Category Archives: Contemporary Worship
Your Sunday Best
One of my sons took his mother to a “Celtic Women” concert for Mothers’ Day. (In case you’re wondering, for Fathers’ Day, I got the stubs.) He called the concert venue and asked what the appropriate attire was and they … Continue reading
Visit to a Pentecostal Church (and all Contemporary Ones?)
A mentor in the ministry told me that on vacation he attended the services of other denominations just to be sure that what he said they taught they still did. Well this Pentecostal church didn’t teach classical Pentecostalism but what … Continue reading
The Dark Half
Those who know say you should always use some sort of visual for a blog. They get more hits. I don’t because I don’t know how, and don’t care enough to learn. That is the Luddite me at his worse. … Continue reading
The Body for the Body
I haven’t been satisfied with how liturgical worship has been defended, and I think its detractors, rather successfully, have been using Colossians 2: 16 to paint it with the same brush Paul used to paint Old Testament ceremonies.
Deep calleth Unto Deep
In 1981 I attended a Synod-sponsored introduction of the then “new” hymnal, Lutheran Worship. This is where we adapted the thoroughly inaccurate “And also with you” in mimicry of Rome. Our new, new hymnal Lutheran Service Book (How I wish … Continue reading
The Voyage of the Damned
This is the title of a 1976 movie and 1974 book based on a true WWII era event. A ship with over 900 Jews sailed from Germany to Cuba in 1939 because of the rising tide of anti-Semitism. Cuba wouldn’t … Continue reading
Ever learning, but…
You know when a person says something and then says “but” that he is about to modify, and usually in a bad way, what he has just said. You would think “ever learning” has got to be a good thing. Not … Continue reading
The Real Plasticity of the Text
The Reverend Doctor Jeffery Kloha has been pilloried for asserting the plasticity of the New Testament text. I don’t agree in general with his paper that makes the argument and I don’t agree with how he reaches the following conclusion, … Continue reading
Where Have you Gone Joe DiMaggio?
So Simon and Garfunkel lamented in their 1968 song. Having read the biography of the Yankee Clipper, Mickey Mantel, Ted Williams, and Stan Musial, history can have all of them save for Stan the Man. My lament is for the … Continue reading
What Will We Try Next…
to win souls for Jesus? I don’t know, but I’m willing to bet that whatever the Baptist, Presbyterians, on Non-denominationals do, we will soon follow.