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On the campus of Calvin University
© 2026 Calvin Institute of Christian Worship
Liturgist and song leader Alison Adam teaches people of all ages in many countries to sing together. She encourages us all to sing in worship with the voices God gave us. Alison is a member of the Scotland-based Iona Community and lives in northern England. At the 2017 Calvin Symposium on Worship, she led a workshop on the power of short songs “to make worship and worshipers come alive in a different way.”
Watch it if you choose or lead music for worship, want to improve congregational singing, need new ways to involve worshipers, or seek simple songs for your class or small group.
Hear 12 songs from around the world and get ideas for how to teach and use them in worship. Download sources for each song and music for four of them.
The key to teaching short global songs is for the leader to know them well and sing with confidence and in tune. The leader doesn’t need a great voice, because “an ordinary voice is a voice we can all relate to.”
Weaving short global songs throughout worship helps worshipers grasp and enter into liturgical moments. These songs help people gather, pray in lament and solidarity with Christians elsewhere, prepare to hear or respond to God’s Word, rejoice, bring offerings, share communion, move their bodies, transition between parts of worship, and go forth.
7:00 to 9:23. How easy it is to teach and learn a short song: “Holy, Holy, Holy (St. Bride)” 51:46 to 59:48. Teaching and talking about “Ya Rabba Ssalami/God of Peace and Justice”
Since these are shorter songs, not hymns, you can’t necessarily find them on Hymnary.org. Here’s where you can buy the music in different countries. Links go directly to the songbook or CD page on each publisher’s website.
• Come All You People: Shorter Songs for Worship, GIA (US); Wild Goose Publications (UK); Willow Publishing (Australia)
• Sing with the World: Global Songs for Children: GIA (US); Pleroma Christian Supplies [CD only] (New Zealand); Wild Goose Publications (UK); Willow Publishing (Australia)
• There Is One Among Us: Shorter Songs for Worship: GIA (US); Wild Goose Publications (UK); Willow Publishing (Australia)
• We Walk His Way: Shorter Songs for Worship: GIA; Wild Goose Publications (UK); Pleroma Christian Supplies [CD only] (New Zealand); Willow Publishing (Australia)
Be sure you follow the rules to get permission for using other people’s music in worship. Read “Copyright Information, Clearing Up the Confusion” by Diane Dykgraaf.
This panel considers the psalms as a source of artistic and theological engagement, exploring how musicians and songwriters draw from these ancient texts to navigate the emotional complexity of the human experience. Through diverse musical approaches and cultural perspectives, the panelists will consider how the psalms continue to resonate in modern contexts by offering language for lament and praise, shaping liturgical practice, and fostering resilience in both personal and communal experience.
“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.
In this workshop, the McGrath family and Kiran Young Wimberly will discuss how spiritual practices, particularly singing the psalms, can build resilience in our lives. In a retreat-like experience, interwoven with psalms set to Celtic music, we will sing together as we reflect on what brings us joy, strength, and hope so we can flourish in the face of daily challenges.
This panel considers the psalms as a source of artistic and theological engagement, exploring how musicians and songwriters draw from these ancient texts to navigate the emotional complexity of the human experience. Through diverse musical approaches and cultural perspectives, the panelists will consider how the psalms continue to resonate in modern contexts by offering language for lament and praise, shaping liturgical practice, and fostering resilience in both personal and communal experience.
“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.
In this workshop, the McGrath family and Kiran Young Wimberly will discuss how spiritual practices, particularly singing the psalms, can build resilience in our lives. In a retreat-like experience, interwoven with psalms set to Celtic music, we will sing together as we reflect on what brings us joy, strength, and hope so we can flourish in the face of daily challenges.
In this workshop, the McGrath family and Kiran Young Wimberly will discuss how spiritual practices, particularly singing the psalms, can build resilience in our lives. In a retreat-like experience, interwoven with psalms set to Celtic music, we will sing together as we reflect on what brings us joy, strength, and hope so we can flourish in the face of daily challenges.
