The Failure of Church Worship
The Failure of Church Worship A Worship Leader leads worship. A Worship Director directs worship. A Worship Producer produces worship. As a Pastor, I haven’t found any of the above terms helpful in describing what I do. The “care-of-souls-function” of worship, implies a broader range of nuanced activity than lead, direct, produce, design, or even do. As a Pastor, my role includes encouraging, equipping, teaching,...
David as a Worship Leader
The convergence of these two activities, leadership and worship, occurred quite naturally in the life of King David. David’s example as a worship leader has much to offer to those who minister in similar roles today. The Psalms especially provide insight on David’s approach to the worship of God. For our purposes, Psalm 62 may be effectively mined as a case study in worship leadership with the use of a little imagination.1 For...
The Enduring Appeal of C.S. Lewis
Not long ago, a friend sent me an article by the late Dr. Chris Mitchell of Wheaton College, a leading scholar on C.S. Lewis. In it, Dr. Mitchell asks why Lewis’ embers still blaze hot more than half a century after his death on November 22, 1963, the same day that JFK was assassinated. It’s a question that resonates with me because Lewis so thoroughly engages my imagination. I want to put everything he’s written on stage. The best...
‘Look Along’ a Baby to Celebrate Advent
Babies’ are innocent and cuddly, yet they can have the most unsettling cry. Maybe this is what causes the Psalmist in Psalm 8 to say: Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger. Even in this verse it implies that there’s a mastery, both in purity and in gusto that makes babies so calm and composed, but yet warrior like in their threat...
Rejection
Every artist faces rejection. For writers it’s usually at the hands of an agent, editor, critique group, beta reader, or terrible Amazon review. To be clear, rejection is not the same as helpful suggestions or critiques (like ways to strengthen underdeveloped characters, plot holes, the dreaded sagging middle, etc). Rejection is a flat out dismissal of a writer’s ideas, work or abilities. Although some writers are able to...
Last Chance to Give the Book of Romans for Christmas
Cody Curtis was kind enough to join us for a podcast interview that has aired on WMC and GCP’s podcast in November 2016. His group Psallos has been gracious enough to allow us a chance to give you a sample of his music over the ensuing weeks. Please, if you’re looking for Christmas gifts, CLICK HERE and give away the whole Book of Romans in musical form to your friends and family this Advent season....
Singing Lies
Back in September of 2006, I was listening to Jason Upton teach on worship at the Lifelight Music Festival in Sioux Falls. He said something that day that has inspired The Psalms Project concept ever since: “Bono (of U2 fame) once said, ‘I don’t listen to Gospel music because it isn’t honest. That’s why I listen to Nine Inch Nails.’” After clarifying the fact that he didn’t necessarily agree with Bono’s solution to the lack of honesty...
The Book of Romans | More Free Music
Cody Curtis was kind enough to join us for a podcast interview that has aired on WMC and GCP’s podcast in November 2016. His group Psallos has been gracious enough to allow us a chance to give you a sample of his music over the ensuing weeks. Please, if you’re looking for Christmas gifts, CLICK HERE and give away the whole Book of Romans in musical form to your friends and family this Advent season....
The Church Year: Redeeming Time and Ordering Worship
The Advent Season is officially upon us and the marker that begins the historical “Christian year.” The Christian year or church year is a way Christian worship tells God’s story. Over the course of several centuries, the Christian church has ordered worship according to cycles of time by developing a church year or a liturgical calendar. The expression church year refers to the regular sequence of days,...
The Creative Process
Every one of us is filled with imagination, creativity, and ingenious ability. We need to recognize this about ourselves because it is foundational to who we are as humans, and, the fact is, everything we do and think is connected to what we believe. Our theological belief about God and our ontological (big word meaning “being”) belief about who we are comes out in everything we do. Whatever comes out of or goes into our five...
Psallos | Free Music from Romans
Cody Curtis was kind enough to join us for a podcast interview that has aired on WMC and GCP’s podcast in November 2016. His group Psallos has been gracious enough to allow us a chance to give you a sample of his music over the ensuing weeks. Please, if you’re looking for Christmas gifts, CLICK HERE and give away the whole Book of Romans in musical form to your friends and family this Advent season. ...
The New Language of Spirituality
Robert Webber makes this statement concerning the idea of spirituality in his book The Divine Embrace: “because of the divorce between theology and spirituality, mysticism shifted from the ancient understanding of spirituality to a new approach. Spirituality, which was once a contemplation of God’s saving acts, now contemplates the self and the interior life.”[1] This statement provides a profound summation of the issue at...
The Wonder of the Word in Corporate Worship
As a child, I loved to sing in church. When we opened our hymnals, I understood, there was an emotional connection to what we were doing in song. I felt it. Glorious truth paired with stirring melody was a combination that connected with me deeply. Some of the older women of the church would shed tears as they sang songs of God’s faithfulness. I remember the joy on my father’s face as he would bellow out truth, eyebrows raised...
The Worship Pastor | Top Tweets
Zac Hicks is a leading voice in today’s liturgy and woship movement. We invite you to listen to his podcast that aired on November 17th, and feel free to take some of the Tweets Zac was kind enough to write up for WMC and GCP, and retweet them. We’d love as many people as possible to make their way to the podcast and hear what he has to say. “Every pastor is a worship leader and every worship leader is a pastor.”...
WMC Podcast, #0175, Cody Curtis of Psallos on The Romans Project
Interview with Cody Curtis of Psallos on “The Romans Project” Cody Curtis is on a journey, and we think it’s pretty amazing. He’s working his way through the book of Romans and setting it to music. If you’ve ever read the book of Romans, you know it’s a book that covers many of the most important themes of our Christian faith. So, the importance of capturing these themes in song is high. We invite...
Theology of Technology: Insta-Art
Put it in the microwave, it’s faster. Don’t do dial-up, get broadband…no, no, better yet, now we have wireless and the latest fiber-optic Internet. Why? Because it’s faster. Google is pitching it, we’re clicking it, and every technology is promising it. There’s a fascinating theology taking over the world, and that principle is speed. Never mind the studies that prove fast-food is killing us, phones are infecting us, or...
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Trinity Worship (A NEW BOOK)
