Religion Commons^™

Program: Featured Lecture, "Surprised By God.", Kindalee Pfremmer De Long

William M. Green Distinguished Christian Lecture Program

Program for the Thirty-Eighth Annual William M. Green Distinguished Christian Lecture Program with featured lecturer Dr. Kindalee Pfremmer De Long, Associate Professor of Religion at Seaver College, Pepperdine University.

Shalom Seeking: Foundations Of Flourishing, Kevin Jay Timmer

Christian Engineering Conference

Jesus instructs us to seek first the Kingdom of God. Seeking first the Kingdom of God is no small task. It is a process of striving to show God’s love in every situation by showing love to our neighbors and to the rest of the creation. It is serving in a way that enables them to flourish. Seeking first the Kingdom of God is striving for true progress in all its wholeness; it is seeking shalom [1]. Shalom is an Old Testament word which refers to the restfulness, contentment, beauty, and harmony of a life lived in perfect obedience to …

Safety And Its Ethical Challenges For The Christian Engineer In A Technological Society, Anthony C. Comer

Christian Engineering Conference

In every major corporation safety is a high priority and corporate policy statements stress the company’s commitment to keep people and the environment safe. However, safety comes at a cost. Corporations are in business to make profits by providing quality products and services for consumers at affordable prices. Engineers play a critical role in the design, construction, and operation of corporations across the globe and are constantly challenged to find new ways of doing things in order to reduce operating expenses in a competitive global economy. Companies must keep pace with the latest technological innovation or face the prospects of …

Engineering Through The Eyes Of Faith, David C. Che

Christian Engineering Conference

What is a biblical perspective of engineering? This paper seeks to answer some key questions related to the integration of faith and engineering. It is the second paper in a three paper sequel on this topic. It attempts to build from some initial concepts presented in a paper at the 2013 Christian Engineering Education Society (CEES) conference [1] and deepen the analysis on common grace and use new examples and present some new ideas on dominion mandate and its application to engineering and engineering education.

God is the Master Engineer. As an architect of His creation God presents wisdom as …

Theology And Engineering Practice: Models Of Reality, William M. Jordan

Christian Engineering Conference

To a Christian engineer both faith and engineering practice are very important. As we work through what we believe about God and how we practice engineering, we find that they have something important in common. Both systematic theology and engineering practice are approximations in our attempts to understand reality.

When theologians attempt to systematize the faith, they are coming up with human models of how they see God acting in human history. When engineers design a new product, they use models of how materials act when they have various forces applied to them.

For example, in discussing end times theologians …

On The Significance Of The Biography And Thought Of Pilgram Marpeck For A Responsible Engineering Perspective, Karl Heinz Kienitz

Christian Engineering Conference

In the general scope of an aspirational approach to engineering practice and ethics, this article follows the paradigm of learning from biography and presents Pilgram Marpeck, an engineer and Anabaptist reformer of the 16th century, as a possible early role model for the engineering professional. A biographical review of his life and all-encompassing participation in the society of his time is followed by a self-contained summary of his thought on selected topics. When considering the bearing of these on engineering ethics and practice, Marpeck's thought and several of his concerns are found of current relevance.

Twenty-Five Years Of Christian Engineering: A Literature Survey, Steven H. Vanderleest

Christian Engineering Conference

This paper surveys the complete set of over one hundred published papers that have appeared in the previous proceedings of this Christian engineering conference, identifying the themes, questions, and issues that have been explored thus far. Major themes include Biblical principles and virtues, design norms, the great Biblical directives, vocation/calling, and attributes of God. Next, a taxonomy is proposed to organize the concepts into an overall structure. Finally, the paper identifies open questions and topics that deserve further discussion.

The First Crusade: The Forgotten Realities, Jonathan Chang

Young Historians Conference

In the Middle Ages, Europe saw a great amassing of thousands of lords, knights, and ordinary people for an extraordinary expedition into the Holy Land. This event was called the First Crusade. The First Crusade was one of the more successful crusades, however, this fact is overshadowed by the negatives of the crusades. My paper explores the reasons for how the crusaders were able to be victorious in the First Crusade.

Spirituality: Take Me To A Higher Place, Kane Stanglin, Alexandra Mendez, Laura A. Eads, Kyle Crosslin

Collin College Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Student Research Conference

Panel Chair: Marta Moore

Papers Presented:

"The Acceptance of Fate from a Man of God" by Alexandra Mendez

"Acceptance Is Peace" by Kane Stanglin

"Hindu Beliefs in Bhagavad-Gita" by Laura A Eads

"Analysis of 'The Sovereignty of Goodness of God'" by Kyle Crosslin

The Promise And Peril Of Preaching For Revival: Lessons From The Life Of George Whitefield, Peter Choi

