Articles for tag: Lise Caldwell

January 23, 2015

By Lise Caldwell Recently I sat down with three remarkable men to discuss church discipline. Howard Brammer, John Samples, and John Caldwell have 150 years of preaching ministry experience between them. All three are retired from “official” full-time ministry, but continue to teach, preach, and guide. From country churches to megachurches, they have watched church discipline succeed, fail to happen, and just plain fail. When I asked them to share their experiences, I heard wonderful stories, much laughter, great humility, and tremendous wisdom. I want to share the best of that here.Â First, a word about their most recent ministries:

April 11, 2014

Christian Standard

Worship Worship & Prayer

Seven Ways to Make Your Worship Creative

By Lise Caldwell 1. Incorporate Scripture in creative ways: turn a passage (such as Isaiah 53) into a dramatic monologue. Weave Psalm texts together in a thematic responsive reading. Share Scriptures on which a worship song is based. Provide reflective texts on screen or in a bulletin for times of silent prayer. 2. Get people out of their seats: allow people to respond with movement. Invite people to write something they are thankful for on a giant blackboard and display it during the month of November. Encourage families to leave the pews and pray together during Communion. Encourage them to

April 11, 2014

Christian Standard

Worship Worship & Prayer

Seven Attributes of a Healthy Worship Planning Team

By Lise Caldwell 1. Debate and disagreement are encouraged. People are willing to (respectfully) express concerns or offer alternatives to ideas that are presented. 2. No one “owns” an idea. Often one suggestion sparks another, which sparks another, and in the end, no one knows who had the idea in the first place. Emphasis is placed on collaborative brainstorming, not bragging rights. 3. Laughter and play are encouraged. Provide Slinkies, Legos, or Play-Doh during planning meetings. People who are able to laugh with others (and at themselves) will be more creative. 4. People are more important than products. Offering creative

April 10, 2014

Christian Standard

Worship Worship & Prayer

We Plan, They Respond

By Lise Caldwell Worship is a response to who God is. Can you plan to respond? Maybe not, but we find great satisfaction in crafting experiences that lead people to worship God. We huddle around 8-foot round tables strewn with laptops and iPads, soda cans and pizza crusts. The whiteboard that dominates the front of the room is ominously blank. The dates of our upcoming weekend services throb in the corners, pulsating in their urgency. I scribble on my notepad. Someone coughs. The room grows quiet. Time to plan our worship services. “Planning” worship sounds counterintuitive. We don”t “plan” to

April 25, 2011

Christian Standard

Bible Study Theology & Bible

Lesson for May 1, 2011: Be Like Jesus (Philippians 2:1-11)

This week”s treatment of the International Sunday School Lesson (for May 1) is written by Lise Caldwell, a freelance writer living in Indianapolis, Indiana. ____________ Be Like Jesus (Philippians 2:1-11) By Lise Caldwell To paraphrase A Christmas Carol, I am a famously competitive person: to begin with. This must be distinctly understood, or nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going to relate. My husband loves to tell the tale of the time I mercilessly defeated a 12-year-old girl in a game of Scene It at Walt Disney World in order to win Electronic-Banking Monopoly, a game he