1855 Knollcrest Circle SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546-4402 USA
On the campus of Calvin University
© 2026 Calvin Institute of Christian Worship
This workshop offers ideas and activities, many of which have been used with junior high, high school, and college youth, for working with the psalms in small groups or educational settings to prepare pieces that can help lead worship or devotional study.
Why is the church still wrestling with whether to engage or not engage Hip Hop Culture, particularly Hip Hop created and performed by Christian artists? Is there such a thing as Christian Hip Hop?
How do children worship best? How can worship help young people through the teen years? What practices of worship resonate most with adults and elderly people?
Research has shown that young people are abandoning the faith and leaving the church by the time they graduate from college. Might worship be part of the problem?
This article translated into Korean calls for worship services that seek to enable the participation of adults and children alike.
The learning went both ways when two school communities decided to “dwell in the Psalms” for a year. Their Psalms-based creations revealed that the Spirit can work through kids and adults of any age to nourish faith.
Usually teachers give the homily during daily worship at Mustard Seed School in Hoboken, New Jersey. When the school asked every eighth grader to give a homily, the results surprised and blessed the whole community.
People who know how to make beautiful things with their hands are being welcomed to use their God-given gifts in worship and congregational life.
Stroke is a leading cause of disability in adults around the world, so your congregation probably includes—or will soon include—stroke survivors. And about a third of stroke survivors suffer from some form of communication impairment. Peggy Goetz researches the experience of stroke survivors in their church communities.
Peggy Goetz is a communication arts and sciences professor at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Observing her speech pathology students in Calvin’s stroke clinic sparked her to research the experience of stroke survivors in their church communities.
Kendra Buckwalter Smith is the worship coordinator at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. PTS has chapel four days a week, and Smith meets with every person or team that plans a chapel service.
Sally Ann Morris is the chapel musician at Wake Forest University School of Divinity in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She’s involved with each of Wake Div’s twice-weekly, 45-minute chapel services.
