A Texas megachurch believes so much in the promise of God’s blessings that it’s offering a full refund to tithers who don’t experience it.

Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas, has launched “The 90-Day Challenge,” which promises churchgoers, “that if you tithe for 90 days and God doesn’t hold true to his promise of blessings, we will refund 100% of your tithe,” the church said in a description of the event on its website.

“Each of us has a unique opportunity to be a part of the incredible life change happening around us at Fellowship Church by bringing our tithes and offerings to the house,” the description read. “If you are not tithing already, the 90-Day Challenge is the best place to start.”

The campaign is tied to a church series called “The Tipping Point,” which pastor Ed Young has called “the most provocative series of the year.”

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Stephen Miller offers helpful hints to help your congregation sing:

Imagine yourself standing in an ornate church building as beautiful music washes over you from the platform. As gorgeous as the songs are, you notice that no one is singing along. It’s not because the song is too high or the rhythms are too complex.

The people’s hearts are not distracted by the beauty of the architecture, or the lights streaming in through the large gothic windows. No, the reason no one sings is because the worship leader is singing in Latin, and no one knows the songs. Even if they could catch the melody, they would be hard pressed to jump in, sing along, and understand what they were singing.

This is what corporate worship was before the Reformation; a spectator event we participated in vicariously.

Fast forward a few hundred years and much of our ornate architecture has been replaced with graphic arts projected onto a screen, while gothic windows have been swapped out for environmental lighting.

We may not sing in Latin, but we certainly teach a lot of new songs. It seems like every other week a new corporate worship album comes out that has one or two new songs on it that we “need” to do in our services.

While new songs are not a bad thing at all, and are in fact commanded in Scripture, if corporate worship is about corporate engagement, then we need to think through how we teach new songs intentionally in ways that help the family of God come together for the common goal of making much of Jesus, encouraging one another to repent and believe, and shaping our hearts for eternity.

Here are 4 helpful rules for teaching new songs in corporate worship

Be picky about new songs. New songs must be singable and memorable, while remaining clear and truthful. Once you’ve passed a new song through those filters, try and foresee “staying power” for your context. You don’t want to teach a new song that will alienate a ton of people or that everyone will be tired of after a month. You’re not being a jerk by being picky with the new songs you are teaching. You are serving and leading your people well.

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Shalon Palmer asks if being relevant is simply copying ideas from cool concerts and TV shows:

Now-a-days in church, the big thing in service planning is being “relevant.” You know you’ve heard this. It seems everywhere I go, people are using all of their resources to make their services cool and “relevant.”

While I don’t think there is anything wrong with working to be relevant in your church, I want to challenge you with this thought. Many seem to think that being relevant is doing what the world is doing. We seem to simply copy ideas from cool concerts and t.v. shows.

In doing this, we are always left one step behind the world. My thought is this; relevance isn’t just copying what the world is doing, but doing what the world wishes they could do! Relevance is staying one, two, and even three steps ahead of the world!

If you’re currently asking, “how in the world are we supposed to do that,” then you’re exactly right. There is no way in the world to do that. The secret to mind blowing, out of this world creativity is the Holy Spirit. He’s a game changer.

With the Holy Spirit guiding and feeding your creativity, anything is possible. I feel like it’s almost cheating. You’re writing bland music and creating ok videos, or your services are boring and un-creative. Take it to the next level by letting the Holy Spirit guide your writing and planning. He’s making all things new.

The Holy Spirit is just as alive today as he’s ever been! He living and moving on this Earth, looking for people and places to dwell! Count on him to empower you!

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Ed Stetzer says the next 20 years are going to be a challenge for churches.

Despite what many think, the church in America is not dying (and no serious researcher thinks that). However, there are some challenges and changes to be considered.

When we consider missiology, part of the discipline includes considering how churches relate to their culture. Since we live in changing times, it’s worth thinking through what current cultural changes mean for future church engagement of that culture.

