Lenten Buried Treasures
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. If you’re a worship leader or planner, entering into a new season of the Church Year may find you feeling exhilaration and exhaustion. At least, I know that’s […]
18th of December 2020
Global Gospel: Gospel Music For Dealing With Hardship – Part I
Guest Blogger Austin-Sinclair Harris is a graduate student from Houston, TX. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Texas at San Antonio and is set to obtain a master’s degree in Church Music from Baylor University in December 2020. Introduction Over the course of the semester, I have studied […]
3rd of December 2020
An Open Letter to Pastors During the 2020 Pandemic
Dear pastors, I get it. The stress of 2020 is not only weighing on you from the normal personal levels, but the often-dysfunctional tendencies of your congregation members are being highlighted in particularly poignant ways right now. It’s a “damned if you do and damned if you don’t” kind of year and you’re getting an […]
30th of November 2020
An Advent Hymn from another Time of Conflict
Guest blogger Paul Farseth is a St. Olaf graduate (1964), hymn writer, and member of The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada living in Falcon Heights, Minnesota. “O Savior Tear the Sky Apart” by Friedrich Spee, 1623 (“O Heiland, reiß die Himmel auf”) In Advent, the days beginning four Sundays before […]
26th of October 2020
When the Mountaintop Experience Isn’t Enough
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. It can be a difficult time to be happy in our world. I could run through the list of reasons, but I think most people do not need […]
15th of October 2020
Worship & Anti-Racism: A Beginner’s Resource List
Blogger Brian Hehn is the Director of The Center for Congregational Song. The Original Post On September 25th, I posted this onto my personal FB wall: My heart aches for my black sisters and brothers for yet another result that denies their basic humanness based on the color of their skin. This is […]
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 […]
