"...when we reach back to sing a song written generations before us, we participate in a form of worship that cuts across time itself!" Just before the service that I was leading yesterday, a wonderful elderly saint came to encourage me in my role of leading the worship, as I've been doing these past several months at my new church. In doing so, she also added that she wished we did a hymn regularly, because people love those songs for their richness. Now, I wholeheartedly agree with her. And at first, I was taken aback. You see, my team and I do take pains to ensure that our weekly song sele ..read more

by Dr. David Squires. What we do as worship leaders can be described in various ways: how do I describe my calling and vocation within the Church? Well… I’m a leader, a planner, a designer… Constance Cherry’s two great books on worship and music call me an architect! These can be helpful descriptors, but... are titles really important? What do they signify, and what do they not? In recent years the word curator – a term from the world of the art gallery or museum – has become more commonplace in a variety of settings. People speak of curating their office space, their social media spaces, or e ..read more

If you hadn't noticed it already, our Western culture has really shaped us for living for the moment. We live from event to event in an attempt to bring either excitement, pleasure, or even meaning to our lives. We make "bucket lists" of things to experience before we "kick the bucket." An insightful philosopher (Garth from Wayne's World) exhorted us to "live in the now." Robyn Williams, in Dead Poet's Society, told us to Carpe Deum (seize the day). Even way back in the 1980's Loverboy expressed the goal of a generation that Everybody's Working For The Weekend. All of this largely comes out of ..read more

In our COVID isolation season, it seems like almost overnight our world has transformed into a largely ‘cyber' community For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 1 Cor. 13:12 In our COVID isolation season, it seems like almost overnight our world has transformed into a largely ‘cyber’ community as young and old explore the joys (and frustrations) of video call solutions like Zoom, FaceTime, Skype, Hangouts, and a plethora of others. Yet, it hasn’t taken very long to realize that, whil ..read more

"On key or off, our songs of praise rise as a sweet incense to the King of Glory..." At any given Christian gathering, you will likely find that music, or more specifically singing, is given a large chunk of the time allotted. We take it as a ‘given’ that we sing in church. It’s just something we all do, isn’t it? As a weekly leader of Sunday worship for many years, I have often cast a look around the gathering and noted that many strongly committed believers are simply standing during times of sung worship. Is the key too high? Too low? Is the tune unfamiliar? Why aren’t they singing? Now, I ..read more

One of the criticisms aimed at God from outside (and sometimes from within) the Church is that in times of pain, God seems distant and aloof. They ask in their anger or despair, “How would God understand what I’m going through?”. There are definitely seasons in life when the rug is pulled from under our feet and everything in the natural part of our being cannot see past our fear, our anger, even our grief. Yet, it’s hard to imagine a better way of helping us understand God’s amazing love for us than to realize that he has actually identified with his Creation by pouring himself into it in the ..read more

"Peace is not the absence of conflict"... (Martin Luther King, Jr.) As we find ourselves in the season of Advent – the time before Christmas where we reflect on Jesus’ first coming and prepare ourselves for his second, this week’s focus is on Peace. Yet, peace has seemed an elusive entity throughout history. Take, for example, the famous statement made by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in 1938, who waved a white paper to the crowd as he stepped down from the aircraft, believing that he had secured “peace in our time” by having Adolph Hitler sign a piece of paper agreeing to no fur ..read more

"What if we saturated our people with the sound of holy words upon our ears, and let them sink deep within us to evoke spiritual growth?" Over the years I've come to observe the interesting relationship that exists among Evangelicals (myself among them) between worship services and God's word. Historically, commitment to believing God's word has been at the core of who we are. Yet, much like corporate prayer, the actual use of scripture in, and to help form, services seems to have taken a back seat to the dual pillars of music and preaching (even though both are still very necessary). In fact ..read more

"...rather than choosing one over the other, we begin to see that both need to coexist as an expression of Biblical worship..." If you spend any time at all sitting around with worship musicians, you are likely to encounter an ever-raging debate regarding two priorities. On one hand, there are those who champion the fact that worship in church should be excellent. Yet, across the table someone is bound to passionately argue back that the quality of music pales compared to what they will refer to as authenticity. The latter is a bit of a buzzword in church music circles generally, stemming fro ..read more

"But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me. O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore." Ps. 131:2-3 There is a kind of rest that is needed deep in our souls. More than ever, we tend to seek solitude from the storms of life that present themselves, both near and far. But it's not found where I thought it might be. Many things have been spinning through my mind and my heart these past days: newborn grand-twins still in ICU; two upcoming conferences and much travel this week; and resolving relational ..read more