Here are four trends that are already evident, but will become even more important in days to come.

1. The Word “Christian” Will Become Less Used and More Clear.

There are three broad categories that make up the approximately 75 percent of Americans who refer to themselves as Christians. I wrote about this earlier in The State of the Church In America: Hint: It’s Not Dying, but it is worth keeping in our minds moving forward. The fact is that not everyone who uses the word “Christian” is using it the same way.

Cultural Christians, about 25% of the U.S. population, are simply those who, when asked, say they are a Christian rather than say they are an atheist or Jewish. They are “Christian” for no other reason than they are from America and don’t consider themselves something else.

The second type is what I call a congregational Christian. They account for another close to 25% of the population. This person generally does not really have a deep commitment, but they will consider refer to themselves as Christians because the have some loose connection to a church—through a family member, maybe an infant baptism, or some holiday attendance.

Convictional Christians, also about 25% of the population, are those people who self-identify as Christian who orient their life around their faith in Christ. This includes a wide range of what Christian is—not just evangelicals, for example. It means someone says they are a Christian and it is meaningful to them.

So, what’s the trend?

Well, first, the trend is that less people are calling themselves Christians and those who are will take it more seriously. In other words, cultural and congregational Christians, or the “squishy middle,” is collapsing while convictional Christians are staying relatively steady.

In the future, the word Christian will mean more to those who would be considered convictional Christians. However, it will mean—and will be used—less to those who were nominal Christians in the first place. The word will be less used and more clear.

2. The Nominals Will Increasingly become Nones.

Basically, type one (cultural) and two (congregational) are what we would generally call nominal Christians. Nominal comes from the Latin, meaning “name” or “name only.” A growing number of people are name only Christians. They claim “Christianity” for survey reasons, but rarely attend church or give any consistent consideration to their faith identification.

They’re simply calling themselves Christians because that’s who they consider themselves to be, not because of any life change or ongoing commitment. Those types of Christians, about half of the population now, will become a minority in a few decades.

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Most worship leaders agree that songs for congregational worship should be “singable,” a made-up word that means “easy for a congregation to sing together.” But it is tempting for many of us to subtly change that definition to “songs I want to sing.” And so worship leaders who dislike hymns – whatever the reason – say that hymns are not singable. They’re too wordy, and the tunes are too difficult.

And worship leaders who dislike the style (or lyrics) of the top contemporary worship songs may say those songs are not singable. They are performance oriented. They have too many different melodic movements instead of just being verse-verse-verse.

Of course enough classic hymn tunes are unsingable, and enough contemporary songs are unsingable, that any of us can cite examples to reinforce our argument. But if hymns in general are unsingable, how have countless Christians across several centuries been able to sing them? And if contemporary songs in general are unsingable, why can I go to YouTube and view stadiums full of people singing along with every word of the songs led at Passion conferences?

Musical style does have something to do with whether or not a song is unsingable in any particular church. I’ve witnessed mega churches with contemporary praise bands trying to lead up-tempo soulful gospel songs, while the congregation couldn’t figure out how to clap to the beat, let alone sing. And “traditional worship” churches that hired a new pastor who suddenly made the switch to “contemporary,” to disastrous effect within the worship team and congregation.

So what are the fundamentals of singability? What makes a song more likely to be singable? Here are five things to consider:

Melodic Range

This is simple, so we won’t belabor this point. Most people in your congregation have a vocal range somewhere between one octave to one-and-a-third. If you’re choosing or writing songs that routinely go beyond this, you’re going to leave your congregation behind. It doesn’t matter if you or someone on your vocal team can hit the big notes – this isn’t a talent show or concert.

Intervals

Also pay attention to the intervals in a song’s melody (the number of scale steps from one note to the next). If the intervals leap all over the place, your song will have a roller-coaster feel that is difficult or unpleasant to sing, even if the melody is confined to one octave or less. Most of your intervals should be step intervals (up or down one scale step). Good songwriters usually reserve the leap intervals for spare moments when they need the music to swell.

