Liturgy and Worship Commons^™

Fresh And New, Tried And True: A Session On Hymn-Based Piano Collections For Worship, Norma De Waal Malefyt

Symposium on Worship Archive

This session will explore the best in both newly published music and the golden publications of the recent past for use in preludes, offertories and postludes. Particular attention will be given to music based on songs and hymns in Lift Up Your Hearts.

Story And Worship, Jeff Barker

Symposium on Worship Archive

Every church has wonderful stories—that are not being told. Barker, author of The Storytelling Church, encourages the church with reasons and ways to tell its story. His Northwestern College students will bring life to his presentation with biblical storytelling (solo and groups), testimonies, enacted prayers, video storytelling and more.

Vital Worship: A Grants Program For Worshipping Communities, Kathy Smith, Lisa Weaver

Symposium on Worship Archive

Come to this workshop to learn about a grants program that seeks to foster vital worship in congregations, parishes, and other worshiping communities in North America. The Calvin Institute of Christian Worship encourages grant proposals for year-long projects from a variety of worshiping communities that connect public worship to intergenerational faith formation and Christian discipleship, a theme that can unfold in many facets of worship from Bible reading to preaching to baptism and Lord’s Supper, intercessory prayer, congregational song, visual arts, and more.

Transforming Sermon Communication: A Practical Guide To Making Changes That Make A Difference, Lori Carrell

Symposium on Worship Archive

Hundreds of preachers changed their preaching preparation habits in ways that made a difference in the spiritual journeys of their 30,000+ listeners. What did they do? How did they do it? What can others who speak the Word learn from their experiences? In this workshop, participants will discover practical answers to these questions through the stories of preachers and listeners documented over several years. If you believe that the spoken Word can make a difference for individuals, congregations, communities, and culture, attend this workshop with high expectations.

Top Ten Challenges Facing Worship Leaders In 2014, Paul Detterman

Symposium on Worship Archive

At the 2003 Symposium, Paul Detterman presented a seminar on the “Top Ten Challenges Facing Worship Leaders" that is still sparking conversations a decade later. While some basic realities remain the same, accelerating change in the culture and the church make this a conversation worth revisiting regularly. Come with your challenges!

Leading Effective Praise Team Rehearsals, Paul Ryan

Symposium on Worship Archive

Our best praise team rehearsals prepare our hearts, minds, hands, and voices to lead the community in song. In this workshop, we’ll explore the goals and techniques of effective and life-giving rehearsals by considering personal preparation, repertoire, team dynamics, and the pastoral needs of our teams.

Encouraging Every Voice: Effective Song Leadership In Worship, Alison Adam

Symposium on Worship Archive

For those who strive to get congregations singing new songs and want out to bring the best in them. This workshop is aimed at the song-leader, often more enthusiastic than trained. We will explore how to introduce, teach, and lead new songs in worship and how to develop the singing confidence of a congregation. Alison Adam of the Iona Community has wide experience, helping those leading groups large and small to develop a strong and passionate ministry in congregational song.

Seven Deadly Sins Of Choosing Music For Worship, Greg Scheer

Symposium on Worship Archive

The worship music planner plays both a pastoral and prophetic role in the life of the church. Join Greg Scheer in discussing the deadly sins that can derail a healthy song repertoire--and the rules of thumb that can help keep a pastoral, prophetic music ministry on the tracks

Questions Churches Are Asking, Moses Chung, John Witvliet

Symposium on Worship Archive

One of the joys of serving at the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship and Christian Reformed Church Home Missions is the opportunity to listen to so many different local conversations. This session will offer reflections on topics that are bubbling up in a host of local conversations across North America, along with provisional thoughts about what this means for the future of faithful ministry. Come ready to reflect on your context in light of these broader patterns, and to contribute insights from your own joys and struggles in ministry.

Alentando La Participación Congregacional En El Culto En Las Iglesias Hispanas, Maria Eugenia Cornou

Symposium on Worship Archive

La participación activa de la congregación en los cultos es clave en la experiencia espiritual de cada creyente y para la vitalidad de las comunidades cristiana. Este taller está diseñado para explorar el significado bíblico de “participación”, diferentes niveles y formas de “participación”, y para compartir ideas prácticas que incentiven la participación activa de la congregación en el culto en el contexto de las iglesias hispanas.

