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Defining Conservatism

The term “conservative” gets thrown around a lot, but do people really know what it means?

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Recovering Intentional Worship by David de Bruyn

Some Things to Consider Including In Your Church Service

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Missions and Music Contextualizing the Gospel

A blog series from Religious Affections Ministries.

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Scott Aniol speaks on the subject of music and worship around the country. Schedule him to speak in your church, plan and lead your worship service, or lead a hymn service.

Currently viewing the tag: "hymnody"

Isaac Watts was kind enough to write me a letter (with a postscript)

On April 5, 2011 By

I received this letter from Isaac Watts a couple years ago, and published it on my blog. Watts gave me permission to publish it so I have done so here at RA again, with an additional postscript at the end.*

___________

Abney Park in Stoke Newington, September 30, 2008

To Mr. Ryan Martin

[...]

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Hymnody of Quiet Trust in Trials

On April 3, 2011 By

We sang several songs in our Sunday morning service which emphasized the believer’s quiet and confident trust in God in the midst of the trying circumstances which he puts into our lives.

“Now Thank We All Our God” was written by Martin Rinkart (and translated from the German by the incomparable Catherine Winkworth). [...]

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Does “Slow Fade” really communicate God’s truth to His people?

On March 25, 2011 By

I recently listened to a message delivered by a music pastor at a pastor’s conference on the subject of song selection. He touched on issues related both to text and musical style, but it was an illustration given on the former that I found the most astonishing of the [...]

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The Judeo-Christian Worship Tradition

On March 9, 2011 By
This entry is part 6 of 8 in the series Preserving the Truth in our Worship

I argued in the last essay that if we intend to preserve the truth handed down to us, we must never reject tradition outright. Instead, if we are intent upon preserving the truth handed down to us from Scripture, both its doctrinal content and the way the truth is imagined, we must continue to preserve and cultivate what [...]

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Hymns on Pardon

On March 7, 2011 By

A few Sundays back, I structured our congregational singing around the theme of God’s pardon of guilty sinners on the basis of Christ’s death.  There is a wonderful section in John Bunyan’s work The Holy War which relates how the rebellious city of Mansoul was conquered by Prince Emmanuel, and recognizing their hopeless state, [...]

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Samuel Rodigast, "Whate'er My God Ordains Is Right"

On February 21, 2011 By

Samuel Rodigast, “Whate’er My God Ordains Is Right”

This outstanding hymn was introduced to our church back in 2009, and after singing it for a month of Sundays in order to learn it, we hadn’t sung it since because it is not in our hymnal.  Definitely a situation which needed rectifying, so I re-introduced it [...]

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Tobias Clausnitzer, "Blessed Jesus, at Thy Word"

On February 14, 2011 By

“Blessed Jesus, at Thy Word” makes an outstanding musical call to worship. The text is superb, and the tune LIEBSTER JESU is a good fit. As well, it is translated from the German by the incomparable Catherine Winkworth. What more could one ask?  It can be found in the Trinity Hymnal. Online, you [...]

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