There's a specific feeling I've had more times than I can count.The service is over. The benediction is said — quickly, warmly, the way you say goodbye to a room full of people you love. And then the room clears. Not slowly. Fast. Conversations ignite in the aisles, people check...
For years, my job when selecting the response song after the sermon was simple: match the message.If the pastor preached on grace, I'd pick a song about grace. If the sermon was about surrender, I'd find something that felt like surrender. The criteria was the content of the sermon —...
For years, I picked the opening song the same way.I'd think about the congregation walking in — some still half-asleep, some carrying whatever the week had left on them — and I'd ask myself: what's going to get everyone in the same place, energetically speaking? Something accessible with a strong...
There's a feeling I've had in certain services that I've never quite known how to name.It's not boredom, exactly. It's more like waiting. You're sitting in the service — or standing at the front — and somewhere in the back of your mind is the sense that the real thing...