You can always count on Craigslist for some highly questionable listings but we all know the free online classifieds site has a reputation for publishing some unusual, ... Read more

The post The 18 Weirdest And Funniest Craigslist Ads For Musicians appeared first on CMUSE.

The alcohol-free beer garden comes from Dray Drinks, Boston's first NA bottle shop.

The post A non-alcoholic beer garden pops up in Brighton this weekend appeared first on Boston.com.

In a previous article, I was fortunate enough to focus on female composers, and amongst the collection was Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179). Why did I ... Read more

The post The Mystical Music of Hildegard of Bingen: A Medieval Composer and Visionary appeared first on CMUSE.

It was a music shop at 10 High Street in Worcester: “Elgar Bros. Pianoforte & Music Warehouse.” It was in this shop that young Edward ... Read more

The post “His father keeps a shop”: Behind Edward Elgar’s struggle for respectability appeared first on CMUSE.

The Celtics will open NBA Cup play on Tuesday with a home game against the Atlanta Hawks.

The post Watch: Celtics install new court at TD Garden ahead of 2024 NBA Cup appeared first on Boston.com.

This marks the second time this year that Boston sports has been featured as a clue on "Jeopardy!".

The post Joe Mazzulla’s love of ‘The Town’ lands him on ‘Jeopardy!’ as a clue  appeared first on Boston.com.

The bands paired up to take the house down on their Take Me Home Tour Thursday night.

The post Review & setlist: Little Big Town and Sugarland brought their harmonies home to TD Garden appeared first on Boston.com.

Although jurors sided with plaintiff David Meehan in May after a monthlong trial, confusion arose over how much money they could award in damages.

The post Judge moves to slash $38 million verdict in New Hampshire youth center abuse case appeared first on Boston.com.

Benjamin Van Mooy is a new MacArthur Fellow, the foundation announced on Thursday.

The post Mass. plankton expert awarded $800K ‘genius grant’ appeared first on Boston.com.

Heiner Linke, Chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, said the award honored research that made connections between amino acid sequence and protein structure.

The post Nobel Prize in chemistry awarded to 3 scientists for work on proteins, building blocks of life appeared first on Boston.com.

For the purposes of this article, I will confine my selection of violin works to the Baroque, Classical and Romantic periods of music. Once you ... Read more

The post 4 Hardest Violin Pieces Ever Written (Most Difficult Violin Pieces) appeared first on CMUSE.

"It feels like you are actually in a fairy tale."

The post What it’s like to go apple picking at the top-ranked Honey Pot Hill Orchards in Stow appeared first on Boston.com.

"There's just something about visiting a pumpkin patch, many with hayrides and yummy treats, that puts you in the fall spirit."

The post This Maine farm has the best pumpkin patch, corn maze in America, according to USA Today readers appeared first on Boston.com.

The Patriots are now 3-7 after Sunday’s win over the Bears.

The post Patriots may have a long way to go, but this win showed they are playing hard for Jerod Mayo appeared first on Boston.com.

As Trump embarks on his first foreign trip, his administration tries to cast ‘America First’ in a different light.

Also, helpful definitions of the words ‘autocrat’, ‘fascist’, and ‘demagogue’; why Trump's name sign is causing controversy in the American Sign Language community; a history of the word 'hack' that goes back further than you might expect; what happened to the first people to be called refugees; plus some new music from one of Marco Werman's favourite bands, Forro in the Dark.

(Photo: Copies of U.S. President Donald Trump's fiscal 2018 budget request sit on display for sale in Washington, D.C. Credit: Andrew Harrer/Getty Images)

We join a group of American tourists on an organised trip across the border to find out what life there is really like.

Also, a trilingual interpreter tells us about the challenges of interpreting for asylum seekers who only speak indigenous languages; A group of American exchange students in Italy meet African migrants who risked their lives to make it to Europe; Why Chinese Sci-Fi is gaining in popularity around the world; And Kenyan musician JS Ondara on how Bob Dylan changed his life and inspired his journey to America.

(Andres Vega pours beer for American visitors on a gastronomic tour of Nogales with the Arizona nonprofit, Border Community Alliance. Credit: Katherine Davis-Young/The World)

"SNL" returned for the fifth episode of its 50th season on Nov. 2 with host John Mulaney, musical guest Chappell Roan, and a guest appearance from Vice President Kamala Harris.

The post ‘SNL’ recap: Best moments from John Mulaney hosting ‘Saturday Night Live’ appeared first on Boston.com.

Standup comic and actor Bill Burr will host for the second time with Mk.gee as musical guest.

The post ‘Saturday Night Live’ to take on a second Trump term after focusing on Harris appeared first on Boston.com.

"SNL" returned for the sixth episode of its 50th season on Nov. 9 with host Bill Burr playing into his Boston-area roots.

