Worship
Apr 2013 Downloads. What should churches’ and seminaries’ basic purpose be? What distinguishes church from other community-service groups? Read/download 4-2013 Connections >
June 2008 Connections. Worship services need to be inspiring, thought-provoking, challenging, welcoming, and heartwarming, as worship is in Elk Grove UMC in California. Read/download 6-2008 Connections
Dec 2006 Connections. In the May/June 2006 issue of Weavings magazine, Maggie Ross tells about a disconcerting worship experience. With a few companions she was perched on a cliff carpeted with wildflowers in Glacier Bay, Alaska, above jagged ice… Continue reading →
Oct 2006 Connections. In her book Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith (HarperSanFrancisco, 2006), whose cover shows a bird leaving its cage behind, Episcopal priest Barbara Brown Taylor tells why she recently stopped being a pastor of local… Continue reading →
May 2006 Connections. If God has no limits, we can’t portray God adequately in pictures, words, or concepts. Maybe that’s why one of the Ten Commandments forbids making “graven images” of God. Yet because we’re human, in order to conceive… Continue reading →
Dec 2005 Connections. The most responses I’ve ever received to any issue of Connections have been to the 8-05 Connections. In it I said I’m attending worship services more and more reluctantly because I find so much of… Continue reading →
Nov 2005 Connections. If we’re growing as Christians, we keep moving through different stages of faith as we go through life. They are like successive levels on a spiral path that goes around a mountain repeatedly as it goes… Continue reading →
Oct 2005 Connections. Personality differences strongly influence how we picture God, how we recognize God’s presence, and how we respond to God. That means our personality traits influence what kind of worship services we feel the need for. Other… Continue reading →
Sept 2005 Connections. The comments I’m getting (about worship) bring three main messages: many people feel deadened by our worship; absence from worship services doesn’t necessarily mean lack of faith or interest; and interacting with thinkers and questioners is… Continue reading →
Aug 2005 Connections. I’ve become very lackadaisical about going to church on Sunday mornings, and that’s a big change for me. All my life I’ve attended regularly except when I’ve been sick or out of town. Even when my… Continue reading →
Sept 2002 Connections. Eucharist, Communion, the Lord’s Supper. It has been a central feature of Christian worship—some Christians say the central feature—throughout the church’s history, yet churches differ widely in the importance they give it. Some include it in… Continue reading →
Mar 1999 Connections. Awe. Delight. Truthfulness. Hope. Those are the four essential qualities of true Christian worship, says Don E. Saliers… Read/download 3-1999 Connections
Feb 1999 Connections. God is the subject of true Christian worship. Worship is the main thing — maybe the only thing — that the church can do that no other institution can do. Worship is the main entry point into… Continue reading →
Jan 1999 Connections. I’ve attended worship services regularly all my life, but much of the time it hasn’t been because I recognized the services’ content as valuable. Read/download 1-1999 Connections