It's time for church organists to stop apologizing for their "performance" in worship. For years people have been suspicious of the word "performance," usually reserved for more involved worship music played by well-trained organists. They Ve somehow had the idea that any music included in the service should be simple and ordinary, not complex and technically difficult.
[See accompaniment in All Praise to You Eternal God by Donald Busarow.]
"All Beautiful the March of Days"; "... the year in beauty flows ..." (v. 3)
[PH 292.RL 9]
"As Those of Old Their Firstfruits Brought"; "... but share your love with neighbors, too..."
[PH 414]
"Eternal God, Whose Power Upholds"; "... in speech that flows to melody..." (v. 4)
[PH 412]
One of the greatest musical joys of childhood is singing a round for the first time. What a discovery that "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" can be sung by different voices all beginning at different times!
This book is intended to be the first of a three-volume set. If the other two measure up to the quality of this one, the set will be a valuable reference source for anyone involved in pastoral ministry. The list of contributors to this volume include several dozen of the best-known and most-trusted authors in die field. In addition, scores of other authors provide sidebars and short articles.
"All you've ever wanted to know about baptismal fonts." You will find that and more in Kuehn's book. The text is directed largely at a Roman Catholic audience, and most of the examples are from Catholic churches (except those fonts illustrating immersion, which are borrowed mostly from Baptist churches).
Reformed Worship editorial council member David Winecoff died in a tragic accident while rock climbing in Colorado on August 18. David was 39, and he and his wife Jane have four children, ages 12, 8, 3, and 1. David was pastor of the Providence Reformed Presbyterian Church (PCA) in St. Louis, Missouri, and taught part-time at Knox Theological Seminary in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
No one knows more about the sources and traditions of Reformed worship than Hughes Old. An ordained Presbyterian minister, he has published several major studies of liturgy, including Tlie Patristic Roots of Reformed Worship (1975) and Worship That Is Reformed According to Scripture (1984).
Reformed Worship editorial council member David Winecoff died in a tragic accident while rock climbing in Colorado on August 18. David was 39, and he and his wife Jane have four children, ages 12, 8, 3, and 1. David was pastor of the Providence Reformed Presbyterian Church (PCA) in St. Louis, Missouri, and taught part-time at Knox Theological Seminary in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
In spite of their poignancy and availability, the lament psalms are not much used. If you look in the back of the hymnals of most major Protestant denominations, you will find perhaps Psalm 1, then skip to 8 and 19 and perhaps 22. Even when lament psalms are included, they are not sung much. In Roman Catholic and liberal Protestant usage, most of the lament psalms simply do not exist. (Anglicans use the lament psalms, but set them to such wonderful music that you don't notice what is being said!)
On a cold December evening, sixteen neighborhood, children responded to an invitation to hear the Christmas story at our house. I didn't even know all of them by name, but I invited them because I wanted to test a new way of telling stories I had learned at Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan. I had taken the four-day training session twice. But I was still somewhat skeptical of this children's worship program with its quiet, reverent environment. How could children sit as still as fifty-year-olds to hear God's Word?
