Our checkbooks are probably our best theological statement about our real values. Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21)
00949 – Our Checkbooks Indicate our Real Values
read more
00927 – Church Musicians are Spiritual Dieticians
Music has the uncanny ability to burrow its way into our spiritual bones. When it comes to matters of spirituality and faith, we are what we sing. There is no need to overstate the case. Music is not all-powerful. Many things shape our souls, including our parents’...
00910 – Music: A Gift of God
I wish to see all arts, principally music, in the service of Him who gave and created them. Music is a fair and glorious gift of God. I would not for the world forego my humble share of music. Singers are never sorrowful, but are merry, and smile through their...
00901 – Training the Congregation
Wisdom will be needed to encourage a congregation to be united over the music it uses. One result of the power of music is that people become deeply wedded to their personal preferences and find it difficult to recognize that the style of music is almost always a...
00886 – Worship Expresses a Congregation’s Deepest Theological Beliefs
Good church musicians constantly ask whether the “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs” of the church’s worship are sung “so that the Word of God may dwell in us richly” (the forgotten purpose clause of Col. 3:16). Good liturgical musicians worry about the link between...
00879 – Excellent Sacred Music: an Oxymoron?
“I will sing with the mind and also the spirit.” (I Cor. 14:15) Music engages both emotion and intellect, so directors should clearly enable their singers to sing with intelligence, expression and faith. Complex and overly challenging music could stand in the way of...
00877 – Correct Music vs. Popular Music
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...
00874 – The Emotional Power of Music
The use of music as an expression of emotion linked to theological truth is common in all churches. In the evangelical traditions where personal religious experience is emphasized, emotional expression is one of music’s most important meanings; it is probably that...
00866 – Paying Attention to How Music “Feels”
As many philosophers and theologians have observed, music is close to “spirit”—a non-material medium of receiving and conveying a sense of the world. In our deepest attentiveness and encounters with certain forms of music, we are opened to a depth of awareness; a...
00863 – Church Music is Theological Expression
I believe we should consider church music basically to be THEOLOGICAL expression—part of the dialogue between God and worshipers. With few exceptions, music in worship is coupled with important words. For this reason, we should choose literature—for instance, hymns...