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Photographer Christoph Morlinghaus takes us on a grand tour of the very best Modernist religious architecture in Form/Faith. From Eliel and Eero Saarinen’s Midwest churches to Marcel Breuer’s austere concrete to the far-out experiments of Pietro Belluschi, the series is a beautiful study of how religion has long spawned many…

In wake of the unbelief propagated by worship leaders and CCM artists like Michael Gungor, Vicky Beeching and Jars of Clay’s Dan Haseltine, it’s interesting to note that for the past several weeks, two top songs on PraiseCharts.com, often #1 and #2, are Hillsong’s This I Believe (The Creed) and…

Leadership Network and Vanderbloemen are releasing what they claim to be “by far the biggest-scale, cross-denominational response anyone has ever collected about church finances.” Specifically, they interviewed 727 megachurches about how they spend their finances, and the report has some interesting findings, all of which are free to download here.…

Phil Cooke says forget the concert and start inviting people to worship. The truth is, the vast majority of church “worship leaders” aren’t worship leaders at all. They’re simply musicians playing what are called “worship songs” from popular artists who write that sort of thing. The music is fine, and…

Good tips from Simon Roberts to promote powerful Scripture reading. So you thought your job was simply to read the Bible passage? That’s easy—you check you have the right passage, you look over it a couple of times and then you get up and read. Surely that’s all there is…

Logan Walter says his road ministry is an extension of his home ministry. My dad traveled in a worship band called Gabriel from the mid-70s to the early 90s. Actually, “traveled” is an understatement. Before I was born, my dad was on the road as many as 250 days per…

Chuck Lawless suggests bivocational ministers are often more connected to non-believers. “I didn’t come to seminary to be a bivocational minister, to have to get another kind of job,” my student told me. I may not have agreed with my student, but I did understand his thinking. Back then (almost…

‘Worship Wars’ Have Died Down But Some Christians Are Focused on ‘Coolness’ Instead of Genuine Ministry Fierce battles over whether classic hymns or contemporary tunes should be the linchpins of Christian worship may have subsided, but the arena is still messy, according to worship pastor and recording artist Lincoln Brewster.…

Jon Nicol asks if you really love the people in your church. Early in ministry, I had a senior pastor say to me, “You know, Jon, you do a good job leading worship, but I’m not sure that you really love the people of this church.” My first thought was,…

Steve Caton offers seven ways to ensure that your data is telling the right story. We have no shortage of information. We are surrounded by data, but data alone doesn’t tell a story. An individual star in the sky may be beautiful, but only when you connect the three in…

Jesse Gruber discusses the free/cheap tech that church planters can start using now. Planting a church from scratch nowadays is a difficult undertaking, but I can’t imagine what it was like in the book of Acts! Technology is widely available and cheaper than ever here in 2014. This article is…

By Dr. L. Lavon Gray and Dr. Frank S. Page Excerpted from Hungry for Worship: Challenges and Solutions for Today’s Church (New Hope Publishing, 2014) Imagine for a moment you arrive at the church house this Sunday, Bible in hand and family in tow, ready for a great day of…

Chris Huff hates microphones with power switches. There are four wireless microphone mistakes that get a sound tech in trouble.  The first mistake is one I’m often asked about.  I will be upfront and say that I’ve made two of these mistakes. Two, maybe three.  No, two.  Forgive and forget,…

Russ Hutto cites John Wesley’s 7 guidelines for corporate singing. In 1761, John Wesley penned 7 iconic guidelines for corporate singing for church congregations who would be singing out of the Select Hymns with Tunes Annext hymn book. Believe it or not, in the 18th century it was fairly cutting edge to sing the classic…

David Santistevan encourages musicians to mimic what they love. If you’re a musician, you want to be original. To have your sound. To be unique. The problem with being original is that it’s a myth. We are all a product of our influences. Those who are considered the most original…