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The Calvin Symposium on Worship is a conference for worshipers, pastors, artists, musicians, scholars, students, ministry leaders, and more. As an ecumenical gathering, the Symposium creates space for Christians to worship, learn, and connect with people from many cultures, contexts, and Christian traditions from across the country and around the world.
The Calvin Institute of Christian Worship at Calvin University advances Christian worship through resources, events, and grants. Since 1997, we have partnered with congregations and organizations to fulfill our mission.
Opportunities and Challenges for Pastoral Ministry in 2023
Published on
April 12, 2023
Video length
3 mins
Seven pastoral leaders—pastors, reconcilers, preachers, and scholars—offer insights from their unique contexts on the greatest opportunities and challenges for ministry work now.
Pastor Szabina Sztojka describes the ethnic conflict in Hungary, especially against the Roma people, and reflects on how Reformed church leaders and congregations face both opportunities and challenges in inclusion and welcome for all.
Preacher-scholar Brianna K. Parker reflects on the opportunities and challenges pastoral leaders face regarding data on worship practices and on how asking good questions and commissioning good research can be beneficial.
Author Latasha Morrison reflects on opportunities and challenges churches face in healing, equity, and reconciliation, specifically through the lens of discipleship and spiritual transformation.
Te-Li Lau on the Cultivation of Emotions in Worship
Professor Te-Li Lau reflects on the opportunity and challenge of cultivating and nurturing godly emotions in public worship and connecting them to scripture.
Professor Rolanda L. Ward challenges communities of faith to pause and consider the harm in our world and the role lamentation has in helping us work through these tragedies in everyday living.
Deeper Church: Preaching and Worship to Shape Us as Communities of Tenderness (A Jazz Homily)
An evening of music and spoken word with Mark Glanville, accompanied by a jazz trio, reflecting on how preaching and worship can form deeper churches in a post-Christian context.
Seeing Christ in the Face of the Other: Singing the Psalms for Reconciliation with Karen Campbell
In 2020, the Presbyterian Church in Ireland published the book Considering Grace, which narrates the stories of 120 people and their proximity to the troubles in Northern Ireland. Though clergy were applauded for often acting as first responders to the victims, wider questions regarding the denomination were raised. Could they have spoken up more and been a prophetic voice? In response, the Presbyterian Church in Ireland commissioned Karen Campbell to convene groups to produce a suite of songs, prayers, and liturgies from the psalms of lament to be used in congregational settings to voice lament, confess complicity, and raise deeper questions surrounding justice. This workshop will discuss the process involved and the questions raised and will include some of the songs, liturgies, and prayers that were produced.In 2020, the Presbyterian Church in Ireland published the book Considering Grace, which narrates the stories of 120 people and their proximity to the troubles in Northern Ireland. Though clergy were applauded for often acting as first responders to the victims, wider questions regarding the denomination were raised. Could they have spoken up more and been a prophetic voice?
Deeper Church: Preaching and Worship to Shape Us as Communities of Tenderness (A Jazz Homily)
An evening of music and spoken word with Mark Glanville, accompanied by a jazz trio, reflecting on how preaching and worship can form deeper churches in a post-Christian context.
Seeing Christ in the Face of the Other: Singing the Psalms for Reconciliation with Karen Campbell
In 2020, the Presbyterian Church in Ireland published the book Considering Grace, which narrates the stories of 120 people and their proximity to the troubles in Northern Ireland. Though clergy were applauded for often acting as first responders to the victims, wider questions regarding the denomination were raised. Could they have spoken up more and been a prophetic voice? In response, the Presbyterian Church in Ireland commissioned Karen Campbell to convene groups to produce a suite of songs, prayers, and liturgies from the psalms of lament to be used in congregational settings to voice lament, confess complicity, and raise deeper questions surrounding justice. This workshop will discuss the process involved and the questions raised and will include some of the songs, liturgies, and prayers that were produced.In 2020, the Presbyterian Church in Ireland published the book Considering Grace, which narrates the stories of 120 people and their proximity to the troubles in Northern Ireland. Though clergy were applauded for often acting as first responders to the victims, wider questions regarding the denomination were raised. Could they have spoken up more and been a prophetic voice?
A workshop which shows participants how to preach genre-conscious sermons from the book of Psalms. Attention will be given to historical, literary, and theological issues with the aim of improving hermeneutical, generical, and homiletical practice. Participants, including hearers of sermons, will expand their knowledge of the psalms as a genre, develop genre-conscious forms and structures, and cultivate new strategies for homiletical practice.
