Upcoming Event
An Application-Based Summer Seminar Directed by Felicia Wu Song
July 21 - 25, 2025
Grand Rapids
,
Michigan
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
|
58 min listen
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
|
55 min listen
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
|
50 min listen
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
|
62 min listen
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
|
53 min listen
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
|
47 min listen
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
|
3 min read
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
|
12 min read
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
|
15 min read
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
|
20 min read
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
Culturally Diverse and Holistic Worship
Worship throughout scripture and history is culturally diverse, not monolithic, reflecting the diversity of God and his creation. True biblical worship is also holistic, involving the soul, the mind, and the body. This workshop explored the culturally diverse and holistic nature of worship, with reference especially to African American, Caribbean, and Hispanic worship.
January 1, 2007
|
19 min listen