Singing Justice and Lament: Two New Albums from The Porter’s Gate
This blog is co-authored by David Bjorlin and Adam Perez. David is a worship pastor at Resurrection Covenant Church (Chicago), a lecturer in worship at North Park Theological Seminary (Chicago), and a published hymnwriter. Adam is a doctoral student in liturgical studies at Duke Divinity School. It didn’t take long for The Porter’s Gate’s […]
18th of August 2020
COVID-19 & Singing – An Update Based on Current Research
INTRODUCTION There are currently research teams across the world working on identifying how COVID-19 spreads and how to best protect the population from contracting the virus. Two ongoing studies are particularly focusing on music-making, which is what we will reference in this summary article. Before continuing, a few important considerations: The author of this article […]
15th of June 2020
Even When I Can’t See It You’re Working: The Overlooked Authorship of “Way Maker” by Sinach
Guest blogger Anneli Loepp Thiessen is an active song leader, researcher, classical musician, and music educator. She is set to begin her PhD in Interdisciplinary Music Research at the University of Ottawa in September, 2020, where she received her Masters of Music in Piano Performance. The Rise of “Way Maker” On February 17, […]
30th of April 2020
Streaming Copyright Questions
Guest blogger David Schaap is the president of Selah Publishing Co., Inc. based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Questions about Streaming Copyright There have been many questions on social media about copyright for streaming or posting on YouTube your church services and other church events where music is performed, and hopefully this will give you some answers […]
29th of April 2020
God Moves in a Mysterious Way
Author Ginny Chilton Maxwell is Music Minister at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Hampton, VA God Moves in a Mysterious Way: Doing Music Ministry During a Pandemic How does one do music ministry from home, when the church is closed and choirs cannot gather? The answer is, you spend the first week or two scrambling […]
6th of April 2020
An Architect’s View: Architecture for Hymn Singing
This post, written by Edward Anders Sövik, was originally published in the peer-reviewed journal The Hymn in 1990. As with many topics concerning the church’s song as well as the field of architecture, the advice and wisdom written remains true many years later. A beginning in the understanding of church architecture is the recognition […]
25th of March 2020
COVID CAROLS
That’s right…these are carols (new texts set to familiar Christmas Carol tunes) for the Covid-19 pandemic. DOWNLOAD COLLECTION* *UPDATED 4-2-2020 Introduction & Guidelines In this time of fear, anxiety, and isolation, the concept of caroling might seem trite, ridiculous, or even inappropriate. We’ll let history decide which of the three it might be. But for […]
Rise Up: Songs of the Women’s Movement
Author Ginny Chilton Maxwell is Music Minister at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Hampton, VA A new PBS documentary highlights songs from the women’s movement. Do any of them work as congregational songs? In the month of February we celebrated Black History Month in our churches, homes, and communities. […]
10th of March 2020
Corona Virus & Congregational Song
Last Sunday at my little congregation in Baltimore, the pastor decided that for the passing of the peace we would encourage people to say “peace be with you,” bow, wave, jazz hands…anything but touch. We made it clear that this was not out of panic, but out of thoughtful precaution. Although not hugging and shaking […]
2nd of March 2020
Consumerism and Congregational Song: Part II
Blogger David Bjorlin is a worship pastor at Resurrection Covenant Church (Chicago), a lecturer in worship at North Park Theological Seminary (Chicago), and a published hymnwriter. In my previous blog post, I argued that, for most people in the United States, consumerism is one of the most prevalent forces that drives our national economy and […]
