Wednesday Link List

Out of several hundred potential links, these were some things that got my attention this week. Clicking anything below will take you to PARSE, the list’s owner, a blog of Leadership Journal in the Christianity Today family. From there, click the stories you want to see.

• Essay of the Week: A moment-by-moment close-up look at church persecution in China.
• Those polls about church attendance? It seems not everybody is being entirely honest.
• More than just topical vs. exegetical, this author contrasts the larger nuances of Reformed vs. non-Reformed preaching.
• Infographic of the Week: A look at developments in missions and faith in Africa.
• The California wildfires just missed the home of Christian singer and actor Rebecca St. James.
• A report just released shows America’s largest Protestant denomination experienced a 13% decline in baptisms in 2012, the largest decline in 62 years.
• Here are six highlights from the Patheos live event last week concerning Michael Vines’ God and the Gay Christian.
• CNN offers a list of the eight worst places to be a Christian. (And no, Massachusetts isn’t one of them.)
• A Church-planter who knows reviews BiVo, a new book on bi-vocational ministry.
• You’ve seen top 100 blog lists, right? This list — and I don’t know how you’d compile this — presents the top 100 children’s ministry Tweeters.
• Russell D. Moore would say that if there are not people in your church with tattoos, you’re not doing it right.
• At one point, the militants who kidnapped 200+ school girls claimed they had converted. According to different religions, what exactly does converted mean?
• From a front-row seat, Jamie Wright reminds us that not every pastor’s kid has embraced the faith of his or her parents.
• After discovering he’s an “accidental ghostwriter” for some megachurch pastors, the author asks for attribution. One celeb pastor immediately got the source noted in a subsequent edition, while another initially suggested he get over it.
• If the local theater is now the destination of choice for Christian families on the weekend, you might want to see if your kids can handle Alone Yet Not Alone. (Officially, it’s PG-13.)
• Peter Enns describes how an academic honor takes place. (But not any mention if his compensation package changed.)
• According to the latest Pew Research survey, Hispanics are shifting affiliation from Roman Catholic to Protestant or none. Nearly one-in-four are now former Catholics.
• Technically, this link is a bit of an Easter leftover, but you really need to watch the video this local church produced, and what they did after.
• For the second time in their lives, tragedy strikes the family of an Alpha USA leader.
• An essay on the costs and benefits of Christian higher education: What outcomes do we want for our kids?
• Not-Music-Video-of-the-Week: It’s actually an audio demo of six tunes from a Christian-owned recording studio.
• My link list editor interviews my favorite Australian missional/emergent guru. (That’s guru in a good sense.)
• Are youth groups really driving kids away from faith? A look at headlines, polls and research studies.
• Didn’t realize until this week that Jesus has his own website. Actually, Jesus.org is packed with apologetics resources from people you know.
• For H.G. Wells, denying Christianity also meant putting some spin on one of his earlier writings.
• Sometimes the book you think you’ve never heard of is already on your shelf under a different title…
• …and here’s another one of those Top 50 Christian Books lists, and Top 25 Classics.
• The original Christian in Hollywood, Pat Boone is turning 80.
• Book Review: The Third Third of Your Life. (Maybe you’re there already!)
• In a riverside baptism in Puerto Rico, one man drowned and two were rescued.
• Is it possible the Tower of Babel was built in a different location that we thought?
• Similar but different: RBC, the people who produce Our Daily Bread have another devotional website called Our Daily Journey.
• Undated article online: Does your church have a Watchcare ministry? It allows more transient people to be involved in a church without full membership, even as a survey showed that 71% of churches asked prohibit members from joining other churches. (This was a recent Christian radio topic.)
• Billboard awards Chris Tomlin “Top Christian Artist of the Year” for 2014. For readers here, that’s not exactly news.
• In the UK, The Christian Institute is intervening in the case of a 13-year-old who wants an abortion.
• I’m deliberately burying this one near the bottom because the whole thing is so sketchy, but if you missed it: The article about the Richmond, VA home-school prom and the dads who kicked out the girl who was too cute.
• Yes, it’s okay to wear white pants to church after Memorial Day. Wiki Answers says so.
• Comment #20: Yours to do with as you wish. (If it’s on the net, it’s true, right?)
• On my own blog this week, a suggestion that the last decade necessitates a change in how we sort denominations.
• Finally, if dining out, should you pray when the bread or salad arrives, or wait for the main course?

