Church Fined for Loud Services

COLUMBIA, SC (WTVR) – A Columbia church is being ordered to pay fines for violating the city’s noise ordinance.

Police have responded to the Rehoboth United Assemblies Church on Laurel Street more than 10 times. Neighbors complained and called police saying the congregation is too loud.

Wednesday a Columbia court found the church in violation of 3 noise ordinance citations. They’ll have to pay a $740 fine.

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Worship Leader Grammy Award Nominees

Worship leaders Kari Jobe, Chris Tomlin, Israel Houghton and Matt Redman included in this year’s Grammy nominations:

Best Gospel/Contemporary Christian Music Performance

Jesus, Friend Of Sinners
Casting Crowns
Track from: Come To The Well
[Beach Street/Reunion Records]

Take Me To The King
Tamela Mann
[Tillymann Music Group]

Go Get It
Mary Mary
[Columbia Records]

10,000 Reasons (Bless The Lord)
Matt Redman
Track from: 10,000 Reasons
[sixstepsrecords/Sparrow Records]

My Testimony
Marvin Sapp
Track from: I Win
[Verity Gospel Music Group]

Best Contemporary Christian Music Song

Jesus, Friend Of Sinners
Mark Hall & Matthew West, songwriters (Casting Crowns)
Track from: Come To The Well
[Beach Street/Reunion Records]

10,000 Reasons (Bless The Lord)
Jonas Myrin & Matt Redman, songwriters (Matt Redman)
Track from: 10,000 Reasons
[sixstepsrecords/Sparrow Records; Publishers: Thankyou Music/sixsteps Music/worshiptogether.com Songs/Said And Done Music/Shout! Publishing]

When Mercy Found Me
Jeff Pardo & Rhett Walker, songwriters (Rhett Walker Band)
Track from: Come To The River
[Essential Records; Publishers: Sony ATV Music, Ships In A Bottle/Simple Tense Songs]

White Flag
Jason Ingram, Matt Maher, Matt Redman & Chris Tomlin, songwriters (Passion &
Chris Tomlin)
Track from: White Flag
[sixstepsrecords/Sparrow Records; Publishers: sixsteps Music/worshiptogether.com Songs/Vamos Publishing/Said And Done Music/Valley of the Songs Music/Sony ATV Timber Publishing/West Main Music/Windsor Hill Music/Thankyou Music]

Your Presence Is Heaven
Israel Houghton & Micah Massey, songwriters (Israel & New Breed)
Track from: Jesus At The Center Live
[Integrity Music; Publishers: Integrity’s Praise! Music/Sound of the New Breed, Regenerate Music]

Best Contemporary Christian Music Album

Come To The Well
Casting Crowns
[Beach Street/Reunion Records]

Where I Find You
Kari Jobe
[Sparrow Records]

Gold
Britt Nicole
[Sparrow Records]

Eye On It
TobyMac
[ForeFront Records]

Into The Light
Matthew West
[Sparrow Records]

10 Steps to Better Tweeting

For those interested in learning what Twitter is all about, or those wanting to improve their Twitter popularity, LifeChurch’s Scott Williams offers 10 excellent tips. I’ll be using them!

1. Share A Quote: There is something about quotes that seem to have a profound impact on people and the way they think. Take a quote that’s somewhere in the 120 character range and the impact is elevated to an even higher level, and it’s definitely more memorable. The great thing about quotes is the fact that people love to retweet them and share them. Quotes have multiplication power, due to the fact that every quote speaks to each individual differently. Here is a recent leadership quote that I shared that will speak differently to everyone who reads it: “Leadership is based on a spiritual quality; the power to inspire, the power to inspire others to follow.” – Vince Lombardi

2. Share Scripture: It’s always great to get nuggets of the living, breathing word of God in the world of Twitter. It’s also nice to learn and connect with what other individuals, leaders, pastors and organizations are reading. Not only can I share Bible verses that I’m reading, I can read countless other Bible verses in my timeline throughout the day. In case you didn’t know, Twitter Is In The Bible.