The post ‘SNL’ recap: Best moments from Bill Burr hosting ‘Saturday Night Live’ appeared first on Boston.com.

Chickens outnumber people 4:1, they have more in common, anatomically, with dinosaurs than humans, you can mail order up to 350 different varieties of chicks, and roosters really are much meaner than hens.

The post Book Review: Sy Montgomery shares ‘What the Chicken Knows’ in new mini hardcover appeared first on Boston.com.

American Airlines is testing a new technology at three airports across the country during the boarding process that aims to cut down on passengers who try to jump the line

The post American Airlines tests boarding technology that audibly shames line cutters appeared first on Boston.com.

The technology to put a name to a face is now free or cheap to use, so it is mostly a matter of ethics and propriety about whether to exercise the ability or not.

The post Two Harvard students created face recognition glasses. It wasn’t hard. appeared first on Boston.com.

One is in Massachusetts.

The post 3 of the best places to visit in December are in New England, according to Good Housekeeping appeared first on Boston.com.

A new ranking by HomeToGo highlights affordable skiing slopes in New England.

The post New England has 3 of the country’s most affordable ski resorts appeared first on Boston.com.

According to city officials, 87,351 visited on Oct. 31 alone.

The post Salem reports a scary big number of visitors this Halloween season, breaking past records appeared first on Boston.com.

It is "one of the most picture-perfect places to go for Christmas."

The post One of the best Christmas getaways on the planet is in Vermont, according to Travel + Leisure appeared first on Boston.com.

Jack Teixeira pleaded guilty earlier this year to six counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information under the Espionage Act.

The post Mass. National Guardsman Jack Teixeira sentenced to 15 years for leaking classified information appeared first on Boston.com.

Homan was widely expected to be offered a position related to the border and Trump’s pledge to launch the largest deportation operation in the country's history.

The post Trump announces Tom Homan, former director of immigration enforcement, will serve as ‘border czar’ appeared first on Boston.com.

For thousands of younger Gen Xers and older Millennials who were raised in the church, much of our maturing as worshippers is marked by the poetic lyrics and fluid vocals of the duo known as Shane & Shane. I personally remember having Be Near on repeat during a difficult season of transition in my personal life. And I don’t know about you, but just about every guy in my high school youth group could be found working their double strum on acoustic guitar at any given moment.

But it wasn’t just their original songs that sunk deep into the hearts of their listeners. Barnard and Everett also have this uncanny ability to take songs recorded years earlier or made popular by big names such as Hillsong or Passion and make them fresh and accessible to our generation of worshippers. 

They are capitalizing on this significant gift through their latest ministry effort called The Worship Initiative (TWI). I recently got the chance to talk with Shane Barnard at length and hear more about their journey through ministry, how they juggle it all, and their hopes for the future. Hopefully you’ll find the perspective and insight he offered up as encouraging as I did.

When I asked him to share the story of how the vision of The Worship Initiative came to be, he jumped right into an impassioned explanation. They had been doing the touring, writing, and recording thing for years and gotten to experience worship from and with just about every kind of stage, venue, and demographic. As they got to know hundreds of worship leaders from everywhere you can think of, they began to see a gaping hole . . . that being the understanding of the true weight of the calling of the worship leader.

A scripture that they’d read hundreds of times and even used as a sort of mantra throughout their ministry also played an enormous role in their starting TWI. Colossians 3:16 says,

“Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.”

One day a word jumped off their pages in a way that opened their eyes afresh – THROUGH. These times of worship they were leading on a regular basis were not just a means to an end. They actually serve as one of the primary ways the Church conveys the message of Jesus to raise up a generation of Christ followers who can change the world. Yet somehow, this position has gotten watered down to nothing more than a song leader in most church settings. They suddenly felt a whole new level of responsibility.

So the two set out to discover a way to pour into worship leaders around the world, both spiritually and practically. They started by taking a more personal look at their own gifts and bents. Barnard says about Everett, “I can’t think of a better salesman or evangelist . . . He’s just loud, funny, always cutting up, and can win anybody over to do anything . . . and unleashing that in an overseer role and our relational PR person has been awesome to watch. I think God dumped the PR side and evangelist side of Shane so hard into him that I think we still have yet to see what God is going to do in that regard.” Whereas for Barnard, his skill in songwriting and producing contends with just about anyone you could name. Over the last 20 years of ministering together, they’ve learned to “embrace who God has made [them] and not be disappointed in that anymore but just know that this is how God has made [them].” They’ve worked incredibly hard to figure out how to balance all of the overlap between their personal and professional lives, which is inevitable when you’ve worked so closely together for that long. “You would think we would have some kind of system after 20 years, but we are getting better. I would say that a few words come to mind . . . simplifying, strategizing, doing things on purpose. These are the things that have kind of been a banner over our lives the last two or three years.”