When not hunting down links for you, Paul Wilkinson blogs at Thinking Out Loud, Christianity 201, and Christian Book Shop Talk.

Wednesday List Link

Lloyd the Llink Llist Llama makes his annual January visit

The list is back, though there was a link list on Saturday, December 28th at both Out of Ur and Thinking Out Loud you can scroll back to. If you caught that one, then you’re ready to kick off another year of link love. First, about the picture, it’s one of the “winners” — if you can call them that — of the Worst Christian Book Covers for 2013. (Click the link, then work your way to number one.) I don’t know where they found these — though this might help — but the list for 2012 did contain some you might recognize.  The rest of the links here will switch over once Out of Ur goes live with the list.

• Ever been through a church split? Turns out atheist churches have them, too.
• Calories, cavities and Christian music all in a single drink? Pepsi Mid-America produced 12 millions cans of sanctified soda.
• Remember when you missed a few weeks of Sunday School and the teacher would phone you to see if you’re okay? Maybe they should do that for public figures who skip church. (Someone won’t be getting a gold bar on their Cross and Crown pin.) (Is this article related?)
• “It is startling to see people who are supposedly in their peak earning years instead walking the unemployment line. Worse, the likelihood of such folks returning to the income level they enjoyed prior to being let go runs just about to zero.” What’s your church’s response?
• Chris Tomlin sells gazillions of albums and song downloads each year, but as he tells CT, each of the songs begin in a local church setting.
• Which makes this as good a place as any to introduce some 2014 resolutions for worship leaders.
• This may or may not be a good time to be a female academic at Cedarville University.
• If I could squeeze in one last “new year” article, it would be Shane Claiborne’s 14 Hopes for ’14.
• Here’s a response to everybody out there who’s into bashing megachurches.
• On the other hand, here’s a rather clever article titled 7 Thoughts on Becoming a Better Hater.
• Meanwhile, a group of Satanists in Oklahoma City want to make Satan a little more user-friendly.
• Even though it’s not getting the same attention as a published book, at least one blogger is looking closely at Rob Bell’s What is the Bible online series.
• A Catholic priest and a Lutheran walk into a bar… Okay, it was actually a Krispy Kreme store.
• Andy Stanley explains why he’s not a prosperity preacher, even though he has a new book titled, How To Be Rich.
  
• Also at Religion News Service, a list of five major films destined to make 2014 the year of the Bible movie.
• Our Essay of the Week is actually a book review, and not a favorable one at that. Sample: “If Disneyland were a church, Joel Osteen would be its pastor.”
• Which is as good a place as any to suggest you check out this .pdf of Skye Jethani’s Ten Commandments for Interpreting Scripture.
• A member of a Presbyterian church search committee describes how the process looks from that side — “collectively trying to locate a particular tree in a forest while blindfolded” — and some things her church did right.
• This just in: The Bible is not God.
• Some people on Twitter have way too much time on their hands. (There’s a new thing like this every 3-4 days, too.)
• Matt Chandler guests at World Magazine, with an appeal to churches to get engaged in the abortion battle.
• In today’s flight of fancy, Oprah is to Jesus what the usual show guest is to the woman at the well. (Easier to click than for me to explain it again.)
• And now for something completely different. It’s a letter from a church. Maybe your church. But this requires some multiple choice work on your part.
• An atheist woman and her daughter will attend your church if you’re the highest bidder. It’s Jim and Casper Go To Church and I Sold My Soul on Ebay all over again.
• Blog Discovery of the Week: Calling himself a “future bestselling author,” Wade Webster is re-writing his way through some classic Old Testament stories. (No specific link; your tour will be self-guided.)
• This meets my definition of the completely shallow news story. (And by the way, my church is bigger than your church.)
• The runner up: Liberal limericks.
• On the other hand, a picture you don’t want to see in a story you don’t want to read.
• This article on rescuing sex slaves looks interesting, but I chose not to sell out my Twitter account in order to finish it. (The publisher is a rather prolific manufacturer of email, so that won’t work either.)
• In Christian music news, the talk is DCTalk, and a 20th anniversary reunion tour.
• Finally, if you’re looking to do more online discovery, BibleGateway.com reveals the charter membership roll in its new Bible Gateway Blogger Grid.

