1855 Knollcrest Circle SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546-4402 USA
On the campus of Calvin University
© 2026 Calvin Institute of Christian Worship
Through the Worship Renewal Grants Program, sponsored by the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, hundreds of congregations, Christian colleges and seminaries from many denominations throughout North America have engaged in a year-long process of worship renewal. A Day of Learning brings together grant recipients and community members to discuss, share, and worship together as well as to consider how disciplined creativity, theological integrity, and healthy leadership practices work together in the worship renewal process.
The Day of Learning occured on June 19, 2013. Individuals attended two of ten worship renewal workshops led by staff of the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, and then met project directors from last years grants, viewed their posters and leamed about more than 30 worship renewal projects. The day of learning was concluded with a worship service led by Paul Ryan, Pearl Shangkuan, CICW staff and grant recipients.
Check out these mp3 recordings of worship renewal workshops:
An exploration of some ways that Christian congregations, depending upon the Spirit’s empowering presence, can become generous, welcoming places for tired, thirsty travelers, both guest and host alike, to refresh and bring blessing to one another and thus serve as signposts of the Gospel.
Scott Hoezee
Throughout the average week people talk about their lives and their families and their work through stories about whosaid what, how a certain event came about, and what something looked like and felt like when it happened. But too oftenon Sundays preachers present sermons that are short on vivid stories and long on description and the doling out of facts.In this workshop those who preach sermons and those who listen to sermons will explore both why vividness in sermons is vital and some ideas on how to make this happen in sermons as well.
Neal Plantinga
Isaiah is famous for his prophecies of shalom—a coming time in which God would make right all that is wrong with the world. All of creation would be fruitful and benign. All humans would be knit together in brotherhood and sisterhood. All creation and all humans would delight in God. In short, God and creation would once again be webbed together in justice, harmony, and delight. The Psalmists, too, pray for shalom. This workshop will discuss these prayers. How do psalmists pray for shalom and how are their prayers important for our own worship?
Old Testament scholar Nancy deClaissé-Walford has spent her career studying the ordering of the Psalter. Most of the psalms, she says, are not tied to a particular situation, allowing us to sing and pray them honestly in our own contexts.
Pastor-scholar Andrew Wilkes shares how his worshiping community, Double Love Experience Church, prayed and sang the psalms during the troubling times of 2020. The psalms gave them language and support for praise and lament, and Wilkes asserts that lament is the evidence of faith because we are bringing our troubles to God.
Author and pastor-scholar David Taylor shares how he came to appreciate the psalms and how he encourages people to bring their full, unedited selves to God in prayer and experience a richer and more honest life of faith.
Old Testament scholar Nancy deClaissé-Walford has spent her career studying the ordering of the Psalter. Most of the psalms, she says, are not tied to a particular situation, allowing us to sing and pray them honestly in our own contexts.
Pastor-scholar Andrew Wilkes shares how his worshiping community, Double Love Experience Church, prayed and sang the psalms during the troubling times of 2020. The psalms gave them language and support for praise and lament, and Wilkes asserts that lament is the evidence of faith because we are bringing our troubles to God.
Author and pastor-scholar David Taylor shares how he came to appreciate the psalms and how he encourages people to bring their full, unedited selves to God in prayer and experience a richer and more honest life of faith.
A Psalm Talk by Jared E. Alcántara recorded at the 2026 Psalms 150 conference, with a visual prayer and embodied response from artist Dea Jenkins.
