Winter 2007: Other Significant Articles
John Mortensen
John Mortensen, “How Then Shall We Write? A Guide to Composing Better Music for Worship” Cutting Edge (Spring, 2006), pages 6-9.
Now in its ninth year of publication, this magazine for Vineyard church planters has a theme in the Spring 2006 issue of helping church planters get worship started and improving on what talents they already have. This article by the Associate Professor of Piano at Cedarville University and worship leader at a church plant in Springfield, Ohio brings a corrective and challenge about how to compose songs. John Mortensen urges us to get away from the music and hype of mass-produced popular culture and its tentacles in popular worship music. “Worship songs that emerge from within a community can speak most poignantly to the sorrows and joys of that community, and are its best musical expression of love for Christ and neighbor” (page 9).
At the time of publication, the full issue of the magazine was available here: http://vineyardusa.org/site/files/cutting-edge/06-Spring-Worship.pdf [updated December 11, 2014]
A stand alone version is also avaiable onJohn Mortensen’s blog can be found at: http://www.johnmortensen.com
“Experiencing Life at the Margins: An African bishop tells North American Christians the most helpful gospel-thing they can do” Christianity Today (July 2006), pages 32-35.
In a candid interview with evangelicalism’s flagship publication, Rt. Rev. Dr. David Zac Niringiye describes the problem of North American Christianity being at the center of power and what we can do to become part of what God is doing elsewhere in the world.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/july/31.32.html
Fran Patt, “What DNA Are We (Really) Reproducing?” Mission Frontiers (July/August 2006), pages 8-10.
What do you do when major suppositions you have held are dismantled? When Fran Patt and his wife were shocked to learn that most missionaries, including ones they had worked hard to train, were unprepared for cross-cultural missions they began a serious analysis about what had gone wrong. They began examining the aspects of cultural Christianity which missionaries and even “domestic” church plants were perpetuating, a pattern that had deep problems. “Our analysis has concluded that Jesus is not the spiritual father of our Evangelical culture” (page 9). To read this article for yourself, go to this web address:
http://www.missionfrontiers.org/pdfs/28-4-what-dna.pdf
Earl Creps, “The Azusa Effect: One hundred years after Azusa, the global church looks and sounds more Pentecostal than ever—but how much longer will this label work to describe a new generation of Spirit-filled believers?” Ministry Today (May/June 2006), pages 68-70, 72, 74.
Assemblies of God seminary professor and futurist, Earl Creps, says that young Pentecostal/charismatic leaders in North America may be loyalists, post-distinctives, or post-denominationals. They share common traits and roots even while their movement is in the middle of significant challenges. Creps says the futures of all of these subcultures and more will be used of God if all submit to His vision that transcends time and culture.
Category: Winter 2007
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