Wednesday Link List

Not many weird religious news stories this week; try to do something stupid over the next few days, okay?  This is a link list without links. To see them click over to Out of Ur. As for the above graphic, you need to listen to Phil Vischer Podcast…

• According to a CNN story, the head of Christian Copyright Licensing Inc. claims that Chris Tomlin is the most prolific songwriter in the United States right now.
• Personally, I thought my alternative ending to John MacArthur’s Strange Fire Conference would have been an interesting touch…
• …but of course, truth is always stranger than fiction.  While I first read about Mark Driscoll crashing the party, I’d not heard James MacDonald’s name mentioned until this.
• Two pieces on the subject of porn: Eric Simmons at Desiring God with I Hate Porn, and Tim Challies offering some preventative measures with The Porn-Free Family.
• Did you see marathon swimmer Diana Nyad talking to Oprah? Is it possible to be an atheist and still be “in awe?”
• Short Essay of the Week: What if modern technology permitted Biblical education to take place individually, and the place we gather weekly was for interaction, coaching, personal support and prayer? Be sure to read David Morrow’s The Flipped Church.
• Medium Essay of the Week: Dancing as “keeping in step with the Spirit;” a metaphor for a life of faith, unless of course you believe that, “the praying knee can’t belong to a dancing leg.”
• A Minnesota Pastor takes 20% of the revenue from a land deal and creates entrepreneurial opportunities for young people. Read the original CT article and this response (with video).
• Most Provocative Title: From Catholic writer Tony Agnesi, are you Living Your Resumé or Your Eulogy?
• Starting Over: For Jon Acuff, this particular blog represents Day Zero.
• Academic Article of the Week: We all know what the gospel is, but if you’re studying alternative texts, what exactly is a gospel?
• …and aggregate the Tweets of some well-known Christian academics, and you might find yourself reading Bible Gateway Bible Profs News.
• Kid Min Corner: Unlike many children’s DVD series, Phil Vischer didn’t stop at the end of Acts. So what themes from Paul’s letters did he feel were worthy of inclusion in a kids video?
• Youth Ministry Corner: Apparently some parents would rather just write a check to pay for missions trips, and the kids don’t want to do fundraising, either.
• Know any Aspies? That’s a term for people with Asperger’s Syndrome; people for whom the church can feel like an alien place.
• The blog Sliced Soup found this 18-month old guide to Hebrew pronunciation of YHWH, but as it turns out the video channel it’s from is a goldmine of instruction in Ancient Hebrew.
• What should worship leaders do when the keyboardist who wants to join the team is a classically-trained pianist.
• Pastors: If that illustration you’re using is actually debunked on Snopes.com, look out! Turns out Millennials like to fact-check sermons.
• Video(s) of the Week: Two beautiful acapella song covers on YouTube by David Wesley — One Thing Remains and the more recently posted (last week) How Deep the Father’s Love.
• People You Should Know: Another edition of the Young Influencers List.
• Charlotte Church is now 27, but she knows the pressure put on young music stars to be hyper-sexualized.
• Questions about the film’s ending has caused tension for the March, 2014 movie based on the life of Noah.
• Music Flashback: From our Lost Songs collection, the worship of Calvary Chapel Downey, with the hauntingly beautiful song To be Like You.
• Denominational stereotypes? Christianity Today answers the question, ‘Why are Google searches so much fun?’
• Finally, if you’re going to steal stuff from a church, don’t try to flog it at a yard sale only a few streets away.

