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By Roger O'Neel, on November 26th, 2024
To Serve
The last phrase in the purpose statement of the Cedarville University Worship Program is “to serve.” This comes naturally for most of our students as they have already served in their local church ministry before coming to CU. However, it is often contrary to human nature; we would rather . . . → Read More: To Serve
By Roger O'Neel, on October 14th, 2024
Worshipers
Our Identity
The second word in our Cedarville Worship Program’s mission statement is “worshipers.” We look for students who have the heart of a worshiper, and we seek to develop that heart while they are here. While I am currently writing an entire book on what it means to be . . . → Read More: Worshipers
By Roger O'Neel, on September 12th, 2024
The next three blog posts will break down the mission statement for the Worship Program at Cedarville, “Equipping Worshipers to Serve.” While this is a reminder to our students of our program’s purpose, I hope it will be a helpful tool for others to think about their own purpose and how . . . → Read More: Equipping
By Roger O'Neel, on April 15th, 2024
Last week, large parts of the Western Hemisphere experienced a solar eclipse. [As the moon made its way across the face of the sun, it seemed as though the world stopped to watch. I was on tour in Bloomington, IL, with a group of choir students. Watching the eclipse was amazing, . . . → Read More: Reflections on the Eclipse
By Roger O'Neel, on March 25th, 2024
I often remind my Intro to Worship Ministry class of a deeply profound statement: half of the phrase “worship leader” is the word “leader.” They pay good money for such incredible insight.
Seriously, as worship leaders, we often don’t give attention to developing our leadership skills. Worship leaders are called to . . . → Read More: Leaders: Born or Raised?
By Roger O'Neel, on February 14th, 2024
During the Christmas season, a lyric from a song or traditional carol typically jumps out at me in a new and meaningful way. But this year, instead of it being a song that impacted me, it was a familiar verse about Christ’s incarnation from John 1:14.
And the Word became flesh . . . → Read More: Grace and Truth
By Roger O'Neel, on November 18th, 2023
In my blog post in September, I gave some thoughts about using a continuum of excellence as a guide to help us improve our ministries and some biblical rationale on why it was important. I want to provide thoughts about some pitfalls of taking this to the extreme and conclude with . . . → Read More: The Continuum of Excellence, Part 2
By Roger O'Neel, on October 5th, 2023
Recently, pastor and author John Piper tweeted this:
To date it has more than 1,300 comments and almost 2,800 likes. Foxnews ran a story on it today here. It was an interesting read as Catholics, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Jewish leaders weighed in on the issue.
“Shots” fired. Expresso-ly at coffee drinkers.
. . . → Read More: Piper spilling the “beans”?
By Roger O'Neel, on September 12th, 2023
As worship leaders, we are charged with helping our groups prepare for Sunday on a weekly basis. Part of that preparation includes rehearsal time in which our groups practice to improve their individual skills as well as playing together as a group. Sometimes, we are helping musicians who only play during . . . → Read More: The Continuum of Excellence, Part 1
By Roger O'Neel, on April 26th, 2023
A headline from a recent article proclaims “There is a reason every hit worship song sounds the same.” The article goes on to quote a study in which the authors say, “if you have ever felt like most worship music sounds the same, it may be because the worship music you . . . → Read More: In Defense of Modern Worship Style
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