Here’s a research project for anyone curious about the theology that is being preached when the preacher isn’t in the pulpit. Go back through the orders of service for the last year and see what was being sung. What sorts of pictures of God were in those songs? What sorts of calls to action? What…
An important part of the culture of every congregation is the music they experience together. Whether it is the pipe-organ-accompanied hymns sung in a grand gothic cathedral or the a capella singing of a ”non-instrumental” Church of Christ or the chant of a cantor at Yom Kippur or the festive dance of a Hindu festival…
A National Post article examines Protestant mega-congregations in Canada and offers interesting insights into what makes them work. Broadway Church, in Vancouver Canada, shuffles 2,000 congregants through churches on a given Sunday. The large, auditorium-esq sanctuary, modern music, and casually-dressed pastor give attenders the sense of a new type of religious movement.
In Gerardo Marti’s book, Worship Across the Racial Divide, he discusses the life and vitality of a multiethnic congregation. One of his early findings is that many members of the congregation, particularly those who are not Black, assume that “black worship” is a superior form of worship (p. 52). Marti writes, “Blacks singing gospel are…
The Baptist Standard published a short piece about the ways in which theology shapes and is shaped by music within a congregation. Terry York, professor of Christian ministry and church music at Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary, is quoted as saying I don’t know if there are any biblical concepts that are not singable, but there are…