1855 Knollcrest Circle SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546-4402 USA
On the campus of Calvin University
© 2026 Calvin Institute of Christian Worship
You-who-do-to-through prayers follow an ancient pattern for making a short prayer with a single theme. Worshipers speak the prayer together, collecting their voices into one.
Kathy Smith is associate director of the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship and manager of grant programs. She speaks at conferences, seminars, and churches around the world. In this edited conversation, she explains how to prepare for, experience, and benefit from the annual Calvin Symposium on Worship.
Dementia frequently interferes with a person's ability to connect with and to benefit from regular religious activities and worship styles that had been meaningful in the past. Yet, persons with dementia continue to need to worship and experience a comforting, deep encounter with Christ.
Lisa De Boer teaches art and art history at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California. She’s been researching the role of visual arts in North American churches. In this edited conversation, she talks about learning to appreciate worship art that doesn’t match a personal ideal.
John Witvliet speaks on "Berakah as a Way of Life" at the 2012 Calvin Theological Seminary convocation.
Elizabeth “Beth” Broschart is the pastor at First Presbyterian Church, a small congregation in Boyne City, Michigan. Before that, she pastored a small church in Pennsylvania and helped lead music in churches where her husband was the pastor. In this edited email conversation, she talks about the joys and challenges of planning music in small congregations.
You don’t need a large choir, paid staff, or huge budget to plan music for worship in your small congregation.
Lisa De Boer talks about the more complex step of moving from displaying art in a church gallery to including visual arts in worship.
Research/writing project for 2003 Luce Seminar, “Prospects of Historic Liturgies in a Postmodern Age.” A work in progress.
“Has your baby laughed?” On the Navajo reservation, that’s a common question posed to parents who have infants around the age of three months. The first laugh of a Navajo child is a very significant event.
The written communication of your congregation has great potential to bless members, newcomers, and the community. Your congregation has unique stories of the love and care of God. It is worth your while to evaluate and tweak current church content and write new materials. Doing so will help people grow together in becoming more like Christ.
If we carry this wedding analogy over into our worship planning, we can employ the same criteria in order to determine if our worship will bring God honour and pleasure.
