Whose Art? Which Church?
Those who work at the intersection of the visual arts and congregational life know from experience how rich, complex, rewarding, and often messy this area can be.
Overcoming Challenges to Racial and Ethnic Diversity
By looking at successfully diverse churches across the nation, this session revealed critical attitudes for cultivating a hospitable church, perspectives on recent immigration and the neighborhood church, and experiments on musical variety and global awareness.
The Holy Spirit and Worship
This workshop explored the biblical teaching on the central role that the Holy Spirit plays in worship. Dependence and freedom, order and spontaneity, reverent silence and joyful noise will be some of the paradoxes to explore in the framework of Scripture. Our purpose is to inform some of our present-day worship practices and enrich, challenge, and transform them for the glory of the Lord we worship.
Beyond Bullet Points: Creative Uses of Visual Technology for Preaching
How can we use video clips, pictures, and PowerPoint in ways that are creative, but more importantly, truly helpful for communicating the preached Word?
Baptism and the Lord's Supper: Embraced by the Triune God
This session explored the deep Trinitarian meanings and implications of the sacraments. Though centered on our union with and participation in Christ, Baptism and the Lord's Supper draw us into the heart of the divine community we call Trinity.
Praying with the Early Church: Crucial Lessons about Intercessory Prayer
This session reviewed several prayer texts from the third to the fifth century, and then probed the very practical ways they might challenge us to pray more deeply in worship today.
Public Biblical Praying
This workshop looked at biblical and historical examples of how ancient Christians prayed in public worship.
Imaginative Reading for Creative Preaching
This workshop audio will help participants begin to explore the possibilities and homiletical impact of engaging in an ongoing, vigorous program of reading for preaching.
Symposium 2008 - Blended Worship: Good for the Body
The best argument for blended worship is that the body of Christ by definition is itself blended - therefore our services should reflect that reality.
Redeeming the Time: Homiletic Theology for a Pilgrim People
This workshop focused on the formative power of the lectionary when it is read within the theological narrative of the Christian year: the story of salvation.
The Most Used Contemporary Worship Songs: Their View of God and of Our Love for God
This session explored how the most-used contemporary songs speak of the Triune God and what God has done to save us.
Creating a Child-Friendly Culture in Your Church
To help children grow in faith we want our churches to be places where they are nurtured and where they feel that they have a place. We will look at things that churches can do to become more child friendly and encourage faith-nurturing adult-child relationships.