Teaching

Training Gospel Choirs: Caring for your voice and talent

A temporary voice problem led Charsie Randolph Sawyer to create a DVD to help gospel choirs protect and improve their voices for more effective ministry. Her colleagues in African American churches say that learning to read music helps congregations deepen worship.

October 4, 2007 | 11 min read
Hospitality Is Messy

These days hospitality may most often be associated with a Martha Stewart-esque home decor complete with fluffed pillows and fresh flowers placed just so. In Scripture, though, it means something quite different than creating the perfect environment. Instead, hospitality refers to creating a space in which relationships can develop.

September 1, 2007 | 1 min read
Why Preach Sermons Based on a Catechism?

It turns out that preaching sermons based on the Heidelberg Catechism--or other confessions--hits home with worshipers, including those from the postmodern generation. A feature story exploring the value of preaching sermons based on a Catechism.

August 31, 2007 | 15 min read

The Seven Deadly Sins and Spiritual Formation

A curriculum engaging students in spiritual formation, helping them to diagnose the sins, remove barriers, and replace them with new habits of thought and feeling.

June 1, 2007 | 1 min read
The Seven Deadly Sins and Spiritual Formation

A curriculum engaging students in spiritual formation, helping them to diagnose the sins, remove barriers, and replace them with new habits of thought and feeling.

June 1, 2007 | 1 min read

Sports and Mennonites Don’t Mix. Or Do They?

As good as it is to reconnect with former pastors and see old church photos, there's a lot more you can do to plan a meaningful church anniversary in your congregation or denomination. A feature story exploring the celebration of church anniversaries.

January 23, 2007 | 3 min read
Church Anniversaries Worth Celebrating

As good as it is to reconnect with former pastors and see old church photos, there's a lot more you can do to plan a meaningful church anniversary in your congregation or denomination. A feature story exploring the celebration of church anniversaries.

January 23, 2007 | 12 min read
Space, Time, and Sacraments - N.T. Wright

A seminar led by N.T. Wright on the sacraments of the Lord's Supper and Baptism, discussing the larger questions of space, time and matter within which our understanding of sacraments must be located.

January 10, 2007

Good Taste, Bad Taste, and Christian Taste

Talk about worship aesthetics need not polarize people. Frank Burch Brown tells how to be more inclusive in arts and worship, yet also more discerning. A feature story exploring the idea of "taste" and aesthetics in Christian Worship.

January 5, 2007 | 9 min read
What Can the Early Christians Teach Us about Music?

This session considered what we can learn from the early Christians about dealing with musical problems in the midst of a pagan culture.

January 1, 2007 | 54 min listen
The Poetry of Astonishment: Preaching the Psalms

This session took the Psalms as a case study for considering what it means for the preacher, first, and then the congregation, to be astonished by the biblical text. How might this ancient poetry be surprising, and therefore revelatory, to those who hear it in our contemporary contexts? What sort of preparation is necessary for the preacher who wishes to engage the Psalms as poetry?

January 1, 2007 | 60 min listen