If You Want Justice, Work for Beauty
Really? In the face of so much global need, the arts are a necessity?
Peggy Goetz on Churches and Stroke Survivors
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.
Peggy Goetz on Planning Worship with Stroke Survivors
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.
Combining Two Worship Services Renews Congregation
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.
Jeremy Zeyl on Singing the Heidelberg Catechism
Jeremy Zeyl is an award-winning singer-songwriter and the director of worship at Talbot Street Christian Reformed Church in London, Ontario.
Consider Those "In Between" Words - From Reformed Worship
Spoken transitions in a worship service
The Wardrobe of Easter: Compassion
God's Word makes a breath-taking confession about followers of Jesus: they have become resurrected with their risen Lord.
The Wardrobe of Easter: Humility
St. Paul commended it as a resurrection virtue. A humble person is within a millimeter of becoming like Christ himself, who “did not consider equality with God something to be grasped… but humbled himself and became obedient unto death—even death on a cross!”
The Wardrobe of Easter: Patience
Patience-filled Christian saints keep cultivating their relationship with the Spirit and keep praying continually for his help in showing makrothumia everywhere and always toward all others, no matter how impatient and rude, no matter how grumbling and irritating those others at times may be.
The Wardrobe of Easter: Forgiveness
Forgiving: it’s a challenging practice—perhaps no other command of Jesus is more difficult to obey. And it’s so counter-intuitive. Why give anyone a fresh start after he’s hurt you deeply? Why not just retaliate by knocking his block off?
The Wardrobe of Easter: Love
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.
The Wardrobe of Easter: Gratitude
To be human is to be aware that life—one’s own life—is a sheer and undeserved gift from God. It is to revel and delight in its giftedness and to return thanks to the Giver. When the Giver hears an echo of gratitude, the circle becomes complete. Thus gratitude is an essential feature of living up to what God intended for his humans creatures when he made them.