Symposium on Worship Archive

Seasons of renewal are God’s gift to the church. They are also occasions for controversy and division. Together we will reflect on one of history’s greatest revival preachers to understand not only how revivals come but what follows in their aftermath. “God’s anointed barnstormer,” according to J. I. Packer, and “the greatest English preacher who has ever lived,” in the estimation of Martin Lloyd-Jones, George Whitefield also made crucial mistakes and had his fair share of regrets. To pay attention to the long duration of this famous preacher’s life is to learn both the promise and peril of revivals in …

Explaining Christian Worship To The Skeptical Or Questioning Seeker: Group Exercise, Kevin Adams

Symposium on Worship Archive

What are best practices for introducing people to the practices of Christian worship? How can we give an account of what we do in worship in warm, winsome, and convicting ways that move beyond surface level explanations to address the deepest spiritual hungers of our age?

The Contemplative Worship Leader, Paul Ryan

Symposium on Worship Archive

Parker Palmer writes, “At root, contemplation and action are the same.” For worship leaders, a deep well of spiritual practice is vital amid the activity and demands of worship leadership. But as the anxious and hurried, our spirituality is often found wanting. New and ancient patterns in Christ’s Spirit, however, are available to worship leaders, and in this workshop we will together explore how to find life and vitality in our diverse contexts and through our varied our personalities.

A Sweet Sound: Absorbing God's Word In The Language Of The Heart, Ann Kapteyn

Symposium on Worship Archive

Many people around the world are multilingual but do not have access to the scriptures in their mother tongue. What changes when a person hears God’s Word in their own language as opposed to their second or third language? How does the translation of key theological terms into a person’s mother tongue change their understanding? Beyond language, some cultures are oriented to oral methods of communication rather than reading and writing. What methods, resources, and new technology are available to people who prefer to listen to God’s Word rather than read it? This talk will be a wide-ranging discussion how …

Innovation In Worship: Working With A Team To Make Healthy Changes, Jordan Clegg, Dawn B. Gibson, Kathy Smith, Jonathan Tamayo, Jeff Wong

Symposium on Worship Archive

Listen to a diverse group of panelists from various churches across North America describe how they envisioned and led their congregations through changes in worship. We will consider the value of empowering members’ gifts in worship, and wisdom for healthy change processes. This seminar will be valuable for any church considering changes in worship.

Playing In Luke's Gospel, Joy-Elizabeth Lawrence

Symposium on Worship Archive

Though we often think of Bible study as serious business, adding an element of play into our exploration of scripture deepens our emotional connection to the text and can invite our congregations to experience God’s Word in a new way. In this hands-on seminar, we will explore and consider contextualized ways to present portions of Luke’s gospel in worship.

Autism And Your Church, Barbara J. Newman

Symposium on Worship Archive

With one in 68 individuals being diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), it is likely that your worshiping community already includes someone with ASD. If you are a pastor, worship leader, musician, church school teacher, or church volunteer, discover specific ways to identify, interact with, and worship with persons with ASD. Using six key areas of difference, this session will take best practices in special education and apply them to a church setting. Leave with a toolbox full of new ideas to try starting next week with both children and adults!

Shaping A Congregation’S Worship Dna, Kevin Adams

Symposium on Worship Archive

This workshop offers wisdom for designing and shaping the first year of worship in new and restart church settings, with practical and theological insights about how worship connects to the tradition, neighborhood, and persons of the church planting context, leader and team.

Universal Design, Responsive Design: Keys For Welcoming Persons With Varied Abilities, Benjamin T. Conner, Melissa Conner, Barbara J. Newman, Karen Roberts Phd, Reginald Smith

Symposium on Worship Archive

Worshipers and congregation members certainly do not come in a “one size fits all” wrapping! As you gather for worship you will notice an array of gifts, but you may also see the areas of struggle each one brings to the community. How do worship planners and pastors best weave in best practices for including each one in the conversation with God in worship? Join us as we highlight ideas to get your congregation launched in the right direction as you include members with disabilities.

Movement And Worship: An Experiential Engagement Of Embodiment In Ministry, Cassandra Vander Well

Symposium on Worship Archive

From the earliest origins of the Judeo Christian tradition, dance and movement have been integral to the Christian life and faith practice, moving us individually and communally closer to the heart of God. This seminar will examine the history of liturgical/sacred dance in the church and how a biblical perspective on dance can inform current approaches to weaving movement into the fabric of Christian worship and ministry. Come ready to explore and engage these concepts through movement and dialogue.

Worship 201: Giving Witness To The Urgent, Eric L. Mathis, Paul Ryan

Symposium on Worship Archive

A critical task of 21st century worship leadership is to name pressing issues, and give confident witness to the reality of God’s presence in sometimes difficult circumstances. In this seminar, we will identify pressing issues in local and global worshiping communities. Then we will engage past and present worshiping communities as case studies to identify their approach to urgent issues. Finally we will imagine how these communities might teach us about giving confident witness to those issues that are urgent in our time and place.

