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I wish I was making this up. One of the things I find most bothersome about the modern worship movement is the requirement that all participants must fit a certain model. I’m not talking about a general dress code here, or rehearsal guidelines, but an expectation that you look the part. Maintaining a current and commercially appealing brand is contrary to the gospel, and it’s contrary to point of corporate worship. This non-denominational church in Hillsboro, Oregon, pastored by a... Read more

Call to Worship I get comments from a lot of parents (and other adults) who are convinced that the key to keeping their children engaged in church is a service with lots of energy and excitement. These are parents, who usually for the most honorable of reasons believe that they need to put their kids in contemporary worship. After all, it’s easy, it’s entertaining, it seems relevant, and it doesn’t ask for much in return. And then, a sense of... Read more

The worst effect of the worship wars is that they made value-based conversations about worship taboo. They left us with a weird dynamic in which we tiptoe around too afraid to question the wisdom of the prevailing worship trends, lest anyone be offended. And they left us with the sense that we must affirm all styles, especially music, as valid and appropriate. It’s that uncomfortable, whispered, awkward egalitarian dynamic that pushed me to start writing about it and, hopefully, bring... Read more

Two years ago this week, I wrote a post touting the continuing importance and practical usefulness of hymnals, and it became my first viral blog post. It was not the most well-written post. It is not the post I’m most proud of. But for some reason, it resonated with some of you, and it is to this day my most widely read post, with well over a million views. I want to come back to this topic today, but from the... Read more

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past decade, you probably know something about Hillsong. You might not be familiar with their relatively new youth label, Hillsong Young and Free. The description in the online Hillsong retail center says this: More than a label, Young & Free is our message and mission. This is a generation called to stand strong in their youth and in their freedom, refusing to allow others to dismiss them for their age, and... Read more

When words fail, when we don't even know how to pray, we can rest in the glorious reality that Christ himself intercedes for us. Read more

I think that one of the things that bothers me the most about so much of contemporary Christian worship is it’s ugly. It’s just ugly. I don’t get why it attracts people. I don’t get it. And I worry about souls that, and I know this sounds terrible, that are so superficial they’re attracted to that form of worship. I mean, I can’t imagine. You can only be taken in by it if you want to avoid recognizing the terror... Read more

When I was growing up in Baptistland, we used to have this guy come and lead the music for our youth summer camp. His name was Chris Tomlin. This was well before he had hit it big, of course. That kind of music, even as a teenager, didn’t set well with me, and I would frequently slip out the back door for extended bathroom breaks. I thought it was a legit excuse, considering the quality of the food this place... Read more

When I was a kid, the church my family went to had mostly forsaken hymn-singing. Inexplicably, in their giant “worshiptorium,” they left the faded and worn green books to rot in the pew racks for at least ten years after the last time they were collectively opened. Ten years, just sitting there. Even as a kid, hymnals were my favorite books, and even though it wasn’t the greatest collection, it helped me pass the time during a million repetitions of... Read more