articles

Thom Rainer cites interesting research. My son, Jess Rainer, and I recently spoke in Texas on the topic of the Millennials, America’s largest generation of nearly 79 million persons. Because we co-authored a book entitled The Millennials, we have had the opportunity to speak on the subject on many occasions. We…

Rob Rash helps us to be prayerful and intentional when crafting and planning our worship services: If only leading worship we’re as simple as singing a handful of songs each week, I wouldn’t be writing this post. If leading worship was simply a way to warm up the hearts of the…

Ronnie Martin remembers his days as a young worship leader. I’ll be honest, I was scared out of my wits when I first started leading worship. Although I had played rock and roll shows in clubs, festivals and venues around the world, Saturday night had me bound in fits of…

Jon Nicol writes an open letter to senior pastors: Dear Senior Pastor, Before I start, I just want to say thanks for what you do week-after-week to bring us a message from the Word. Most of your congregation has no clue of the work–not to mention the emotional toll–that it…

Ed Stetzer: the motivation behind having different worship services is key. Having multiple services with different musical expressions has become the accepted norm for many churches. Signs and websites routinely advertise “contemporary, traditional and blended services.” Lask week, at the Momentum Conference in Ohio, I mixed it up a bit…

Worship services in evangelical churches do not mention sin, a major part of the Gospel message, Dr. Cornelius Plantinga, senior research fellow at the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, said Monday at the Ethics and Public Policy Center’s Faith Angle Forum. “In very many evangelical and confessionally Reformed churches these…

Barna: 59% of Millennials who grew up in church have dropped out at some point. What, if anything, helps Americans grow in their faith? When Barna Group asked, people offered a variety of answers—prayer, family or friends, reading the Bible, having children—but church did not even crack the top-10 list.…

Geoff Surratt talks about one of his favorite worship leaders: The question seems to be, Should fat people lead worship? My answer would be yes and no. Let me tell a story and then explain. One of my favorite worship leaders was Sherren Wilson. Sherren was not only excessively overweight,…

Jamie Brown shares how he approaches serving as a guest worship leader for a church that isn’t his own. This coming Sunday I’ll have the privilege of filling in for a friend who’s the worship director at a local church. He’s on vacation and asked me to be the guest…

Jordan Stone explains one of the core values of his church. When I first began the journey of planting a church one common refrain of encouragement from seasoned planters was, “Identify your church’s core values. Communicate them clearly and often.” Now, this isn’t the place to quibble with whether or…

Rob Rash offers Easter planning ideas: There are many reasons why I love Easter. It’s a time of great joy, family get togethers, and celebration. Of course, it’s really all about Jesus! But it’s also about the church and about those who may come to hear this good news we…

Gary Miller: According to the Bible, there is a certain type of music God hates. But what is it? Can you picture God covering His ears because He hates what He hears? According to the Bible, there is a certain type of music God hates. But what is it? It…

America’s youth are leaving churches in droves. One in four young adults choose “unaffiliated” when asked about their religion, according to a 2012 Public Religion Research Institute poll, and 55 percent of those unaffiliated youth once had a religious identification when they were younger. Yet amidst this exodus, some church…

Bob Kauflin: if this is a trend in congregational song, the word “Whoa!” does come to mind. I’ve been thinking about the use of generic syllables in congregational singing for a while now. It’s not a new phenomenon. I remember singing, “Lai lai lai lai lai, lai lai lai lai…

Thom Rainer: Unhealthy churches have numbers of leaders who don’t practice 1 Corinthians 13. These persons tend to seek their picture of an ideal church rather than loving their current church, her leaders, and her members. They are thus constantly comparing some aspect of the church with some other church…