Introducing new music If you happen to serve a worshiping congregation who actually welcome new music into their worship services, you need to remember to at least put them on your Christmas card list. I know many musicians, especially those of us who serve at smaller churches, may not be able to throw in Starbucks […]
Month: November 2016
Music and smaller churches: The Simple Primer, part 2 of 5
Support the theme of your worship service Way back when I was an active member of our church’s high school youth group, First Baptist in Glenwood, Iowa allowed us to put together a youth service. It was then that our leaders introduced us to the idea of planning worship, which until that point had seemed […]
Overflow of the Heart: There’s Nothing New about Hate
Getting Past Everyday Discrimination This guest post is from longtime Resilient Church friend Todd Matia. Todd is a magazine publisher in Colorado Springs, and a former math and engineering instructor. He is an active Young Life club advisor, and a dedicated Jesus follower. Warning- long post: The relevance of my story in the midst of […]
Music and smaller churches: The Simple Primer, part 1 of 5
How to select music Forty-some odd years ago, I strapped a guitar my back, took a deep breath, and became one of the first guitarists to ever offer special music as part of the Sunday morning worship service at First Baptist Church of Glenwood, Iowa. I’m pretty sure that none of the guitar players at […]
The Inviolable Truth: 2016 and The Barmen Declaration, part 2
Many, many years ago I sat in a chapel service at Judson College (now University) that featured a musical group called “Truth.” I had a mad crush on one of the altos who helped run their product table; otherwise I might have never attended. In my desire to hold a meaningful conversation with her after […]
Keeping Faith in Election Years
I don’t want to burst anyone’s bubble here, but I need to keep this simple. When the question of the day is “How should a Christian vote?” my one-word answer has become, “Prayerfully.” (That’s simple, isn’t it?) I don’t pretend to tell people which candidate deserves their vote, or gets mine. Frankly, I don’t know […]
The Big Deal about Smaller Churches
They don’t often make national headlines, but smaller churches are a big deal. There are roughly 350,000 Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox churches in the United States.[i] The median number of people attending these churches is 75. That means half of the churches in the US have 75 or less people attending; half have more. Did […]