South African Christian News: Telling the God Stories of Africa
Those of us who live in South Africa are horrified, disgusted, perplexed or deeply concerned about the recent chaotic events that are destroying the fabric of our society. What began as a protest against ex-president Jacob Zuma’s 15-month imprisonment for contempt of the Constitutional Court, has morphed into nationwide looting […]
“Preach the word of God” –2 Timothy 4:2 (NLT) “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly … as you sing” — Colossians 3:16 (NIV) From these Scriptures, we can draw a guiding maxim: “If it’s in the Bible, you can preach it; If it’s in the Bible, you can sing […]
I have a sneaking suspicion that many people, especially pastors and preachers, could write relevant songs to support their sermons, but they don’t realise it. Yet this is not such a difficult challenge as one might imagine. As I opened my Bible for my devotional reading the other day, God’s […]
God created us as humans, in His image. This means we experience the wide range of human emotions: From high happiness to deep despair. And everything in between. And God understands this — and the song-book of the Bible reflects this: “The LORD is like a father to His children, tender […]
Why must we practice so much? “At my Charismatic church the band usually practices maybe an hour a week. Then on Sunday these guys warm up for 15 minutes before the service starts. At my previous church the organist simply played the music and we sang the hymns along with him. Is […]
In our January worship column, we noted: We must stop trying to win the approval of the people, with their divergent song preferences. We must win the approval of God. That’s how the apostle Paul overcame divisions that were based on personal preferences: Am I trying to win the approval […]
One of the most influential factors which people take into account, when deciding which church to attend, or even to join, is ‘the church’s music ministry’. And there’s such a range to choose from: from hyper-conservative churches where the hymn-and-a thing led by the organ music style of the 1950s […]
The Divine Trinity had just been looking through the Body of Christ onearth. Now They meet in conclave to review their findings. Theirspecial focus this time was the question “How does the congregationsing?” Let’s eavesdrop on their trialogue://////////oooO!!!Oooo\\\\\\\\\\ “It’s interesting to notice how they usually equate singing withworship“, said the […]
Singing songs in the Sunday services is one of God’s effective methods of “making disciples”. Jesus expects us to keep His comprehensive purpose — to make disciples — at the centre of our service for Him. A disciple is one who is being “taught” the teachings of Jesus, and who […]
Is it possible to sing worship songs to God that actually are songs that worship money? “No” says Jesus. You cannot worship God and money. Yet the motivation behind publishers’ surveys asking us to name the most popular worship songs is this: “If we publish the popular worship songs, we […]