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On the campus of Calvin University
© 2025 Calvin Institute of Christian Worship
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?
The idea for this service began in late November 2007. As a congregation we were not planning to hold a New Year’s Eve or a New Year’s Day service. So we asked the question, "How will we begin the new year on Epiphany Sunday?"
This article encourages methodical and reflective methods of reading theological texts in order to receive greater enrichment and nourishment from them.
How can your Christian school design chapel services that connect with real life? Mustard Seed School in Hoboken, New Jersey, has formed a model called community worship. A feature story exploring worship in one small school in New Jersey.
You’ve probably noticed something about worship. “We all know there are times when the Word is more profoundly proclaimed and profoundly heard,” says Philip W. Butin, president and professor of theology at San Francisco Theological Seminary and author of The Trinity.
What makes worship "work?" Gordon T. Smith and Philip W. Butin are among a growing group of scholars who say that consistently and explicitly naming and invoking the Trinity in worship inspires renewal. A feature story exploring how Trinitarian doctrine shapes Christian Worship.
In this email interview from spring 2008, van Setten tells how the music of lament has helped heal European Christians ashamed of how they’ve treated Jews and helped Jews feel God’s presence. He explains how combining lament and praise can enrich evangelical worship.
Lament is an essential ingredient of honest faith, but what does biblical lament look or sound like in real congregations? A feature story exploring how Christians can bring their pain to God in worship.
Churches are talking about spiritual formation and faith formation because they've seen the failure of information to form faith that changes people's inner lives and outward behaviors. A feature story exploring the switch from moralism to faith formation.
The theology of baptism has undergone a striking reformation in the last fifty years. So has the practice of baptism, at least in some respects.
Chapel at your seminary is likely different than seminary worship is for your peers at other divinity schools. A feature story exploring different chapel practices and sharing a model for planning worship on campus.
Can a theologian be a good pastor or evangelist? Can an effective, church-growing evangelist be theological? Can a caring pastor preach doctrine in a relevant way? Is it possible for one person to be a dynamic evangelist, pastor, and theologian all at once? Looking at Cyril, the fourth century bishop of Jerusalem, is helpful.
