articles

Jed Smith finds ways to be confident on Sunday morning: Nothing is worse than not being confident. Turning the key not knowing if your car is going to start. Showing up to work not knowing if you can rely on your coworkers. Walking into a class room for a final…

Greg Brewton says there are ways to involve a choir even in a modern worship style: Have you seen the articles over the last few years lamenting the demise of the church choir? For many years now there has been a trend towards using a worship band and a small…

Russ Hutto says both types of praise songs have their places in the worship environment: In several places this week I’ve encountered discussions about the “wordiness” of modern worship music. Many of the folks engaged in the discussion were comparing and contrasting today’s songs to yesteryear’s more traditional songs. What…

Chris Denning encourages new worship leaders to find a mentor: Doing anything for the first time can be nerve-wracking, even if its something you want to do. I believe this is especially true with anything that has to do with artistic expression, because for most people, their gifts and abilities…

Bert Farias explains why people are responding to Trump’s message: Perhaps we as preachers have robbed ourselves by being gray instead of black and white. Perhaps we’ve robbed the church of more converts and true followers because we think they don’t want to hear plain speech, when in fact, they…

Joseph Mattera says pastors are called to lead not entertain: There is a great tendency in human nature to crave the affirmation of other human beings. With some people, their need for affirmation is so great it hinders their ability to discern between the will of God and the will…

Drew Dickens says church isn’t about the building but about community. Time once was, in the not too distant past, that you would be shunned for appearing in public on Sunday morning in anything less than your best “go to meeting” clothes and seen anyplace other than your neighborhood church…

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Fox Watterson explains a little-used feature of PCO: Planning Center Live (PCLive) is one of the least used features from PCO, but is probably one of the best and most useful features that is provided. In it’s most basic form, it’s a tool designed to keep a record of services…

Bob Kauflin says it’s easy to misunderstand the relationship between biblical worship and music: In his conversation with the woman at the well, Jesus described the kind of worshiper God is seeking: But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in…

Dan Wilt says smiling worship bands are better worship bands: The songs are joyful. The songs are beautiful. But for a solid 30 minutes the worship leader’s face seems intense with concentration. Wait. So does the background vocalist’s face as she stares at her music stand. Why do I feel…

Brad Rhine tells a sad tale of a megachurch takeover: Our small church in a Pennsylvania river town had been losing people steadily for months, people who included our senior pastor and our associate pastor, not to mention dozens of others. Why that happened is a long story — too…

Scott Ball celebrates Back to the Future Day with this list: It’s Back to the Future Day. It’s fun. Of all the predictions of what 2015 would look like from the vantage point of the 80’s, the things which are strangely accurate are interesting. Yet it’s still massively disappointing that…

Bob Kauflin has seen instrumental portions of worship songs actually have an adverse effect: A few years ago I attended the Sunday gathering of a church that primarily sang traditional hymns. The voices carried the songs and there were few, if any, instrumental breaks between verses. The congregation sang robustly…