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Architects Steve Fridsma and James Vander Molen often speak at conferences such as the annual Worship Facilities Conference and Expo. But whether their topic is architecture for the emerging church or how to reuse commercial buildings as churches, Fridsma says they usually touch on a favorite subject, developing community in worship.
The way your church welcomes - or fails to welcome - a guest preacher also says something about how visitors experience your church. And if you're the pulpit supply, the way you prepare makes a big difference. A feature story exploring how to welcome guest preachers.
There’s no need to sit back and wait for a congregation to clue you in about your upcoming guest sermon arrangements. Take the initiative to find information that will help you enter a new church feeling confident, prepared, and on time to bring God’s Word.
Good preachers study commentators so they can draw on collective wisdom as they prepare sermons. Frederick Dale Bruner's Matthew commentaries set a high standard. A feature story exploring the commentaries of Dale Bruner and moving from a text to a sermon.
There are so many Bible commentaries available in English that it can be hard to know how to choose. A single commentary may cover the whole Bible, one of the testaments, a section of the Bible, a book of the Bible, or just part of a book of the Bible.
Millions of people behind bars are waiting to hear the gospel. Forming congregations in prisons is an important step in restorative justice. A feature story exploring restorative justice and prison congregations.
In 1996, Pres and Di Moerman invited their cousins, Steve and Diane Moerman, to a Prison Fellowship weekend. Steve and Diane got to know other inmates through one-on-one visits and Bible study correspondence.
Keith Getty says that what we sing becomes the grammar of what we believe. That's why he and Kristyn Getty are writing and teaching modern hymns that all ages can sing and remember together. A feature story exploring Getty's ideas on writing hymns for the Universal church.
A look at how churches are using the Hymns from Keith and Kristyn Getty
Do you know how to look beyond the style of a "traditional" or "contemporary" worship service to find its worship vision, structure, and theology? Ron Rienstra says it's a question more worship planners should ask and answer. A feature story exploring the planning for Contemporary Worship services.
The way you structure a worship service is important, in large part, because the structure reveals your theology. This is true whether or not you’ve thought about your worship’s theological revelations.
While directing student-planned and -led worship services at Calvin College and Fuller Theological Seminary, or while leading worship workshops, Ron Rienstra has sometimes met “worship leaders who get frustrated with other people’s desire to plan carefully. Those frustrated have not themselves yet done much worship leading.”
