Articles for tag: Worship Team

March 7, 2018

Christian Standard

When the Church Splits: Hope After the Loss

By Jessie Clemence   The church gymnasium, once filled with the sound of squealing children and bouncing balls, fell silent. The church bank account, once bolstered with tithes from generous givers, dropped to a frightening low. The elder board had vacancies. The pulpit lacked a minister and the worship team was missing vocalists and musicians. Children were missing from Sunday school classes, but that was OK because there weren’t enough adults to teach them anyway. The church had split, and those of us who stayed walked through an endless succession of losses. I grew tired of trying to explain to

June 8, 2016

Christian Standard

“˜American Idol” Comes to Church

By Jim Tune The tension was almost unbearable. Fourteen anxious people awaited their turn to perform. The audition would be rigorous. Most of them had been through tryouts before. Nearly all of them were young, fit, and attractive. Every single one of them could sing or play an instrument proficiently, but only one would make the cut. After all, this was the church and only the exceptionally gifted would be chosen to perform on Sundays with the worship team. I think our contemporary culture has developed an unhealthy obsession with discovering talent. From youth sports to spectacular TV shows like

April 10, 2014

Christian Standard

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

March 12, 2013

Christian Standard

Time to Change

By Mark A. Taylor I”ve been thinking this week about change. Not the pennies and nickels in my pocket, but the change that most of the country observed Sunday  at 2:00 a.m. That”s when Daylight Savings Time kicked in, leaving many of us yawning the next morning. Even though 49 of 50 U.S. states observe Daylight Savings Time (somehow most of Arizona has stayed exempt), some of us still chafe under the mandate to lose an hour of sleep each March. “The change in the spring is always hard for me,” a friend said Saturday night. We had been trying

February 11, 2012

Christian Standard

His Church & Her Church

By Daniel Schantz When my wife and I attend church together, we do not have the same experience at all. When we get back home and start comparing notes, I sometimes wonder if we were even in the same building.   The Arrival She: We arrive at the church 30 minutes early. Any later would be unthinkable to my wife, Sharon, who is magnetically drawn to people and needs time to visit with them. Like a hummingbird foraging flowers, she moves from friend to friend, gathering newsy nectar and sharing the supernatural achievements of her grandchildren. At the same time,

September 21, 2010

Christian Standard

Special for Many Reasons

By Mark A. Taylor What made the North American Christian Convention this year so special? The question has more than one answer. Certainly, the theme itself struck a chord with many. These were not self-help sermons meant to calm their hearers. Instead, “Disturb me”””President Ben Cachiaras”s prayer for months before the convention””underscored every main session. His vision was not so much to encourage us where we are as to challenge us to go someplace we”ve never been. Listeners resonated with the possibility to be and do something new for God. This substance””both in content and in spirit””permeated the convention. Workshop

January 18, 2009

Christian Standard

But Did I Worship?

By Mark Atteberry Recently, my wife, Marilyn, and I went to a Tampa Bay Buccaneers” game. Shortly after we settled into our seats, four young men filed in and sat in front of us. Before the game started, one of the men turned around and struck up a conversation. He told us he was really excited because he”d never seen an NFL game in person. He still hasn”t. We marveled at how he got caught up in everything except the game. He must have gone to buy food and beer a dozen times, which, of course, led to several more

November 4, 2007

Christian Standard

Recovering from Excellence

By Daniel Schantz An angry young man blocked my exit from my college classroom. He thrust a term paper in my face, and with quivering voice said, “How come I only got a B on this paper?” “Well,” I replied, “a B is an excellent grade.” He was not satisfied with my answer. He is one of the self-esteem generation who expects to get nothing but As. To them, anything that is not an A is an F. Now, the excellence generation has taken the reins of the church. It is a generation with astronomical expectations. “Excellence” is their mantra.

May 30, 2007

Christian Standard

Physical Bodies, Spiritual Decisions

By Mark A. Taylor Our new offices are on the fourth floor, and I’ve decided to quit using the elevator. Most mornings I climb briskly up all four flights of stairs. And then I try to get to my desk before my coworkers see I’m gasping for breath! All the experts say you should make yourself accountable to someone else when you’re taking up some new challenge. So I told managing editor Jim Nieman about my daily hikes. “I’m going to keep doing this till I quit being out of breath.” He’s a marathon runner, so his reply was just

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