Technology

Online Discipleship and Mindfulness

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted opportunities to learn together in the same physical space. But Calvin University and Calvin Theological Seminary offer short online courses for lifelong learners to engage topics such as embodied discipleship and mindfulness in a world gone virtual.

November 9, 2020
Deanna A. Thompson on the Virtual Body of Christ in a Suffering World

In this episode, Deanna Thompson of St. Olaf College talks about her 2016 book "The Virtual Body of Christ in a Suffering World," which was written from her experience of living with cancer and now takes on additional meaning in our COVID-shaped world.

November 3, 2020

Worship in a Digital World: Interview with Wendell Kimbrough

In this edited interview, songwriter Wendell Kimbrough talks about what he’s learned during the COVID-19 pandemic about worship in the digital world. He was interviewed by Rebecca Snippe, a program manager for the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship.

October 16, 2020
Shaping Worship During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Maintaining Community via Virtual Worship at St. Monica Catholic Community, Santa Monica, California

St. Monica Catholic Community aims to welcome and engage every member toward deeper participation in worship and parish life. In this edited conversation, Dale Sieverding explains how to keep members of a church community feeling connected even though they cannot commune together.

April 14, 2020
Shaping Worship During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Sparking New Connections at New Mount Zion Baptist Church, Roxboro, North Carolina

Like many congregations, New Mount Zion Baptist Church has people with varying abilities, incomes, and technology access. In this edited conversation, LaTonya McIver Penny shares how to use a mix of digital and old-fashioned ways to help worshipers and community members stay connected.

April 14, 2020

Shaping Worship During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Ministry of Presence at St. Anna Greek Orthodox Church, Roseville, California

Greek Orthodox Christian worship is consciously embodied. Christopher Flesoras, a Greek Orthodox priest, discusses pastoral discernment for serving the faithful when public health needs require social distancing, also known as physical distancing.

April 7, 2020
Shaping Worship during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Asking Good Questions in Chinese-Language Evangelical Churches in Vancouver, British Columbia

In this edited conversation, Herbert Tsang shares how to use a mix of digital and old-fashioned ways to help worshipers and community members stay connected. He suggests good questions to think about regarding how technology and COVID-19 will form churches and worshipers.

April 6, 2020
Shaping Worship During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Livestream at Christian & Missionary Alliance Churches in Hong Kong

Yvette Lau explains how Christian & Missionary Alliance churches in Hong Kong are deciding whether or how to do virtual worship or even virtual communion. In this edited conversation, she suggests that worship planners consider what will be communal, hospitable, and beneficial to the whole community—during and after COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.

April 1, 2020

Church Polity and Online Sacraments in the Christian Reformed Church

Kathy Smith, Adjunct Professor of Church Polity at Calvin Theological Seminary, reflects on the administration of sacraments in the unique context of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. She advises Christian Reformed churches to practice pastoral flexibility while still abiding by church polity, and provides a historical example from World War II, related by her predecessor Henry De Moor.

March 27, 2020
Angie Hong on Biblical Reconciliation through the Worship Arts

God calls all Christians and congregations to the ministry of reconciliation. Sometimes this happens best through the worship arts.

May 24, 2019