1855 Knollcrest Circle SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546-4402 USA
On the campus of Calvin University and Calvin Theological Seminary
© 2025 Calvin Institute of Christian Worship
Christina Edmondson shares how oral cultures and storytelling can help us to embrace the stories that have shaped our identities and to relate to people from oral cultures in a more humanizing way.
“We ascribe values to cultures,” Edmondson says. When it comes to “oral cultures,” there is a tendency in the North American context to think they are not as valuable as literary cultures. However, Jesus was the product of an oral culture and so are we: we are Christians because we were told the story of God’s love for us, and as Christians we worship a God of a story. There is beauty and value in oral tradition!
This presentation was given as part of a consultation on Christian worship and intergenerational faith formation for the urban context held at Calvin College in October 2016.
Explore how Christians in the earliest centuries of Christianity engaged topics related to wealth and poverty in their preaching, public prayers, offerings, celebrations of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and the shaping of buildings and spaces for Christian worship.
How did early Christians understand their illness and pain in their Greco-Roman context?
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.
Explore how Christians in the earliest centuries of Christianity engaged topics related to wealth and poverty in their preaching, public prayers, offerings, celebrations of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and the shaping of buildings and spaces for Christian worship.
How did early Christians understand their illness and pain in their Greco-Roman context?
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.
This workshop will examine why corporate gathering and worship as the church require us to address potentially polarizing issues.
