Cultural Diversity

How Race Works in Multiracial Churches

This workshop was given for those who want a deeper understanding of racial dynamics in today?s churches. Stories and examples from real congregations showed how race within churches is becoming complicated?and creatively reconstructed?through the post-1965 waves of immigration. Most important, we show how various good-intentioned priorities and programs work --and often don?t work-- in racially diverse churches.

January 1, 2008
Beauty Will Save the World: Jonathan Edwards and Abraham Kuyper on Glory and Beauty

Should Christian worship explicitly call our attention to and direct us toward the world and its need, to social action? Or does such worship in fact turn us away from the triune God, the proper focus of our worship? This workshop will explore some ways Abraham Kuyper and Jonathan Edwards?both theologians of beauty and glory, and both very socially engaged?might point us in the right direction.

January 1, 2008
Planning Worship for the Global Village

21st-century worship planners are faced with unique exciting challenges as the church answers the Spirit's call to be a place where all nations and cultures are invited to join in praise.

January 1, 2008

Seeing Your Congregation with Expert Eyes: Culture, Race, Ethnicity

In an update from their Symposium session in 2007, five Calvin College social scientists describe what they've learned through in-depth analysis of congregational and worship life.

January 1, 2008
A View from Latin America: An Interview with Gerardo Oberman

A pastor/musician/liturgist from Argentina speaks of the many changes in worship in his country and throughout South America in the past generation, especially with respect to the influence of Pentecostalism. Since many Latin Americans have migrated in recent years to the United States, his perspective may well help North American churches understand better the complex dynamics of worship life in Central and South America.

January 1, 2008

Overcoming Challenges to Racial and Ethnic Diversity

By looking at successfully diverse churches across the nation, this session revealed critical attitudes for cultivating a hospitable church, perspectives on recent immigration and the neighborhood church, and experiments on musical variety and global awareness.

January 1, 2008
Gerardo Marti on Successful Multicultural Churches

Whether you say multicultural, multiracial, or multiethnic, churches want to become more diverse. So many churches want to know: what makes a congregation successfully multiethnic? A feature story exploring successful multicultural churches.

November 9, 2007
Worship as “Letting Go”

While studying successful multiethnic Protestant churches in metro Los Angeles, Gerardo Marti experienced tremendous variations in worship. “The churches ranged from highly liturgical and mainline to wildly charismatic and Pentecostal.

November 9, 2007

Why Preach Sermons Based on a Catechism?

It turns out that preaching sermons based on the Heidelberg Catechism--or other confessions--hits home with worshipers, including those from the postmodern generation. A feature story exploring the value of preaching sermons based on a Catechism.

August 31, 2007
Robert E Webber's Legacy: Ancient future faith and worship

Ancient future worship is about rooting our worship as the early church did--in God's story--so we embody not our culture but God's mission. A feature story exploring ancient future faith and worship.

May 18, 2007
Space, Time, and Sacraments - N.T. Wright

A seminar led by N.T. Wright on the sacraments of the Lord's Supper and Baptism, discussing the larger questions of space, time and matter within which our understanding of sacraments must be located.

January 10, 2007