Thursday's Catch: The Value of Mystery Visitors and More

Mystery Visit Reveals What Church Guests Are Thinking

As you survey the wins and misses of a church which willingly invited a mystery guest to visit one of its services, see what insights you can apply to your own Sunday-morning gatherings. Read More

Seven Reasons Why Church Revitalization Is an Honorable Calling

Being called to pastor a church in need of revitalization or replanting is an honorable calling. Today, Thom Rainer and Jonathan Howe explain why. Listen Now

Five Ways To Make Rehearsals Shorter (And Better)

How you can make rehearsals shorter (and therefore better)? Five suggestions. Read More

The late James Rawlings Sydnor in his books recommended that choirs, when rehearsing the hymns and service music for Sunday, sing the first two verses of familiar hymn in order to ensure that they have the tune mastered perfectly and to identify any problem areas. He did not recommend that they skip over familiar songs as Jamie Brown suggests. The churches in which I sang in the choir went over the familiar hymns and service music as well as the new material not only during the week but also before the service. There was a noticeable difference between the way the choir sung the familiar hymns and service music after having had an opportunity to rehearse them and the way the choir sung them when it did not have such an opportunity. A choir does not need to practice the entire hymn or piece of service music. However, it should go over the more difficult parts of the song. Rehearsing familiar hymns and service music also makes sure that the members of the choir give all their attention to what they are doing and invest as much energy in singing familiar songs as they do new ones. Since the familiar songs are usually the ones that the congregation will be singing, rehearsing these songs emphasizes the importance of congregational singing.

I Inherited a Failed Sunday School. Here’s How It Flourished

Four counterintuitive keys to successful discipleship. Read More

What Millennials Really Think About Evangelism

Millennials are more sensitive than previous generations about how they share their faith. Read More

Image Credit: Grace Anglican Community, Katy, Texas/ Anglican Diocese of the Western Gulf