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On the campus of Calvin University and Calvin Theological Seminary
© 2025 Calvin Institute of Christian Worship
Does your worshiping community sing contemporary worship songs from the CCLI Top 100 list? If so, maybe you wonder how these songs are forming worshipers’ views of God and the life God calls us to. Worship leaders and contemporary worship experts offer seven tips for evaluating your song choices and filling in gaps.
Several denominations have created or are creating rubrics for vetting CCLI Top 100 contemporary worship songs. Vetting sparks conversations that help worship leaders make faithful decisions about which songs to put on congregations’ lips.
Churches around the world seek permission to use contemporary worship music from Christian Copyright Licensing, Inc., or CCLI. Late in 2018, CCLI Song Select quietly introduced a liturgical section to help churches select contemporary music that fits the classic ordo, the four-fold pattern of worship. Robert Feduccia explains why.
Christians in South India are reviving keerthanais, poems of Christian praise and devotion sung in the Tamil language. They are working to bring this cultural expression back into church worship
Susheila Williams, a scholar, painter, and music enthusiast, draws on her native language and culture to express Tamil Christianity in India. She uses her education, privilege, and biblical faith to improve the lives of women, especially those who are most marginalized.
This Manamahizh Keerthani Kuzhu concert in India includes Tamil-language Christian keerthanai praise and devotional songs sung in the traditional manner. Group members sang in Tamil but translated the lyrics into English.
Even when denominations try their best to compile culturally sensitive hymnals, not every congregation can or should use that hymnal. That’s why Anabaptist Worship Network works to include more people and cultures in creating new songs for use in worship.
Anabaptist Worship Network used a Vital Worship Grant from the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship to host a songwriting retreat. A diverse group of Anabaptist songwriters gathered for three days to collaboratively write songs, raising questions around copyright justice and remuneration.
In a world filled with violence, injustice, and despair, the Advent and Christmas gospel comes, wondrously, with two strands of promise: one that touches neighborhoods racked in violence, one that is as intimate as our own interior lives, so often hidden from everyone but God. Both strands of promise are conveyed in a single common word with breathtaking scope: “Peace.”
En un ambiente de confianza, respeto, y celebración, culminó el Programa de Becas para Congregaciones Hispanas que organizó el Calvin Institute of Christian Worship (CICW) en la ciudad de Orlando, Florida.
The psalms were written to be sung. But if your church favors guitar and band-led modern worship, how do you sing the psalms? Songwriter Wendell Kimbrough answers this question through the use of short antiphonal psalm refrains that are singable and memorable for his congregation and provide a musical entry point into a psalm. They have become a beloved staple in his home congregation’s worship. In this workshop, Wendell will share some favorite psalm refrains, discuss the mechanics of their use, and respond to questions from attendees. The goal is for all attendees to go home with a plan for regularly incorporating musical psalms into their worship services.
This session is for organists, aspiring organists, the curious, and the inquisitive. No one person has as many sounds at their disposal [or as many keys and buttons!] as an organist. Let's discover new sounds together in this session by listening to new organ music for worship, learning ways to incorporate the organ into your services [even if you don't have a regular organist], and exploring some of the many tonal possibilities the organ has to offer.
