Author: Paul Detterman

Several years ago I had a colleague who was an exceptional organist. He was known and respected in many different parts of the world. Several years my senior, I valued…

O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth! Your glory is higher than the heavens. You have taught children and infants to tell of your strength, silencing your enemies…

G.K. Chesterton (1874–1936) was an author and Christian apologist who is perhaps best known these days for one of his fictional characters, the priest-detective Father Brown. But Chesterton was also…

For Christians, the Resurrection changes everything. The reality of Christ’s defeat of sin and death is not just the focus of our greatest annual festival—it is the core of our…

The most basic Christian teaching is: “God is love.” You can find this message anywhere you look in Scripture, but two of the most obvious instances are in 1 John…

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday—it marks the beginning of the season of Lent. Customs and traditions vary among different groups of Christians, but one universal reality is that Lent is a…

Have you ever thought of yourself as a prophet? Very likely that attribute has never found its way onto a church musician’s position description. But in reality, the prophetic role…

I was at the organ, practicing for the Christmas Concert this weekend, when a colleague came  with the news—a friend, active and loved in the congregation had died suddenly. He’d…

Christians have observed Advent since at least the fourth century. The word comes from the Latin adventus, meaning “coming.” Advent began as 40 days of baptismal preparation leading up to…

I recently made a maintenance appointment for my car. One of the things they’ll check is wheel alignment. Good alignment prevents uneven tire wear, improves steering, and can even increase…

In the mid-20th century, the Bell system launched a campaign to promote what in retrospect was an early form of virtual reality—long-distance phone calls! They used the tag line “It’s…

Today’s post is more of a Bible study than usual for this blog because the topic we’re considering in AD 2025 was addressed so well in AD 62 by the…

Educators and church musicians have two chances to begin a new year with energy and resolve: one is in January when the rest of the world is making high-minded resolutions,…

Summer is finally here! I hope you’re able to plan time to relax and refresh before the reality of next season’s worship and music schedule kicks in. Summertime can give…

Holy Father, Holy Son, Holy Spirit, Three we name you; while in essence only one, undivided God we claim you, then, adoring, bend the knee, while we own the mystery….

One of the many things that sets the followers of Jesus apart from the world around us is Easter itself. For the secular world, Easter is a destination event filled…

Our hope and expectation, O Jesus, now appear! Arise, thou Sun so longed for, o’er this benighted sphere! With hearts and hands uplifted, we plead, O Lord, to see the…

Preachers from a certain East Coast seminary used to be encouraged to build their sermons around “three points and a poem.” I didn’t graduate from that school, but for this…

Lent? Why? I wonder how many people ask this question around this time every year. March Madness can seem much more thrilling to track than Jesus’ march toward Jerusalem. Christmas…

What happens when we pray? Answers to that simple question appear regularly in tracts, popular books, even academic dissertations. On the other end of the spectrum is the all-too-frequent opening…

My life flows on in endless song above earth’s lamentation, I catch the sweet though far-off hymn that hails a new creation. … No storm can shake my inmost calm…