Link list curator Paul Wilkinson blogs at Christianity 201 and Thinking Out Loud, the latter of which still sports its original look and theme, an actual functioning blogroll that is updated regularly, and a merry-go-round that still operates. (Not that last thing…)

Main branch of the Kansas City Public Library.

The God of Angel Armies Is Always By Your Side

Time and time again, scripture records instances where forces came against God’s people bent on their destruction, and the odds against them seemed incredible, but God’s people triumphed. One blogger has created a scripture medley of such instances here.

Today I’m featuring the new song Chris Tomlin’s new album, Burning Lights; titled Whom Shall I Fear but also known as God of Angel Armies. (Static images alternative video here.) This is a faith-building song that is really easy to learn. We are not promised protection from every hard thing a fallen world can bring, but when forces arise to destroy us we have the promise that greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. (I John 4:4)

Wednesday Link List

Remember, “The just shall link by faith.”

• Our artwork today has no specific link, but is in celebration of artist Cuyler Black’s newest greeting card releases from his Inherit The Mirth collection and Nicole Brayden Gifts. 
• Passion’s Louis Giglio will pray at the inauguration of U.S. President Barack Obama. Now it’s not happening. Read this update.
  
• Shane Claiborne talks about his 2012 trip to Afghanistan on two videos at Red Letter Christians.
• After several years silence, James Duncan returns to his blog to document his side of the lawsuit he filed against Perry Noble‘s New Spring Church.
• Also on the subject of lawsuits, at the end of December a court weighed in on the dentist who fired his assistant for being too ‘hot.’  Dan J. Brennan offers a Christian perspective on men and women working together.  [HT: Pastoralia]
• Michael Gungor has a very lengthy, very thoughtful essay on the state of the Christian music business. Or you can read ‘The Becky Part’ in this excerpt at Vitamin Z. You might actually know her.
• Stanford University has an atheist chaplain — apparently that’s not an oxymoron — but Get Religion editor Terry Mattingly thinks the reporting on this misses a bigger story: What are the spiritual needs of atheists?
• Without books like Heaven is For Real at their disposal, where did Old Testament saints think they were headed after death? C. Michael Patton answers this one.
• Mark Galli at Christianity Today provides an updated profile of Francis Chan. “I’ve got five kids (ages 17 to 1)… My one daughter had to drive on the same day that I taught my other one how to walk. So it’s a weird, weird phase.”
• If you’re using a computer right now, you are among the world’s richest people. Congratulations! You won the life lottery. Here’s some pictures that ran here two years ago that illustrate your prizes.
• …And January 2011 was a good month here for several reasons. If you’re new to this blog, another one you missed was this challenge to summarize the gospel in a single sentence. 
• A classic book by Louis Giglio is now updated and available in paperback. I am not, but I know I AM is both the book’s rallying cry and its title. (This item was slotted here before item #2 was added late Tuesday night!)
• Never thought of this one.  With all the gay-friendly churches out there today, do gays really need their own denomination?  A look at the Metropolitan Community Church movement.
• Meanwhile, a Roman Catholic church in London has ended their gay-friendly service. “Archbishop Vincent Nichols said in a statement that gay Catholics should attend Mass in their local parishes rather going to separate services.” So it’s about the parish system.
• Sometimes when someone does something silly we jokingly say, “Are you off your meds?” But mental illness is a serious problem that the church needs to be more aware of.
• The Christian Post weighs in on the thorny issue of how much pastors get paid. Some salary quotations are comparing apples and oranges.
• A new generation of video game designers wants to launch a new generation of video games that aren’t lame.
• Do you reach out when new neighbors move in? Here’s a brilliant essay with everything you need to know about how not to do this. Or maybe you’ve already done something like this.
• Finally, a video for a song from Chris Tomlin’s new — released yesterday — album, Burning Lights, gives us weekend guitar players onscreen guitar fingering charts to play along.

