Theology is different from other “ologies” in the sense that if we only engage our subject intellectually, we miss the mark. We may understand hundreds of propositions about God, but if our imaginations are not involved in the process, I would say that we have failed. (By imagination I mean “envisioning what we do not rationally know.”) Over at Signs of Emergence, Nick Hughes was quoted as saying, “I wish that someone, some group, something, somewhere would develop a theological project that captured the imagination. All the good ideas are elsewhere.” He is a graphic designer, not a theologian, but…
My new worship EP is now available for purchase online. You can download tracks, or the entire EP of A Thousand Names, at DiscRevolt.com. Just click HERE to find the Joel Jupp page!
Partially due to the rise of the internet, our 3rd millennial lifestyles often lead us towards selfish, self-image spirituality. The emphasis isn’t on who we are on the inside, but who we present ourselves to be on the outside. We are judged by the content of blogs, MySpace and Facebook pages, personal websites, podcasts, and YouTube videos. Unfortunately, all of these can be edited. I say “unfortunately” because in the midst of editing photos, blogs, videos, and the like, we are leaving part of ourselves behind. The more we edit, the easier it is to overlook the ugly parts of…
Whether it’s verbalized or not, a church’s music style communicates doctrine — or at the very least, it communicates values. That’s not something that we often think about. Unfortunately, we are usually more concerned with the sound than the substance, and we don’t stop to contemplate the greater implications of our style choices. What does style communicate? For the hymn-singing church, it may be that “Church tradition is inherently valuable.” For the blended church, it may be that “Everyone should get along.” For the contemporary church, “Sunday morning ain’t so bad.” For the modern church, “Newer is better.” And for…
I recently led worship for 300 children. You never quite know how kids will respond, but they all like to have fun. So I began by asking them, “Are you guys ready to have some fun?” And of course, that was all they needed to hear. All of them were excited and ready to go. The projector wasn’t working, so there were no lyrics; but we laughed at that. Most of the kids couldn’t read the words anyways. I invited the children to sing if they knew the songs and to sing the echo parts after me. From the first…
Pastors often say that church growth is not reflected in numbers. Some even say that we should talk instead about church health and leave the growth to God.If you hang around a church long enough, you will probably hear a pastor or church leader de-emphasizing the importance of numbers.This is in response to the growing number of megachurches, or more practically, to explain especially low attendance. Eventually, you will hear someone say that numbers do matter.We also feel this truth intrinsically. Numbers matter in the sense that God wants people to follow Him.There is a major difference between feeding…