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On the campus of Calvin University
© 2026 Calvin Institute of Christian Worship
As part of the Dwelling in the Psalms year, the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship has provided resources to support Psalm festivals around Canada and the United States. These events are open to the public and many will be livestreamed.
Small churches often mourn what they no longer have. But the relationships and stories they still have can be a source of awe and renewed faith and mission. Learning about storytelling, narrative worship, and story maps has blessed many congregations that had once considered disbanding.
Many churches, especially smaller ones, feel as if their glory days are over. But learning how to collect and tell stories in narrative worship can help them identify God’s work, wisdom, and will in their congregations and inspire them to see how God is still working in their midst and beyond church walls.
Learning to give testimonies, add visuals, and enact scripture helped one small congregation build intergenerational relationships and learn to see their stories within God’s story.
This chapel service is a festival of psalms centered on Psalm 42. This service originally took place as part of the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship’s “Dwelling in the Psalms” year. This event was a partnership between the Calvin University Campus Choir, under the direction of Dr. Mark Stover, and the Woodlawn Church choir, directed by Chan Gyu Jang.
La felicidad genuina se vive en el seno del hogar (Salmo 128). En la vida de toda persona se experimentan peligros de muerte, pero Dios escucha y socorre a quienes lo invocan (Salmo 107). Mantener viva la memoria de las grandes acciones de Dios en la historia enriquece nuestra vida y adoración a Dios (Salmo 105). Asimismo, estudiar y reflexionar sobre lo que Dios ha hecho y hace en el mundo nos ayuda a ser sabios artesanos de nuestra vida personal y comunitaria (Salmo 111). Y, aun cuando vivamos situaciones de peligro mortal, si Dios está de nuestra parte, somos más que vencedores por su amor (Salmo 124).
Hwarang Moon’s recent book Worship in Conversation: Dialogues with Leading Liturgical Theologians (Baylor University Press, 2025) is the culmination of years of engagement with some of the most influential voices in contemporary liturgical studies. Through conversations with scholars from Anglican, Reformed, Lutheran, Methodist, Catholic, Orthodox, and other Christian traditions, Moon explores how worship shapes Christian faith, forms ecclesial identity, and enriches the life of the church.In this interview, Moon reflects on the origins of the project, what he learned from engaging theologians across Christian traditions, and why listening across traditions remains an essential task for the church today.
“Trauma” is not a word we are likely to find in any Bible translation, but it has seemed to frequently appear everywhere else in recent years. Perhaps that began in 2020 with the COVID pandemic. Resonances of that trauma reverberated through churches, too, while many denominations were already facing internal difficulties and the loss of members and congregations. Pastors have been wounded, and many have had to leave beloved ministries. The global political scene seems more fiercely riven than any other time in our memory. Just watching the daily news these days can feel traumatic.
In the fall of 2025, the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship invited worshiping communities to join together in dwelling in Psalms, the prayer book and songbook of the Bible. Each psalm festival that resulted is unique and crafted for its individual context. What follows are examples of psalm festivals from these communities. These examples are for your inspiration and encouragement. If you borrow ideas, litanies, or music from these resources, please provide proper attribution and make sure those items are not copyrighted. You must secure your own permission to use any copyrighted material from these examples.
Dozens of Vital Worship, Vital Preaching grant awards will support worship renewal projects for teacher-scholars and worshiping communities.
Studying Anglican poetics helped Anglicans in Manitoba, Canada, enter more deeply into worship and liturgical life. It also helped them connect with non-Anglicans as they explored shared human experiences through metaphor, imagination, and writing poems.
Imagine if people came to worship asking not “What will the preacher say?” but “What will we discover together?” Living Stories Sermons is a collaborative preaching model that brings new life to worship and helps people feel as if they belong. It involves exegesis, wondering questions, and small-group reflection, and it trusts that the Holy Spirit can speak through everyone, not just the preacher.