Singing The Psalms In A Modern Worship Setting, Wendell Kimbrough

Symposium on Worship Archive

The Psalms were written to be sung. But if your church favors guitar-led modern worship, how do you sing the Psalms? Songwriter Wendell Kimbrough’s pastor answered this question by asking him to write short Psalms refrains that are singable and memorable for his congregation. For the past two years, their church has engaged the Psalm through music each week, following the Revised Common Lectionary. In this workshop, Wendell will share some of the best-loved of these refrains and talk about his church’s journey learning to sing and love the Psalms.

Unlocking The Mysteries Of Church Sound Systems, Greg Scheer

Symposium on Worship Archive

Of the many hats worship musicians and pastors wear, “sound system purchaser and troubleshooter” may be the most uncomfortable. Nonetheless, your understanding of how a sound system works could have a huge impact on your congregation’s ability to hear the preaching and take part in singing. This session will teach you about microphones, channel strips, speaker placement, and a myriad of other subjects that likely weren’t included in your seminary or music education.

Worship: The Embodied Moment For Self And Church Community, Kathleen S. Turner

Symposium on Worship Archive

The guiding question for this workshop is: How can movement gesture enhance the worship of God in ways that are whole, imaginative and fulfilling for both the individual and the collective church body? This workshop will explore the ways in which song, word, prayer, liturgical materials and movement gesture meet within the worship experience. It will pay particular attention to the use of the body as an expressive instrument that embodies and displays reflective thought and honest emotion during the worship moment. This workshop welcomes participants to wear comfortable clothing and shoes in order to explore various worship movements that …

Latin American Psalms, Hymns, And Spiritual Songs, Alfredo Colman

Symposium on Worship Archive

Aimed at keyboardists as well as other instrumentalists, this workshop emphasizes basic and intermediate accompanying techniques such as re-harmonization and rhythmic variations, and applies them to specific examples that illustrate a variety of styles within the Latin American sacred music tradition.

The Sun Rises In The East: New Congregational Songs From Asian Composers, Joel Navarro

Symposium on Worship Archive

This session features new congregational songs and music for church choir from young composers in Southeast Asia whose works are currently making waves in many parts of the world. This session is recommended for choir directors and singers who are looking for fresh ideas for regular worship, intercultural worship, or church choir repertoire.

Short Songs: Deepening Our Participation In Worship, Alison Adam

Symposium on Worship Archive

Short songs do something different: they deepen, with music, the responses a congregation makes in an act of worship. Often tied to liturgical moments in a service, short songs enable us to gather, to pray, to prepare to hear God’s Word, to affirm, to go forth, to move, to rejoice. They tap into the emotion of worship songs, and they draw on the ancient tradition of chant, but they are neither contemporary nor traditional. We’ll sing about 10 of these songs, gathered by the Iona Community from their own writers and from the world church. They are easily led, enable …

Inviting The Text To Direct The Service, Joan Devries

Symposium on Worship Archive

Biblical text is central to Christian worship gatherings. Generally, the most significant piece of scripture is the focus of the sermon or the message, and worship planners are happy when they can match that theme in other parts of the worship gathering. What if, however, we invited the text with its various parts and movements to shape the whole of our service more concretely rather than have it be packaged as the teaching contained in a sermon? What if we adopted the movements within a psalm as the separate movements of our worship gathering and we enacted the psalm together? …

Limelight And Christian Leadership, Rebecca K. Deyoung

Symposium on Worship Archive

Work in Christian ministry and worship leadership often brings a struggle with image, reputation, and audience-pleasing. In this workshop, we’ll learn about the vice of vainglory—both the patterns of its temptation to show off a false self and time-tested spiritual disciplines of resistance to this vice. In a world captivated with selfies and social media, we’ll explore virtuous practices that can help Christians handle the limelight well and show appreciation for each other in ways that glorify God.

Biblical Storytelling Masterclass, Joy-Elizabeth Lawrence

Symposium on Worship Archive

How can dramatic arts and oral interpretation be used in worship? By applying skills from these art forms to scripture recitation! Bring your memorized Bible narrative to share and hone. Participants are welcome to observe, or to work with Joy in deepening their communication of God’s Word.

Singing Psalms: An Outpouring Of Contemporary Song For Congregational Use, Alison Adam, Alfredo Colman, Wendell Kimbrough, Greg Scheer, Isaac Wardell

Symposium on Worship Archive

Remarkably, even since the publication of Psalms for All Seasons just a few years ago, over 30 new Psalm-based songwriting and recording projects have emerged from a variety of contemporary worship leaders across North America and beyond. While some of these settings are designed for solo voices, many are well-suited to congregational use, and are worthy heirs to the legacy of congregation-based Psalms re-established by Luther and Calvin. Come to explore a variety of examples of this music, as well as the stories behind the songs. In addition, to consider new songs you might use in your context, come ready …