It isn’t a bit surprising that you find the Psalms and even your own attempts to develop personal prayer an ‘exercise’ rather than an ‘experience.’ One has to make up one’s mind to submit to training, including the drudgery of training; nor is one’s spiritual state...
Every act of worship should be understood as part of the Church's offering to God. "Any action that does not meet with that qualification does not deserve to be a part of a worship experience." [C. Weldon Gaddy, The Gift of Worship] All the music, from prelude to...
The role of worship is foundational to the work of the church… God must be first in our private and corporate lives. If we have not placed our private and corporate relationship with God in first place, we cannot expect God to be active in our lives and church. Music...
Liturgy continually confronts us with the call to sacrifice our preoccupation with self. Because liturgy is intrinsically corporate, it resists any narrowing of the spiritual life to a private relationship between the solitary soul and God. Liturgy places God in the...
I fear that attempting to satisfy personal preferences may honor selfishness while further destroying the unity of the church. Further, I fear that gearing the “worship service” toward unbelievers who may be present will perpetuate the revivalistic confusion between...