A decade ago, after years of asking the question, “What does it mean for the gospel to form and shape Christians in worship?”, I was introduced to the deep work of Thomas Cranmer in answering this question in his time and place. People might mistakenly believe that the first versions of the Book of Common Prayer—products of his architecture—are merely translations of earlier Christian liturgies from Latin to English. They aren’t. They’re a transposition. If you pay close attention, comparing the original texts and practices he was working with, you find subtle and not-so-subtle changes he mad ..read more

Since the release date, I’ve talked to many worship leaders out there who tell me they’ve wanted to check out The Worship Pastor but that they do most of their “reading” through audiobooks. Makes sense to me! We’ve all got different learning styles and modes of comprehension. A few years ago, I asked my publisher if we could make The Worship Pastor into an audiobook, and their kind reply was basically, “Hey, great idea. Let’s see how the book does before we take that next step.” Well, the readers have spoken. I’ve been blown away by how well this pretty narrow book has been ..read more

The call to fasting and repentance is as ancient as the prophets. Just read Joel 2. There’s nothing like a good fast to, like a defibrillator, shock the unbeating heart of our spirit out of its flatline. However, of monumental, make-or-break importance is to recognize that the season of Lent is far more about Jesus and far less about us. If we fast, we fast to remember the fasting of Jesus in the wilderness, in order to, in a tangible way, “be found in him.” And it is precisely Paul’s point in Philippians that being “found in him” means that we recognize that we are found not in ..read more

*NOTE: This post was written in 2014, but it no longer appears on the site to which it was originally published, so I’ve republished it here. Second Great Awakening Spirituality The idea of “surrender” is prominent in evangelical spirituality. Especially after the Second Great Awakening, it became a leading metaphor to summarize the conversion experience. Preachers would urge the unconverted to “give up and surrender to Jesus.” One of the songs that continues to get airplay as an “old hymn” today, “I Surrender All,” emerged out of the spiritual climate heavily influenced by the leading metapho ..read more

The Bee Does it Again I saw the Bee’s wonderful post today, “Federal Judge Orders Chris Tomlin to Stop Adding Choruses to Perfectly Good Hymns.” Always funny; always satirically insightful. I sympathize greatly. Though not a hymn purist (as you will see below), I am sympathetic to the hymn purists’ arguments. Sometimes, when choruses are added to perfectly good hymns, they are added in a careless manner, insensitive to the hymn text, theology, poetry, and authorial intent. Sometimes, it feels like choruses are just tacked on to make it “feel modern,” because twenty first century worshipers, aw ..read more

At least in my worship circles, I don’t hear a lot of people talking about Robert Jenson, senior Lutheran theologian with a particular talent for writing which is both concise and evocative. But too many of my friends keep bringing him up to me, and I could no longer avoid setting his work aside for other books in my queue. And so I have come across a marvelous chapter on worship in a forgotten yet prescient book of his from 1967, A Religion Against Itself. What follows is a sort of “jam”—an improvisational call and response—to give you a taste of what I found most remarkable about his insight ..read more

So I’m pretty thrilled to see this year’s lineup at the NWLC regional conferences happening this year in Virginia (coming up fast!) and Kansas City. For instance, Lester Ruth, who (along with Swee Hong Lim) just published a NECESSARY brief history of contemporary worship will be speaking. Lester is a scholar with a pastor’s heart and a churchman’s spirit. I trust and believe in this guy. And, though I don’t know her personally, I would especially want to hear what Cheryl Wilson-Bridges has to say. Her books look worth a read! I’ve come to admire and respect the worship leadership and thoughtfu ..read more

The call to fasting and repentance is as ancient as the prophets. Just read Joel 2. There’s nothing like a good fast to, like a defibrillator, shock the unbeating heart of our spirit out of its flatline. However, of monumental, make-or-break importance is to recognize that the season of Lent is far more about Jesus and far less about us. If we fast, we fast to remember the fasting of Jesus in the wilderness, to, in a tangible way, “be found in him.” And it is precisely Paul’s point in Philippians that being “found in him” means that we recognize that we are found not in ourselves, “not ha ..read more

Just yesterday, Reformed Worship put up a post of mine on worship’s boundaries. Next year is the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, and I’ve been thinking a lot about the pastors, thinkers, and theologians who ministered in the wake of Luther’s posting of the 95 theses. One real “aha” moment of my reading of Luther for doctoral work came in the idea that Luther’s articulation of simul iustus et peccator (simultaneously justified and sinful) isn’t merely a statement about the human condition, but a statement about eschatology. In other words, it’s a statement about the cosmic ..read more