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On the campus of Calvin University
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Churches sometimes ignore or separate children and adults with intellectual disability from general church worship and congregational life. But schools, service agencies, and churches can expand one another’s imaginations about what’s possible for and with people with intellectual and development disabilities. Even small congregations can experience the joy of learning to include all abilities in the body of Christ.
Congregations, pastors, and parents/caregivers have many opportunities to join together in worship and prayer practices that more intentionally engage children and help them come to know and love God and grow in faith together. Panelists will discuss ways to intentionally create intergenerational community in which people of all ages, including children, are welcomed as full participants whose participation enriches the community and gives praise to God.
Playing his trumpet in worship alongside adult instrumentalists profoundly affected Brian Reichenbach’s Christian faith and church life. He works to help congregations give school band and orchestra students a similar grounding.
Christians in South India are reviving keerthanais, poems of Christian praise and devotion sung in the Tamil language. They are working to bring this cultural expression back into church worship
This Manamahizh Keerthani Kuzhu concert in India includes Tamil-language Christian keerthanai praise and devotional songs sung in the traditional manner. Group members sang in Tamil but translated the lyrics into English.
People who’ve served and attended churches faithfully often feel isolated when their cognition declines—and so do their caregivers. Your congregation can take simple steps to become more dementia friendly.
Chaplains have been using the Evening Star worship manual in memory care facilities for almost twenty years. The second edition incorporates new research on dementia to create a worship model that is even better at engaging people who live with dementia.
Vital Worship, Vital Preaching grants fund new projects for worshiping communities and teacher-scholars.
Lisa Allen offers an approach to worship planning that centers on the transformative power of holistic biblical worship.
The newest wave of Vital Worship, Vital Preaching grants will fund 54 projects across the United States and Canada starting Jan. 1, 2024.
Dwelling in the Word is a tool for helping people of all ages—even children—to read and reflect on the Bible together. Doing so helps them to see the Bible as an ongoing story in which God invites us to participate in God’s mission for the world.
What does it mean to be religious? Spiritual? How does a sense of place, identity, culture, and embodied engagement relate to a young person’s sense of belonging to Christ’s church, including the public worship gathering? We will explore these questions and share stories about how young people actively participate in the life of the church.
