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 […]
13th of January 2020
Roman Catholic Song Spectrum
While I am not personally Roman Catholic, I have spent and continue to spend a lot of my time in Roman Catholic spaces, with Roman Catholic musicians, and leading song within/from/of the Roman Catholic church. There are scholars and professionals within the Roman Catholic Church who have found their life’s calling studying and leading Roman […]
6th of January 2020
Why Sing in Worship?
Author – Adam Perez is a doctoral student in liturgical studies at Duke Divinity School. In this blog post, I want to offer some simplified responses to the question, “Why do Christians sing in worship?” My response is not simply my own, but a compilation and summary of a wide variety of church music and […]
18th of December 2019
The Church Is Dying – And I’m Not Bothered
The Church Is Dying This morning I read yet another headline from a denominational news source to the effect of “9 things the church must change immediately so it doesn’t die.” The article was filled with claims of the church’s decline and our impending doom unless, of course, we made the urgent changes the author […]
3rd of December 2019
Questions for the Director – CCLI or Onelicense?
Here’s the next question that I sometimes get from you church musicians and pastors out there. This one is about copyright. I’m sure many of you will relate to the question posed. The Question Dear Brian, I am looking for an answer to why I might need both a CCLI license and […]
21st of November 2019
Lessons & Carols Ideas
We’re grateful for friend of The Center and Hymn Society member Greg Scheer for sharing his document of “Lessons and Carols Brainstorms” that includes general background on this type of service, guidelines and advice on how to pull it off, and specific songs and resources for each lesson. We hope you find it as helpful […]