Space And Symmetry

The most lasting hymns and praise songs tend to contain concise, symmetrical phrases. In classic hymnody, writers like Watts and Newton wrote their lyrics in tight “metrical” patterns – it’s why every line in “When I Survey The Wondrous Cross” is eight syllables long, and why the lines of “Amazing Grace” alternate between eight syllables on the odd numbered lines and six syllables on the even lines.

Few contemporary worship writers count syllables, but the better ones are great at keeping their lines symmetrical, and their phrases short. They also do a good job of matching the lyrics to the music, so the congregation doesn’t have to cram too many words into a tight musical phrase.

Many less experienced worship writers do a bad job of this, however. They draw their examples either from coffee house singer-songwriters or from professional pop, country and R&B artists, many of whom pack their lyrical lines with too many words for the average person to follow. It’s like they’re saying, “Listen to what I can do.” The delight is in hearing how deftly the singer can bend words around notes, without getting tongue-tied. Whatever the appeal might be in performance music, it doesn’t work in congregational song.

The Right Key

Find the right key for yourself and any other singers on your team, and think about the right key for your congregation. Let’s consider your team first, because if they can’t lead the song well, the congregation will have trouble learning it.

We all know that Chris Tomlin has a higher voice than most males. If you can’t comfortably hit Tomlin’s notes, change the key! Don’t try to be someone you’re not. In fact, even if you can hit the notes, consider whether many people in your congregation can (but we’ll get to them in a minute).

This is where it helps to play by ear rather than by sheet music. At Sojourn, we’re blessed with many vocalists from both genders on our team, so we change keys all the time. If one of them leads “Rock Of Ages” one week, there’s a strong chance that another vocalist will lead it the next time, who may need to change the key.

For your congregation, remember that men and women have different ranges and pitches. And of course even within a single gender, some voices are relatively high and some low. Gather a group of men and women (ideally with a mix of baritones, tenors, altos and sopranos) and have them sing together. If everyone is able to sing along, you’ve probably found a song with a good melody, and the right key for the larger congregation.

My wife Kristen recently sang at a conference that was mostly attended by men. She and the band spent a lot of time working out keys for the songs that worked for her, but that would also work for the predominantly male audience. You have to think about things like this.

Style/Genre Considerations

Consider the demographics of your worship team and your congregation. What do they listen to? What do they like? What is their musical background?

Location has a lot to do with it, but don’t overplay this. In our modern age of TV and Internet, genres are cross-pollinating and regional influences are loosening their grip. For instance here in Louisville, even though we’re in the “bluegrass state,” shows like American Idol and The Voice draw many more viewers than do airings of bluegrass performances on the local PBS station. And yet many pop music fans are exposed (and open) to bluegrass music as its own style, as well as bluegrass instruments invading “their” style.

Location still matters, of course, even within genres. Chicago blues doesn’t sound exactly like Memphis blues. The rock music of Seattle differs from rock in Atlanta. The country music of the Carolinas differs from Texas country. And the New York folk scene isn’t exactly like the California folk scene. So be aware of the subtleties of your local music culture. Just don’t rely too much on your conclusions of what people in your town (or church) are supposed to like and dislike.

And don’t be the pastor who assumes you won’t draw young people by singing hymns, or that no one over 50 ever wants to hear anything new. Trends, demographics and common assumptions can work against you. There’s no substitute for knowing your people, and more importantly, there’s no substitute for the biblical picture of people from every tribe and tongue, praising God in song together.

To sum up, the first four points are always crucial, if you want your songs to be singable:

Melodic range
Intervals
Space and symmetry
The right key

The final point, style/genre, is variable depending on your local context. It deserves your consideration, but should neither trump the first four points nor become an idol in the midst of your team or your congregation.