Beware of Dissing the Preacher
As I read through sermons by the great Reformer Martin Luther, I got stuck on a sermon from Luke 2:41-52. Was I concluding that Luther preached a good sermon but did not preach the text?
Welcome! From projection screens to professions of faith, from sacraments to song selections this is where worship teams and planners can connect with others about all aspects of worship.
As I read through sermons by the great Reformer Martin Luther, I got stuck on a sermon from Luke 2:41-52. Was I concluding that Luther preached a good sermon but did not preach the text?
If you have been called out by your congregation to plan the Sunday service, you know that, sooner than later, you must decide on a skeleton or order for the liturgy.
If every congregation has a liturgy and every congregation has liturgists, doesn’t it make sense to prepare individuals to serve as liturgists?
It didn’t take me long to determine that my repertoire doesn’t include a song with lyrics like those written by God in Deuteronomy 32 – and then to ask, “What is God trying to teach me?”
Why do most pastors prepare their sermons and most worship leaders prepare their songs, but some of those same individuals choose to wing their prayers?
When congregations gather on holidays so many good things happen.
Space may exhilarate and space may dishearten. How does your gathering space speak to those who enter into it?
Perhaps you have heard this all-too familiar mantra: Life is worship! I wonder, however, if we can hit the pause button to reflect on the premise that worship includes everything we do.
We may answer that question in two ways. A prescriptive answer offers essential connections between Reformed theology and Reformed worship. A descriptive answer assumes that Reformed worship is worship by Reformed people.
During the last few decades the Worship Pastor or Director of Worship or Worship Leader has become a very important position within the ministry team of a local congregation. In response, a number of worship schools have popped up around the nation...
While few of us spend much time in the Old Testament book of Leviticus, when we do we discover an exciting truth: our God loves to party.
It was exciting to conduct research ‘on the ground’ of Evangelical church culture. It will be exciting to watch new classes of students build on this body of research...
As worship leaders and volunteers, rehearsal is important. Yet, there's one crucial part of the preparation for worship: taking the time to center down and have God prepare our hearts for worship.
Little attention has been given to the role of the sermon. Yet, according to a recent survey, the sermon is the focal point of the Sunday service. Here’s the backstory to that research.
When we promote multicultural or multiethnic worship, I suggest a different approach, one which affirms the default musical (even liturgical) style of a congregation, while exploring the boundaries of that style.
With the great diversity of worship practices in American Protestantism, it’s more and more difficult to share meaningful conversations about worship without an agreed upon taxonomy.
The question here is, “What message are we sending to a congregation when we only sing songs written by white men?” What message are we sending to those who are not WASP males? When I take time to ask those questions of those who are not like me, I learn that such a practice hinders the goal of becoming a multi-ethnic church by suggesting that...
Have you ever left a service and asked, “Did we worship the Lord or just sing a few songs? It’s a simple question, one built on a simple understanding of worship...