articles

Scott Lencke asks the question: There are not a few tragedies in the history of the church. The Crusades, the killing of those who do not line up with the Christian faith (or one particular branch of the faith), mixing the Christian faith with colonialism, particular church denominations aligning themselves…

Petri Nauha gives an excellent analysis on a problem that plagues today’s churches: Is the church platform exclusive for the select few or should it be a place to raise up people who are gifted to lead? There are many great worship bands that tour and record albums to spread…

Ed Stetzer says there must be good continual open communication between the pastor and the worship leader. Dear worship leader, You are one of the most important people in the life of our church. You are entrusted with the task of standing before our people weekly and leading them into…

Slingshot Group’s Monty Kelso offers practical and spiritual ideas:   Know yourself: Be in touch with your complete story. Your family upbringing, life experiences, significant relationships and education all shape who you are. The redemptive work of God in you is never finished. Being vulnerable about your strengths and weaknesses…

Karl Vaters says it’s time to put art, creativity, passion and beauty front-and-center in the church again: I wish there were more artists in the church. No, not painters and sculptors. Actually, yes, those too. Mostly I wish there were more church leaders who saw the art in their ministry.…

Aaron Armstrong shares a friend’s cult-like church experience: When I went off to college as a bright-eyed 18-year-old, I found a church to get involved with right away. The church had a college group that met in my dorm, and I loved it from the beginning. It was an incredibly…

Russ Hutto discusses selecting music and crafting worship set lists that are on mission: Finding songs that allow us to express our love to God is fairly easy. With modern worship writers churning out hundreds if not thousands of songs per year to choose from, we’re in a wonderful era…

Marc Brown examines the frequency of the Lord’s Supper: In my tradition of Southern Baptist, there is a great variety in the frequency the observance of the Lord’s Supper. In fact, a 2012 random survey of Southern Baptist pastors conducted by LifeWay Research showed that fifty-seven percent of the pastor’s…

Kenny Lamm addresses font sizes, font types, and line spacing: Displaying song lyrics in worship with excellence is an often overlooked area of preparation, yet one that can really enhance our worship times. Conversely, poor slide production and operation of the lyric display can greatly hamper worship. (If your church…

Jeff McIntosh introduces the top most used typefaces that churches are using: You have many typefaces (fonts) to choose from when projecting lyrics during your church service, youth group or worship concert. I wanted to introduce you to the top most used typefaces that churches are using and give a…

Chris Rouse explains how to spruce up your worship slides: In my job I see a lot of lyrics slides at a lot of different churches. Some look amazing; some, well, some don’t. I’ve been guilty of making my share of poorly designed lyric slides in the past, but hopefully…

Matthew Starner shows how to make good worship slides better: I had a request from a friend who is doing slides at his church asking for some guidelines and examples of how we do our slides. I looked around for some articles to send him and, finding none that were…

Nathan Sutliff lists ways to start seeing your lyric screens as more than just words: 1. Fonts I have been in too many churches that just rely on Arial, Verdana, or Times New Roman. Basic fonts that add no creative look to the screens at all. We’ve all seen it.…

John UpChurch wonders if youth ministry is Biblical: I tried to keep my skepticism in check. After all, my friend pastored this new church plant, and we wanted to be there for their first Sunday to support him. But the focus on “family-integrated worship” definitely took some getting used to—especially…

T. David Gordon lists 8 reasons the change is happening: 1. Contemporary worship music hymns not only were/are comparatively poor; they had to be. One generation cannot successfully “compete” with 50 generations of hymn-writers; such a generation would need to be fifty times as talented as all previous generations to…