It occurred to me the other day that trying to have a conversation with someone deeply committed to “contemporary” pop worship is like interacting with Maria from The Sound of Music: Many a thing you know you’d like to tell her, Many a thing she ought to understand, But how do you make her stay And listen to all you say? How do you keep a wave upon the sand? Because liturgy – or whatever you call a corporate worship... Read more

A few people gave me some light pushback about the title of my last post. They’re pretty much right. Even if your child shows uncanny skill and aptitude for a particular extracurricular activity, they (and you) still need to be in church, because thankfully, being good at something and being a Christian aren’t mutually exclusive. Which is pretty much what I meant to say, anyway, that church is more important. For those of you who can’t seem to find a... Read more

I know it’s too late for this year, but yesterday I had this great idea! Let’s see if we can make Valentine’s Day cards using modern “worship” song lyrics. We all know that they don’t belong in, you know, actual corporate worship, but I think we can still salvage them. I’d hate for the 5 minutes it took to write them to go to waste. Here’s what I came up with. Read more

I say “we” although I’m sure many of you do. But for many of you, the tradition is somewhere between quarterly and monthly, perhaps more, perhaps less. Why? 1. Weekly Communion seems to have been the custom in Holy Scripture. Jesus was the one who instituted the rite to begin with. Himself. The Savior of the world did not institute any other part of liturgy, but he did with the Eucharist. Think about that. Perhaps the letter of Jesus’ institution... Read more

A guest post by Les Lamkin I have been participating Jonathan’s blog for a couple of years now. I have even written a few guest posts for Jonathan.  Over the years, I have seen Contemporary Worship advocates consistently point to purportedly biblical arguments and say, “See, this proves it; Contemporary Worship is biblical.” Unfortunately, the Evangelical church in general, and the Contemporary Worship Movement in particular, seems to be theologically malnourished when it comes to worship. Every excuse for flagrant... Read more

I think it’s a legitimate question. I should probably included a disclaimer here. If you’re not already concerned with bad worship in the church, or if you’re blissfully unaware that such a thing exists, you may not like this post. You should read it anyway, because you need to know. It may very well make you angry. I’m cool with that, of course, but I just thought you should know. I get comments, here and on Facebook, bemoaning how church,... Read more

Apparently as Dan Smith began his sermon this past Sunday, there was a child who made a noise, described by witnesses as little more than a peep. Below is a video of Pastor Dan’s response: “Hey ushers, can you please show them where the nursery is? I don’t want to struggle with a child the whole time, so please help me out. “Okay, let me stop. Just because I just did that, everybody’s freakin’ out because I just said that,... Read more