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Quivering Daughters
Quivering Daughters

Recommended Reading: Chaplain Mike on Worship

Over at the redoubtable Internet Monk blog, Chaplain Mike (carrying on for the sainted Michael Spencer) just posted a splendid piece about worship. It’s exceptional, in all the many meanings of that word. He emphasizes the necessity of congregational involvement and the false dichotomy of “form vs. freedom” (because every service has a [...]

Hypocriticism II: Blessed are the Disillusioned

This is a follow-up to my post “Hypocriticism”, which pointed out some of the causes and effects of Christian hypocrisy. Both were first published in August 2008.

I should have known.  It’s dangerous to write about hypocrisy, because that gets you thinking about it, and that gets you looking for [...]

Antidotes to Spiritual Abuse

Guilt, shame, and condemnation. Unspoken rules you have to live up to. Authoritarian leaders you can’t ever question. An exclusive “us-vs.-them” mentality. Subtle or not-so-subtle pressure to fit in. Barely veiled manipulation and peer pressure tactics. Fear of doing the wrong thing. Public rebuking if you do. Warnings against what will happen if [...]

Changing a Church Service: I’ve Got a Little List

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The always engaging SirNickDon recently posed an interesting question about church: “If your job was to remove five minutes from your Sunday-morning church service, what would you cut out?” (He voted to remove the “special” music, calculating precisely how many man-hours had been wasted watching someone do sign language to “I Can Only [...]