Consider these worshipers in modern urban America: rather than having performers act out skits or play instruments on a stage, they want “participatory” worship in which all attendees play a part. Instead of grand auditoriums where the audience gapes at…
Read MoreThe Spirit Is A-Movin’: Helping Worshipers Find Their Voice
The year is 1931. Visualize St. James Episcopal Church on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles: huge Gothic arches, awe-inspiring stained glass windows, massive chandeliers imported from Europe, an organ bellowing music to the heavens, pews filled with Anglo-Saxons dressed in…
Read MoreBetween Opposing Forces: Finding a “Third Way” in Worship
Much of the confusion, uncertainty, and conflict over worship today is generated by the collision of two powerful forces—forces that have developed gradually in the American church over the past 50 years and that are now engaged in a struggle…
Read MoreCollision Course? Traditional Worship Meets “The Theology of the Overhead”
Clapping during services, offering special prayers for healing, sharing personal testimony, and embracing fellow worshipers aren’t practices usually ascribed to Reform Judaism, but these activities are gaining favor at some liberal synagogues, according to Peter Knobel, chairman of the liturgy…
Read MoreBeyond Style: Asking Deeper Questions about Worship
One of the most illuminating parts of my job as director of the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship involves reading worship conference evaluation forms. The most instructive comments explain what questions congregational leaders want addressed at future conferences. Significantly, most…
Read MoreAsk Alban: 7 Ways to Heal after Church Conflict
Q: Our congregation recently had a big fight, and we need to heal. How can we do that? Feelings are still very strong—people are avoiding coming to services—but some don’t want to talk about it anymore. A: “Church fight” seem…
Read MoreThe Digital Revolution: Changing the "How" of Ministry, Not the "What"
Has the digital revolution changed anything fundamental about ministry? When I entered ministry in 1982, I began by using an array of gadgets taht were not state-of-the-art but were typical of what a congregation of modest means could supply at…
Read MoreWhy Congregations Matter, Part 2: One Step At A Time
Integrating Faith and Action The history of Christianity in the United States is a portrait of broad strokes and vivid hues placed on the expansive canvas of this continent. As Alexis de Tocqueville observed so long ago, the churches play…
Read MoreChanging the Rules of Engagement: Questioning How Technology Shapes Our Lives
It began when our children were around nine and six years old: Lent was the time when the TV would be turned off. Sundays would be a day of reprieve—after all, Sundays are in Lent and not of Lent. I…
Read MoreBring Technology to Congregations
With the approach of the new millennium, we are witness to two seemingly incompatible enthusiasms, on the one hand a widespread infatuation with technological advance and a confidence in the ultimate triumph of reason, on the other hand a resurgence…
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