For a long time, all the different aspects of their lives were spread out all over the DFW area of Texas. Their studio was far south, much of their steady worship leading opportunities were at a church in the heart of Dallas, and they were living a good jump from either of those. So they are in the process of bringing all of those components closer together so that doing life with the families, church community, and ministry partners is easier. Taking this step has made it easier to grow their efforts with The Worship Initiative more rapidly.

So what is The Worship Initiative and what does it look like for someone to participate or take advantage of these resources?

Basically, an individual can pay a yearly fee and access a list of over 150 (and constantly growing) worship songs that each have multiple tutorial videos and charts accompanying them. These videos break down how to play the songs in different keys, on different instruments, and with varying skill levels. A worship leader on staff at a church can also pay an annual group fee, based on the number of people, for his team to be able to access everything as well. There are also craft training videos for everything from the different instruments and vocals to tech/production and using the number system. If that’s not enough, the site has an entire section dedicated to heart training, where they break down all the different spiritual and practical components for worship leading with the likes of John Piper and Ben Stuart. There are even creative devotionals to accompany every song on the different TWI records. TheWorshipInitiative.com truly is a wealth of knowledge and wisdom for anyone looking to grow as a leader or team member, and there are still exciting things to come. Shane shared a bit about what’s ahead for TWI. “Our next phase of The Worship Initiative is to create what we’re calling learning paths. Some people love to be given a world of information to explore on their own. But most people would really love to be told what to do to get from point A to point B. We will take our existing content and add to it and give them a year long path to stick to and see measurable growth in both skill and leadership.”

Given the length of time and the platform they’ve had over these last two decades, I asked Shane how he feels his perspective of worship both personally and within the Church has evolved over the years.

“I think worship, and even the idea of worship, has come a long way, in a good way. I think we’ve seen a pretty good uptick on understanding the Romans 12:1 life of worship. I often think back to a time when I was leading worship in a basement or college dorm room for several years, and it was always the oddest songs ever.” He recalled singing, with hands lifted, Make It Right by Kenny Marks (and yes, I might’ve gotten a solid 30 second serenade over the phone . . . it’s fine!) and other obscure songs that really had no purpose or meaning to the one worshipping. Yet, what we see all throughout the Psalms is “this gut-wrenching, very honest, it is okay to pour out your heart to the one who cares for you mentality. . . and that language is okay.” He remembered hearing the words to Breathe for the first time, where it says “I’m desperate for you,” and thinking “is this okay to have this kind of language in front of people? But yes, it is okay even in a congregation or corporately to say ‘I am thirsty for You in a dry land where there is no water.’ In fact that can be really helpful to the person sitting next to you. That can be us ‘singing spiritual hymns and songs to one another’, just that opening up of the heart and the embracing of singing those honest songs and using them to allow ‘the message of Christ to dwell among us richly.’”

Learn more about The Worship Initiative, as well as Shane & Shane, at www.theworshipinitiative.com. Here at All About Worship, we believe in what these guys are doing and the ministry they are fostering. We can’t wait to partner with them in the future as God continues opening those doors.

Today, we're excited to introduce you to someone on the front lines of worship every single week at a local church, just like you!  He's a worship leader, pastor, husband, father and a good friend of the ministry: Jordan Merritt.

Jordan is currently serving as Worship Pastor at Embrace Church in Sioux Falls, SD, one of the fastest-growing churches in the country.  In addition to leading worship, he is a gifted songwriter. He co-wrote the Newsboys single, “You Hold It All,” and he has written songs for multiple projects with artists including Newsboys, Selah, Travis Ryan, and others. Jordan’s desire is to see the Church equipped, refreshed, and reminded of God’s promises through worship.

Thank you to Jordan for taking the time to sit down with us!  We hope you are encouraged by a "fellow soldier in the fight", who is leading worship in a local church every week.  Be encouraged and be confident that God has put you on mission as a worshipper in your church ... to restore the honor of God, to restore the People of God and to bring His presence into your services each and every week. 

Have a great week!

On today's podcast, we wanted to cover a very important topic. It's forefront in our culture, yes, but it's also important in the church, too. Specifically, in worship and songwriting.  That topic is ... women in ministry. 

We here at The Worship Podcast (All About Worship & WeAreWorship) completely affirm and believe in the ability, anointing and commission of women to minister to the church body, and of course, to others around them. In a way, it's strange to even feel the need to type that sentence.  But as society and culture is starting to have some real confusion and controversy over this gender topic, we believe as Christians we should lead the way in freedom!  We should set the example in empowerment, equal contribution in the Kingdom of God and a general attitude of preferring one another.

