Faith Formation

Preaching and Soul Care (For Preachers and Their Hearers)

In a world generically “spiritual,” how does a preacher tend to the highest calling of the pastoral life: the tending of souls?

July 29, 2025 | 44 min video
Women and the Gender of God

At the intersection of theology and anthropology, this session will investigate the impact of the language Christians use for God. 

July 24, 2025 | 66 min video
Women in the Parables: Unveiling Their Influence and Impact in Jesus’ Teachings

Explore the sometimes overlooked but vital roles women play in the parables of Jesus. 

July 24, 2025 | 59 min video

We Are All Here: Worship and the Common Work of Suicide Prevention

Suicide is a deeply personal and all-too-present reality in Christian congregations. 

July 22, 2025 | 58 min video
Living Under Water:  Baptism as a Way of Life

Baptism is often contentious. It breeds arguments and division, splitting congregations and families. 

July 22, 2025 | 49 min video
How the Nicene Creed’s 1,700th Anniversary Can Unify Christians

In popular culture, the ancient Council of Nicaea is sometimes seen as a conspiracy to consolidate power. Some Baptist, evangelical, and nondenominational churches are resistant to creeds, and Christians who recite the Nicene Creed weekly or at least regularly in Catholic, Orthodox, and many Protestant traditions don’t appreciate the depth of the theology in what they are saying. Still, many theologians and historians hope that celebrating the 1,700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed in 2025 can unify global Christians.

July 18, 2025 | 11 min read

Psalms for Families: Devotions for All Ages

Psalms for Families is a devotional e-book for the entire family designed to help parents explore the riches of the book of Psalms with their children and teens. These devotionals will help parents learn more about the psalms as they teach about praise, prayer, and lament.

July 16, 2025 | 1 min read
Public Worship, Health Care, and Illness in Early Christianity

Explore how Christians in the earliest centuries of Christianity preached and prayed about illness, pain, and health care and shaped practices of baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and funerals in response to illness and injury, including during pandemics—all so that we can learn from their pastoral, theological, and practical instincts as we seek to be faithful witnesses to Christ in our own globally diverse contexts. ​ 

July 15, 2025 | 63 min video
Hebrews: The Story of God’s Faithful Grace

Many consider the author of Hebrews the most adept storyteller in the New Testament due to the epistle’s comprehensiveness and rhetorical finesse. 

July 15, 2025 | 63 min video

Sarah Travis on Worship, Playfulness, and Trauma

While completing a grant on playfulness in worship, Sarah Travis began to see connections between play and trauma. Worshiping God through embodied, imaginative, and story-based practices helps people and congregations stuck in trauma begin to move toward healing and new life.

April 23, 2025 | 9 min read
Nurturing Intergenerational Worship through Song

Lilly Endowment Inc. encourages intergenerational worship through its Nurturing Children Through Worship and Prayer Initiative. Worshiping together can include not only music, but prayer, scripture, drama, visual arts, movement, testimony, and sacraments. However, these three grant projects include or spotlight children’s songs or songwriting for children.

January 28, 2025 | 9 min read
Ten Tips for Writing Worship Songs for Children

Lilly Endowment Inc. encourages intergenerational worship through its Nurturing Children Through Worship and Prayer Initiative. Worshiping together can include prayer, music, scripture, drama, visual arts, movement, testimony, and sacraments. Three grant projects include children’s worship music or songwriting for children to create immersive intergenerational worship experiences. 

January 28, 2025 | 10 min read