Summary

2020 Calvin Symposium on Worship | Workshop

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Details

Most histories of contemporary worship emphasize well-known stories, such as the conversion of hippies in southern California in the late 1960s and the rise of megachurches in the 1980s. While those events are important, there are whole other backstories behind the rise of band-based, technology-driven, hand-raising, extended-singing worship. This workshop laid out a much fuller history than you’ve ever heard before (including a sampling of music through the years) and raised some pastoral questions for discussion.

Recent Media Resources

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Anneke Kaai studied fine art and painting in the Netherlands at secular schools in the 1960s and ’70s. That experience compelled her to express her Christian faith through her art. She has painted many works based on scripture, including three series of paintings on the psalms, which she sees as a bountiful resource of imagery for the full range of human feelings in relation to God.

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Nancy L. deClaissé-Walford on the Shape and Shaping of the Psalter

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.

April 10, 2026 | 17 min listen