Wednesday Link List

Hark how the links, sweet silver links, all seem to say, “Throw cares away!”

• Gonna do something I’ve done here before and make the first link one from this very blog.  I’m getting a ton of hits for a piece I wrote here last year dealing with the burning question, Should Audiences Still Stand for the Hallelujah Chorus?  But with only eleven comments, there’s still room for yours, and it will get viewed many times over the next few days.
• Just when think you’ve seen all the weird churches in the world, you discover this one, which has major parking problems, not to mention severe access issues.  Check out this mini photo essay from our old friend Abraham Piper at 22 Words.
• It’s rare in the Christian blogosphere that you see someone give a Christian book a really bad review. Perhaps that’s what makes this review at the blog Supermoms Are Fake, in some ways, so refreshing.
• Some of you remember Hermant Mehta at the blog, The Friendly Atheist, from his book I Sold My Soul on E-Bay.  Sometimes I check back to see how he’s doing, whereupon I found this one: Why Are This Many Atheist Scientists Taking Their Children To Church?
• Leaders are readers. So begins a concise, 7-point piece by Dave Kraft at Leadership from the Heart, I Would Love to Read More, But…
• Music video department: Enjoy a free taste of fourteen updated hymns at Indelible Grace III – For All The Saints.
• …which got me poking around YouTube where I ended up listening to this updated version of Jesus I Come (which I know as Out of My Bondage) by the Shelly Moore Band.
• Christianity Today music guy Mark Moring talks to Chris Tomlin aka the “worship song machine.” Tomlin just doesn’t see himself writing any other kind of music. Which I suppose suits us just fine.
• Philanthropy meets good business sense as a Toronto group puts together winter survival kits for the homeless.
  
• Canadian Charismatic Evangelist Todd Bentley is in the UK, but a Member of Parliament is telling Brits to beware the tattoo preacher.   The Sunday Express reports. (HT: Rick and Bene.)
  
• The newest blog at Alltop Christian is called Slow Running Honey, another blog which seems to exist for the purpose of promoting a book. That’s fine, I guess, but the Christian blogosphere didn’t start out that way. (Though it got there quickly.)
  
• Newest blog at Alltop Church is Nate Fietzer‘s which is a KidMin blog, meaning children’s ministry and leadership.  It’s him we also thank for the Life graphic below. Did you design that, Nate?

• I think Justin and Tricia attend Pete Wilson’s church; I know Justin filled in for Pete once during the summer. Here’s an article that could revolutionize your marriage, and the concept is so simple, it revolves around one little three-letter word.
• After a few days in Sick Bay, Rev. Billy Graham is now back home.
• Okay, so you go to a church where women don’t teach, but they do scripture readings. But isn’t the public reading of scripture a type of teaching ministry? Or is it? What about soloists? Jesse Johnson wades into a thorny topic.
• Sounds of the season: Drummer Sean Quigley is the latest to offer a fresh take on a classic, in this case The Little Drummer Boy.
• Lots of videos this week, but you don’t want to miss this one: Bethlehemian Rhapsody, which was actually posted in 2009, but is still being discovered. (The sheep steal their scenes each time!)
• Like all good link lists, we have another t-shirt for you. This is from Amanda at Faith in The Journey a tumblr blog packed with great graphic ideas. The shirt is from zazzle.com
  

Wednesday Link List

Wednesday link kangaroo

A kangaroo walks into a bar.

“Wow!” the bartender says; “We don’t get many kangaroos in here.”

“Yeah,” says the Kangaroo, “And at these prices, you’re not going to get many more.”

