What is the purpose of a choir? It's not to perform difficult music before a silent and intimidated (or irritated) congregation. It's not there to impress the faithful. It's there to encourage the faithful to find their voices to praise God in his holiness. It is...
Composers know how to use harmony and melody like a net to catch beauty's colors and radiance. And when we like what we hear, we open our pores to take in more--just as we close them against what seems ugly or offensive. Isn't that why we remember so vividly the hours...
Nor is it adequate in certain cases to blame God’s lack of response to our prayers on a higher will for us that, for now, requires a no. No doubt what sometimes appears to us an evil is the very explosion necessary to blast us awake to the destructiveness of our...
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...
Worship often includes words and actions, but it goes beyond them to the FOCUS of the mind and heart. Worship is the God-centered focus and response of the inner man; it is being preoccupied with God. So no matter what you are saying or singing or doing at any moment,...
Since worship is focusing on and responding to God, regardless of what else we are doing we are not worshiping if we are not thinking about God. You may be listening to a sermon, but without thinking of how God’s truth applies to your life and affects your...
God is not Western; God is not Eastern; God is not exclusively the God of classical culture or primitive culture; God is the Lord of the plethora, the God of the diverse, the redeemer of the plural. Likewise, God calls for response in different languages, dialects,...
True Worship is not a peculiar practice in a particular place. True worship is the whole person saying, “Yes, Lord” in response to the self-revelation of God in Jesus Christ. from Hearts on Pilgrimage
Be careful that your people do not become so accustomed to getting a “praise high” when they come to church that a service seems empty if they do not experience it. Many today hop from group to group, from church to church, looking for higher highs. The tragedy is...
Worship, in all its grades and kinds, is the response of the creature to the Eternal; nor need we limit this definition to the human sphere. There is a sense in which we may think of the whole life of the Universe, seen and unseen, conscious and unconscious, as an act...