Summary

2020 Calvin Symposium on Worship | Workshop

Listen Online

Details

This workshop taught preachers how to adopt an improvisational approach to preaching. Drawing insights from theology, homiletics, and performance theory, participants discussed how to internalize sermon manuscripts, how to balance conventional preparation with intuitive spontaneity, and how to read and respond to listeners during the live sermon. As a case study in improvisational preaching, participants also listened to and learned from the preaching of Dr. Gardner C. Taylor, one of the leading African-American preachers of the twentieth century.

Recent Media Resources

Preaching and Soul Care (For Preachers and Their Hearers)

In a world generically “spiritual,” how does a preacher tend to the highest calling of the pastoral life: the tending of souls?

July 29, 2025 | 1 min video
Women and the Gender of God

At the intersection of theology and anthropology, this session will investigate the impact of the language Christians use for God. 

July 24, 2025 | 1 min video