1855 Knollcrest Circle SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546-4402 USA
On the campus of Calvin University
© 2026 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.
Pastor-scholar Andrew Wilkes shares how his worshiping community, Double Love Experience Church, prayed and sang the psalms during the troubling times of 2020. The psalms gave them language and support for praise and lament, and Wilkes asserts that lament is the evidence of faith because we are bringing our troubles to God.
Author and pastor-scholar David Taylor shares how he came to appreciate the psalms and how he encourages people to bring their full, unedited selves to God in prayer and experience a richer and more honest life of faith.
Old Testament scholar Nancy deClaissé-Walford has spent her career studying the ordering of the Psalter. Most of the psalms, she says, are not tied to a particular situation, allowing us to sing and pray them honestly in our own contexts.
Pastor-scholar Andrew Wilkes shares how his worshiping community, Double Love Experience Church, prayed and sang the psalms during the troubling times of 2020. The psalms gave them language and support for praise and lament, and Wilkes asserts that lament is the evidence of faith because we are bringing our troubles to God.
Author and pastor-scholar David Taylor shares how he came to appreciate the psalms and how he encourages people to bring their full, unedited selves to God in prayer and experience a richer and more honest life of faith.
Old Testament scholar Nancy deClaissé-Walford has spent her career studying the ordering of the Psalter. Most of the psalms, she says, are not tied to a particular situation, allowing us to sing and pray them honestly in our own contexts.
A Psalm Talk by Jared E. Alcántara recorded at the 2026 Psalms 150 conference, with a visual prayer and embodied response from artist Dea Jenkins.
