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On the campus of Calvin University
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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.
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.
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.
The lessons learned at two seminaries that renewed their chapel worship services can make a big difference in your congregation.
After high school many young people move away, often leaving home for the first time. This major life event can be acknowledged in the church. Here is a commissioning service based on 1 Corinthians 12.
C.J. Newendorp is a pastoral intern at Emmanuel Reformed Church in Paramount, California, and an MDiv student, class of 2015, at Fuller Theological Seminary.
John Huizinga is pastor of Lombard Christian Reformed Church in Lombard, Illinois, a Chicago suburb. He works to develop leaders within the congregation to take ownership of various church ministries.
Lombard Christian Reformed Church in metro Chicago used to have both a traditional service and a contemporary service. Now everyone attends a single, Sunday-morning service. It’s not blended worship. Instead, the worship renewal results from slowly and yet actively responding to the Holy Spirit.
An annotated bibliography of resources useful to reach all ages of a congregation.
What better place to celebrate the Good News of God’s agape and to get the instruction manual for learning how to live it out toward others than in the congregation of saints on Sunday morning? There we gather to hear about and to celebrate, to receive instruction and to pledge anew.
This workshop explored ways in which a congregation can present an atmosphere that welcomes and encourages teens.
