August 21, 2023
August 27 | Application (‘The Best Singing Voice of All’)
"Music educates and entertains," David Faust writes. "It stirs our emotions, shapes our moods, and communicates ideas. Music impacts our everyday lives." . . .
Articles for tag: Worship Music
June 20, 2023
Let’s Talk About . . . ‘Between Mercy and Me’
"Between Mercy and Me" is a Christian drama that explores issues of race, urban renewal, and relationships between Christians living in the same city, worshipping in nearby churches, but living in entirely different worlds. . . .
September 16, 2022
Alberta Bible College Celebrates 90 Years of Training Leaders
Alberta Bible College is celebrating its 90th anniversary this weekend with three days of festivities beginning today (Sept. 16).
September 1, 2022
Why Do We Gather?
By Kent E. Fillinger As a movement, we’ve striven from the beginning to be a church based on New Testament principles. Where the Bible speaks, we speak, and where the Bible is silent, we are silent. No creed but Christ and no book but the Bible. When was the last time your church staff or elders stopped to consider what these maxims mean when it comes to worship gatherings? When did you last study the New Testament to see what it teaches about our purpose for gathering? Have your church leaders ever considered why you do what you do when
May 17, 2020
UNITY: When Our ‘It’ Is Misplaced
By Nate Ross In the quarter mile before I arrive at our church’s campus, I pass a Nazarene church, a United Methodist church, a church of Christ (noninstrumental), and then turn into our campus about 500 yards later. Competition, co-laborers in Christ, or critic are the three most common thoughts that come from my heart when I see another church. (I know, that’s really mature for a pastor.) The lens in which I see another church leads to how I love another church. It’s quite easy to quickly judge and criticize neighboring churches that have different biblical interpretations from ours
August 11, 2018
Does Your Church’s Worship Style Matter?
By Kent E. Fillinger Worship music is a key part of a church’s overall worship experience, and a church’s style of worship remains a key differentiator, even as the “worship wars” of the 1980s and 1990s have subsided. Research shows that worship or music isn’t a priority for people in choosing to attend a church or in deciding whether to remain at a church (see my article “What Are Your Church’s Push and Pull Factors? Part 2” from March). Still, music remains one of the most talked about elements of a worship service. I wanted to learn more about worship
May 25, 2018
5 Things You Need to Know about the 5-Generation Church
By Haydn Shaw I was recently in a church talking with a room full of baby boomers (those born 1946–64) and millennials (born 1981–2001) who wanted to understand how to build community across generations. They realized that people tend to socialize with others of their own generation before and after the worship services, and they wanted to know how they might bridge the differences. They wondered if they should have intergenerational small groups. The boomers and millennials want to spend more time together, but their different life stages create practical challenges. For instance, many baby boomer small groups enjoy big
April 17, 2016
Lloyd Pelfrey and the Future of the Restoration Movement
By T.R. Robertson “Nobody knows more about the Restoration Movement in Missouri than Lloyd Pelfrey. In fact, he lived most of it.” Those words, spoken by Dan Sites, a preacher from Mexico, Missouri, were partially intended as a joke. Nevertheless, they ring true. Lloyd Pelfrey has been active in the movement for nearly 70 years. Pelfrey”s personal definition of the Restoration Movement is, “Unity by restoration for evangelism.” He always adds, “I”ve been using that line for so long, I don”t even know if it”s mine. But I think it is.” Restoration Past I arrived at Central Christian College of
January 12, 2016
Should Musicians Plan Our Worship Services?
