Every year I try to read 50 books. The only time I actually accomplished this was 2019. Until this year, when I finished 67 books. There are two main reasons why I read so many books this year. First, I began researching the Psalms in preparation of starting my PhD in 2022. Through the summer … Continue reading 2021 Reading List
We’re coming up on a full year of COVID services at my church. As we begin to think about the possibility of reopening in the coming weeks and months, I have a question I think needs to be pondered. Continue reading Before We Reopen: A Question for the Church
One would think that a global pandemic would be conducive to lots of reading. This was not the case for me this year, as I often found myself behind on my reading goals. I still managed to read a number of quality books. As I wrote here, each year I try to read a number … Continue reading 2020 Annotated Reading
Pastors and church leaders, as a result of the global pandemic, have an opportunity to rethink and reimagine what the church will look like moving forward. I offer three principles to guide our conversations about the church. In Part 1 I looked at Simon Chan’s Liturgical Theology and the first principle: we need to define the church … Continue reading Re:Church [Part 3]
With the global pandemic affecting all of us, the church has been forced into a situation where it cannot continue on as it was. Pastors and church leaders have an opportunity to rethink and reimagine what the church will look like moving forward. To those ends I offer three principles to guide our conversations about … Continue reading Re:Church [Part 2]
When the world shut down in mid-March due to Covid-19 I spent the first week building a live-stream set up for my church from the ground up. The next three weeks were packed with making tweaks to our online streaming, preaching on Palm Sunday, and preparing our Easter weekend services. It was only after Easter … Continue reading Re:Church [Part 1]
It has taken me years of reading Eugene Peterson’s books to finally feel like I am starting to understand them. The first book I read took two attempts. I first picked up Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places somewhere between the end of high school and my first year of college. I did not finish … Continue reading Feeling The Worship
Reading is one of my top goals every year. I try to read through different categories, which you can learn about here. My reading this year was largely determined by unread books I already owned as well as prepping for a course I taught on Israel’s Wisdom. Here are the books I read under each … Continue reading 2019 Reading List
The book of Habakkuk teaches us how to respond when we are surrounded by injustice and violence. He responds with a psalm–a song. This is why I chose Habakkuk to be the focus of a Selah Worship Arts service I led at my church in September. The songs, creative elements, and prayers used in the Selah … Continue reading Habakkuk In (more than) 15 Minutes
When Kirstyn and I got married, we needed to install curtain rods and curtains in our new apartment. Having never hung curtain rods before, but also having too much pride to ask someone for help, where did I turn? Youtube. I watched a few different videos showing me how to use drywall plugs to hang … Continue reading What Youtube Doesn’t Teach About Leading Worship
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James M. MacKnight 