Scott Aniol

Scott Aniol is the founder and Executive Director of Religious Affections Ministries. He is Chair of the Worship Ministry Department at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he teaches courses in ministry, worship, hymnology, aesthetics, culture, and philosophy. He is the author of Worship in Song: A Biblical Approach to Music and Worship, Sound Worship: A Guide to Making Musical Choices in a Noisy World, and By the Waters of Babylon: Worship in a Post-Christian Culture, and speaks around the country in churches and conferences. He is an elder in his church in Fort Worth, TX where he resides with his wife and four children.

Author Archives: Scott Aniol

Sound Worship Teacher’s Edition now available in print!

Sound Worship Teacher’s Edition now available in print!

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I am excited to announce that the Teacher’s Edition for Sound Worship: a Guide to Making Musical Choices in a Noisy World is now available in soft cover format. We’ve had this excellent resource available as a PDF download for some time now, but we’re happy to have it now in print form. The Sound Worship Teacher’s… Continue Reading

Sola Scriptura arguments should be put to rest

Sola Scriptura arguments should be put to rest

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One of the most abused doctrines in evangelical Christianity is Sola Scriptura. Everybody uses it to prove their side of some argument, and as I’ve been thinking about it lately, I’m convinced it really proves very little for anyone. Now one caveat before I move to my main point: the doctrine obviously does prove something;… Continue Reading

Conclusion to <i>Recovering Intentional Worship: Some Things to Consider Including in Your Church Service</i> by David de Bruyn

Conclusion to <i>Recovering Intentional Worship: Some Things to Consider Including in Your Church Service</i> by David de Bruyn

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Josiah may have been one of the bravest men who ever lived. Receiving the kingdom with the sword of God’ʹs impending judgment dangling over its head, Josiah set about reforming the worship of Judah with an almost frenzied diligence. He cleansed and repaired the Temple, destroyed idolatrous shrines, altars, and images, defiled the high places of idol worship (making them unusable),… Continue Reading

Introduction to <i>Recovering Intentional Worship: Some Things to Consider Including in Your Church Service</i> by David de Bruyn

Introduction to <i>Recovering Intentional Worship: Some Things to Consider Including in Your Church Service</i> by David de Bruyn

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PURCHASE THE BOOKLET ON AMAZON When your car has broken down for the umpteenth time, you ask yourself the question: do I fix it or replace it? That kind of choice confronts us with kitchen appliances that break, computer gadgets that fail, and never‑ending household repairs. Is it better (and cheaper) to fix what we have or to replace… Continue Reading

Why I don’t preach specific applications in church meetings

Why I don’t preach specific applications in church meetings

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I have strong convictions about worship philosophy. I also have strong opinions about certain applications of that philosophy. But these are not the same thing. Neither are they equally important. Philosophical convictions are judgments based on clear, biblical principles. Notice that I did not say that the convictions themselves are necessarily clear, but they are… Continue Reading

Alan Hirsch on cultural distance

Alan Hirsch on cultural distance

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I’ve been doing some reading on the missional movement, and one of their big arguments is that we live in a post-Christendom West, and therefore the barriers between the culture of the church and the culture around has grown significantly. Now there’s a whole lot of baggage with what they’re trying to prove, but I… Continue Reading

Draw Near to God Through Jesus Christ By Faith

Draw Near to God Through Jesus Christ By Faith

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This entry is part 9 of 10 in the series Worship in Hebrews You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

The theology of worship from the book of Hebrews is that Christian worship is drawing near to God through Jesus Christ by faith, and therefore it cannot be touched; not that there will be no physical involvement in earthly worship, for there is no such thing as disembodied worship. But the physical involvement or feeling is… Continue Reading

Worship that Cannot Be Touched

Worship that Cannot Be Touched

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This entry is part 10 of 10 in the series Worship in Hebrews You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

Throughout the history of the Church, Christians have always been tempted to follow after more physical, more sensory forms of worship because of a misunderstanding of this discontinuity, and this is perhaps no more true than it is in the 21st century Church. When people worship, they strongly desire to feel something; they want to… Continue Reading

Continuities between OT and NT Worship

Continuities between OT and NT Worship

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This entry is part 7 of 10 in the series Worship in Hebrews You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