3. Share The Good Stuff: By the good stuff, I’m referring to deals, favorites, coupons, promotions, groupons, retweet-this-win-this, things that can benefit others… You know what I’m talking about, The Good Stuff.

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Kid’s Worship

For years, children’s choirs have taken the same path as most church choirs – learn a piece and perform it in a service.

It’s no secret church choirs are dying – the fact that the choral music industry has dried up is one indicator. Choirs who insist on performing are not in step with the times – today it’s all about singing TO God and leading the congregation. I once wrote about how a worshipping choir will often sing background vocals behind a worship leader much like you see in Hillsong and Gateway Worship videos. One irate music director emailed me with “how DARE you ask me to regulate these saints of God to being mere backup singers!” I wonder if that guy still has his job. For more on worshipping choirs please check out Dave Williamson.

Now that worship is replacing performance, I’m seeing the same trend in children’s music. Kids leading kids in a children’s service is a pretty common occurrence, but several churches I know are trying to integrate a kid’s praise team into their Sunday morning adult service.

If you’d like to explore this idea, here are a few suggestions. Form a kid’s praise team and let them learn a short set of two or three songs and invite them to open your service as a call to worship. This isn’t a time for kids to act up on stage while parents gush “Awww, aren’t they cute!” but a serious worship time. Break for a few announcements and continue on with your adult praise team.

On special occasions, try combining your kid’s praise team with your adult praise team. For instance, in my Jesus Is His Name Christmas medley I have the kids starting by themselves and then are joined by the adult praise team and female worship leader on the chorus and the rest of the song. It segues into the kids leading 2 verses of Infant Holy, Infant Lowly with the adults joining them again for the end of the song.

An arrangement like this gives kids the fun opportunity to sing in “big church” with the adults. They’re featured yet don’t have to carry the whole set by themselves.

Are you integrating kids into your adult worship services? Tell me more in the comments below.

How Advent Can Be Much More Than “The Christmas Season”

Christmas ideas from Glenn Packiam:

For the longest time, I thought “Advent” was just a fancy word for “the Christmas season,” a holier, maybe more spiritual-sounding word for an otherwise hectic and overly-commercialized holiday stretch between Thanksgiving and December 25. What I’ve discovered in the past few years of observing Advent is that it’s not just a different word; it’s an entirely different approach.

Let me explain. Advent as a season is meant to make the journey toward Christmas full of meaning; it’s meant to put us touch with our deepest longings and greatest hopes; it’s meant to teach us to bring all our desires together on one object: Christ. While “Christmas” as a season (properly) begins on December 25 and goes twelve days (yes, there’s a song about that!) until January 6th, Advent is all about the build-up to it. It begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas and takes us right up to the glorious celebration of the incarnation.

When you journey through Advent to Christmas, you begin to see Jesus more fully. You recognize that His incarnation was the beginning of the redemption of the world and that His return is the completion of it. Advent pulls those two moments together. It overlays the joy of His arrival as a helpless babe with the hope of His appearing as conquering King. Both arrivals are anticipated in celebrating Advent.

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5 Things Your Church Must Do at Christmas

Earlier this week, someone asked us to list five things that churches really need to do at Christmas. The Ministry Matters team brainstormed the question and came up with the following ideas based on our own experiences (read nightmares). Hopefully you’ll benefit by avoiding some of the mistakes we’ve already made.

1. Stick with the basics, but go deep. Tell the baby Jesus story, and use terms that a child or someone new to the faith can understand. But don’t shy from talking about Emmanuel and the incarnation. Get beyond the cute baby story and really deal with what Christmas means for Christians. The fact that God became a human to save humanity is mindblowing, but it takes creativity to help people see that truth in a fresh way each year. Unfortunately, in the church we often excel at making the extraordinary seem ordinary. If the Christmas story becomes old hat, that’s an indictment on us, not the story itself.

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