Let me describe what Pentecost wasn't like, all right? Picture all those believers meeting together. Suddenly there's the sound of a mighty rushing wind, and it fills all the house where they were sitting. "Great! This is wonderful!" they cry. "Quick! Shut the...
For many believers--and even communities of faith--congregational song has played an important role in shaping the content of faith and in facilitating the remembering of that faith. It has been a recurring testimony that in times of sorrow, crisis, or need, assurance...
We don’t really know what happened at the moment of the Ascension, just as we don’t know exactly what happened when Jesus left the tomb in which he had been buried. We do know that he was never recognized by sight, but only by voice, or in the breaking of bread, or...
The generosity of a believer is a response to Jesus Christ and never merely a “human” virtue. The gospel is about the generosity of God: God owed us nothing, and yet out of sheer enthusiasm for us and desire of our well-being, God sent Jesus Christ… Through the...
Whenever you see someone who has to be right, you are looking at someone who is spending more time reading about God than praying to him. They have assumed that we are in a relationship with propositions instead of a Person. When we go before the God of the universe,...
Somehow, about forty percent of churchgoers seem to have picked up on the idea that “singing in church is for singers.” The truth is that “singing is for believers.” The relevant question is not “Do you have a voice?” but “Do you have a song?”
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,...
If believers worship with gladness and passion, anyone not yet a part of the community certainly will be attracted to the One who is the object of their worship. But to focus the worship on evangelistic introduction deprives believers of deeper nurturing toward Church...
“Praise” that uses only “upbeat” songs can be extremely destructive to worshipers because it denies the reality of doubts concerning God, the hiddenness of God, and the feelings of abandonment by God that cloud believers going through difficult times. I have counseled...
Christian worship is alive because, in its essence, it is a conversation between two living realities—the one true, eternal God and the body of Christ, the church. Because worship is a conversation and not a mere review of the past, it is dynamic, unpredictable, and...