I continue to receive Letters to the Editor that cover a variety of subjects. Today, though, I’m narrowing it down to two: what we gained and lost when we moved from hymnals to PowerPoint and tributes to godly moms. Tributes to Moms (based on Will You Write a Mother’s Day Tribute?) There are at least 3 mothers who have had a positive influence on my life; my biological mom who died when I was 9, my foster mom who died when I …

I get letters—lots and lots of letters. And, from time to time, I share some of the best of them. Here are some recent letters to the editor I thought you would enjoy. They concern hymnals, Christian celebrity, and Christian moms. Letters on What We Lost When We Lost Our Hymnals I thoroughly enjoyed reading your discussion about hymns and hymnals, and even more so, reading the Letters to the Editor section and people’s additional thoughts. Thanks for your wise …

Last week I wrote about What We Lost When We Lost Our Hymnals. In that article I mostly wanted to comment on how changing from one medium to another—in this case, from hymnals to PowerPoint screens—has a great deal of significance. As Marshall McLuhan famously said, “the medium is the message.” Every medium promotes certain ideologies while diminishing others. While hymnals and PowerPoint screens may achieve the same effect of allowing us to sing together in church, their underlying ideologies are different …

The topics I’ve written about over the past couple of weeks have ranged far and wide. Therefore, so too have the letters to the editor. Here are a selection of highlights. Letters on Why I Didn’t Sing When I Visited Your Church This article assumes congregational singing is the ultimate goal (or that congregational singing is always a good thing). And, for churched people, this is largely true. But a significant majority of unchurched people that are polled say they …

Ask Me Anything is an opportunity for you to submit questions that are related or unrelated to things I’ve written, and for me to take a shot at answer them. This week’s questions deal with worship services, whether family members should attend the same church, whether a husband and wife should be accountability partners, and quite a bit more. I have a quick question regarding something that grabbed my interest in your “Hack your Worship Service” article. You mentioned that …

I get letters! In lieu of providing a commenting system, I invite readers to send me letters to the editor. Here are some of the most interesting ones to come my way this week. Letters on Hack Your Worship Service  Planning a worship service is good. Yet I see little in the New Testament that sounds like worship times were carefully planned. The Lord can use careful planning. He can also use spontaneity. You’re motivating me to do better planning. …

I recently ordered the book Humble Roots: How Humility Grounds and Nourishes Your Soul by Hannah Anderson. I wanted to ask for your feedback on a concern I have regarding this book. I was lovingly warned by a friend that this book falls into the “spiritual formation movement” category of which, until recently, I was totally unfamiliar. I was also lovingly warned for the same reason about another book I recently ordered, None Like Him: 10 Ways God Is Different …