June 2001

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

When I began working at the LOFT, the worship staff at the college agreed on a worthy goal: to embrace with both arms, and to lift up with both hands, the practice of singing the Psalms—a challenging task in a very contemporary setting. These are notes from a number of different Sundays recording the variety of ways we have tried to use the prayer book of God’s people in our worship.

10/14 Post Rehearsal

I remember being envious once, in pre-Web days, of a pastor friend who was showing me the Bible software he had just purchased. He could look up any passage in an instant, search for multiple uses of a particular word, even pull up two different Bible translations side by side on his computer. The tables were turned recently when I told him of two popular websites that offered all those Bible study tools and more—for free.

http://bible.gospelcom.net

Here are fourteen principles for becoming a better keyboard improviser in a worship setting. For more complete musical instruction with notated musical examples illustrating the points, visit www.worshipinfo.com.

Toronto: United Church Publishing House, 2000. The United Church of Canada, 3250 Bloor Street West, Suite 300, Etobicoke, ON M8X 2Y4. 1-877-252-2552. Three-ring binder, 766 pp. $49.95 US. CD-ROM has downloadable text as well as biblical and topical indexes (i.e. no search capacity).

Gives Reformed Worship to Seminary Students

Thank for sending copies of Reformed Worship to give to my seminary students in “Dynamics of Christian Worship,” a course I teach at Bethel Seminary of the East. I wanted to supply the students with some practical resources as well as a solid biblical and theological foundation. I have enjoyed Reformed Worship for several years. Thank you for your fine publication and your commitment to ministry.

Conferences

Authentic Worship in a Changing World

A one-day leadership training seminar led by Robert Webber. Contact the Institute for Worship Studies, Box 894, Wheaton, IL 60189; 630-510-8905;
fax 630-510-0601; website:
http://members.aol.com/worshipweb

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Anyone who’s been reading Reformed Worship for the last three years could hardly miss the fact that a new contemporary hymnal is in the making. We solicited new worship songs in RW 48 (June 1998), and in every issue since, we’ve introduced new songs from the hymnal in the column “Songs for the Season.” Now Sing! A New Creation is almost ready, and we look forward to launching it at COLAM 2001, the worship conference to be held in Wheaton, Illinois, on July 7-10.

Download this 4pg/40k document which has been saved in the PDF file format. It requires the free Adobe Acrobat Reader application or browser plug-in which allows you to view, navigate, and print PDF files across all major computing platforms. Don't have the reader application or plug-in? Get it from Adobe.