1855 Knollcrest Circle SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546-4402 USA
On the campus of Calvin University
© 2025 Calvin Institute of Christian Worship
Over the past forty years, the Contemporary Worship Movement has reshaped worship practices in a wide variety of regions, denominations, and cultures. A recognized movement emerged through the influence of hosts of people, institutions, and cultural factors, including songwriters, congregations, publishing companies, educational institutions and more. This seminar explored this fascinating story, with particular attention on the theme of discipleship. What examples of faithful discipleship stand out in this movement? What challenges to discipleship have participants in this movement experienced? Most crucially, what does the shape of Christian discipleship look like today for industry executives, songwriters, worship leaders, pastors, and—above all—contemporary worshipers of all kinds?
Hosted by Steven Guthrie and John D. Witvliet, with Brad O’Donnell and John Thompson
Also read interviews with Brad O'Donnell and John Thompson.
Presented at the 2013 Calvin Symposium on Worship
The Shape of Discipleship in the Contemporary Worship Movement Part 1
The Shape of Discipleship in the Contemporary Worship Movement Part 2.
Legal notice: This content is for personal, online use only.
It may not be downloaded nor used commercially or for public viewing.
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.