Now, this is a huge topic!  So we wanted to sit down with someone who is making a real difference in this world.  Her name is Krissy Nordhoff.  She leads a ministry called "Brave Worship".  She's also an accomplished songwriter, anointed worship leader, wife, mother, and lucky for us, a friend of The Worship Podcast ministry!  It doesn't matter what "side of the aisle" you believe you are on when it comes to this topic - we can all benefit from having genuine conversation and even more important, listening.  

Find out more about Brave Worship and make sure to check out their podcast, as well!

And oh yeah, last (and certainly least in this case), Dustin & James don't mince words about their travels to India ... stomach issues and all.  Enjoy!

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The Worship Podcast is powered by All About Worship (Dustin Smith & James Galbraith) and WeAreWorship (Wisdom Moon & Morgan Shirey).

You can also connect with The Worship Podcast on social media:
The Worship Podcast on Facebook
The Worship Podcast on Instagram
The Worship Podcast on Twitter

On today's podcast, we're sitting down with some powerful women in the faith - Krissy Nordhoff and Amanda Blankenship.  We're talking about an important subject for church leaders in general, but especially Worship Leaders, the motivation of ministry.  Enjoy!

The Worship Podcast is powered by All About Worship (Dustin Smith & James Galbraith) and WeAreWorship (Wisdom Moon & Morgan Shirey).

Subscribe to the podcast:
theworshippodcast.com
linktr.ee/theworshippodcast 

You can also connect with The Worship Podcast on social media:
The Worship Podcast on Facebook
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The Worship Podcast on Twitter

Here are the top five MLB third basemen set to become free agents this offseason.

The Milwaukee Brewers are adding to their fraternity of Gold Glove winners, and it's not a very long list. Here are the Brewers who previously won.

Red Sox third baseman Rafael Devers and outfielder Jarren Duran were both finalists for AL Silver Slugger awards but neither won. Guardians' José Ramírez won for AL third basemen. Yankees sluggers Aaron Judge and Juan Soto as well as Orioles' Anthony Santander were the three AL outfield winners. BETTING: Check out our MA sports betting guide , where you can learn basic terminology, definitions and how to read odds for those interested in learning how to bet in Massachusetts. Duran, who was a finalist for the first time, led the majors in doubles with 48. He also tied with Arizona's Corbin Carroll for the major league lead in triples (14). He batted .285 with a .342 on-base percentage, .492 slugging

People with untreated mental illness are 16 times more likely to be killed during encounters with law enforcement. The NCAA men and women tipped off earlier this week, making it a busy time for sports fans. Last year the Men's championship game ...

Host Meg Wolitzerpresents works that reflect on the loss of love, creatively imagined by a quartet of thoughtful writers.  In “The Space,” by Christopher Boucher, a lost love is replaced by—her absence.  The reader is Rob Yang.  In Wendi Kaufman’s “Helen on Eighty-Sixth Street,” the loss is the backstory, as a lively ‘tween, voiced by Donna Lynne Champlin, finds ways to deflect the emotional fallout from her father’s absence.  Sharon Olds’ wrenching poem, “Last Look,” read by Jane Kaczmarek, is our palette clearer before we close with a Raymond Carver classic, “Why Don’t You Dance?”The couple idly roving a lawn sale don’t realize they are walking through the detritus of lost relationship.The reader is Corey Stoll.

On this week's edition of The Watchman, we examine the Islamic terrorist attack in San Bernardino and what's next in ISIS's war against America.

On this week's edition of The Watchman, we examine the Islamic terrorist attack in San Bernardino and what's next in ISIS's war against America.

As Israel buries the bodies of hostages recovered this week, the battles continue on the ground and in the international arena. In the biggest speech of her life, Vice President Kamala Harris laid out her story and vision Thursday hoping voters ...

Rapper Dee-1 shares what it means to be Real, Be Righteous & Be Relevant. The Queen of Clean Comedy Chonda Pierce shares her memoir called Life is Funny Until It's Not. Plus, Baseball player Royce Lewis shares his faith.

Drone strike in Binyamina kills 4 IDF soldiers and wounds dozens. Underground Hezbollah command center discovered 1 mile from Israel's border..1988 Hamas charter details intent to annihilate Israel. Upcoming Jerusalem Prayer Breakfast in Copenhagen.

Violence in Amsterdam; Israel sends rescue planes. Analysis of governing possibilities post-war: among them, Israeli sovereignty over Judea & Samaria and the 'Resettle Gaza' movement. United Hatzalah medical volunteers' bravery on October 7.

Michele and her husband, George, saw their incomes triple and double respectively. Michele learned to trust God instead of her paycheck and the results have led to prosperity, joy, and satisfaction. These positive things can be yours too!