history

What's in a Name? An Historical Look at Several Mainstream Protestant Denominations

What's in a Name? An Historical Look at Several Mainstream Protestant Denominations

What's in a name?

Most of us, if asked, probably have some sense of denominational affiliation, or at least partiality. Perhaps you grew up with close ties to a certain denomination. For some of you, maybe you've been able to work within that same denomination throughout your career. For others of us, our work experience is varied - based on jobs that become available, places we live, worship styles, family decisions, etc.

I know, for me, my experience includes Episcopal and United Methodist (growing up) and United Methodist, Disciples of Christ, UCC, Presbyterian, and American Baptist/United Methodist throughout my career.

If you’ve ever been in a position where you’re considering a move to a new-to-you denomination, you’ve probably found yourself asking/googling questions like:

What do Episcopalians believe?
How are Methodists different from Lutherans?
What sets PCUSA churches apart from PCA?
What does it mean to be congregational?

To delve into some answers to these questions, we need to step back in time for a little history lesson.

The History of the Worship Order

The History of the Worship Order

Worship order. It's something most of us use every week to inform our planning and help us prepare for Sunday. (Chances are, you have one sitting on your desk right now.) It's an ancient practice - a structure we use to organize and plan worship, based on a certain order of sacred elements - readings, music, sermon, offering, sometimes Communion.

For most of us, there is structure and order to our worship, one that is informed by tradition, ritual, and practice. For some, the worship order is more flexible, embedding contemporary elements and expressions of faith into the traditional liturgy, connecting various ministries to the life of the church. For others, worship is seen as a time-honored tradition, something historical, preserving the patterns and practices from the Early Church.

No matter what your particular worship order looks like, I bet we'd find a few things in common if we compared them. Because the underlying structure - the rhythm of the liturgy - has stood the test of time (we're talking almost 2,000 years here).

Like I said, it's an ancient practice.

Singing Our Faith: The Power of Musical Theology

Singing Our Faith: The Power of Musical Theology

We gather together on Sunday mornings, in churches old and new. In "Sunday best" and casual attire. In old wooden pews and folding chairs. No matter where or how we worship, we come together for the same reasons - to feed our souls, to shape and strengthen our faith, to be reminded of who God is.

We retell the stories of our faith, we remember God's promises, we claim God's victory over the world, we pray and praise and recite what we believe.

And we can do it all through singing. This is the power of musical theology.

Theology is "the study of the nature of God and religious belief." Musical theology refers to hymns and songs with rich, meaningful text that speaks to who God is and what we believe. 

Singing the Psalms: A Guide for Modern Worship

Singing the Psalms: A Guide for Modern Worship

The book of Psalms plays an important role in worship, acting as both a Scripture reading and an act of musical praise. After all, many of the psalms were written as songs. In fact, the word psalm comes the Greek psalmos, meaning "song sung to harp music."

There are many resources available to us today that facilitate singing psalms in worship, including the United Methodist Hymnal (UMH), the Lutheran Book of Common Worship and Book of Common Worship - Daily Prayer, the Anglican Chant Psalter, the Concordia Psalter, and the online Psalter resource, featuring five psalter collections using familiar hymn tunes with recordings and searchable indexes. 

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