While not specifically about the practice or philosophy of worship, Momlogic's post talks about using a child as an excuse not to go to church (or in her case... temple.)
Do you face rationalizations or justifications like this?
September 2008 Archives
Entering his seventh year as a worship leader, Matt Heerma reflects on the spiritual disciplines that he has found that the job requires.
Radio Netherlands reports on Northland, a Church Distributed and their Internet-enabled home church network.
"it's actually like we're in church. If we're supposed to stand, we stand. If we are supposed to sing, we sing."
Jamin Bradley has a thoughful post on questioning emotion in worship.
It becomes hard to raise a hand when you have to question it. It's even harder to fall to your knees if there's no emotion. It just doesn't feel like worship when rules come into play.
LifeChurch.tv is engaged in a 7-day long experiment entitled LifeShare, "a 7-day challenge for the church to move together online with purpose."
Part of the seven-day experiment is several live netcasts, featuring worship and preaching.
Worship Leader Los Whit at ragamuffinsoul.com blogs about his experience leading worship for 170 people in his boxers, from his basement bathroom. Watch his worship set on his blog post.
What do you think about this new forum for corporate/personal worship?
Josh shares an open letter that he wrote to members of his ministry. One of the benefits of the Internet is that anyone can be a fly-on-the-wall in any conversation that goes on.
We don't know the outcome, nor do we know what people needed to be vocal about. We don't even have any way of knowing the accuracy of the claims or the post itself.
But does this sound familiar? Has this happened in your church? How do worship leaders, or music ministers, or pastors, deal with dissention like this, or is it avoidable?
Jordan came across a quote on worship that he is sharing as he is in the process of rewriting/translating/modernizing Jonathan Edwards's work written during the Great Awakening Religious Affections.
The Houston Chronicle chronicles how churches in Galveston and Houston are pressing on in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike.
For information about disaster relief, contact your local congregation or NAMB.net.
Joe blogs about worshiping "with your gut instinct," and has a scripture reference that he backs it up with... 1 John 3:18-20.
Craig McDole is a music minister in Oklahoma that has a pretty regularly updated blog that really seeks to minister to its readers through the Word.
If you're a worship leader who has an ongoing ministry on the blogosphere, drop me a line and I'll be happy to link to you!
Tim and Laurie talk about what it is that we worship, and what Romans 12 helps us to understand about it. Great comment and response too (so far!)
Sarah gives her "from the pew" perspective of a life permeated by worship.
It's been making the rounds of secular blogs for a while, and now it's gaining the attention of Christian bloggers too.
The big question: Are they for real?
Nelson Searcy talks about why it's so important for a church plant to have a worship leader.
Steven posts an analysis of Psalm 29, concluding that "Our worship of God must be unpolluted with other gods - focused on Him above all other things."
Erica poses the problem that "if I didn't do what I do and I were church shopping, I'm not sure I'd worship at my church."
Is that true for you?
This Fuller Seminary professor blogs about the beginning of their transforming process.
Just reading the title of the post probably sparks all sorts of preconceptions, but the payoff in the post is this: "How might we create spaces for deep levels of participation within every aspect of the worship service?"
transformation <> style
MelodicMetanoia writes on how the music ministry of a church can connect on so many more levels than Sunday morning worship. Read closely, because he's not saying that this replaces Sunday morning worship, just outlining some of the benefits that an active music ministry provides beyond "service music."
1monthtounderstandyourlocalchurch posts on six qualities of "worship in a postmodern culture." They sound like they could be six qualities of worship, period, to me. How do these "basics" overlay onto your perception of what worship is?
Christianity Today looks at various protestant sources for worship, including our very own Baptist Hymnal™ and how they invoke the transliteration of the name of God.
Michael Quicke at Northern Seminary raises the concern that "too many preachers are marginalizing worship."
Cody shares about the worship experience last night.
Norman wants to know your response. Leave a comment on his blog this morning!
David Keen, theologically trained, perfectionist, observer worship leader, finds that his own attributes contribute to his self-described problem.
Scott's R.O.T.T. has an excellent post about kids and spies and the question about worship: "What does it mean when..."
Jonny Baker is on a panel at the London school of theology and he wants your input.
Of course, by the time you read this, with time zones, the conference is probably about to start...
Greg does an exegesis on Psalm 16:7 and talks about worshiping with non-standard parts of the body.
This pastor shares his five criteria for choosing songs for worship.
Kim has a thoughtful post on why new music is important in worship.
Stuff Christians Like comments on the new videogame Guitar Praise - a Guitar Hero clone with Christian rock music.
He goes on to speculate about a "worship band" version of the game RockBand and how "success" would be measured. Comments are priceless...
Pass the Toast has a quick morning devotional on Exodus 8:1-8, where God tells Moses to tell Pharaoh to let his people go "so that they may worship me."
Wow! How did I miss that part of the scripture so many times over the years? Maybe it's because it's not part of the spiritual that always runs through my head when I think about the front half of the verse. There it is, written out plain as can be - God wanted His people to be released from bondage... to worship.
Sojourn Community Church talks about why people clap their hands in church.
The audience for this article is "the person in the pew," so this doesn't go into grand detail... but do you agree?
Erin Ursel gives us a thought for the weekend on worship... and prayer.
What a concept!
Relevant covers Joel Houston's HillSong United mega-worship-missions project.
In their video, they actually use something we saw in a previous post, describing it as an intersection between worship and justice.
How does this project strike you with its missions/worship/revival integration?
Sweet Tea with Lemon has a "from the pew" post on worshiping in the tough times.
Young Anabaptist Radicals has a thought-provoking post on the use of technology in worship, and how to "carefully and communally discern how modern technologies can aid us as we embody the good news of Christ."
Jeremy Del Rio blogs about an experience at a youth retreat where the music was "stripped away." (Scroll down if your browser bumps the post to the bottom of the page.)
Be a fly on the wall as Hope Lutheran Church in Fresno, CA discusses their desire to create "the opportunity to take ownership in the worshipping life of our church, to create something that resonates with the faith they know and something they can use as a witness to their friends and others."
