By grace alone, through faith alone, because of Christ alone
We’ve been tiptoeing through the mine-field of Sunday morning worship and music. Have I stepped on any mines yet? I’m sure I have. But this is a discussion the church needs to have. “Cultural creep” is incessant and subtle; and when it comes to the most holy of all earthly exercises—the worship of the One […]
We need to sing psalms in worship (see previous blog, “Multi-versed for a Reason,” part 13). Some have even concluded that is all the people of God should sing on Sunday morning; our hymnal restricted to the 150 Psalms. A very strong case can be made, however, that the Bible does not limit us to […]
Is this fair? Most Sunday morning music sung today is catchy, entertaining, and likeable—a reflection of pop-culture. But generally speaking, it lacks content, depth, and musical complexity; it really is a Christianized version of pop-music. “So what?” someone may say. Well, does the Scripture tell us what to sing? It is hard (impossible?) to argue […]
The premise is that Sunday morning worship music should fit what we have gathered to do; to worship the King of kings and Lord of lords. So what kind of music does God like? Does He have a preference? Those two questions should be the kinds of questions we should be asking, don’t you think? […]
I know it’s potentially divisive, but we need to keep talking about worship music. Similar to food and art, music has a certain subjective quality to it; especially when it comes to style. Somebody likes jazz, someone else likes rap—and so on. And it’s in the car where we most often reveal our musical taste. […]
A few years back, a full-page ad was taken out in our local newspaper; a new church was starting across town. Here is what they promised would-be worshipers: “Clips from your favorite movies; Casual attire; Coffee to drink during the presentation; Contemporary music: rock or pop, by Ian McMurren and the Next Band; Most of […]