David W. Manner's Blog: Worship Evaluation, page 5
July 14, 2021
July 12, 2021
Is Hallmark Planning Your Worship Services?
Some congregations and even entire denominations have not embraced the Christian calendar as foundational to their worship planning and implementation out of concern that it is too rigid, routine, or orthodox. In their desire to be non-liturgical, however, some have in fact created their own liturgy framed by Hallmark or denominational and civic calendars.
The desire for worship creativity has caused some congregations to look elsewhere, believing annual celebrations promote monotony and conf...
June 23, 2021
June 21, 2021
Worship Leader: You’re an Usher, Not the Bride
Most Protestant churches have rejected the old covenant practice of recognizing priests as a special class of religious hierarchy. Even though some congregations have retained the title, their priestly function is often a pastoral role as ministers rather than as interceders. The belief that someone else must mediate our relationship with God for us or dispense God’s grace to us was set aside through the foundational doctrine of the priesthood of every believer.
If worship leadership is alway...
June 9, 2021
June 7, 2021
The Anxiety of Ministry on the Other Side of a Pandemic
Those of us who plan and lead church ministries each week entered 2021 with mixed emotions of both hope and apprehension. We were hopeful that we might again fire up our favorite ministries but apprehensive about which ones actually survived the hiatus.
This last year required us all to make some radical adjustments to how we planned and led ministry each week. As a result, most have realized that how we will lead those ministries in the future will never again be exactly how we led them before...
June 2, 2021
May 19, 2021
May 17, 2021
The Narcissism of Worship My Way
We are created in God’s image, not God in ours. When we worship we must acknowledge that we aren’t starting the conversation. Instead, God began the dialogue and is inviting us to join it.
Our worship proclaims, enacts, and sings God’s story. If our worship is truly in spirit and truth, then it must reflect who God is, not necessarily just what we want. When we focus on what we need, deserve, and prefer, the attention of our worship is always on us. But when we focus on what God desires, t...
May 12, 2021
Worship Word Wednesday
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