Looking back at 2014

Ponder Anew’s Top 5 Posts of 2014

This week on Ponder Anew, we are counting down the top 5 posts of 2014, while Jonathan rests his brain and awaits a liturgical and personal Epiphany. Be sure to check this post each day to see the next one in the list. Or, better yet, like us on Facebook, and see the list there!

5. Dear Traditional Worshipers

4. Killing the Church with Sunday School

3. 11 Reasons to Stop Offering Different “Worship Styles”

2. 9 Reasons to Keep the Church Choir Alive

1. 15 Reasons Why We Should Still Be Using Hymnals

A Few of My Own Favorites

These are three of my own personal favorite posts that didn’t make the top 5 cut.

Beautiful Church in an Ugly World

Churches, stop trying to get butts in the seats and start telling your story

Will changing the way we worship save the church?

Best Comments

I would add one more reason why we should still be using hymnals under the “practical” category. Children learn to sing hymns with help from their parents. This past Sunday I witnessed three different sets of families where one of the parents placed their hymnal low enough for the child next to them to sing and the parent’s finger was sliding along the text and music so the child could learn to use a hymnal. This parent/child worship teaching interaction cannot happen when only screens are used. Stan, on 15 Reasons We Should Still be Using Hymnals

Also, why does worship have to have such an agenda all the time? Can’t it just be modeled after Mary’s “waste” of oil? We worship God for who God is – who are we to demand that there be some magic result every Sunday. It isn’t quid pro quo. We are not in the incantation business, and worship shouldn’t be thought of that way. Neither should the primary purpose be evangelism. When we make evangelism the entire be-all and end-all of our efforts, then every service is judged by the response or lack of conversions. I remember in younger days spending hours making sure that every detail of the service was polished, giving my best efforts as a personal sacrifice, only to be disappointed that no one “walked the aisle.” The first time I worked in a church where WORSHIP was the primary function of worship, where the efforts of the church musicians was not tied to the spiritual responses of visitors, was a wonderful moment. – Timothy Michael Powell, on Why You Should Stop Leading the Worship Music You Think I Hate: A Response to “The Fools”

The first pastor I worked for out of college, as a music/youth leader in the SBC, gave me Hustad’s “True Worship.” I read it cover to cover, and found myself disagreeing often with what I perceived as a grumpy old stalwart. But it was too late: I had read too much. My ever growing cognitive dissonance with contemporary worship was grossly accelerated, and his teachings opened my mind to an entire world of doxological beauty I had previously written off. This book altered my trajectory and motivated me to continue digging deeper. Five years later, I left the “worship leader” gig as a post-evangelical to join the Lutheran church as a cantor. What a journey. – Miguel, on Different Services, Different Theology

Corporate worship is not about evangelism. That’s a fundamental misunderstanding over a century in the making. Evangelism may be a byproduct of worship gatherings, but it can’t be the main thing, or you can’t really call it a worship service. The kingdom mission begins when we are sent out into the world. It’s probably been 12-14 years ago that I first heard this… DUH! And it still hits me every time. Do we welcome visitors? I hope so!! But worship is where God meets us, feeds us with his Word and Body, renews us through those gifts. Forgiven, we leave to share the news with the world. – Jenny Knutson, on 11 Reasons to Stop Offering Different “Worship Styles”

Jonathan’s Reading List

Here are a few books on worship, some brand new, others a little less new, that I’ll be reading in the new year.

A Word of Thanks

Thank you so much for all your reading and sharing over the past months. The state of corporate worship in the contemporary church is concerning to say the least, but there seems to be a new push to rediscover historic Christian worship and its radical relevance in 2015. This is cause for excitement and celebration.

So, let’s continue the conversation.

Blessings to you, friends.