Worst of all, they are sent off into this world with the whole baby-boomer theology ringing in their ears. If you sample some of the commencement addresses being broadcast on C-Span these days, you see that many graduates are told to: Follow your passion, chart your own course, march to the beat of your own drummer, follow your dreams and find yourself. This is the litany of expressive individualism, which is still the dominant note in American culture. But, of course, this mantra misleads on nearly every front. —David Brooks, The New ...

It’s always surprising to me that the Church doesn’t do a better job of using song in all the ways that scripture does. Especially when it comes to staccato songs of praise. While worship choruses have received a grand thumping in recent years I’ve grown more convinced of the wisdom and benefit of using shorter songs in worship. They are easy to learn, provide great balance to dense hymnody, are more accessible for an intergenerational congregation, and can help with transitions in the service. They also exist across the spectrum of worship ...

These groups, their ties to faith invisible, serve up some of the most vital art in town, pushing back against the widely-held notion that the church, today, is a cultural regurgitator or a voice against risqué, challenging art. So locally, at least, you can forget about religious crusades against the Dung Mary and David Wojnarowicz’s ants on a crucifix, or Marilyn Manson versus the Pope. And forget about the dramatic oils of glowing Jesus atop a mountain. As with The Welcome Wagon, you might not know from the look, the sound, or the taste of ...

Read entire post here. The "we/they are just looking for community" mantra is flattery of the first order. For what it's worth my experience is that those who drone on most about "community" either live it out as if the concept flows heavily in one direction (toward them) or it's used as a pretext to see their own subgroup (who - now here's a shock - share the same life stage and preferences) as being the only ones who are worth having community with. The boring, the prosaic, the unlovely and the uncool (read that: most of the church) ...

Worship is a weekly spiritual discipline, and Sundays are like “practice” for the rest of the week. Rehearsing the gospel is like rehearsing a jump shot. When the clutch moments of life happen, what kind of praying, thinking, and singing will our people fall back on? Using historic resources like creeds, catechisms, and pastoral prayers demonstrate our connection with a church that is bigger than us. It helps to humble our own church’s view of itself and broaden our view of God’s work in history. No single song, sermon, or service can ...

Bifrost Arts. A great inspiration for authentic, gospel-centered worship in the church. Bifrost Arts from josh franer on Vimeo.