1855 Knollcrest Circle SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546-4402 USA
On the campus of Calvin University and Calvin Theological Seminary
© 2024 Calvin Institute of Christian Worship
This article tells how Blacksburg churches, who had been working together to make ecumenical connections with the help of a Worship Renewal Grant, were able to respond to tragedy as a community.
How can we worship so that God’s perfect love overcomes all we’re afraid of?
"People fear the unknown above all. You lie awake worrying about what might happen," says Greg Scheer, minister of worship at Church of the Servant in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Worship changes often make people fear they'll lose power, feel discomfort, or watch meaningful traditions erode.
When Isaac Wardell interviewed for the job of director of worship arts at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Charlottesville, Virginia, he learned how often worship changes hurt, confuse, or offend people.
At one of our church member's funeral, we gathered in Christ’s name to proclaim his resurrection as well as hers. Yet something seemed to be missing from this service of worship. This woman had dialogued at length with her own death, and we had heard only part of the conversation.
Most parishioners with hearing loss choose not to suffer the hassle and embarrassment of special receivers and headsets. Happily, there’s a better alternative—the broadcast of personalized sound directly through hearing aids.
In the midst of life, we are in death.” But fewer and fewer of us share in the sad, sometimes openly commercial rituals that surround our final passage in this culture—more and more grieving family and close friends mourn by themselves.
What does the ministry of hospitality look like in our congregations and in our worship services? This article dives into the correlation between worship and hospitality.
Loving God, we cry out to you on behalf of the people of the Darfur region.
Lonesomeness, that bleak and desperate feeling of abandonment and forsakenness, is the worst—the absolute worst—that can overtake any human being.
My years as chaplain among college students have convinced me that many young people suffer from what I call the "immortality virus": "Death-accidents, illness, and weakness, too-can, and sometimes do, happen to others. But it won't -read: cannot- happen to me." Or so they foolishly imagine.
"Being alive is very difficult. Human beings are very complicated. I know. I've spent my whole life being one, and I still can't totally figure it out." So commented one elderly gentleman as he looked back over the seemingly haphazard trajectory of his life's course of events.
