1855 Knollcrest Circle SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546-4402 USA
On the campus of Calvin University
© 2026 Calvin Institute of Christian 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.
Talk about worship aesthetics need not polarize people. Frank Burch Brown tells how to be more inclusive in arts and worship, yet also more discerning. A feature story exploring the idea of "taste" and aesthetics in Christian Worship.
This workshop discussed how contemporary short stories from writers such as Flannery O'Connor, Doris Betts, and Raymond Carver resonate with New Testament themes and how such stories might help preachers find ways to relate contemporary themes to their listeners.
What is spiritual formation?
The 21st century is characterized by people moving and mixing all over the world, trying to fit into new communities that are varied and diverse. That reality is pushing the church to be multiethnic like the church of the 1st century. We'll explore how to plan worship that is inclusive, allowing everyone to feel welcome by including musical gifts from their culture and worship "back home" in their new church home.
In this workshop, participants were led to discover the form of Biblical lament and how lament can be used in worship to facilitate the revitalization of a Gospel community experiencing loss and change. The workshop was based on the presenter's book, When Steeples Cry: Leading Congregations through Loss and Change.
The church is engaging in ministry to prisoners as never before. It has become evident that prison ministry is having a profound impact upon the life of the church and that the principles of Restorative Justice are not only for offenders and victims, but for anyone to live all of life as worship.
This session considered a church building as being part of, and contributing to, the neighborhood that surrounds it. We explored how a building connects to a neighborhood in terms of scale and style, helping to shape the public realm, and how threshold points operate between the church and the public.
What should preachers keep in mind in composing sermons? This session will hold up the rubrics "Biblical, Authentic, Contextual, and Life-Changing" as goals for preachers and as helpful categories for congregations to use in discussing sermons.
Asaph is hardly a household name, yet he has been impacting worshipers for 3,000 years. Twelve psalms are attributed to Asaph. Scripture reveals that Asaph was a man of integrity as well as a great artist. This workshop explored the man and his art to glean practical applications for us today.
This session raised the question as to whether some, if not all, of the ministries of the church might be enriched if they could be re-integrated around particular geographic locations. Specifically, this session will suggest the possibility that choosing where to live or what ministries of the church to affiliate with based on where one lives can be a fundamental act of Christian discipleship.
This session delved more deeply into the conference worship theme by probing key scriptural texts on the theme of divine glory, reviewing contributions of influential theological texts, and then exploring the pastoral dimensions of weaving this luminous theme into everyday ministry back home.