By Mark A. Taylor Here”s why a church should recruit excellent musicians to lead worship: The people we”re serving as well as those we hope to reach are hearing professionally produced music everywhere they go. Many of them love music, and they listen to “their music” in their car, at the gym, when they walk, and sometimes at work. But even nonmusical people encounter music every day. Music creates the emotion and signals the mood in everything from Star Wars to sitcoms. The most memorable TV and radio ads include music. (I heard an interview the other day with a
November 22, 2015
Leading the Church to Look Like Heaven
Review by Dick Alexander Leading a Healthy Multi-Ethnic Church: Seven Common Challenges and How to Overcome Them Mark DeYmaz and Harry Li Zondervan 2013 Why would a person be interested in a book titled Leading a Healthy Multi-Ethnic Church? Most likely for the same reason Mark DeYmaz got interested in the subject””a growing burden, born of a prompting of the Holy Spirit, that the church on earth should look more like the church in Heaven. If that”s you, and if you”re seeking answers to complex questions and direction for the journey, DeYmaz can help. Biblical Principles, Practical Strategies Leading a Healthy
May 6, 2014
Four Ways to Enrich Your Prayer Times
By Mark A. Taylor Most Christians, especially mature Christians, tend to pray the way they”ve always prayed, worship the way they”ve worshipped for years, “do devotions” the same way week after week, pursue the spiritual disciplines””or ignore them””according to their longtime habits. Maybe that”s OK, but if you have a hunch that your prayer times could be richer, that your relationship with God could be closer, that your own spiritual growth could continue, then here are some tips from David Butts and Ken Read. “¢ Pray the Psalms. Butts tells what happened when he first decided to spend more prayer
April 25, 2013
Stewards of Audio Volume
By Eric Radecki In the field of church music today, dealing with audio volume comes with the territory. It”s not a simple topic, and it”s worthy of a serious and honest discussion. Daniel Schantz”s article “The Half-Inch Solution” broached the subject but failed to go beyond generalizations and opinions. In this article I hope to offer practical help in dealing with the audio volume levels in your church by providing a responsible interpretation of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) guidelines within a theological context. “Loud” is in the Bible Scriptures seem to indicate that much of the music
August 25, 2012
The Half-Inch Solution
By Daniel Schantz One of my Bible college students came flying out of chapel, shielding her eyes with her hand. “Are you OK?” I asked. She shook her head. “It”s the music””it”s so loud it gives me headaches.” I can”t tell you how many times I have heard church members say, “Sometimes I just hate going to church because the music is so loud.” It”s not the type of music they are objecting to so much as the volume. Solve the volume problem and I strongly suspect the worship wars would soon die down. Music ministers seem to think that
July 10, 2012
The Start of a Refreshing Week
By Mark A. Taylor “We”re inviting you to be refreshed by our amazing God,” said Tim Foot as he opened the first worship gathering of the 2012 North American Christian Convention in Orlando, Florida, Tuesday evening, July 10. Several thousand had gathered at the Marriott Orlando World Center Resort in two expansive ballrooms that had been turned into a worship center. The worship was heartfelt and substantive. Foot”s team augmented their music with creative video that portrayed the spirit and the message of each song we sang. The music was a comfortable mix of newer and older worship choruses, highlighted
June 22, 2012
NACC Plans Live-Stream of Event This Summer
By Jennifer Johnson The North American Christian Convention will live-stream each of its main sessions during this summer”s event scheduled for July 10-13 in Orlando, FL. The broadcasts will be free and will include music and worship as well as the sermon from each service. Viewers logging in for the broadcasts will also be able to take notes online and live chat with other viewers via Facebook and Twitter. All broadcasts will be in English, but a multilanguage electronic Bible will be available on-screen for easy reference. The complete schedule of speakers and broadcast times is below. Advertising space
May 25, 2012
Beautiful
By Mark A. Taylor “How beautiful is the body of Christ,” sang the children”s choir, standing in perfect rows on risers in the Sunday-morning worship service. The Twila Paris anthem pictures Christ”s perfect hands and feet and heart and eyes””all sacrificed with pain deeper than we fully understand to take care of sin greater than we fully grasp. And then it reminds us that his beautiful body is still alive and active today, whenever “humble hearts give the fruit of pure lives so that others may live.” As the melody echoed in my mind throughout the day, I remembered
November 25, 2011
Common Sense on “˜The Feminization of the Church”
By Jeffrey Miller Late in 2008, Todd Carmichael staggered to the South Pole after covering 700 uphill miles in 39 days. He arrived with damaged gear, frostbit lungs, extreme exhaustion””and a world record! His discipline and determination, endurance and exhaustion, are truly amazing. Equally amazing, however, is whom he beat. Her name is Hannah McKeand, and Carmichael bested her record by 104 minutes””a margin comparable to winning a marathon by less than 4 minutes.1 Whether these adventurers are Christians, I don”t know. Their exploits, however, turn my mind to a frequent accusation commonly called “the feminization of the church.” As
August 20, 2008
A Week of Blessing for a Life of Grace
By Mark A. Taylor The words of the hymn filled the Cincinnati convention center on the evening of July 1: Come, thou fount of ev”ry blessing,  tune my heart to sing thy grace. Several thousand who had gathered for the opening worship service of the 2008 North American Christian Convention sang from the heart. I joined them, moved by the blessing of being in their number. Streams of mercy, never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise. If the hymn was unfamiliar to the younger ones there, older singers compensated. But “loudest praise” washed over us in
August 8, 2007
NACC: Blessings and Disappointments
By Mark A. Taylor Maybe it”s the hugs I remember most: grown men on city streets embracing as though they were at a family reunion. Which, of course, is exactly what we call the North American Christian Convention. It”s the connecting place, according to NACC publicity, and for many the meetings outside main sessions are the most important part of the week. It was true this year, July 3-6 in Kansas City, as much as any other. But the week was about far more than just fellowship. This year”s convention lifted up the need for church planting and promised a
August 9, 2006
It Was a God Thing
North American Christian Convention in Louisville featured shared preaching and blended worship between Christian churches and churches of Christ, with messages of grace, reconciliation, and unity shaping the week.
