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 […]
21st of April 2020
Hymn Society Conference Going All-Digital
The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada has announced that its Annual Conference, scheduled for July 12-16, will be an all-digital event. The conference was originally to have been held at Emory University in Atlanta, but in light of the current health crisis, the Executive Committee has decided to embrace the opportunity for […]
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 […]
24th of February 2020
Wandering in the Wilderness
Author – Ginny Chilton Maxwell is Music Minister at Church of the Ascension in Norfolk, Virginia, where she serves as organist, choirmaster, and elementary music teacher. I’m back! I started a new position in August of last year and, while I didn’t plan to take a 6-month hiatus from blogging here at the Center for […]
13th of February 2020
Why won’t people sit through my postlude?
Guest Contributor – Hannah Cruse is the founder of The Church Musician’s Assistant. She has been working in the church music field for a decade and has a Master of Sacred Music from Perkins School of Theology. “Why won’t people sit through my postlude? So rude. I spend hours every week practicing, and […]
