Contextual Stories from Hispanic Worshiping Communities
Pastors of three Hispanic churches will share what they learned from experiences implementing congregational projects related to the development of new understandings and practices of worship and preaching.
Culturally Responsive, Trauma-Informed Worship
In today’s diverse and interconnected world, understanding and addressing trauma through a culturally responsive lens is essential for creating inclusive and healing worship experiences.
Why Confronting What Divides Us Is a Gospel Issue
This workshop will examine why corporate gathering and worship as the church require us to address potentially polarizing issues.
Cultivating the Creative Life
What is creativity, and why do we still need to talk about it? Join Sandra McCracken in a conversation on faith, imagination, and creativity.
Singing Bilingual Psalms from Passion Week through Ascension Day
A conversation with Tony Alonso.
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?
Women in the Parables: Unveiling Their Influence and Impact in Jesus’ Teachings
Explore the sometimes overlooked but vital roles women play in the parables of Jesus.
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.
We Are All Here: Worship and the Common Work of Suicide Prevention
Suicide is a deeply personal and all-too-present reality in Christian congregations.
Living Under Water: Baptism as a Way of Life
Baptism is often contentious. It breeds arguments and division, splitting congregations and families.
Jazz Vespers
This vesper service offers a journey through the psalms in a jazz style. Music is adapted from the album Connexion: A Jazz Psalter, produced by Wally Brath. Brath (piano), Nikki Lerner (voice), Greg Tardy, (saxophone, clarinet), and a Calvin University chamber orchestra lead the congregation through God’s story of creation, fall, redemption, and restoration, exploring the full emotional depth of the psalms. The jazz-inspired soundtrack offers rich musical expression that complements the divine poetry.
Public Worship, Health Care, and Illness in Early Christianity
Explore how Christians in the earliest centuries of Christianity preached and prayed about illness, pain, and health care and shaped practices of baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and funerals in response to illness and injury, including during pandemics—all so that we can learn from their pastoral, theological, and practical instincts as we seek to be faithful witnesses to Christ in our own globally diverse contexts.