John D. Witvliet

Q. Why is the musical repertoire in our church so limited? We sing only about fifty of the top choruses and hymns. I tire of singing the same songs all the time. —British Columbia

Q. Worship services in our church are so fast-paced that I can barely keep up. What’s the big rush? —California

Q. What makes a piece of music durable? —Mississippi A.Some factors that contribute to durability are fairly objective: music must be singable and interesting, texts must be true and memorable. Generally, songs with comparatively trite or idiosyncratic rhythms, melodies, or texts become dated in a hurry, as do songs that are dependent on a certain cultural context.

Q. Each week in worship, we read from both the Old Testament and the New Testament. Sometimes the New Testament readings are direct fulfillments of the Old Testament prophecy that is read. Sometimes these passages seem entirely unrelated. Why? A. First, I’m happy to hear that you have those two readings each week. This is a wonderful way of ensuring that the congregation is exposed to a balanced diet of biblical readings. It gives a sense of God’s actions over time.

Q. In our congregation, we’re spending a lot of time and money on the worship service. But don’t we worship in all of life? Why do we put so much energy into the worship service? Q. If we show up on Sunday morning to “worship,” why is there so much opposition to singing worship songs? Isn’t that the whole point? 

Sermons on praise in the narrow sense (Ps. 95) and on worship in all of life (Rom. 12) are immensely important to preach. But suppose that you want to preach about the worship service, the liturgy, the event of gathering in Jesus’ name (see the article "On Three Meanings of the Term Worship"). Perhaps worship has become a source of conflict in your congregation. Perhaps you want to deepen the congregation’s experience of common worship. To preach about worship, what text would you preach? Where in Scripture would you look?

Q. Our worship coordinator has hccn stressing the importance of our visual appearance as we lead worship. She's been asking us for a lot more smiles. But I think she crossed a line when she said, "You can always tell when people are worshiping." I'm uncomfortable with this emphasis on appearance. What do you make of this? —Michigan

Q. We have conflict on our worship team that is very frustrating to our congregation. What have other churches done to work with this? —Ontario A. To my surprise, this is the most frequently asked question we receive here at the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship. Perhaps this is the inevitable result of having many more people involved in worship leadership than a generation ago. Three primary strategies appear to be the most common and helpful.

Q. Just what may go on the communion table? Flowers? Offering plates? Open Bibles? Fake communion bread?—Michigan

Q. I worry that when I lead the congregation in prayer I often use language that sounds like cliché. My skills with words don’t match my desire to lead people with imagination and fervor. What can I do? —British Columbia