Yesterday at Knox Presbytery (CREC), we had a good discussion surrounding the issues of “seeker sensitive” worship and “seeker sensible” worship, a discussion that flowed into the evening. Here are just a couple of quick comments about it. First, my operating assumption is that the worship service on Sunday morning should be structured for believers, …
Five More Volleys on Effeminate Worship
A short while ago I posted something about effeminate worship that has since that time excited some comment. The original piece was here, and you can see a couple of responses here and here. This is not so much a point-by-point refutation as it is getting out a wetvac to clear up some misunderstandings. Once …
Your Worship Service Might Be Effeminate If . . .
For a number of interesting reasons, Christian worship in the West has become increasingly effeminate. Leon Podles outlines some of these historical reasons in his fine book, The Church Impotent. Ann Douglas makes a fine addition to the discussion in her book, The Feminization of American Culture. To emphasize masculinity in worship is not a …
Golden Barnacles
After several weeks in Central Europe and the UK, Nancy and I are headed home today. Jiggety jig, as they say. We have had a glorious time, and have seen a bunch of the sights, particularly those of interest with regard to the Reformation. We have been to the church in Cambridge where the first …
When the Other Guy Is Missing His Camel
One of the reasons Christians get tangled up in worship wars is that they fail to realize that something can be relatively unimportant theologically, but still be of immense practical importance. And then, when they realize that “something important” is going on when it comes to this practice, and conflict has started to heat up …
Saying Amen on the Fly
I was recently asked a practical question about my approach to the prayer book tradition. For services at Christ Church, I write out most of my prayers beforehand — for the call to worship, the prayer of confession, the prayer for illumination, and the closing prayer. There are a couple of other prayers that I …
Druid Lesbian Softball Coaches
What could be the basis of making fun of other people’s liturgical or ritual religious practices? Isn’t the Lord’s vineyard a big place, and so where do we get off making fun of the color of the bag that some other laborers are using to put the grapes in? Isn’t that a bit churlish? Well, …
Amen and Amen
Amen is probably the most universally-used and universally-recognized word throughout the world. Each of us probably uses it daily, and perhaps we even understand it. But when we consider what it means, and consider how we usually say it, or respond to it, we may have to reevaluate. Jerome commented that in the early church, …
Welcome to the Covenant
Welcome to the Covenant from Darren Doane on Vimeo.
That’s the Way You Do It
This morning Nancy and I had the privilege of worshipping with the saints at Christ the Word in Toledo, Ohio. What a wonderful group of believers — as I told a group of their college-aged members at lunch, it is clearly, manifestly, obviously, a healthy church. It was an honor to worship together with them, …