1855 Knollcrest Circle SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546-4402 USA
On the campus of Calvin University
© 2026 Calvin Institute of Christian Worship
Every person who enters Christian worship brings more than a body into the room. We bring our histories, relationships, memories, fears, wounds, hopes, and expectations. For some worshipers, those histories include trauma.
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.
In Advent, the four weeks before Christmas, we tend to gravitate toward the prophets or the gospels—and for good reason, as they easily support and explicate the themes of Advent. But if you are looking for something a little out of the ordinary for Advent this year, consider dwelling with the psalms.
Have you thought about what you are going to say to your congregation the day after? The Sunday after?
2020 Calvin Symposium on Worship | Workshop
2020 Calvin Symposium on Worship
Good relationships are built on healthy practices; the same is true for our relationship with God.
We’ve all been there or will be—planning worship when things just aren’t the way they are supposed to be. Tension and even conflict will happen in every church at some point.
Nine church leaders and scholars recall and predict hot topics in worship, discipleship and discernment from 1995 to 2025.
This workshop features candid, wide-ranging discussions about the most important themes that worshiping communities may need to address in the next 10 years.
We say we are one church but when it comes to deciding what to sing many different and sometimes competing voices are heard. How did we get so many different worship music styles? Is one better than another? Do we need to choose just one? Understanding the roots and impulses of different streams of music helps us navigate them better in the context of worship ministry. During this session we will take a quick tour of the history of music in the church stopping to sing along the way.
Joyce Borger, editor of the hymnal Lift Up Your Hearts and the quarterly magazine Reformed Worship, shares how to use a hymnal as a pastoral care resource.
