I love a great story. I especially like seeing a great movie or musical. Even now I can hear the haunting music as the tension rises only to be released in a moment of ecstatic joy. Characters facing overwhelming challenges only to be rescued by a lover or a friend. Villains chasing their …
God With Us: 5 Implications of the Incarnation for Corporate Worship
I love singing Advent songs like "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" and "Come Thou Long Expected Jesus." They help me remember the longing Israel felt as they waited for God's promised Messiah. Check out the two cool arrangements of these songs I've linked above. Before Christ's arrival, Israel knew God's …
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Phil’s Top Ten Lists: Top 10 Reasons to Celebrate Advent
If you grew up outside the church or in a broadly evangelical congregation, there's a good chance you don't know what to do with Advent. For years I thought Christmas and Advent were synonymous. Not true. They are inseparable, but they play distinct roles on the church calendar. To help you rethink …
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Excellence in Worship: 7 Ways to Overcome the Tension Between Excellence and Performance
If you're a church musician, I'm sure you've heard, said or been a victim of one of the following statements: "Worship is not a performance, so stop showing off every Sunday." "God is more concerned about our hearts in worship, so you don't need to practice as much for worship as you might for …
Keeping Worship Fresh: Insights from Worship Director, David Hampton
How do you keep your worship services fresh after 5, 10 or 15 years in the same church? What do you think about when you lead a congregation filled with world class musicians? I was wondering some of these questions and so I reached out to my friend, David Hampton, to get his insights on these …
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Celebrating Advent: 4 Songs and Resources to Aid in Your Worship
With Thanksgiving behind and Christmas ahead, many churches will enter the Advent season this Sunday. If you're like me (raised more generally evangelical), the richness of Advent is often an after thought. I know for many churches this is the time of year we play Christmas songs and light Advent …
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Offering New Songs of Thanks: Three Stories to Inspire Your Thanksgiving Celebration
Football, turkey, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. Add in family, friends and some fall colors and you have Thanksgiving, right? I don't think that's what the pilgrims were thinking. The food and celebration overflowed from a place of gratefulness they had survived a very harsh first year in the …
God’s Call to Worship: 5 Ways Psalm 95 Shows Us How to Worship
Do you know how to worship God? Sounds like a silly question, especially on a site about worship for worship leaders and serious worshippers. But this is a vital question, "Do you really know how to worship?" Sixty years ago A.W. Tozer lamented that Christians had more resources for knowing …
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