Posted by cicw
February 25th, 2009
From Will Willimon’s blog: I hear that a number of our thriving churches are taking a critical look at their “contemporary worship” services – the services that we began over a decade ago that feature electronic, “contemporary” music and images. We appear to be moving to more eclectic, “ancient-future,” blended sorts of services. I’ve sure [...]
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Posted by cicw
February 25th, 2009
From Speaking of Faith: Repossessing Virtue is part of our ongoing series exploring the moral, spiritual, and practical aspects of the economic downturn. We’ve been contacting familiar voices of wisdom and insight, and asking them a series of questions about the current economic climate. continued …
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Posted by cicw
February 25th, 2009
From Alban Weekly: Every congregation experiences conflict, even though each one does so in unique ways. The sources of conflict may vary from the micro to the macro–from intrapersonal pathologies to personality differences to globalization forces–but over time they are inescapable. Various studies have shown that organizational leaders and managers spend up to 25 percent [...]
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Posted by cicw
February 24th, 2009
Posted by Betty Grit: Following a major winter storm, the sun shone brightly on Sunday morning and people gathered for worship at Tabernacle Community Church. Led by a gifted and enthusiastic team of musicians, we praised God and expressed our submission to him. Pastor Marvin Williams observed that the music tills our souls to make [...]
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Posted by cicw
February 24th, 2009
Posted by Betty Grit: On a cold, snowy Friday evening in February more than 80 people of all ages representing 24 congregations gathered at Pathway Ministries to begin the “Taking Your Church Music Program to the NEXT LEVEL” seminar. Some had traveled for several hours and all were eager to join in worship through music [...]
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Posted by cicw
February 19th, 2009
Find Ash Wednesday resources at the new Open Sourcebook
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Posted by cicw
February 19th, 2009
Gale Tien of Christian Schools International blogged these reflections on Symposium 2009 at the Nurturing Faith blog: In January 2009, I had the privilege to participate in the Calvin College Symposium on Worship. My role was to be an observer at the day-long gathering of nearly 25 Christian High School Worship/Chapel Committees. This group of [...]
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Posted by cicw
February 19th, 2009
From Alban Weekly: How do congregations make the shift from nostalgia to a new story like neighborhood? What kind of leadership is needed—by pastors and lay leaders—to move beyond the stuck places of “we’ve always done it this way” to a new way of listening for “where are we being led?” Gifted pastors, rabbis, and [...]
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Posted by cicw
February 19th, 2009
From Christianity Today: Parents deciding between religious and public schooling face many unknowns. One of the most important factors is how the schools might affect the faith of their children. Yet for all the debates over education, we know little about the effectiveness of Christian education on the spiritual lives of students. Students at religious [...]
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Posted by cicw
February 19th, 2009
I thought this was a very insightful response by David Koyzis to catapult’s issue on Christians and empire (which itself was very insightful): When I read catapult’s recent issue on empire, my response was admittedly one of ambivalence. Ambivalence, because, on the one hand, there is no doubt that evil works its way into political, [...]
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