Paperless Hymnal

This is a follow up to Dumping the Screen is Not the Answer. If you have not read that post please click here (before or after reading this post).

When I wrote about how screens are not the problem with worship I used an image from The Paperless Hymnal. I’m going to share a link to their website with the understanding that 1) I have not purchased or used their products and 2) this is not a paid endorsement. I like the idea of having the words and music projected onto the screen for all those people that miss being able to read the music and follow along during worship.

A big screen is merely a vehicle to deliver information. If the information is creating a problem with your worship service, you need to project something else. If your old hymnal was a theology textbook, and your millennial praise and worship leader keeps giving you mind numbing repetitive choruses, the problem is not that projection ruined your worship experience. Screens and neither good nor bad, neither is a hymn book good or bad. If you want to sing congregational hymns steeped in good theology it shouldn’t be a problem, with or without physical hymnals. You may have a problem getting it past your church leadership but that’s another issue entirely.

Dumping the Screen is Not the Answer

I see memes on Facebook that say things like “Throw the screen in the trash.” My friends share links to competing articles promoting the virtues of digital projection and also what we lost when we stop using hymnals. I don’t think we have correctly identified the problem.

Be It Resolved…

Jimmy Humphrey makes a bold prediction for 2020: 80% of New Year’s resolutions fail by February and yours will too. He says it’s because people don’t understand human nature. I believe the desire to make resolutions stems from the same thing that makes religion popular.

New Video Devotional

I began reading Our Daily Bread in print many years ago. Maybe not before the internet but before blogging caught on and social media became a thing. We’ve been linking the Our Daily Bread daily devotional (in the left-hand sidebar) for a few years now and occasionally share images and recommend special products and promotions.

ODB recently rolled out a daily video devotional. Click here to watch today’s video and enroll via email. It’s just another way to add a little dose of God’s Word into one’s daily routine.

A Thought for Christians this Christmas

The Hallmark Channels are showing nothing but Christmas movies, decorations have started appearing… I don’t even fight that battle anymore. I tried and lost. Sirius XM has started their Holly station on channel 65. Holly plays mostly modern Christmas pop but they throw in well known tunes by Elvis, Johnny Mathis and Andy Williams as well. As we get closer to Christmas more seasonal channels will be added, such as traditional, religious and even a Hallmark Christmas radio channel.

If you don’t subscribe to satellite radio stay with me, that’s not really what this post is about.

Prayer Request for Churches in India

I’ve written in the past about blog friends; people I’ve not met in real life but as the internet made the world a smaller place we were brought together by the Christian blogosphere. That was a few years ago and blogging is not what it used to be. Today Facebook is more popular but often less substantive but I have good news to report on that front.

Daniel Raj is a Christian church pastor in India.

Keep Your Eyes on the Prize

I sometimes puzzle over statements people make such as looking for God. It’s our nature to make things more complicated than they are or should be. God is not hiding. He has not put up boundaries and obstacles so that only a few are able to succeed. The Hunger Games, the Labyrinth, Survivor, American Ninja Warrior; the Kingdom of God is not like any of those things. The Apostle Paul, speaking to a Greco-Roman audience, often made analogies to the sporting world and athletic competition. He talks about competing according to the rules in order to not be disqualified (2 Timothy 2:5) and to the Philippians he says that he presses forward toward the prize (Philippians 3:13-14). The prize is Jesus and he wants you to win!