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What if we thought about Christ’s birth as an ongoing reality, rather than a one-time event? That’s just what Lois Shuford’s haunting Advent song “Ready My Heart” does: it helps us prepare our hearts for Christ to dwell in us every day.
View this conversation with pastoral musician David Crowder and Noel Snyder, program manager at the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship.
Introducing the worship song “Come, Holy Ghost / Be Not Afraid” by Bruce Benedict and Ray Mills.
Introducing the worship song “Come, Holy Ghost / Be Not Afraid” by Bruce Benedict and Ray Mills.
Differences in musical tastes, aesthetics and priorities are notoriously contentious issues for congregations and ministries to navigate.
Caring about God’s good creation includes lamenting whatever harms it and joining God’s mission to make all things new. Songs from around the world explore these ideas.
We confess that God created heaven and earth and everything in it. We sing that this is our Father’s world. Yet, billions of people suffer in places where so much is no longer bright and beautiful. This worship resource guide will help your community plan services that honor our Creator, who invites us to join in caring for the whole creation.
This is a conversation with artist Sandra McCracken and John Witvliet.
Martin Luther posted his ninety-five theses on the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church on October 31, 1517. This worship resource guide will help your community plan services of grace and truth as you commemorate the five hundredth anniversary of the Protestant Reformation or plan worship for a Reformation Sunday.
Ethnomusicologist Alfredo Colman encourages musicians who lead congregational songs from other cultures to engage with someone from that culture in order to understand and find ways in introduce songs in worship that respect and honor God and the culture.
More people are training to lead music and worship in Protestant churches in Argentina. As in churches elsewhere, they must balance using popular songs from other cultures with creating music that helps worshipers live out their faith in the real world.
Jamaican pastor, Dwight Kelly, reflects on how scripture songs can be written in the language of the worshiper's heart. Heartsongs use words that reflect the context and language of those who are singing them.
