An Exciting and Challenging Question

Many churches feel that to have dynamic and vital worship, they must choose between traditional and contemporary styles. They ask, "What do the people want? "Though this is not an unimportant question, there is a deeper question to ask, and it is an exciting and challenging question: "What MUST we sing in order to be the church God is calling us to be?" Asking that deeper question keeps our search for exciting church music from being a popularity contest with winners and losers.

Congregational singing can be so rich when it is thoughtfully integrated into worship and used to enhance the sacraments, the reading and proclamation of the scripture, and other poignant moments in the drama of worship.

Rev. John Thornburg

John Thornburg is a preacher/singer who believes in the transforming power of the gospel. He loves to laugh with others and at himself. In his 22 years of parish ministry, he was known as an innovative worship leader and teacher as well as an inspiring preacher. His mentors for this ministry include people like composers Jane Marshall, John Ferguson and Alice Parker, song enliveners John Bell and Alison Adam, ethnomusicologist Michael Hawn, singer/songwriter Billy Crockett, worship leaders Mark Miller and Jorge Lockward and poets Mary Louise Bringle and Thomas Troeger. He has led singing in local churches from Boston to Berkeley, at youth gatherings and retirement centers, and at both regional and national conventions. He has also led singing in several west African congregations during his work with the Cameroon Mission of the United Methodist Church.