Think of a single mother who goes to the Church or the Parish, and tells the secretary: I WANT TO BAPTIZE MY SON." And the attendant says: No, you can't, because you're not married.. Let's keep in mind that this mother had the courage to continue with a pregnancy, and...
Isn't it amazing that we are all made in God's image, and yet there is so much diversity among his people?------------------------------------------Gender-neutral version: Isn't it amazing that we are all made in God's image, and yet there is so much diversity among...
God's Word teaches a very hard, disturbing truth. Those who neglect the poor and the oppressed are really not God's people at all--no matter how frequently they practice their religious rituals or how orthodox are their creeds and confessions.
To be sure, the standard choral contribution of call to worship/anthem/response is a bit tired, and certainly unworthy of the potential of the potential of those most gifted and equipped to prompt and model worship. I dare say, in most churches where choirs are not...
Make no mistake about it: the most important musical group in the church is the congregation. Worship is for all of God’s people; the New Testament doctrine of the priesthood of all believers calls for the saints to lift up their voices (whether musically gifted or...
Fed by cries of “This is what we like” or “This is what people want,” the church has seen a rise in popularity of its own kind of musical junk food. As a result, a growing repertoire of the musical equivalent of Twinkies is contributing to the serious musical...
Many Christians are formed to think of their own private prayer life as primary and to consider Sunday worship as effective to the extent that it ignites or deepens their personal piety. In this way of thinking, the question “what did worship do for me?” is completely...
Worship, embracing both adoration and action, is nothing but the outworking of God-centeredness in the individual and corporate life of God’s people. from Worship: Adoration and Action
People today sometimes talk about Easter as if the great message is that there really is life after death after all. That’s a very modern perception, which would occur only to somebody who had been brought up with the secularist denials of life after death. If that’s...