1855 Knollcrest Circle SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546-4402 USA
On the campus of Calvin University
© 2026 Calvin Institute of Christian Worship
In this article Bob Langlois addresses that critical period of time before the worship service: the sound check. This can often be a frustrating time with too many leaders and not enough followers, and it can turn pretty ugly if someone doesn’t take charge. Langlois suggests that that person needs to be the sound engineer. —JB
Several well-known hymn writers “reappeared” recently for one hour in Bloomington, Minnesota. They were our guests at a hymn festival that was planned to build appreciation for the hymnody of the church among our children—and adults.
Tips for leading congregational singing.
These meditations on frequently used Lenten hymns will help you plan worship for Lent.
In this session, Harry Plantinga and Greg Scheer will introduce you to Hymnary.org, lead you through simple and advanced searches, and show you ways to become involved as a contributor.
A feature story exploring Pastoral and Worship excellence. David J. Wood and Paul Ryan offer a biblical framework for cultivating congregational conversations about pastoral excellence and standards for worship excellence.
How can we change our leadership paradigm from directing people to helping them grow?
This session featured stories, prayers, and insights from the first year of the Stockbridge Boiler Room, a simple Christian community that practices a daily rhythm of prayer, study, and celebration while caring actively for the poor and the lost.
Psalms allow us to express a whole range of emotions in powerful ways and at the same time, they tell us a lot about God. This workshop will examine how worship song writers can learn from the psalms as they work on their own craft.
This presentation addressed some of the wonderful possibilities of working well together as well as some of the pitfalls in the assumptions we make about sound in worship.
From the age of the Apostles, to the Early Church Fathers, to the Middle Ages, to the present, we are invited to join that great cloud of witnesses who have worshiped God around the clock from hour to hour, from one time-zone to the next, in ceaseless prayer and praise. This session explored how to incorporate the rhythm of what some call 'The Liturgy of the Hours' into busy contemporary life.
This session will begin with a brief introduction to anthropological categories for talking about worship--liturgical time, space, environment, action, persons, music, language, etc. Participants will then engage in small group conversations about worship, using a process devised especially for facilitating conversations in congregations.
