What makes a movie scary or sad? The music behind the actions helps us understand what we should be feeling. Music can emotionally direct you to feel in many different ways. This is great for in the car or at the movies, but what about church? Why do we sing in church? 

We are called to love our neighbors, often by giving money to help with bodily needs, but how can we prevent present physical concerns from overtaking the need for the Gospel? The arts, especially music, help to point us to the Gospel—particularly through beauty.

If you’re a music director, chances are you’ve faced challenges with getting new people into music ministry and keeping them in it. I’m a violist and I’ve played at many churches over the years, both as a member and as a guest. Here are some tips—advised from a church musician herself—for talking with musicians, recruiting them into music ministry, and retaining them.

This post is adapted from A Novice’s Guide to Directing the Church Choir by Kenneth T. Kosche. Though written specifically for choirs, the suggestions can apply to any church ensemble.

Rapport is one of those relational terms that most easily defines itself by its presence or absence. How well you get along with your choir and they with you is a measure of your rapport. There are no surefire solutions that will work for everyone to establish rapport, though there are some points of advice to offer.

As some churches move toward high-tech services with more modern music, some may consider handbells old fashioned, out of date, or just not interesting. But handbell ensembles have specific benefits that can’t be matched by other types of ensembles. Because of their unique, irreplaceable roles, they are as important in the church as they have ever been.

Our guest author for today is Lisa M. Clark, Senior Editor for Curriculum Resources at CPH. Although you may know her best as a hymn writer and the author of the Messengers novels, one of her latest projects has been working on CPH Education’s new musical, Echoes of the Hammer. In today’s post, Lisa shares more about her creative process as the lyricist for the musical.

Every artist knows that the details matter, and composer Timothy Shaw’s detail-oriented nature is probably one of the things that has made his music career so successful! Taking pleasure from things many other people may not notice, like a perfectly engraved musical score or a key change in one of his compositions, Timothy has composed more than a dozen pieces for CPH. Read our interview with Timothy and visit his author page on CPH.org to learn more about all of his compositions with us.

Who decides when it’s time to create a new hymnal? When did the Missouri Synod switch from a German hymnal to an English one? How have our liturgy and hymns changed over time?

In a recent webinar, we went through a brief overview of the history of LCMS hymnals. Read an excerpt below and watch the full webinar on our YouTube channel.

I know what you’re thinking. There are already too many favorite Christmas hymns and carols to try to fit into one Christmas Eve and one Christmas Day service. If we’re singing “Joy to the World,” “O Come, All Ye Faithful,” and “Silent Night,” where am I going to fit more? But consider the many other opportunities for using Christmas hymns beyond the service: at school, at home, at Sunday School, in the Christmas program, as part of your personal devotions, while caroling. Give these often-forgotten hymns that tell of Christ’s birth a second look.

When you think about singing, what emotion comes to mind? Often, we immediately assume that singing is what we do when we’re happy. We figure that hymns are for praise. But we can sing when we’re sad. We can use hymns as prayers of sorrow. We can use these words of comfort anytime—during personal devotion and daily study, whether spoken in prayer or sung aloud.