…I know it’s pathetic, but that’s always been one of my favorite jokes, and the link list seemed the best place for it.

• Our lead link this week: David Santisteven on How To Fail as a Worship Leader In Ten Easy Steps. (Step 5: Leave theology to the preachers.)
  
• And here’s a bonus ten for people interested in worship: Ten Ideas to Incorporate the Scriptures into a Worship Service.
  
• They won’t respond to communication from outsiders, but a surprising number of Amish Teens are now on Facebook, getting online through their cellphones.
• Sarah Pulliam Bailey brings an 7-page look at the reshaping of Focus on the Family; and a 2-page sidebar as to what James Dobson is up to.
  
• Dana at Upwrite asks all the hard questions about the TOMS shoes fad.  (If I’d known you could get that word length writing about shoes, I would have done it long ago!)
  
• Let’s go two in a row from Upwrite: Can you be a hybrid Christian? Can you combine ideas from other faiths with Christian belief?
  

Click the image above to see 226 more pictures from North Carolina's Wild Goose Festival in June by photographer Courtney Perry

• If you missed the Wild Goose Festival, photographer Courtney Perry has 227 pictures; you can even purchase copies.
  
• John Starke nails it on How to Write a Great Book Review (Or How Not to Write a Bad One).
  
• Speaking of which, Benji Zimmerman does a great review of Francis Chan and Preston Sprinkle’s Erasing Hell the response to Rob Bell’s Love Wins. (Easier to read with a Javascript Black/White swap app.)
  
• And Chan himself sits down with Mark Galli at CT for what appears to be an interview but is really more of a dialog.
  
• Stephen Brewster was one of many syncrobloggers who joined together in June to talk about blocks to creativity.  He links to some of the other writers, too.
  
• Frank Turk digs into the can of worms being opened by New York’s new marriage law.
  
• Craig Groeshel, the guy with the .tv web domains, is now suggesting individuals and families take a few nights off each week to unplug.
  
• A few days late for the 4th, but for our American friends, Louis Giglio reflects on the Declaration of Independence with Chris Tomlin on camera and some cheap shots at England’s Matt Redman.  (HT: Worship Blog)
  
• Matt Rawlings brings his twice yearly top five books list, and his top 62 “geek” books list.
  
• Also on books, Jon, our academic book-watcher on the left coast wants you to know about Christians at the Border: Immigration, The Church and the Bible.  Basically this is a Guatemalan professor of Old Testament studies discussing social policy.  Here’s the publisher’s 411, and a 9-pg .pdf preview.
  
• Adam Young, aka Owl City, has a new video, packed with footage from the Back to the Future movies.  Check out Deer in the Headlights.
  
• But we can take the animal video linking thing further with this Charlie the Hamster audio file. (HT: Stuff Fundies Like.)
  
• Anne Jackson, transparent as ever, has reactivated her blog which has been dormant since March.  You can read her posts from June 17th and June 24th.
• No link here, but my son Chris put this on his Facebook page:
  .
  The Parable of the Dry Stick
  .
  I was out for a hike a while ago and there was a stick on the path.  I gave it a kick, and all the bark broke off and scattered, leaving only the bare, white wood.
  .
  God then said:  “The world is full of people who will completely change, who are just waiting to be prompted, quietly hoping someone will disrupt their daily ennui.”
  .
   If you know one of those people, give them a proverbial kick.  Tell them their life can amount to something.  Invite them to join the adventure of discovering God.

Separated at Birth (and by a few generations) — Lyn Cryderman, author of Glory Land, republished as No Swimming on Sunday and Colton Burpo of Heaven is for Real fame.  The Cryderman book is a bit of a hard-to-find collector’s item but an excellent document capturing growing up in America in the Free Methodist denomination.  “I gotta home in Glory land that outshines the sun…Way beyond the blue”

Wednesday Link List

We read blogs so you don’t have to!  Or something.

