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Two postcards advertising the 2006 Calvin Symposium on Worship and encouraging online registration.

Program book for the 2006 Calvin Symposium on Worship, including the schedule, presenter bios, and practical information.

Worship book for the 2006 Calvin Symposium on Worship. Includes outlines of six services based on Includes services based on Isaiah 43:1-3, Exodus 13:17-22, Isaiah 41, John 12:12-26, John 14:1-7, and John 14:25-31. The services follow a theme taken from the final words of Jesus to his disciples before he ascended into heaven. The Gospel according to Matthew ends with this promise of Jesus: "And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

This promise was not new--Scripture records that promise many times, which is why Jesus used the word "remember." Indeed, every time the people of God gather for worship, we meet to "remember and believe" that God is with us still, in our lives, in our world, and as an active participant in that very service. When we meet for worship, Christ is in our midst, the great High Priest, through the Holy Spirit opening our hearts to hear God speak to us, and bringing our imperfect worship perfectly before the Father as an acceptable sacrifice of praise to our triune God.

This conversation between spiritual friends explored the art of writing, hospitality, and the pastoral life.

Paul's letter to the Ephesians demonstrates that worship is an excellent way of expressing the deepest theological teachings and also of integrating them to everyday life. Actually, Ephesians shows that life is an act of worship. This session opened up this compelling book not only for preachers and teachers, but for all who long for a deeper biblical perspective on worship.

The Calvin Symposium on Worship is blessed by increasing numbers of global guests who come to worship and learn. In this session, we explore cultural and liturgical issues our brothers and sisters are addressing, especially in Africa and Asia - for example, intergenerational and multicultural worship; use of indigenous songs, instruments, and dance; use of technology; challenges of religious pluralism. We explore how God is building his church in ways that move us all closer to the unity we have in Christ even as we celebrate the gifts of cultural diversity.

This workshop provided practical ideas for including persons with disabilities in Sunday School classes, youth groups, and adult small groups, based on the speaker's book of the same title.

Preaching extemporaneously, without a manuscript, can enliven delivery and improve communication. This session will explain and demonstrate how to carefully make the transition from text to outline, and then from outline to embodied delivery.

Christ is the same "yesterday, today, and tomorrow." The biblical Word likewise remains the fixed foundation on which to preach Christ and his gospel. But although the content of Scripture changes not, the context in which that Word is preached shifts dramatically era to era. In today's postmodern context, the acoustics are different-familiar doctrines reverberate differently in the postmodern ear. So how can sermons speak into this cultural moment? How can pastors speak into this context without compromising the Bible's content? This panel reflected on these questions so as to provide practical suggestions aimed at encouraging preachers in their vital task.

The way we talk in worship affects the way we talk in the rest of our lives, and vice versa. Worship and daily life are integrally connected—a connection which is fundamental for developing healthy approaches to both worship and preaching. This session will both explore this integrated vision and offer suggestions for how we might re-think our approach to basic acts of worship.

Today's hectic pace of life leaves little time for prayer. Daily morning and evening prayer is an ancient treasure of the church that offers a worshipful way to live and pray, no matter how busy our lives feel. Learn more about this classical mode of prayer and how you can incorporate its wisdom into your daily life.

In this workshop for new and emerging, as well as established and evolving congregations, we explored how new Christians and young children learn to relate to God, and what this teaches us about our practices of weekly congregational worship. The workshop featured insights from a number of congregations involved in a new Vertical Habits program hosted by the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship.

The small choices preachers make provide hearers not only with a better understanding of the text, but also with a keen understanding of the preacher. This session invited participants to become self-aware in their own preaching and to improve their "ethics of preaching," or to learn how to listen to the things the preacher isn't saying.

What did worship according to Scripture look like in the first Christian centuries? How did the type of water used in baptism or the shape of the font, for example, proclaim biblical teaching? What was the celebration of the Lord's Supper like? Why was a person's posture during prayer so important? Some of the worship practices of early Christians --100-400 A.D.-- were strikingly different but perhaps more biblical than ours today.

The rhetorician James Winans once wrote, "A speech is not merely an essay standing on its hind legs." Yet many speakers—including preachers—write their messages in a style better suited for reading rather than hearing. To be an effective oral communicator, one must learn to write for the ear, not the eye.