As Eleanor Farjeon’s carol reminds us, the time is near of the crowning of the year: Advent draws nigh, with Christmas right behind. Although parish music programs across the church have probably turned their Christmas-preparation gears for a few weeks now, these ten thoughts, like the tress that decorate so many of our homes and church spaces, are offered as evergreen reminders of the season that is a high point of the year for so many.
You Can Avoid the Hymns vs Contemporary Worship Trap
These days many worship leaders believe they’re too hip or cool to include hymns in their cutting edge praise sets. It’s their loss – and their congregation’s.
'Tis the Season to Be Cautious
If it hasn’t happened already, sometime soon, you are likely to receive an email from your pastor, a teacher or friend, the bishop, or maybe even from yourself, asking for a favor. Be careful! Many of these requests are examples of spear-phishing, a practice of fraudulently sending email or text requests from a trusted leader.
What AI worship exposes about our songs and our souls
Solomon Ray’s first album, Faithful Soul, launched him overnight into the bestselling and most-played charts. Within days, the album hit No. 1 on the iTunes Top 100 Christian and Gospel chart. Two tracks — “Find Your Rest” and “Goodbye Temptation” — claimed the No. 1 and No. 2 spots on Billboard’s Gospel Digital Song Sales chart.
How does Ray feel about this sudden success? He doesn’t. Because Ray doesn’t feel anything. His voice, his songs, his music, his appearance and even his “Mississippi Soul” branding are entirely AI-generated. The current No. 1 “Christian artist” is not a person. It is a product.
Also See: Do you hear what I hear?Bishop Urges: Don’t Take the Rage Bait
The word of the year is actually two words, “rage bait.” You know what it is even if you do not use the phrase. It is content, usually online, designed to irritate you so much that you click on the post, maybe you even share it and comment about it, which increases the chatter about the post. That is exactly what it is designed to do.
The goal is not to inform, enlighten or inspire. It is to enrage.
What Led You to Become an Atheist?” Reasons Young People Leave Christianity
What are the reasons young people leave Christianity and into atheism? That’s the question that fascinated Larry Taunton so much that he launched a nationwide series of interviews with hundreds of college-age atheists.
His question was simple: “What led you to become an atheist?”
3 Way to Follow-up After Inviting Someone to Church
You may be asking, “So, I’ve invited my friend to church and they came, but did not receive Christ … what do I do now?” How to follow-up after inviting someone to church? You may have invited them time after time and they never respond to the Gospel.
Times like this cause us to doubt our ability to impact the world, doubt whether or not the other person will ever change, and maybe even doubt whether or not God will ever save the person we so desperately want to see surrender his or her life to Him. DO not despair: you can follow-up after inviting someone to church.
Also See: Is Evangelism Plausible Today?; Has Your Church Tried Servant Evangelism? 3 Ways to Start
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