Worship Matters

After posting this earlier today, I had another thought about training our children to worship God. "Worshipping God" means different things at different ages. Younger children, who may not know God yet, may still participate enthusiastically in various external forms of worshipping God. However, we want their worship to be from the heart, and not [...]

This is a topic that is more related to parents than congregational worship leaders, but I thought it was worth addressing. Helen wrote in to ask about recent experiences she’s been having with her children at home. She’s noticed a decreased lack of fervor in her 8 and 9 year old as they meet in [...]

I’m continuing my summary of the chapters from Isaac Watts A Guide to Prayer, which is enriching my communication with God. Today, I’m reviewing Chapter 3, The Grace of Prayer. Watts distinguishes the gift and the grace of prayer in this way: “The gift chiefly consists in a readiness of thought appropriate to the various [...]

Dave Wilcox, the technical director from my church has started a blog that I couldn’t recommend highly enough. I’ve known Dave for about seven years, and he’s been on staff here at Covenant Life Church for five years. He completed his degree in 1998 in Audio Engineering and Visual Media Communication at American University and [...]

“But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’" (Luke 18:13) Yesterday morning Chris Silard, one of our pastors, preached a message from Luke 18:9-14 on the Pharisee and the tax collector. It was wonderfully convicting [...]

This question comes from Joe. I appreciated his desire to grow in the often neglected skill of singing. How can a pastor-to-be improve his voice to be prepared to lead congregational singing if he is called to a small church where he is the sole staff member? I took the liberty of asking some of [...]

Yesterday I shared my burden for giving more attention to the way we pray, both publicly and privately. This is an area I very much want to grow in. For that reason I picked up Isaac Watts’ A Guide to Prayer. I’ve been so encouraged by it, I wanted to give you a synopsis of [...]

While I was in India, I finished reading A Guide to Prayer, by the well known hymn writer, Isaac Watts. I was impressed by his humble, practical, and biblical approach to this topic that is more often discussed than done. I’ve asked Mark Mullery to address the issue of praying publicly at this year’s WorshipGod06 [...]

It’s a funny thing coming back from India…My body still thinks I’m taking a nap when I go to sleep at night, so I wake up every two hours thinking it’s time to get up. I’m sure I’ll adjust eventually… There are many things I’m looking forward to discussing on the blog in the coming [...]

This comes from the prayer “Reproofs” in The Valley of Vision: Teach me how to take reproofs from friends,Even though I think I do not deserve them;Use them to make me tenderly afraid of sin,More jealous over myself, More concerned to keep heart and life unblameable.Cause them to help me reflect on my want of [...]

I’m back in the States now, and grateful that God returned me safely to my family. They are too. On the flight home, I had time to think about what most impacted me from my time in India. I have so many fond memories, so many moments when I was aware of God’s Spirit at [...]

Well, I’m sitting here in a hotel in Mumbai, India, waiting to head home. I was unable to post yesterday, because the Internet café near our hotel was closed for the Hindu holiday, Holi. Yesterday, I finished the final two sessions with these precious pastors from Northern India. I spoke on How Do We Sing [...]

Well, I thought I might make it back to the States without any health issues, but I thought wrong. I suspected last night that something was going on in my stomach, but hoped that God would keep it under control. For His own reasons, He didn’t. I’ll spare you the details, but it wasn’t pretty. [...]

I’m typing this from Bharuch, India, in the state of Gujurat in the northwest part of India. We arrived yesterday evening, after spending the previous night in Mumbai (Bombay). When we got to Bharuch, we were rushed into a Christian concert, being held in the center of town. Larry and I were recognized as special [...]

Well, our three day worship conference for Indian pastors and worship leaders connected with Love-N-Care Ministries is over. I’ll warn you – this is a long post. I began by reviewing all we had covered in the previous two days. This was partly so that men would remember it, and partly because pastors were still [...]