1855 Knollcrest Circle SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546-4402 USA
On the campus of Calvin University
© 2026 Calvin Institute of Christian Worship
You may think of pastoral care mainly as personal visits to someone’s hospital room or home. But Howard Vanderwell wrote that the entire worship service has “powerful potential for caring for worshipers’ needs.” His book Caring Worship: Helping Worship Leaders Provide Pastoral Care through the Liturgy explains how.
Cantar coritos - cantos breves - en español e inglés en el culto ofrece hospitalidad y facilita que la congregación aprenda nuevos conceptos sobre quién es Dios.
Experimenting with a different Advent or Christmas Eve worship format may help worshipers connect with the joy and wonder of Christ’s birth. Blue Christmas, Christmas pageants, Las Posadas, or lessons and carols make room for emotions, movement, culture, and people’s gifts.
This topic showcase highlights resources for including people with mental illnesses in worship. Congregations that renew their worship to become more inclusive discover that everyone benefits.
This topic showcase highlights resources to help churches reclaim their role in including and befriending people who live with mental illnesses.
Singing coritos {short songs} in Spanish and English is hospitable in worship. It also opens up worshipers to new understandings of God.
An ancient pattern at the heart of classic Christian worship helps welcome and orient people into life in the body of Christ.
Worship can change lives when people understand what they are doing and why. Carefully chosen words help frame classic worship elements so gathered congregants are sent out to embody God’s grace, mercy, and peace.
John 17 records Jesus’ prayer for unity “so that the world may know that you have sent me and loved them.” It is a powerful witness when churches model unity within diversity. This witness requires intention and prayer.
To become more multicultural, congregations must help members discern differences between biblical doctrines and cultural biases.
Sometimes it is easier to use the Bible to look back at what God has done than to see what God is working toward. First Baptist Church of McMinnville, Oregon, includes testimonies in worship so that people can see how their lives are part of a story God is still telling.
Celebrating its 150th anniversary led First Baptist Church of McMinnville, Oregon, into a practice of storytelling and testimony in worship. They learned how stories cross boundaries and time and connect people with God’s big story.
