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On the campus of Calvin University and Calvin Theological Seminary
© 2024 Calvin Institute of Christian Worship
Because life is a sheer gift from God, one we never deserved. The appropriate response, therefore, is to do two things: to take delight in the gift, to revel in and to savor it; and then, in response to bless the Giver with lavish thanks.
You-who-do-to-through prayers follow an ancient pattern for making a short prayer with a single theme. Worshipers speak the prayer together, collecting their voices into one.
Kathy Smith is associate director of the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship and manager of grant programs. She speaks at conferences, seminars, and churches around the world. In this edited conversation, she explains how to prepare for, experience, and benefit from the annual Calvin Symposium on Worship.
James Abbington discusses the new hymnal Psalms for All Seasons.
Tom Swieringa co-leads Wyoming Kingdom Enterprise Zone, a church multiplication initiative by Reformed and Christian Reformed churches in Wyoming, Michigan. He has pastored and planted churches in Iowa, Michigan, South Dakota, and Texas. In this edited conversation, he talks about cooperating with God in intercessory prayer, during worship and beyond.
Musician David M. Bailey is the music director at East End Fellowship in Richmond, Virginia. In this edited conversation, he talks about becoming aware of power dynamics in multicultural congregations and neighborhoods. He lives in Church Hill, a neighborhood hard hit by economic decline.
“Starting a gospel choir has been huge for spiritual formation,” says David Bailey, music director at East End Fellowship in Richmond, Virginia. And it all started from a hug.
East End Fellowship in Richmond, Virginia, started an urban songwriting internship and a gospel choir to reflect its congregational values of incarnation and reconciliation.
Dementia frequently interferes with a person's ability to connect with and to benefit from regular religious activities and worship styles that had been meaningful in the past. Yet, persons with dementia continue to need to worship and experience a comforting, deep encounter with Christ.
Praying for the Navajo people is a tricky thing. It is so easy to focus on, and become overwhelmed by, our needs.
A set of resources for the Sermon on the Mount.
We are a church relishing in the resurrection. I like to think that Mary Magdalene and the other Mary who heard the good news of Christ’s resurrection did not simply hurry off to tell this exciting news, but that they danced. “They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him”. How could they have kept still?