What becomes apparent when studying worship in Hebrews, as exemplified by this central idea of faith, is that all of these continuities between OT and NT worship exist because they are metaphysical realities. Worship’s focus, consequences for refusing it, its attitude, and faith are all metaphysical in nature both in OT and NT worship. This… Continue Reading

Worship by Faith

Worship by Faith

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This entry is part 8 of 10 in the series Worship in Hebrews You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

Faith (πίστιϚ) stands in Hebrews as the supreme continuity between OT and NT worship since it functions as an essential link between the physical and metaphysical. The author of Hebrews defines faith as “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (11:1). Two modifiers in the author’s definition of faith reveal… Continue Reading

Jesus Christ as the Fulfillment of OT Worship

Jesus Christ as the Fulfillment of OT Worship

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This entry is part 5 of 10 in the series Worship in Hebrews You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

Significant discontinuities exist between OT and NT worship, and it is important to note that each of these cases of discontinuity stems from the author of Hebrews’ primary discontinuity, that of the physical vs. the metaphysical. Human prophets, a mediator, priests, animal sacrifices, and a Temple each represent physical realties that Hebrew worshipers could see,… Continue Reading

Worship Services for Conservative Christians [Updated]

Worship Services for Conservative Christians [Updated]

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UPDATE (5/29/11 6:24a EST): Several people have requested that I include links to the extra hymns in these services; they are linked below. Next week I am looking forward to participating in what has become an annual gathering of conservative friends. We’ve met for the past four years for mutual encouragement, instruction, discussion, and worship.… Continue Reading

The Location of Worship

The Location of Worship

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This entry is part 6 of 10 in the series Worship in Hebrews You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

Hebrews 12:18-29 is structured around a discontinuity of the location of worship, and the rest of the book reflects this emphasis. In Hebrews 12:18, Sinai stands as a representative for worship under the Law, and thus the location of this worship is first the Tabernacle and later the Temple. In contrast, worship for a Christian… Continue Reading

Physical vs. Metaphysical Worship

Physical vs. Metaphysical Worship

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This entry is part 3 of 10 in the series Worship in Hebrews You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

Hebrews 12:18-29 provide an important summary of the book’s argument concerning worship. The author’s descriptions of these two contrasting mountains are instructive and important to his argument, highlighted by the emphatic position of the negative term οὐ (“not”) in verse 18 and the strongly negative term ἀλλά (“on the contrary”) in verse 22. Lane summarizes,… Continue Reading

The Sacrifice of Worship

The Sacrifice of Worship

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This entry is part 4 of 10 in the series Worship in Hebrews You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

God required OT saints to offer sacrifices with him as means of temporary forgiveness. These sacrifices themselves were imperfect, and they did nothing to change the heart of the one offering the sacrifice. They did not provide full atonement (10:4, 11), but rather a temporary, legal satisfaction of immediate wrath.1 They could not cleanse sin, but… Continue Reading

Drawing Near to God in Worship

Drawing Near to God in Worship

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This entry is part 1 of 10 in the series Worship in Hebrews You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

Worship emerges in Hebrews as a major theme when on considers the overall structure of the book. Jones argues that two minor climaxes in the literary structure that lead to the climax of 12:18-29 reveal that the primary theme of the entire book is a call to “come near and worship.”1 The first climax is found… Continue Reading

A Distinctly Christian Worship

A Distinctly Christian Worship

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This entry is part 2 of 10 in the series Worship in Hebrews You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

Synthesizing a theology of worship in the New Testament has been a struggle for Christians since the early church. In particular, how Christ’s coming, life, death, and resurrection altered and in some cases revolutionized the worship of OT Judaism has been the subject of considerable debate, and missteps in this matter have led to various—sometimes… Continue Reading

The Ironic Inconsistency of Cultural Neutrality

The Ironic Inconsistency of Cultural Neutrality

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I read this today, and the blatant inconsistency jumped off the page. See if it does the same for you: “Thus the difference between a [belief] system driven by paganism and one driven by Christianity does not consist primarily in rightness or wrongness of many of the things that pass away [i.e. musical forms or other “cultural”… Continue Reading