1855 Knollcrest Circle SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546-4402 USA
On the campus of Calvin University
© 2026 Calvin Institute of Christian Worship
Ensemble:
ONE: Hallelujah!
TWO: Hallelujah!
ALL: Hallelujah!
ONE: Praise God in the holy temple;
(THREE create a temple tableau.)
TWO: praise God in the mighty firmament.
(FOUR circle around the temple tableau, turn outward, and raise their arms to the sky.)
ONE: Praise God for mighty acts;
(One member of THREE steps forward and parts the circle of FOUR as if they are the Red Sea. The remaining members of THREE walk through the “dry ground.”)
TWO: praise God for exceeding greatness.
(FOUR take on various positions of being struck with awe and compelled to worship.)
ONE: Praise God with trumpet sound;
(THREE pretend to play trumpets while making trumpet noises with their mouths.)
TWO: praise God with lyre and harp.
(FOUR pretend to play harps and lyres while the piano does a slide.)
ONE: Praise God with tambourine and dance;
(THREE do various dance moves. A twirl. A leap. A skip.)
TWO: praise God with strings and pipe.
(FOUR pretend to play flutes, recorders, etc. while whistling, if able.)
ONE: Praise God with resounding cymbals;
(THREE mime clashing symbols, complete with vocalized cymbal noises.)
TWO: praise God with loud clanging cymbals.
(FOUR clash their own imaginary symbols, trying to out-do THREE with their volume.
Some from FOUR continue to clang symbols. Others gradually join in with their own motions and sounds of praise until it becomes a worshipful cacophony—cymbals, trumpet, harp, dance, pipes, temple, firmament, mighty deeds, awe, etc. ONE and TWO speak scattered refrains of “Praise the Lord!” All members of THREE and FOUR that do not have an instrument also speak their own “Praise the Lord!” refrain.
Once it reaches full worshipful cacophony, one by one each member begins to slowly breathe in and out until they are breathing in unison as they continue their motions of worship.
When it is time, everyone freezes.)
ALL: Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Hallelujah!
Carmen Imes has spent the past fifteen years immersed in the book of Exodus, writing about it for both her master’s thesis and her doctoral dissertation. In this lecture, Imes will share some of the most paradigm-shifting insights she’s had while reading Exodus through an Egyptian lens.
“Deconstruction” is a popular term among young people who grew up in the Christian church. In this public lecture, Robert Chao Romero will consider the challenge of widespread deconstruction while offering a hopeful path forward. Expanding on Phyllis Tickle’s analogy of the church having a rummage sale of ideas every few centuries, Romero invites us to consider the contributions of Latina/o theology and the history of the Brown Church as valuable resources for reconstruction on the other side of deconstruction.
Modern song writers are continually setting the psalms to new music for band-led worship contexts. Join Paul Ryan, Nate Glasper, and the Calvin University Worship Apprentices to sing contemporary psalm settings sung in public worship at Calvin.
Carmen Imes has spent the past fifteen years immersed in the book of Exodus, writing about it for both her master’s thesis and her doctoral dissertation. In this lecture, Imes will share some of the most paradigm-shifting insights she’s had while reading Exodus through an Egyptian lens.
“Deconstruction” is a popular term among young people who grew up in the Christian church. In this public lecture, Robert Chao Romero will consider the challenge of widespread deconstruction while offering a hopeful path forward. Expanding on Phyllis Tickle’s analogy of the church having a rummage sale of ideas every few centuries, Romero invites us to consider the contributions of Latina/o theology and the history of the Brown Church as valuable resources for reconstruction on the other side of deconstruction.
Modern song writers are continually setting the psalms to new music for band-led worship contexts. Join Paul Ryan, Nate Glasper, and the Calvin University Worship Apprentices to sing contemporary psalm settings sung in public worship at Calvin.
Join this excursion through compositional method, use of text, melodic creation, vocal range, and inner insights. The session includes the presentation of new psalm settings by Rawn Harbor.
