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© 2026 Calvin Institute of Christian Worship
A look at worship planning and some tips that make it easier.
So what is the best way to organize the worship planning process? Here are a few observations, along with a model for analyzing your own congregation’s worship planning routine.
As worshipers move from one element of the service to the next, they need help to understand what they are doing and why. Verbal transitions help them stick with the worship dialogue between God and gathered people.
How engaged are the worshipers in your congregation? Do they tend to function as observers or active participants?
This session drew upon biblical passages and confessional and liturgical texts from the Reformed tradition to demonstrate how Christian baptism is a communal, not an individual, sacrament.
Worship that shapes us and helps us articulate our actual relationship with God needs to be as real as possible: true to the impossible ideals of the Gospel that both judge our present and promise us a glorious future, and true to the actual needs, opportunities, failures and successes of our life between worship services.
A word study on "worship," with specific attention to the medieval meaning of the word and how it flows into a life of "worshipful service."
A transcribed address on the purpose, place and importance of a prelude, offertory, and postlude in a worship service
Can the world still use new worship songs? Yes. Does their worth depend on how much they sound like other songs or how many people hear and sing them? No.
Theologically serious song writers are acknowledging Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in contemporary songs that unite head and heart. A feature story exploring how contemporary music is maturing theologically.
A service plan for prayer and reflection during a time of war. It is difficult to know what to think during such a time. It is right for the church to gather in prayer and reflection, believing and resting in the belief that our world belongs to God.
A service plan focused on our prayer lives and the struggles we face when our prayers do not seem to be answered in a series addressing life's toughest questions for Christians.
