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On the campus of Calvin University
© 2026 Calvin Institute of Christian Worship
For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace; the mountains and hills before you shall burst into song… Isaiah 55:12, NRSV
Maybe you are in charge of visuals at your church and you knock yourself out looking for cool images. But you would be better off thinking about how your chosen images assure worshipers that God welcomes them.
Seven college and seminary professors list their top short reads for teaching worship and say which resources would be most helpful for church worship and liturgy committees.
College and seminary professors offer church observation guides for their students. You can use their insights to learn more when you visit other churches. This process can also help you understand how people experience liturgical practices in your own congregation.
Many worship leaders wear themselves out trying to make worship new, fresh, relevant and, above all, different than it was last year or even last week. Maybe they don’t need to change so much and so often.
A majority of U.S. Christians born before 1965 are white. However, the fastest growing groups in the U.S. as a whole and in its churches are people of color. Preaching must change to reflect this diversity so that all generations and nations can encounter God through the Word
While some U.S. politicians play on fears about ethnic minorities, changing demographic trends actually offer churches a huge opportunity to create new forms of worship.
Maybe you feel like a bad Christian when you catch yourself thinking about work or weekday concerns during corporate worship. But doing so can help you worship more deeply and faithfully.
Worship conversations change when you choose to see tradition as a lively center from which to innovate. This provides common ground between those who fear change and those who overvalue change.
The Micah Groups program brings together pastors from diverse denominational, theological and ethnic contexts, all who desire to become empowered wise preachers. They seek justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God. Over time, they build enough trust to have courageous conversations about worship, preaching and justice.
Lay training in both formative and expressive liturgy helps Catholic adults and youth live out their identity in the universal priesthood of all faithful believers. Protestants can learn from this.
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles launched a summer camp to train young Catholics to lead in local liturgical ministries. They discovered that finding gifted youth requires different approaches in different cultures.