• Brent Mosley is president of Bluefish TV, the company that makes — among other things — those little two-minute video clips that start your weekly worship service.  He blogs, too.  Check out Is The Church Telling The Complete Story?
  
• Speaking of video, it’s been three years since it was filmed and two years since it was released on DVD, but now you can watch Joe Manafo’s detailed 42-minute documentary study of alternative churches in Canada in its entirety at the website for One Size Fits All.
  
• A list with ten things is actually easier to produce than when you decide to narrow it down to five.  And these five are well-chosen.  Trevin Wax posts Five Trends to Watch for in Evangelical Christianity.
  
• And speaking of Trevin, here’s a video of a church promotion that he (and Zach at Vitamin Z) think is one of the best church advertisements ever.  “Before we tell you who we are, we want to tell you who we were.”
  
• Contemporary Christian book author Skye Jethani tells why he doesn’t read many books by contemporary Christian book authors, in a piece at Out of Ur provocatively titled, I Read Dead People.
• Dan Horwedel whisks you on a link-list journey of his own in a fascinating examination of the Christian worship song, God of This City.  Both the major-key version and the minor-key version.
  
• I don’t read — let alone link — to Ann Welch’s blog very often because it’s more of a women’s blog and a parenting blog, but she’s been in the link-list here since day one because she is a blogger who has my utmost respect. Here’s a shorter piece even the guys can take a minute to read at her blog Resolved 2 Worship, titled Dart Throwing.  (Turn your speakers up, too; she’s got a great blog playlist.)
  
• Chuck Colson believes that while most Christian children’s books contain a Bible narrative followed by “the moral of the story,” we need to teach kids to recognize the worldview being promoted in everything they read.  And he’s introducing a product that will help them do just that.
  
• Pete Wilson raises the oft-discussed issue of swearing, or things that some people consider swearing.   200 comments so far about words like darn, dang, heck, geez, and shoot.  (And then, Daniel Jepson raises the same topic, too.)
  
• A woman in a senior’s home invites John Shore into her room, and then dies holding on to John’s hand.  Yikes!  Obviously, readers are wondering why the story is just surfacing now.
  
• Albert Mohler thinks that Piers Morgan’s interview with Joel Osteen identifies one topic where we either stand for Biblical truth or we try to dance around its politically incorrect implications.  Mohler says that sooner or later we’ll have to deal with our own Osteen Moment.
  
• A Tennessee pastor refused to baptize a couple’s baby because the couple wasn’t married. He wants to make a statement about teen pregnancy.
  
• Time for a quick hymn sing.  Here’s a couple of versions of a classic hymn that is well-known in England but not at all in North America.  One version is more modern, the other is most formal, but both of them work.  Check out Tell Out My Soul.
  
• This week we should pay Trevin a commission.  If you’ve read the bestselling book Radical by David Platt (Waterbrook), you know all about “Secret Church.”  Well, this year, the event is available as a simulcast for any church that wants in. (Posted even though the event is a Lifeway thing. Look guys; no hard feelings!)
  
• Here’s a return of a Link List favorite; Mike Morgan’s weekly comic, For Heaven’s Sake.

New Chris Tomlin Doesn’t Disappoint

I’m not a betting person, but here’s the bet:  That more times than not, any list of the top worship songwriters and performers today is going to begin with a mention of Chris Tomlin. He simply heads the list these days.

So while many worship albums come and go, the release this coming Tuesday (November 16th) of his new collection, And If Our God Is For Us (SixSteps), is certainly newsworthy.

This album features eleven songs, all of which are vertical worship in their lyrical orientation, and features a list of co-writers not limited to, but including: Matt Redman, Rueben Morgan, Matt Maher, and Louie Giglio.   Fans of previous albums such as Awakening and Hello Love will not be disappointed.

Congregationally – Lots of choices here for worship leaders, including the very easy-to-learn All To Us and a song simply called Lovely.

