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This Sunday we will be examining how congregational singing is crucial to our worship. Many approach Sunday morning with an attitude that some portions of the service are optional, or that some elements are "best left to the professionals" or the "gifted". Last month, our Theology Thursday book club examined a book written by Keith and Kristyn Getty titled, "Sing! How Wor...

On my shelf, I have a Celebration Hymnal: Songs and Hymns for Worship.It was published in 1997, foreworded by Jack Hayford (Pastor of The Church on the Way), and intended to provide "tools for 'blended worship'" (from the Preface). Consisting of 865 selections, it combines new songs and old hymns, Scripture readings, and even various calls to worship. Yet, what is strikin...

If Scripture stands against our natural and cultural bent towards innovative worship, it also provides a biblical pattern for the kind of worship God requires. Last week I considered the first problemnamely, the problem(s) with man-made worship. This week, I want to show how a pattern of worship repeats throughout the Bible. Actually, Jonathan Gibson has provided this bib...

Six months ago, our church began our first church-wide Bible reading plan. It is an extended verson of Robert Murray M'Cheyne's classic Bible reading plan, which takes us through the Old Testament once, and the New Testament and Psalms twice. This year we'll read Genesis-2 Chronicles, Psalms, and the New Testament. Next year we'll read Ezra-Malachi, Psalms, and the New ...

In his illuminating book,A Secular Age(summarized here), CharlesTaylor argued the unbelief handed down to us from the Enlightenment, coupled with new religious expressions in the 19th century, and accelerated by the sexual revolution of the "Sixties," has resulted in many and competing spiritual longings that live somewhere between belief and unbelief. In short, weare liv...

Q. What is the chief end of man?A. To glorify God and know him forever. Westminster Shorter Catechism, Question 1 There is nothing more important than knowing why you exist. And nothing provides a better answer than this: You were created to glorify God. Speaking to the people he was redeeming from the nations, God says in Isaiah 43:67, "I will say to the north, Give u...

The discipleship of our children is an essential part of the Great Commission. As parents (and as a church family), we are to make disciples of every nation, and this begins first in our homes as we seek to make disciples of every generation. We teach our children about Jesus, and pray that they will learn to love God with their heart, soul, and might (Deut 6:4-9). We seek...

God's people are a people of history. Because our faith stands or falls with the historical events of Christ's death and resurrection (1 Cor. 15)not to mention all the historical events leading up to Christ's adventChristians are a people who should care deeply about history. Yet, often we don't. Non-denominational Christians, especially, know little about what happened b...

So Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac,and Jacob offered a sacrifice in the hill country and called his kinsmen to eat bread. They ate bread and spent the night in the hill country. Genesis 31:5354 In the Old Testament covenants were often begun or accompanied by a covenant meal. In Genesis 31 Jacob and Laban made a covenant to not do harm to one another. And imp...

11And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12to equip the saints for the work of diakonia, for building up the body of Christ, Ephesians 4:1112 For the last few months our church has been considering Paul's first letter to Timothy and how the instructions for the household of God lead us to order our local church. As Paul unvei...