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On the campus of Calvin University
© 2026 Calvin Institute of Christian Worship
Those who experience homelessness, poverty, physical or mental illness, or addiction understand things that more privileged people may never know. Raising up peer chaplains from within this group can lead to renewal in both outdoor and building-based Christian communities.
People treated as the last and the least often feel unwelcome inside churches. That is why some church plants create a worshiping community outdoors. Many of their discoveries also apply to indoor churches.
Our first roundup of ordination resources was so popular that we have now consulted five more experts from five more denominations. Their best practices will help you dig beneath the surface when you ordain or install ministers, elders, and deacons.
Worshiping outdoors and bringing nature into worship helped one church experience more connections between God’s creation, worship, and neighbors.
Jesus’s example of laying down his life for others inspired Martin Luther King Jr. and the U.S. civil rights movement. This theology of how to engage undeserved suffering can help congregations deal with pain.
TOGETHER is a new Bible study curriculum designed to include, appeal to, and challenge adults of varying abilities. It aims to build community in ways that may enrich congregational worship.
What churches profess and what they do sometimes clash. Sharing stories, sitting with those who suffer, praying, and listening in silence for God can help churches harmonize theology and sociology.
This once-aging, now-thriving Lutheran congregation became more comfortable with worship changes by using visuals and stories, reading books together, and sharing over meals.
Christians often talk about the doctrine of creation as mainly about origins and God’s glory. Jamie Skillen goes deeper by looking at God’s purpose in creation and how that applies to creation care.
You might think of performance as totally out of place in Holy Communion. But performance and improvisation can help leaders and worshipers show and tell the gospel with their whole selves.
Christian traditions refer to the prayer before communion as the eucharistic prayer, the Great Thanksgiving, or the Great Prayer of Thanksgiving. If your Lord’s Suppers don’t include this prayer, then you very well may be missing out on a rich opportunity for faith formation.
Caring about God’s good creation includes lamenting whatever harms it and joining God’s mission to make all things new. Songs from around the world explore these ideas.
