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December 2018

December 03, 2018

Handel’s Young Messiah: Why Christian Culture Can’t Have Nice Things

Someone asked me the other day if I was planning to check out the new...

November 2018

November 30, 2018

Advent? But It’s Been Christmas For a Week Now, Right?

It's that time of year again. For the next few weeks in the majority of...

October 2018

October 30, 2018

Wrong For the Job: Why Commercial Worship Music Is Getting Stupider

When my old, usually reliable car is giving me trouble, there's only one person I...

October 29, 2018

Aslan Is Not a Tame Lion: The Serious Mistake of Casual Worship

As a professional Christian, I don't get many Sundays off. In fact, I tend to...

October 25, 2018

7 Reasons Hymns are Better than Contemporary Worship Songs

You might notice I said "'hymns' are better than contemporary worship songs." Not "old hymns."...

September 2018

September 25, 2018

33 Excuses for Getting Out of Prepackaged Evangelical Bible Studies

I want to make one thing clear before I plant my tongue partially in cheek:...

September 23, 2018

Celebrating the Gifts of John Daker and His FUMC Peoria Pals

In the early 90s, the private music studio of Reva Cooper Unsicker made occasional appearances...

September 06, 2018

The Contemporary “Worship” Song I’d Love to Ban For All Eternity

I need to be honest with everyone. There are a lot of contemporary worship songs...

August 2018

August 31, 2018

Once and for All, Let’s Stop Trying to Make Worship Relevant

"For the most part institutions are lost, not because they are stormed by hostile outsiders,...

August 27, 2018

Simpsons. Often, I would feign a self-imposed bedtime just as the local news ended,...

August 21, 2018

I also think Susan Wright is dead wrong. (I also didn't know we had a...

August 16, 2018

Help Me! I’m Being Forced to Attend a Contemporary Worship Service

Here is a real, completely true question I got from a reader. Remember, I am...

August 16, 2018

When “Traditional” Worship Becomes a Sentimental Journey to Nowhere

Gonna Take a Sentimental Journey When I was a kid, I thought I really really...

August 13, 2018

John Piper’s Weird Poetry, and Why We Should Avoid Adding to Hymns

Apparently John Piper added some words to the hymn "Great Is Thy Faithfulness" and some...

August 10, 2018

Farewell, Willow Creek: Where the “Regular” Churches Can Go From Here

It looks like the beginning of the end at Willow Creek. They aren't saying that,...

August 09, 2018

A Service of Witness to the Resurrection: My Own Funeral Plans

As a church musician, I've done my share of denominational sojourning. Every time I join...

August 09, 2018

How To Choose Music For A Funeral

One of the things the baby boomer generation has introduced into the liturgical sphere is...

August 07, 2018

Watch Your ____ Mouth, and Other Things Jesus Might Have Actually Said

They're just words, friends. Just words. What we do with them is the important...

August 04, 2018

9 Hymns For Christians Who Struggle With Depression

My name’s Jonathan, and I struggle with depression. So please know that when I wrote...

August 03, 2018

Rocky Mountain Church Seeks a New Plagiarizing Pastor

I thought I had heard everything from the church growth crowd. I really did. Wrong....

August 02, 2018

The Worst Southern Baptist Sins: Dancing, Cardplaying, & 3rd Stanza-ing

In my last post, I talked about the weird, unnecessary, overly pragmatic reasons we have...

August 02, 2018

It Really Shouldn’t Be a Burden to Sing the Whole Hymn

In my time as a church musician, I have gotten more than an occasional gripe...

August 01, 2018

How Breastfeeding Is Like Liturgy: A Dad’s Perspective

(A brief warning for anyone who finds the subject of breastfeeding to be gross or...

July 2018

July 21, 2018

9 Rejected VBS Themes

I'm admittedly not the biggest proponent of Vacation Bible School as a ministry strategy....

July 11, 2018

Apologies to ABERYSTWYTH and People Who Love It

Okay, I admit it. I was wrong. I'm sorry. Sorry, sorry, sorry. I take it...

July 10, 2018

A Friendly Letter to the United Methodist Hymnal Revision Committee

Dear UM Hymnal People, I don't know any of you personally, but let me tell...

July 06, 2018

How Bad Worship Drove Me To Kill My Best Friend

One reason why we Christians argue so much about which hymn to sing, which liturgy...

July 05, 2018

The Cult of Cafeteria Worship The Most Difficult Lie Green Like Golf. Or Whatever....

June 2018

June 29, 2018

What If the Last Words of Christian Martyrs Were Bethel Worship Lyrics

Just for fun. "You're never gonna let, You're never gonna let me down, You're never...

June 28, 2018

A Prayer for Those Forced to Listen to Contemporary Christian Music in the Car

I have a feeling many of us have been there. You know what I'm talking...