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Symposium 2012 - Plenary Address: Performing a Counter World: the Alternative Reality Offered by the Psalms for the Worlds We Inhabit

Performing a Counter World: the Alternative Reality Offered by the Psalms for the Worlds We Inhabit is a plenary address presented by Walter Brueggemann at the 2012 Calvin Symposium on Worship.

September 18, 2014 | 1 min listen
Music in the Church

We say we are one church but when it comes to deciding what to sing many different and sometimes competing voices are heard. How did we get so many different worship music styles? Is one better than another? Do we need to choose just one? Understanding the roots and impulses of different streams of music helps us navigate them better in the context of worship ministry. During this session we will take a quick tour of the history of music in the church stopping to sing along the way.

March 4, 2014

Links in the Liturgy

Are all of the elements of the worship liturgy independent stand-alone items? If so, no effort is needed to tie them together. However, if they are all parts of a continuous worship journey, then flow from one to the next is critically important. What we think of as "transitions" are key. If they are done poorly the flow of the worship journey is broken. If done well they enhance the richness of the entire worship experience. In this sectional we'll explore how to link the liturgy into a smooth flowing journey.

March 4, 2014
Show, Don't Tell: Keeping Sermons Vivid

Throughout the average week people talk about their lives and their families and their work through stories about whosaid what, how a certain event came about, and what something looked like and felt like when it happened. But too oftenon Sundays preachers present sermons that are short on vivid stories and long on description and the doling out of facts.In this workshop those who preach sermons and those who listen to sermons will explore both why vividness in sermons is vital and some ideas on how to make this happen in sermons as well.

March 4, 2014
Cultivating Congregational Hospitality

An exploration of some ways that Christian congregations, depending upon the Spirit’s empowering presence, can become generous, welcoming places for tired, thirsty travelers, both guest and host alike, to refresh and bring blessing to one another and thus serve as signposts of the Gospel.

March 4, 2014

Praying for Shalom in the Psalms

Isaiah is famous for his prophecies of shalom—a coming time in which God would make right all that is wrong with the world. All of creation would be fruitful and benign. All humans would be knit together in brotherhood and sisterhood. All creation and all humans would delight in God. In short, God and creation would once again be webbed together in justice, harmony, and delight. The Psalmists, too, pray for shalom. This workshop will discuss these prayers. How do psalmists pray for shalom and how are their prayers important for our own worship?

March 4, 2014 | 1 min listen
Collaborative Planning and Evaluation

How can a worship planning team work best together? How can we maximize the strengths of collaborative planning while minimizing its weaknesses? In this worship we explore a process for planning worship that is life-giving, balancing creativity, team work, and efficiency. We will also discuss planning tools that can enable effective collaborative planning and evaluation.n

March 4, 2014

Wise Church: Learning from the World-Wide Church

Whether in Toledo, Toronto, Taipei, Tehran, or Tegucigalpa, worship of the Triune God has many commonalities, and followers of Jesus have much to learn from one another.

February 27, 2014
Transformational Preaching: Engaging with Exodus and the Old Testament, part 2

Explore the art of building a bridge back to the world of the Bible and then bringing the drama back to our generation

February 27, 2014 | 1 min listen