Lyrically – I really liked I Lift My Hands

Be still, There is a healer
His love is deeper than the sea
His mercy is unfailing
His arms a fortress for the weak…

Be still, There is a river
That flows from Calvary’s tree
A fountain for the thirsty
Your grace that washes over me

Just Listening – Coming just a few songs before the end, Faithful, a duet with co-writer Christy Nockels is a powerful song of God’s unchanging faithfulness.  Some will like the European rhythm of Majesty of Heaven.

Youth Worship – What youth group or youth worship band wouldn’t want to do No Chains on Me?  “Like a rolling stone / Like a runaway train / No turning back / No more yesterdays…”   Great song.

A limited edition of the album also releases on Tuesday containing four acoustic songs and a DVD about the making of the album.    The regular album is $13.99 US / $17.99 CDN; the ltd. edn. is $18.99 US / $23.99.   Support your local Christian bookstore — and do some Christmas shopping, too — by purchasing the actual CD!

Worship in the United States vs. Worship in the United Kingdom

Two countries.   Much shared history.   A common language.   Similar politics.

But when it comes to church or when it comes to our expression of Christianity, are we in North America more alike our British cousins or are we more unalike?

Living in Canada gives a few of us a unique window on both our neighbours to the south and our friends several thousand miles to the east.   To many of us here, Adrian Plass, Selwyn Hughes, Graham Kendrick, Stuart Townend, etc. are names we have at least heard, if we haven’t also read their books or sung their songs.

What amazes me though is how little my contacts in the U.S. know of Christianity in England.    Where this turns up most is in a cursory examination of worship music in both countries.

Because we’re still a few weeks away from getting the biannual numbers from CCLI — the next six month report comes out in August — we’ll have to settle for a look at the February 2010 stats.

Here’s a look at the Top 25 worship songs in use in the U.K.

Without getting too deep into statistics — we’ll leave that to the sportscasters — you see on this list a couple of Graham Kendrick classics along with the beautiful “I Will Offer Up My Life” by Matt Redman and a number of pieces that follow the ‘hymn style’ of verse/chorus, such as “How Deep the Father’s Love for Us,” “Be the Centre,” and the classic “All Heaven Declares.”   The American #1 most-used chorus, “Mighty to Save” by Hillsong doesn’t even appear on the list.

Here’s the U.S.A. list for the same period:

For some of my American readers, this list seems rather dated, or perhaps even rather tame.  Your church has already moved on to newer songs.   I personally think that the U.S. church has adopted a rather “disposable” attitude toward its worship music in the last five years or so.   Anything before 2006 is considered a “golden oldie.”

That’s rather sad in a way.    The British churches contributing to their list seem to hang on to a good song a little longer.

I also feel bad for American churches who aren’t using “Once Again” by Matt Redman, but also wish that the British list contained at least one song by Paul Baloche.

I think every church service should contain at least a couple of songs from these lists.   This is the worship music that connects us; these songs are being sung across denominational lines.   Too much new and unfamiliar music weakens the worship time.   I also hope your church does at least five or six different worship songs each week.   There’s a trend right now to only doing a couple, but I think it leaves both seasoned worshipers and seekers a little shortchanged.

If you missed it, last week I had another couple of posts on worship music in light of a recent book, and you can read those here (June 11th) and here (June 17th).  (If you think I’ve gone conservative, rest assured that the author of that book wouldn’t have even posted these lists!)

I think it is incumbent on worship leaders to stay aware of what’s happening in worship on a worldwide scale, and know about other material that is available to them.   If you click on the links, you’ll end up at the site which also allows you too look at lists in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Africa.

Brooke Fraser has a total of four songs on the N.Z. list, including #2 and #3, but the Africa list has more familiar songs that you might expect.

If I could only sing 25 songs in the next year, I’d be content to make the Africa list my songbook.

Today’s forum:  What do you think of the song selection at your place of worship?