All the above can be boiled down into a three-part artistic dilemma that has faced the church for centuries. First, if art is beautiful, it has to be used whether it is effective or not. This is the idol of quality. Second, if art is effective, it must be used,...
Whether rich or poor, male or female…our stories are all stories of searching. We search for a good self to be and for good work to do. We search to become human in a world that tempts us always to be less than human or looks to us to be more. We search to love and to...
Is there no real difference between worship and entertainment? I believe there is a world of difference, even though I have some inkling as to why today’s culture has confused the two… ENTERTAINMENT typically results from the WORK OF OTHERS, for my interest, pleasure,...
To worship is to quicken the conscience of the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, to devote the will to the purpose of God. All this is gathered up in that...
And if we will have an angel at the tomb, make it a real angel, weighty with Max Planck’s quanta, vivid with hair, opaque in the dawn light, robed in real linen spun on a definite loom.Let us not seek to make it less monstrous, for our own convenience, our own sense...
O Holy and Haunting Presence whose spirit moves quietly but surely in the sound and fury of the world and of my life, you know me as rushing water knows the rock and releases its beauty to reflect new light. from Guerillas of Grace
The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead, a snuffed-out...
Suffering is increasing in the world today. People are hungry for something more beautiful, for something greater than people ‘round can give. There is a great hunger for God in the world today. Everywhere there is much suffering, but there is also great hunger for...
People are like stained glass windows: They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light within.
Worship is a gift, a gift from God that allows us to achieve our full potential as persons, and a gift to God that acknowledges God as Creator and Redeemer. Without gifts at its center, worship does not occur. God’s people gather for worship not so much to receive a...