Summary

An Art Professor’s Insights on What Brain Science Is Telling Us About Creativity, Imagination and Congregational Life

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Details

Why are the arts and creativity so essential to deep learning? This workshop explores recent knowledge in brain science about how the arts affect our learning, our listening, our ability to understand and our ability to problem solve. What could this information mean for worship and our worship services? For community engagement and for meeting the stranger in our midst? 

Recent Media Resources

Psalms We Love to Sing

Modern song writers are continually setting the psalms to new music for band-led worship contexts. Join Paul Ryan, Nate Glasper, and the Calvin University Worship Apprentices to sing contemporary psalm settings sung in public worship at Calvin. 

August 7, 2026 | 85 min video
My Soul Speaks Out to the Living God

Join this excursion through compositional method, use of text, melodic creation, vocal range, and inner insights. The session includes the presentation of new psalm settings by Rawn Harbor.

August 7, 2026 | 90 min video
My Own Beloved Psalm: A History of the Interpretation of Psalm 118

Martin Luther frequently called Psalm 118 as his “own beloved psalm,” describing it as a “friend who helped [him] out of many troubles.” This session provides a history of the interpretation of this beloved psalm by looking at the readings of Ambrose, Augustine, Theodoret of Cyrus, Cassiodorus, Luther, and Calvin.

August 7, 2026 | 77 min video