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Why the Stage
If you’ve ever been to more than one church, you’re sure to notice that each one is different. Just like when you visit someone else’s home, you find there’s always something they do differently, no matter how much you otherwise have in common. For the past seven years, my family and I have attended a church that’s a little different than any other we’ve been to. It includes a strong emphasis on theater. Theater?! you say. Isn’t church for sermons? Worship music? Teaching? Prayer? Helping others? Sending missionaries? Yes. We do those things, too—not perfectly, of course, but we’re always working to get better. And some of those things might…
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Critiquing Critiques of Criticism
[Note: This post was inspired by my friend Lisa’s blog about worship music criticism.] I remember the first time I criticized worship music. It was in kindergarten. We would sing this song where half the class would jump up and sing “praise ye the Lord,” then as they sat back down the other half would jump up and sing “hallelujah!” I decided it was shallow and repetitive, and as I recall we sang it all the time. Fast-forward to the new millennium. I was a late-bloomer in terms of modern music, but I had embraced CCM (or “Contemporary Christian Music,” for the uninitiated) when I first heard Jesus Freak as…