One of the great tragedies of the Enlightenment era is that the Bible, God’s story, has been turned into a book of propositional statements. The modern method of learning is to set forth facts and then seek to prove those facts by reason and science. So we turned the elements of God’s story into factual...Read More
IWS faculty member Mark Torgerson presented a workshop at the 2007 Calvin Symposium on Worship on the fundamental influences in church architecture during the twentieth century and the potential value of these designs. Read more for workshop audio, notes and a link to Dr. Torgerson's book.Read More
Northern seminary’s Bob Webber likes to tell this story. One day during his tenure at Wheaton College, a colleague remarked, “Webber, you act like there never was a Reformation.” Bob recalls saying, “You act like there never was an ancient church.” The trick for Protestants, of course, is to hold these two sources of our...Read More
The Phos Hilaron, (literally, light of hilarity, or gladdening light) is probably the most ancient piece of non-scriptural hymnology or ecclesial poetry to have made its way into regular Christian liturgical praxis. It is quite simply a hymn of thanksgiving for light, itself, composed to accompany the daily ritual of the lighting of the lamps...Read More
In every age the Holy Spirit calls the Church to examine its faithfulness to God’s revelation in Jesus Christ, authoritatively recorded in Scripture and handed down through the Church. Thus, while we affirm the global strength and vitality of worldwide Evangelicalism in our day, we believe the North American expression of Evangelicalism needs to be...Read More
The following is the text from a session Connie presented at the Symposium on Worship at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI, January 2006. Session Description: How engaged are the worshipers in your congregation? Do they tend to function as observers or active participants? Learn how to design worship services that invite dynamic participation. Introduction...Read More
Learn how to re-think the meaning of blended worship. No more quotas of hymns and choruses! Instead, learn practical ways to add fullness and depth to your worship by integrating a wide variety of worship expressions, both old and new.Read More
Let this piece serve as an earnest appeal to songwriters: please don’t lose the Trinity as you write songs! Why would I say such a thing? Because my study of the most used contemporary worship songs in the last fifteen years shows that there is a danger our songs reflect love for a god who...Read More
When you study the significance of Christ’s ascension, you have to wrestle with the absence and the presence of Christ. In his human nature Christ is absent, ascended to heaven, seated at the right hand of God the Father. He is in heaven today. But ‘in his divinity, majesty, grace, and Spirit, Christ is not...Read More
It is significant, I think, to note that both the liturgical and contemporary movements, out of opposite histories, recognized the need to prioritize worship as the first thing—or at least, one of the firsts among several equals—that the church must be about. Worship is a first, because it is a source from which the mission...Read More
This article originally appeared in the September 2005 issue of Worship Leader Magazine. Many of you know that I have been struggling with the issue of me-oriented worship. Those of you who have walked this path with me—some agreeing, others disagreeing—are probably saying “Oh no, not another article on the same subject!” Well, yes, but...Read More
And Jesus said, “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:23-24; NIV) Surely this divine desire has...Read More
