters the publishing arena with a book that aims to be a combination devotional, personal history, and how-to for young worship song-writers. Each chapter focussed on a specific song that he wrote - laying out the personal situation that lead to the song, the theology and scripture behind it, and what each song taught him about the nature of God. The book could be read in a number of different ways. It is a defense (theologically) of his music - which is sometimes criticized for being shallow or repetitive. It is a personal history/biography of an up-and-coming song writer. It is a guide for song writers on how to take the events of your own life and put them into music. It is a meditation on the nature of God and Jesus Christ. This split nature is both a strength and a weakness of the book. It provides a diverse reading experience, but also is distracting at times. As someone who has never written a song, for instance, the discussion of the effect of different chords on an audience was absolutely opaque. I would imagine some of the detailed discussions of theological minutiae might similarly be opaque to a teen just trying to cut his or her teeth on a simple worship chorus. But despite its weaknesses, this is a book worth reading for anyone interested in the current "worship movement" in Evangelical Christianity, or who is looking for a light devotional work to read daily as part of your Bible Study. Brian Doerksen will challenge you in a number of ways as a reader to engage your understanding of God and Jesus, and drive you deeper into the Bible and your own life to understand the grand mystery of the living God.

In tune with God

Doerksen is a popular song-writer for the Vineyard music genre. Vineyard music is not my favorite due to the repetition in the songs, but the title of this book suggested to me that the author knew something about the power of worship. Sometimes you can't judge a book by its cover; sometimes you can. In this case, the contents of the book have the same power that the title promises. The layout of the book was unusual and unexpected. Sometimes I had the feeling this was a second-rate book because I wanted a more structured layout, not chapters based on songs. But Doerksen manages to cover all aspects of worship despite the layout, leaving the reader not with a logical schema of what worship is, but rather an intuitive understanding of worship. The author writes with the emotional sensitivity about God that might be expected of a worship leader (sorry if that's an over-generalization). It works. Here's an excerpt that struck a chord (heehee, a pun) with my emotions from a chapter in which Doerksen encourages songwriters to write a few songs from God's perspective: "I am your Father... return to Me! You have spent your days in orphan living and thinking--trying to create a name for yourself, trying to create your own provision. It's time for you to return to your true family, to be adopted into the real place of belonging and provision. It's time for you to let Me call you by name and to release you into your true identity." As is obvious from that quote, this is not just an objective overview about worship, it is a call to worship; a call to intimacy and awe of God. Excellent.