1855 Knollcrest Circle SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546-4402 USA
On the campus of Calvin University
© 2026 Calvin Institute of Christian Worship
This session drew upon biblical passages and confessional and liturgical texts from the Reformed tradition to demonstrate how Christian baptism is a communal, not an individual, sacrament.
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Preaching extemporaneously, without a manuscript, can enliven delivery and improve communication. This session will explain and demonstrate how to carefully make the transition from text to outline, and then from outline to embodied delivery.
In this Symposium session, we explore cultural and liturgical issues our brothers and sisters are addressing, especially in Africa and Asia - for example, intergenerational and multicultural worship; use of indigenous songs, instruments, and dance; use of technology; challenges of religious pluralism. We explore how God is building his church in ways that move us all closer to the unity we have in Christ even as we celebrate the gifts of cultural diversity.
Becoming a worship-centered congregation is a profound cultural shift for some congregations and often takes as much as ten years. Using leadership theory and theories of transformational learning, this workshop explored the dynamics of congregational change, resistance to change, and the role of congregational leaders in always pointing toward the worship of God as the church's highest calling.
The small choices preachers make provide hearers not only with a better understanding of the text, but also with a keen understanding of the preacher.
Christ is the same "yesterday, today, and tomorrow."
Today's hectic pace of life leaves little time for prayer. Daily morning and evening prayer is an ancient treasure of the church that offers a worshipful way to live and pray, no matter how busy our lives feel. Learn more about this classical mode of prayer and how you can incorporate its wisdom into your daily life.
This conversation between spiritual friends explored the art of writing, hospitality, and the pastoral life. Presented at the 2006 Calvin Symposium on Worship.
The way we talk in worship affects the way we talk in the rest of our lives, and vice versa. Worship and daily life are integrally connected—a connection which is fundamental for developing healthy approaches to both worship and preaching.
Some of the worship practices of early Christians --100-400 A.D.-- were strikingly different but perhaps more biblical than ours today.
As Christian school families are learning from their kids and grand kids, high school chapel services are a lot different than they used to be--and often more appreciated as well. A feature story exploring high school chapels.
Whether they are drama leaders in a North American mega church or Catholic priests in a Mexican village, Christians everywhere wrestle with how much of culture to appropriate in worship. They debate the difference between yielding to syncretism and following Paul’s desire “to become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some”
It was just a simple email between friends--but now a Canadian congregation prays for Christians in Egypt. Your church can just as easily make congregational prayers more global. A feature story exploring the inclusion of Global concerns in our congregational prayers.
