I’m delighted to be able to review and recommend Dan Forrest’s new CD, “Arise, Shine!” I’ll first offer some broad impressions of the whole album, and then I’ll make some comments about the individual pieces. There are several things about this recording that stand out as significant benefits in my book: “Arise, Shine!” is recorded… Continue Reading
Search Results for: rap music
Can Rap be Christian? Evaluating Hip Hop
Today we finally arrive at a discussion of the nature of rap itself. This post will be beneficial for you, however, only if you accept the following assertions on made on Monday: Man is completely depraved and thus cannot trust his own preferences implicitly. Music is a medium of human communication and thus must be… Continue Reading
Can Rap be Christian? The Presuppositions
Are “Christian” and “rap” mutually exclusive? Mark Dever’s answer after a 9Marks interview with Shai Linne and Curtis Allen (Voice): “Hardly.” This from one of the most conservative evangelicals alive today. It is primarily for that reason that I’d like to make a few comments about the interview. If this is what one of the most… Continue Reading
Musical Universality, Ethnodoxology, and Associations
We must evaluate both the intrinsic meaning within music and the potentially negative associations of a song before we adopt it into Christian worship. The theme of the latest issue of “Worship Notes,” written by Ron Man, is “Making Musical Choices.” Man writes, The most consistently asked question of me in my international teaching is… Continue Reading
Correcting Categories, Part 8 – Music and Emotion in the Church
A Radical Change Protestants have historically been suspect of Dionysian forms of music, especially in sacred contexts, because they recognized that spiritual life resides in the affections and not in the physical feelings. They did not want to stimulate artificial experiences of the senses but rather nurture biblical affections through the mind and spirit. Presbyterians,… Continue Reading
The Teaching Power of Music
I spoke today at the Michigan Association of Christian Schools Teachers Convention. This is the lecture I presented. My task today is to convince you that it is important that music be a part of your classroom. My goal is to persuade you that music is essential to your students’ educational development. For some of… Continue Reading
Book Review: God's Word, the Final Word on Worship and Music, A Biblical Study
Kurtz, Dean. God’s Word, the Final Word on Worship and Music, A Biblical Study. Self-published, 2008. 364 pp. $15.59. Purchase: Amazon ISBNs: 1606473239 / 978-1606473238 Author Bio (from the book): Dean Kurtz (BS Music Education; BS Bible; MA Sacred Music; Doctor of Ministry) has been passionate to communicate the Word about worship and music for… Continue Reading
Cessmaticism: The Strange Hybrid of Contemporary Christian Worship
We began this series by making the claim that Pentecostalism has quietly (or not so quietly) colonised Protestant worship, even in those churches and groups that explicitly reject Pentecostal theology. We have described the distinctives of Pentecostal worship, not in terms of its views regarding the operation of the charismatic gifts, but in terms of… Continue Reading
Early Beginnings of Pentecostal Worship
An easy error for a historian to commit is to equate or link events or movements in history that are similar, while ignoring or underplaying their differences. One example of this is when historians of worship note that modern negative reactions to contemporary pop-rock worship contain similar objections to ones levelled against the hymns of… Continue Reading
Christian Imagination Fleshed Out
What does the Christian imagination look like when it is fleshed out? We can imagine it as a spectrum, beginning with Scripture itself and working its way out from the explicitly biblical to what is only implicitly so. The Bible. Scripture itself is the archetype of all Christian imagination. Its content and form are the… Continue Reading
Imaginative Knowledge
If Christian imagination is the best way of referring to how Christians know and perceive the world, does thinking of it in this way have any practical effect on our lives? Much in every way. If imagination is the ultimate way that we understand reality, then this affects how Christians communicate the faith to believers,… Continue Reading
Most Interesting Reading of 2020: Part Two
Kevin T. Bauder Last week I began listing the “most interesting books” that I read last year. As you can tell, the list is eclectic. While I read mostly in my discipline, much of the reading that I find interesting is outside it. Here’s the rest of my list. Lansing, Alfred. Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage.… Continue Reading
The Foundations in the Psalms
For the past couple months I have been engaged in a series on the foundational principles laid out in the Book of Psalms. I identified three core principles introduced in Psalms 1 and 2, and then we noticed one example of a psalm that returns to these very principles—Psalm 11. Those principles are: The Lord… Continue Reading
Island Culture
Le Mont-Saint-Michel is a tidal island off Normandy, France. Water levels have varied over the centuries, but at its highest, the island would be completely cut off from the mainland, and at low tide, foot traffic could recommence. The tidal island is a decent illustration of the relationship between the church and its surrounding culture.… Continue Reading
Contrasting Images of Blessedness
We are living in what potentially could be very discouraging times for Christians seeking to live lives that glorify the Lord. But as I pointed out last week, the book of Psalms has been structured to help us endure through these very kinds of times. Much of the book focuses on dark times of discouragement… Continue Reading
Tips and Resources for Homeschooling Kindergarten and Young Children
One of the most frequent questions I get is regarding how and when to start homeschooling a young child. Everyone is a little apprehensive the first time out of the gate, and we all want to get it right from the beginning. We don’t want to “mess our kids up.” We’ve been conditioned to think… Continue Reading
Aesthetic Correspondence
For a couple weeks I have been developing the idea that in order to disciple people through corporate worship, our corporate worship must be shaped by the means God has given us for such transformation—Scripture. This means both that our liturgies must be shaped by Scripture and our music must be shaped by Scripture. There has… Continue Reading
Our Homeschool Curriculum (I Bought a Whole Program!)
I know a lot of you are thinking about next year’s curricula for your homeschool and some of you may be thinking about homeschooling for the first time. I’ve received numerous emails asking what we are currently using. I haven’t posted our plans in awhile because we’ve been trying something, and I wanted to give… Continue Reading
Live Images Are Not Living Persons
Our technologies have come a long way from when John wrote, likely using a reed-pen on a papyrus sheet, “I had many things to write, but I do not wish to write to you with pen and ink; but I hope to see you shortly, and we shall speak face to face.” (3 Jn. 1:13-14)… Continue Reading
Why We Won’t Livestream During Lockdown (Though We Could)
Left-click the bread icon to consume the bread. >Click< >>> Thank you. You have eaten the bread. Left-click the cup icon to consume the cup. > Click< >>> Thank you. You have drunk the cup. Sound preposterous? Why shouldn’t we do virtual Lord’s Supper? Our technology has made this scenario possible. But is it desirable?… Continue Reading