Active congregational participation in worship is of key importance in believers’ spiritual experience and for the vitality of Christian communities. This workshop is design to explore the biblical meaning of “participation,” different levels and …

Singing The Lord’S Song . . . In Times Like These: Exploring Worship And Music In Some English-Speaking Caribbean Contexts, Nicole Ashwood

Symposium on Worship Archive

Come join participants from the Caribbean as they lead us in songs of prayer, praise, proclamation and deliverance for such a time as this. Out of many cultures, one song to God.

Trans-Forming Worship, Paul Detterman

Symposium on Worship Archive

Just as the Sacraments are outward and visible signs of inward and spiritual grace, communal worship of the Triune God is an outward liturgical expression of inner, spiritual life. Explore how parallel movements of liturgical and spiritual renewal from the past offer wisdom and blessing to those planning worship in 2014.

Jesus Our Worship Leader, Ron Man

Symposium on Worship Archive

God has lavished upon us his grace for salvation, and also for living the Christian life; a wonderful liberating truth for worship leaders is to recognize God's grace for our worship: that God accepts and delights in our worship, not because but because of how well we pull it off, but because it is empowered, perfected and led by the living Lord Jesus in our midst.

Dancing Through The Church Year, Susan Wilson

Symposium on Worship Archive

This workshop will teach examples of liturgical dance to be used throughout the church year, starting with Worldwide Communion and then moving to Advent/Christmas, Lent/Palm Sunday and Easter, and Pentecost. She will also offer ideas for how dance can be used throughout the worship service--in a call to worship, praise, prayer, offering, communion, response to the message and the benediction.

Learning From And Praying For The Worldwide Church, Maria Eugenia Cornou Phd, Elizabeth Hernandez, Carlos Colón

Symposium on Worship Archive

How can a congregation in one part of the world best pray for our neighbors around the world? How can we shape our congregational prayer in ways that respond to Paul’s admonition to the young pastor Timothy, “that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity” (1 Timothy 2:1-2)? We will listen and learn, with resources from and for different parts of the Church, including stories from natives of different countries and cultures.

Biblical Principles Of Worship, Ron Man

Symposium on Worship Archive

How do we balance the need for biblical fidelity with the need for cultural sensitivity and relevance in our worship? This seminar will consider some of the unchanging, transcultural, non-negotiable biblical foundations for our worship, which also allow for a tremendous amount of freedom and creativity as we put these principles into practice.

Five Stages On The Journey Of Disability Attitudes, Dan Quist, Dan Vander Plaats

Symposium on Worship Archive

Based on the idea that the most disabling aspect of life with disabilities is the attitudes of others, Dan and Dan will show us how our attitudes often marginalize those God has called into God’s kingdom and service. By showing us just how our attitudes get instilled in us, exposing us to the truth of those attitudes, and finally appealing to the very presence of the Kingdom-at-hand, our friends from Elim Christian Services (http://www.elimcs.org) will help us understand and change our approach to working with marginalized people-groups all around us, especially those affected by disabilities.

Saying Grace: Expanding And Exploring The Family Prayer Time, Lora Copley, Elizabeth Vander Haagen

Symposium on Worship Archive

This workshop is an introduction to Come to Me: A Family Prayer Book. In this time we will talk about and practice prayer as family-friendly extended conversation with God, using samples from this forthcoming book. Come to Me is an experiential, contemplative book for daily use with families with children elementary age and up.

Art In The Service Of The Liturgy, Ellen Phillips

Symposium on Worship Archive

This workshop will present the history, theory, theology, propriety, and need for art in worship allowing plenty of time for those who attend to ask questions, discuss the ideas and present their own thoughts on liturgical art.

Reading For Preaching: The Preacher In Conversation With Storytellers, Biographers, Poets, And Journalists, Cornelius Plantinga

Symposium on Worship Archive

This workshop is for anyone who is interested both in good reading and in good preaching and, especially, in how the first supports the second. Introducing and drawing upon the presenter's new book on this topic, this session will propose ways that a program of general reading is likely to benefit the preacher. For example, well chosen reading is likely to start the preacher's heart, to tune the preacher's ear, and to make the preacher wise. Wisdom is requisite because folly in the pulpit is homiletical malpractice.

Proclamation In The Psalms For Christian Worship, Cornelius Plantinga

Symposium on Worship Archive

A proclamation is a confident and significant declaration. A proclamation does not say “I wish that God were in charge.” A proclamation says, “The Lord reigns.” A proclamation does not say, “I feel that God wants to take care of me.” A proclamation says “The Lord is my shepherd.” A proclamation is a confident and significant statement of what is true of God and the world, and the Psalms are full of them. This workshop will explore trenchant proclamations in the psalms and suggest uses of these proclamations in Christian worship.

