Upcoming Event
A Reformation Sunday worship service commemorating the 20th Anniversary of the Accra Confession
October 27, 2024, 5:00 PM
Writing Hymnkus—Haiku Poetry Set to Music—for Christian Worship
Your congregation can make worship the work of the people when you use their words in worship. The hymnku form—haiku poetry set to music—works for in-person, hybrid, and online worship and can involve many ages.
May 23, 2022
Suzanne L. Vinson on Congregations Creating Liturgical Language
Grace Baptist Church in Richmond, Virginia, often invites members to write words used in worship. They've found that crafting liturgical language, such as calls to worship or stewardship and psalm or song paraphrases, is an easy way to help more people participate in worship and congregational life.
May 23, 2022
Engaging in Learning, Growing in Faith
As part of the 35th annual Calvin Symposium on Worship in Feb. 2022, twenty guests spoke with about 200 students in various courses and student organizations about the relationship between public worship and their areas of study. The program demonstrates the catalytic connections that can be made and faith formation that can happen through integrating attention to Christian practices in all areas of study.
April 27, 2022
Toronto Designers on Visual Cues to God's Time
First Christian Reformed Church of Toronto, Ontario, planned a worship grant connecting color and the liturgical year. They invited the congregation into the biblical story by collaborating on a permanent artwork. Then the pandemic prevented them from entering the church building. The landscape architect and the architect who led the grant say that this pivot turned out to be a good thing.
April 19, 2022
Vital Worship Grants awarded for 2022 by the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship
The Calvin Institute of Christian Worship announced today that it will fund 25 Vital Worship Grants projects to Worshiping Communities for 2022-2023 as part of its Vital Worship Grants Program. This group of grants puts us over the 1000 mark for grants awarded through this program. Thanks be to God!
April 14, 2022
Tenebrae Service: A Service of Shadows for Holy Week
The service of Tenebrae, meaning “darkness” or “shadows,” is a prolonged meditation on Christ’s suffering. Readings trace the story of Christ’s passion, music portrays his pathos, and the power of silence and darkness suggests the drama of this momentous day. As lights are extinguished, we ponder the depth of Christ’s suffering and death; we remember the cataclysmic nature of his sacrifice as we hear the overwhelming sound of the “strepitus”; and through the small but persistent flame of the Christ candle which departs until Resurrection morning when we celebrate the ultimate victory.
April 13, 2022
Mary Aluel Garang: The Charles Wesley of South Sudan
Since the mid-1980s, Mary Aluel Garang's theologically rich hymns have helped Sudanese Christians maintain faith and hope in God despite decades of war, conflict, and hardship. Her songs are known and sung beyond her Dinka people, her Episcopal tradition, and her nation of South Sudan.
March 31, 2022
Dinka Christian Infrastructure: Song and Prayer Ministries
During decades of Sudanese civil war, the Jol Wo Lieech song ministry and Thiec Nhialic prayer ministry gave refugees and refugee congregations a sense of family and purpose. Both still work to unite Christians, whether or not they belong to the Dinka tribe or still live in South Sudan.
March 28, 2022
Karen Campbell on Dinka Gospel Songs
Meeting Dinka Christians and musicians decades ago in East Africa made a lasting impression on Karen Campbell, a pastor and musician. She reflects on what we can learn about God through the lens of other cultures.
March 28, 2022
Disability within Faith Communities
A showcase of books and articles related to worship and disabilites
March 2, 2022
Carol Arend on the Art of Accompaniment
Accompanying people on their faith journey is an art that can be learned, according to Pope Francis. When St. Thomas More Catholic Community committed itself to the art of accompaniment, it learned principles that nearly any worship community can apply, Catholic or not.
February 14, 2022
Prayer for God's Leading: Colossians 1:9-14
Shaping a time of prayer for dwelling with Bible texts, prayer responses, songs of faith, and a concluding benediction.
February 7, 2022