Influences outside North America will have a large impact on how Christians will worship in the future, a prolific author and seminary president said at the John A. Hamrick Lectureship held Jan. 18-19 at First Baptist Church of Charleston.

David Dockery, president of Trinity International University in Chicago and former president of Union University in Tennessee, traced the major changes in worship over the last 2,000 years and anticipated future changes as shifts in the Christian community are unfolding.

He said few Baptist churches still have the formal worship style practiced at First Baptist Church of Charleston and that guitars, drums and pianos have replaced organs in most churches. The Pentecostals have had major sway in recent years, he said, but the future will be shaped by religious forces outside North America, especially Latin America, Asia and Africa. Secularism is outpacing Christianity three to one in North America, Dockery said.

He suggested that the church needs to refocus on the worship of God as its major function and that there needs to be an emphasis on the reading of Scripture and enlightened preaching. “The head is neglected in much of contemporary worship, where emotion is the major component,” Dockery said. “That needs to change in favor of a more balanced approach.

“Worshipers need to prepare for worship. Denominationalism as we know it is giving way to other types of structure and is becoming less and less important. The type of revivalism demonstrated by Billy Graham will no longer be effective, even though Dr. Graham is my personal hero.”

Dockery was introduced by Don Gardner and Doug Hunter, executive director of the Whitfield Center for Christian Leadership at Charleston Southern University. David Templeton, minister of music and worship at First Baptist Church, provided special music.

The lectures honor the memory of longtime pastor and founding president of what is now Charleston Southern University, John A. Hamrick.