Resource Search Results

Traditional Keerthanai Concert with English Translations

This Manamahizh Keerthani Kuzhu concert in India includes Tamil-language Christian keerthanai praise and devotional songs sung in the traditional manner. Group members sang in Tamil but translated the lyrics into English.

Article | May 02, 2024

Susheila Williams: Using the Arts to Express Tamil Christianity in India

Susheila Williams, a scholar, painter, and music enthusiast, draws on her native language and culture to express Tamil Christianity in India. She uses her education, privilege, and biblical faith to improve the lives of women, especially those who are most marginalized.

Feature Story | May 02, 2024

Tamil Christians Revive Keerthanai Music

Christians in South India are reviving keerthanais, poems of Christian praise and devotion sung in the Tamil language. They are working to bring this cultural expression back into church worship

Feature Story | May 02, 2024

Rosemary Apol-Hoezee on Dementia and Worship

Chaplains have been using the Evening Star worship manual in memory care facilities for almost twenty years. The second edition incorporates new research on dementia to create a worship model that is even better at engaging people who live with dementia.

Conversation | April 29, 2024

Rosemary Apol-Hoezee on Dementia and Inclusion

People who’ve served and attended churches faithfully often feel isolated when their cognition declines—and so do their caregivers. Your congregation can take simple steps to become more dementia friendly.

Conversation | April 29, 2024

Daniel I. Block on God’s Grace in Ezekiel

Although Ezekiel’s strange visions and often shocking images perplex readers, Old Testament scholar Daniel I. Block explains why the book of Ezekiel is worth reading. The judgment, grace, and love God spoke through Ezekiel to Israel also apply to the church today.

Conversation | April 18, 2024

Cory B. Willson on the Faith/Work/Worship Ecosystem

Theological conversations about faith, work, and worship take on new meaning when they start with the needs, questions, and experiences of workers.

Conversation | March 11, 2024

Lindsay Wieland Capel on Disability and Universal Design

Many ideas for welcoming and including people with disabilities are remarkably simple. These changes turn out to be good for everyone in church worship and congregational life.

Conversation | February 21, 2024

Worship for Workers: Come as You Are

Worship for Workers offers songs, prayers, liturgies, and visual art to help congregants begin to experience God’s presence in new ways in their daily living.

Feature Story | February 21, 2024

Lindsay Wieland Capel on Recognizing and Overcoming Ableism in Churches

Many congregations don’t realize that the way they arrange their space, talk in worship, or define giftedness and leadership speaks volumes to people with different bodies and minds. The message is: “We don’t see you as a welcomed and valued member of Christ’s body.”

Conversation | February 21, 2024

Lisa Fields on the Christian Heritage of Africa

Exploring African Christianity’s golden era and its continued impact on global Christianity helps Black millennials and Gen Zers see themselves in God’s redemptive history. It also provides a needed corrective to all who identify Christianity as mainly a white religion.

Conversation | February 07, 2024

Decades-Long Spiritual Formation

An international pastoral leader, a public theologian, and a young scholar explain how the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship has impacted them—and made room for them to influence CICW and others.

Feature Story | February 01, 2024

Anne Emile Zaki on Global Growth in Mutual Learning

An Egyptian seminary professor and preacher explains the importance of “a posture of general humility” so that global Christians can learn from and worship with each other.

Conversation | February 01, 2024

Reynolds Chapman: Local History Matters to God

You might not think often about the land your church sits on or the community beyond your church property. But finding ways to learn local history and include it in worship may help church members become more faithful disciples, more meaningfully draw near to God, and reach people who are disconnected from the church.

Conversation | January 23, 2024

Karin Maag on Prayer in the Reformation Era

Learning from prayer practices of the Reformation era can help congregations and families today deepen their faith, piety, and responses to current events.

Conversation | December 18, 2023

Anneli Loepp Thiessen on Creating Non-Hymnal Songs

Even when denominations try their best to compile culturally sensitive hymnals, not every congregation can or should use that hymnal. That’s why Anabaptist Worship Network works to include more people and cultures in creating new songs for use in worship.

Conversation | November 28, 2023

Anneli Loepp Thiessen on Collaborative Songwriting and Copyright

Anabaptist Worship Network used a Vital Worship Grant from the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship to host a songwriting retreat. A diverse group of Anabaptist songwriters gathered for three days to collaboratively write songs, raising questions around copyright justice and remuneration.

Conversation | November 28, 2023

Preaching Conversations that Connect Pulpit and Pew

Whether churches call it a message, teaching, homily, or sermon, there’s often a big gap between what preachers think they are saying and what listeners hear. Preaching can become more effective when ministers, priests, deacons, and laypeople learn how to talk together. This two-way preaching conversation requires a cultural shift.

Feature Story | October 05, 2023

Karla J. Bellinger on Lay Contributions to Compelling Preaching

Have you ever gone home from worship disappointed that the preacher or Sunday homily didn’t seem very effective? Recent research reveals that listeners can help preachers help their peers grow closer to God.

Conversation | October 05, 2023

Psalms Retreats Invite Vulnerability, Build Hope and Trust

When a congregation in Long Beach, California, designed a psalms retreat as part of a worship renewal grant, they had no idea how it would grow and blossom. Engaging with psalms of confession, praise and thanksgiving, lament, and hope and trust has helped hundreds of Christians develop a new language of prayer.

Feature Story | September 12, 2023