Paul E. Detterman

Be mindful of the health of the fellowship of believers. As we make our way through this current maze, keep an eye on the foundations.

A pastoral reflection on the use of “I” and “we” in corporate worship.

Many people are counting the weeks until we can reopen the building and welcome people back, but even/especially then the liturgical creativity is only starting.

God is challenging us to look past the tyranny of the urgent and plant some shade trees, creating what will eventually be a stronger and more cohesive outpost of the Kingdom.

The array of worship services during the Holy Week is meant to be, as described by some Millennials, an “embodied practice of faith—a liturgy that shapes our stance toward heaven more than our intellect about heaven.”

Choral music itself will never be a thing of the past, but impoverished are the congregations who are forcing their people to experience singing in secular settings. How important are church choirs? How vital are they to a healthy ministry? Why have them at all?

Death is a very real word and a very real reality. For followers of the One who defeated death, it is the next logical step in our eternal trust walk with triune God.

There is never “one right way” to lead the followers of Jesus in worship. Worship is a three-dimensional activity and needs to be viewed from all sides

It has been famously said (a polite way of saying that “it” has been attributed so many people we don’t know who originally said it) that “The world does not lack for wonders, only for a sense of wonder.” Those words danced through my mind last week as I walked out of an evening gathering in downtown Chicago and saw the light from the streetlamps catching thousands of falling snowflakes, turning each one into its own brief moment of shimmering beauty.