1855 Knollcrest Circle SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546-4402 USA
On the campus of Calvin University
© 2025 Calvin Institute of Christian Worship
This worship service centers on the story of the friend at midnight in Luke 11:5-13. Sandra McCracken, in collaboration with the Calvin University Worship Apprentices and their mentor, Paul Ryan, lead congregational worship. Janette Ok delivers the sermon, and Becca Tellinghuisen leads the scripture reading.
This service was originally recorded at the 2025 Calvin Symposium on Worship.
Song: “Not a Stranger”
Text and Music: Sandra McCracken, Paul Zach, Kate Bluett, Kayla Craig © Porter’s Gate.
Used by permission
Opening Prayer
Call to Worship: Psalm 89:1-2, 5, 14
Song: “I Will Sing” (Psalm 89)
Text and Music: Sandra McCracken and Leslie Jordan © Integrity’s Worship Music.
Used by permission. CCLI #400063
Song: “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty”
Text: Joachim Neander, 1680; tr. Catherine Winkworth, 1863, alt.
Music: LOBE DEN HERREN; Ernewerten Gesangbuch, Stralsund, 1665; arr. Tony Alonso © 2017 GIA Publications, Inc.
All rights reserved. Used by permission. OneLicense.net A-703303.
Call to Confession: Psalm 103:8, 13-14, 17-18
Prayer of Confession
Song: “Christ Is Mine Forevermore”
Text and Music: Jonny Robinson and Rich Thompson © 2016 CityAlight Music.
Used by permission. CCLI #400063
Prayer for Illumination based on John 6:68
Scripture Reading: Luke 11:1-13
Sermon
Prayers of the People with Refrain, “Seek First”
Text and Music: Taizé Community; Jacques Berthier © 1978 Les Presses de Taizé, admin. GIA Publications, Inc.
All rights reserved. Used by permission. OneLicense.net A-703303.
Song: “We Rejoice” (Psalm 65)
Text and Music: based on Psalm 65; Wendell Kimbrough © 2022 Wendell Kimbrough.
Used by permission. CCLI#400063
Benediction
Closing Prayer: “The Lord’s Prayer”
Text: The Message, the Lord’s Prayer © 2002 Eugene Peterson
Music: Sandra McCracken © 2014 Drink Your Tea, admin. Simpleville, Inc.
Used by permission. CCLI #400063.
Why and how did psalm singing become such a hallmark of Reformed worship? Join Dr. Karin Maag for a fascinating journey through time, from Reformation Geneva to Scotland and from the Netherlands to New England, exploring the roots and impact of metrical psalm singing. Along the way, we will hear the voices of early modern Christians as they learned how to sing the psalms, both in unison and in harmony.
Sister Kathleen Harmon of the community of the Ohio province of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in Dayton, invites us to be transformed by the psalms and experience them as the whole story God is revealing to us. As we keep praying and singing them, the psalms interpret us, and that’s when the transformation comes.
Vinroy D. Brown Jr.—conductor, musicologist, educator, and minister of creative worship and music at the historic Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City—explores the vibrant intersection of Black sacred music and the psalms. He talks about Black composers and how they have reimagined the psalms through choral music, spirituals, and the gospel tradition for the benefit of everyone.
Why and how did psalm singing become such a hallmark of Reformed worship? Join Dr. Karin Maag for a fascinating journey through time, from Reformation Geneva to Scotland and from the Netherlands to New England, exploring the roots and impact of metrical psalm singing. Along the way, we will hear the voices of early modern Christians as they learned how to sing the psalms, both in unison and in harmony.
Sister Kathleen Harmon of the community of the Ohio province of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in Dayton, invites us to be transformed by the psalms and experience them as the whole story God is revealing to us. As we keep praying and singing them, the psalms interpret us, and that’s when the transformation comes.
Vinroy D. Brown Jr.—conductor, musicologist, educator, and minister of creative worship and music at the historic Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City—explores the vibrant intersection of Black sacred music and the psalms. He talks about Black composers and how they have reimagined the psalms through choral music, spirituals, and the gospel tradition for the benefit of everyone.
John Goldingay, an Anglican priest and the senior professor of Old Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary, posits the psalms are the densest material in the entire Old Testament. They expound the nature of God as the compassionate, faithful, and committed one, but also as the one who makes demands upon us. The psalms help us talk to God, even about difficult things—and when we do, we are talking to someone who is in a position to do something about it.
