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David Bjorlin

Assistant Professor of Worship

Dr. David Bjorlin prepares his students for lives of significance and service by guiding and equipping them with practical skills centered around worship. “I believe what and how we worship forms the people we are and the way we interact with the world,” he says. As the assistant chapel coordinator at North Park and the pastor of worship and creative arts at the Resurrection Covenant Church, Bjorlin incorporates his experiences into the classroom by combining theory, practice, and reflection.

Framing his classes through a city-centered lens, Bjorlin emphasizes that to understand worship, one must first understand location. He aims to teach students the importance of learning what it means to be a Christian living in a particular city surrounded by different cultures. Bjorlin says, “I love working at a school in the diverse heart of a beautiful and complex city like Chicago.”

Publications

Michelle Clifton-Soderstrom and David Bjorlin, Incorporating Children in Worship: Mark of the Kingdom (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2014).

“Standard Idioms in Canada, New Zealand, and Australia,” in A Legacy of Hymnists: Historical and Theological Introductions (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books).

“Songs of the Kingdom: A Reappraisal of Social Gospel Hymnody,” The Hymn 65, no. 3 (Summer 2014): 18-25.

“Stuck in the Middle: The Role of Sunday School Hymnals in the Hymnody of the Methodist Episcopal Church,” Methodist History 52, no 3 (April 2014): 132-47.

D. Brent Laytham and David Bjorlin, “Worship and Ethics: A Select Bibliography,” Studia Liturgica 43, no 1 (2013): 169-88.

“This Is Our Story: Re-centering Worship on the Dramatic Story of God,” Covenant Quarterly 71, no. 1-2 (February/May 2013): 29-41.

“The Courage to Lament: An Analysis of Mainline Hymnody,” Liturgy: The Journal of the Liturgical Conference 27, no. 1 (Jan-March 2012): 28-37.