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© 2026 Calvin Institute of Christian Worship
This sermon on Luke 18, The Heart of Faith, was part of the Calvin Symposium on Worship 2009.
Based on his book, When God Speaks Through You, Craig Satterlee explored how "holy and active listening"—listening for God's voice speaking in and through the faith community can occur when church members talk to one another and to their pastors about preaching—and especially the faith convictions they bring to the sermon, which influence both the preaching and what is heard.
Church leaders and other saints in our congregations frequently find themselves struggling with money, technology, politics, the institutional church, etc. - what the Bible calls "principalities and powers."
A sermon on Luke 15, "Coming Home Empty"
When we gather for worship on New Year’s Eve, we do so to praise God for the past year—to thank God for the wonderful gifts he has given us and to remember his wonderful deeds. But what if our year has not been good? What if, when we think back on the year, all we can remember is pain and heartache?
Frederick Buechner writes that people "as a rule see only what they expect to see and little more." The preacher's calling is see beyond what we expect to see and help congregations to do the same. This session discussed what the preacher can do to be faithful to this calling.
Although sermon preparation involves lots of steps-everything from selecting a text to embodying the sermon on Sunday-the search for meaningful illustrative material during the week is often the most frustrating.
This workshop audio will help participants begin to explore the possibilities and homiletical impact of engaging in an ongoing, vigorous program of reading for preaching.
In this workshop participants explored the relationship of Word and Sacrament in weekly preaching. Undervalued biblical and theological foundations of the Lord's Supper and baptism can add to the depth of one's sermons. Additionally, a sacramental approach to preaching can influence one's use and understanding of language and illustration.
Rather than attempting unity in our services through a commonality of style or form, how much richer and spiritually nourishing to use a biblical or theological theme as a unifying principle. This approach allows for the use of a rich variety of forms and styles, and gives time to focus on and respond to an aspect of God and his truth in a way that is edifying and serves a catechetical function over the long run.
This workshop focused on the formative power of the lectionary when it is read within the theological narrative of the Christian year: the story of salvation.
How do Christ's life, death, and resurrection save us? What poetic imagination do we use to grasp his saving work?
