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
Lament shows us that it takes time to recognize the depth of the brokenness of our souls, families, communities, and world. In the midst of the darkest night, there is Light ever-present and hope in our sorrow. We will express our lament, gratitude, and prayers to God, all carried in poetry, scripture, and the moving language of jazz music shared by Ruth Naomi Floyd and her quartet.
David M. Cherwien and The Choral Scholars will lead this service of song and prayer centered around the botanical images of Christ and his people found in scripture.
In this final worship service, Jared Alcantara will preach on Ezekiel 47, “A Trickle of Ever-Growing Hope.” As we dwell with these images of hope after a hard time, we will be led by Calvin University choirs directed by Pearl Shangkuan. Organist David Cherwien will participate as well.
In a world filled with violence, injustice, and despair, the Advent and Christmas gospel comes, wondrously, with two strands of promise: one that touches neighborhoods racked in violence, one that is as intimate as our own interior lives, so often hidden from everyone but God. Both strands of promise are conveyed in a single common word with breathtaking scope: “Peace.”
In the 2023 Worship Symposium’s five main worship services we are looking at Colossians. In this session the five people preaching on Colossians will reflect together on how the situations facing the Colossian Christians long ago remain relevant today. Najla Kasab, Marshall E. Hatch Sr., Laura de Jong, Danny Román-Gloró, and Scott Hoezee will talk about what they observed in crafting their sermons for this year's symposium and on the larger opportunities all preachers have to bring forward Paul's words to address the many crises of our own time.
How can science help us understand what happens when Christians sing together in a common physical space? What are the neural and relational benefits of singing? This session will explore how the Holy Spirit works through what Christians in previous centuries have called “the second book of God”: nature, or the gifts of the physical world.
This workshop is designed for interested lay folks, ministry leaders, and pastors for the sake of exploring the expansive intellectual/spiritual tradition of scripture. The biblical thought-world can hold its own with the ancient Greeks and modern scientific enterprise alike, yet we often don’t understand how scripture’s “thinking” can guide us through the thorniest issues in our culture. This workshop will help participants learn to think alongside the biblical authors by accessing the coherent systems of ideas across the Old and New testaments that not only permeate our own cultural and intellectual traditions, but offer a sophisticated critique of our society.
Learn about the remarkable story of the World Christian Gathering of Indigenous Peoples and gain insights about worship and culture emerging from the accredited theological degrees offered by NAIITS—An Indigenous Learning Community. We’ll hear wisdom from the experiences in Australia of engaging a colonialist Christian history and develop a vision for how Christians in every continent can better work together to learn from each other and grow together in Christ.
Theologian John Stek called the physical creation "the glory robe of God." John Calvin liked to observe that it is our privilege to live in the “glory theater” of God's creation and that the reason God made human beings to stand upright is so we could better lift up our eyes to see the stars above. In the last year more of the universe's glory has been revealed by the stunning images emerging from the new James Webb Space Telescope. Few people can help us appreciate these new glimpses into God's creation better than astronomer Deborah Haarsma. In this session, Dr. Haarsma and Scott Hoezee will discuss what new facets of our Creator God's work have been revealed by the Webb Telescope’s images.
Drawing from Psalms, Colossians, Revelation, and the global church, Carlos Colón invites us to write texts and songs of lament, protest, and hope. We will examine ways to give voice in our worship and prayer gatherings to our pain, our questions, and our desire for deep hope and the healing of all creation. We will examine songs with these themes in the "Santo, Santo, Santo / Holy, Holy, Holy" hymnal and in classical and contemporary sources.
Vivid imagery, compelling stories, perceptive exegesis, pastoral sensibilities, theological clarity, cultural fittingness--each of these gifts contributes immensely to compelling, transformative preaching. Compelling preaching features the dynamic interplay of each of these strengths. This conversation will explore how these dynamic interactions come about, how we cultivate them, and how the practice of polishing, and studying, exemplary sermons can stretch not only award-winning authors but also those of us struggling to shape compelling sermons for people who may not always seem to appreciate it.
What does it mean to be religious? Spiritual? How does a sense of place, identity, culture, and embodied engagement relate to a young person’s sense of belonging to Christ’s church, including the public worship gathering? We will explore these questions and share stories about how young people actively participate in the life of the church.