Can The Organ Sound Like A Conga? Leading Cross Cultural Song From The Organ, John Ferguson

Symposium on Worship Archive

The organ can lead and accompany an amazing variety of musical styles. John Ferguson will share techniques for leading many nontraditional styles of congregational song from the organ, using his new resource Many and Great: Introductions and Accompaniments for Global Hymns (Morningstar). If you own this resource, bring it to the workshop!

Listening To Your Listeners: A Preaching Preparation Process That Changes…Everything!, Lori Carrell

Symposium on Worship Archive

A vast majority of listeners attending U.S. churches have never talked with a pastor about a sermon. And, unfortunately, those listeners report by the thousands that though they expect spiritual growth as they listen to their preachers, it usually does not occur. Preachers who listen to their listeners as a regular part of sermon preparation can expect to change these patterns, increasing the spiritual impact of preaching for individuals, congregations, communities – and culture. During this workshop, participants will discover how diverse congregations have established and maintained pre-sermon dialogue groups (without adding to the preachers’ limited sermon prep time!).

The Art And Craft Of Creating Texts For Congregational Song, Ruth Duck

Symposium on Worship Archive

Ruth Duck, widely published author of many psalm and hymn texts, including in Lift Up Your Hearts and Psalms for All Seasons, will introduce several of her texts and speak about her process in writing hymns. As a seminary professor of worship, she has many insights to offer about writing, theology, and worship as they intersect in congregational singing.

Complementary Prayers: Prayers To Accompany The Psalms, Hymns, And Spiritual Songs Of The New Hymnal Lift Up Your Hearts, Cornelius Plantinga

Symposium on Worship Archive

Worship leaders live off the work of worship planners and add touches of their own, sometimes celebrating in prayer the power of what the congregation has just sung or, in a prayed line or two, anticipating what the congregation will sing in a moment. This workshop will display and discuss prayers that have been composed to complement psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs in Lift Up Your Hearts. The idea is to give planners and leaders prayers they may use verbatim or in part—or take simply as suggestions for composing their own prayers, written or extemporaneous.

Singing Songs From The Global South In A North American Church Context, Debbie Lou Ludolph

Symposium on Worship Archive

In this workshop we will sing songs of faith from around the world, share experiences of learning to sing these songs by reflecting together on how to meet the challenges of introducing foreign languages, alternate instrumentation and movement in a predominantly Euro-North American context.

El Culto Como Discipulado, Maria Eugenia Cornou

Symposium on Worship Archive

El culto es una experiencia comunitaria integral, que de manera explícita o aún inconsciente, contribuye a modelar el carácter y la identidad de cada participante. En este taller vamos a explorar cómo las diferentes prácticas culticas repercuten en la formación de los y las creyentes y vamos a compartir ideas creativas para enriquecer la celebración de cultos que apunten intencionalmente a la trasformación y al discipulado cristiano.

Communal worship is a holistic experience which explicitly or even unconsciously shapes the character and identity of each participant. In this workshop we will explore how different worship practices influence believers’ spiritual formation. …

Water From The Rock, Calvin Institute Of Christian Worship, Sue Rozenboom, Travis West

Symposium on Worship Archive

No abstract provided.

Leading Diverse Congregational Song From The Organ, John Ferguson

Symposium on Worship Archive

The organ can lead and accompany an amazing variety of musical styles. John Ferguson will share techniques for leading traditional hymns as well as many non-traditional styles of congregational song from the organ. A portion of the seminar will feature his new resource Many and Great: Introductions and Accompaniments for Global Hymns (Morning Star). If you own this resource, bring it with you! This seminar will be held at Calvin Christian Reformed Church (transportation provided).

A New Song. A Skillful Song, Bruce Benedict, Ruth Duck, Greg Scheer

Symposium on Worship Archive

Those of us who feel Psalm 33's call to write new songs must remember that the Psalm also tells us to play skillfully. In this seminar we will focus on the skills of songwriting for congregations, digging into what it means to balance inspiration and perspiration. Join Ruth Duck, Bruce Benedict and Greg Scheer, three songwriters who also spend much of their time editing the works of others as they discuss their approaches to creating new texts, new tunes, and combining texts and tunes. Participants will be invited (not required) in early January to send two of their own congregational …