Which style of music pleases God the most? This basic question has generated innumerable different answers from sincere Christians. In the first 800 years after Christ, most worship music was simply unison melody. One day someone added a second part, and harmony...
It’s not wrong to use songs that people in our community relate to stylistically or culturally. Neither is it “more spiritual” to use styles that are inaccessible or foreign to guests. The best approach is to use a diversity of styles that reflect an appreciation and...
To sing worship music from more than one generation is, in part, to communicate our larger identity as the people of God. We hail from many backgrounds, families, races, and tastes, but now we are joined together through the blood of Jesus Christ, who has reconciled...
When someone insists that we should only use the best music in worship, I scratch my head. Is the best music simple or complex? Written or spontaneous? Short or long? Do they mean the best aesthetically, pragmatically, emotionally, or historically? We usually have in...
God supports diversity in our worship, not imply for the sake of including everyone, but so that we might understand and experience the truth more profoundly.
The ultimate challenge of worship in spirit and truth—worship that pleases God—is not “How do I make a church meeting God-centered?’ but “How do I make my life God-centered?”
Years ago, I was in England at a large Christian conference. During one seminar, we were led in corporate worship by a guitarist whom I thought was average in every respect. As he finished what I would describe as a sorry time of worship in song, the elderly gentleman...
Only one thing really matters at a wedding: two people getting married. How sad it would be for someone to sit in wedding after wedding, critiquing the form, the style, and the appearance of the couples, yet never rejoicing in, never celebrating the mystery of a man...