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On the campus of Calvin University
© 2026 Calvin Institute of Christian Worship
Maybe you heard her song “Try Again” on the TV drama Parenthood or NPR’s Morning Edition.
Twenty artists from North America and South Africa created “Between the Shadow and the Light: Artists’ Prophetic Responses to South Africa Today.”
The learning went both ways when two school communities decided to “dwell in the Psalms” for a year. Their Psalms-based creations revealed that the Spirit can work through kids and adults of any age to nourish faith.
Usually teachers give the homily during daily worship at Mustard Seed School in Hoboken, New Jersey. When the school asked every eighth grader to give a homily, the results surprised and blessed the whole community.
People who know how to make beautiful things with their hands are being welcomed to use their God-given gifts in worship and congregational life.
When strokes, illness or other challenges keep people from attending worship, they often fall off the congregation’s radar. Here are ideas for using visual arts to reconnect and include such people in worship and church life.
Peggy Goetz is a communication arts and sciences professor at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Observing her speech pathology students in Calvin’s stroke clinic sparked her to research the experience of stroke survivors in their church communities.
Stroke is a leading cause of disability in adults around the world, so your congregation probably includes—or will soon include—stroke survivors. And about a third of stroke survivors suffer from some form of communication impairment. Peggy Goetz researches the experience of stroke survivors in their church communities.
Sally Ann Morris is the chapel musician at Wake Forest University School of Divinity in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She’s involved with each of Wake Div’s twice-weekly, 45-minute chapel services.
The lessons learned at two seminaries that renewed their chapel worship services can make a big difference in your congregation.
Kendra Buckwalter Smith is the worship coordinator at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. PTS has chapel four days a week, and Smith meets with every person or team that plans a chapel service.
Two seminaries seek the sweet spot among worship classes and chapel services. They aim to produce ministers ready to lead worshipers in full, conscious, active participation.
