The celebration of Easter gives us Christians a glimpse into the reality of a restored and reconciled creation. Our missional privilege is to participate with heaven in self-sacrificially ushering in the present and future reality of God’s great gathering Kingdom in a soon-to-be transfigured earth.Read More
The role of beauty in worship is the communication and application of the truth and goodness of God that fires our hearts and souls with an intense love of God, and therefore an intense love of all mankind.Read More
We need to ask ourselves: do our liturgies, preaching, sacred arts, sacred buildings, scripture interpretation and presentation, and even our lifestyles of virtue, lift our spirits out of the ordinary and toward God, or do they let us remain in the comfort of the increasingly hostile secular world around us?Read More
All of us are called to a beautiful existence, being priests of, and evangelists to, the created order through Jesus Christ our Lord. A life of beauty is alluring and winsome to our world that is so devoid of such beauty, and living lives of beauty, goodness and truth is truly the hope for our...Read More
All to Jesus, I surrender; all to him I freely give; I will ever love and trust him, in his presence daily live I surrender all, I surrender all, All to Thee, my blessed savior, I surrender all. The well-known and beloved hymn above was written by Judson W. Van DeVenter in the late 19th...Read More
Vision and rapture, form and light work simultaneously to bring us to God. That's the beauty of God in Christ! In being caught up, we see with the eyes of our mind, and in seeing we are caught up to the invisible God.Read More
What is God's Beauty? How can beauty give us hope for the difficult times we face? From Dr. Jim Hart's 1/3/2018 Presidential Address to the community of the Institute for Worship Studies.Read More
Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.” (Luke 2:34, 35) “Impassibilis...Read More
Seeing this fuller meaning of "our daily bread" has altered the way I pray this phrase. I recognize it not only as a prayer for abundant provision for myself, my family and the world's poor, but I also recognize it and reflect on it as a petition for our communion with the Bread of Life,...Read More
Let us give thanks that we have union with God through Christ as members of his mystical Body, proclaiming, singing and enacting the gospel in robust mission that transforms the world into the fullness of Christ’s Kingdom, ushering in the reign of God across the earth.Read More
Spiritual formation takes place only in the womb of the Church. And, worship is famously the source and summit of the spiritual life of the Church.Read More
An excessively culturally accommodating church will try to look so much like the secular world that its participation in and witness to the life of God is diminished or even nullified.Read More
