Sessions

Two handouts from a seminar on beauty and the arts.

New York artist Mako Fujimura once asked if a tree is more beautiful in full bloom or just as the pedals begin to fall when a breeze passes by.... What does scripture mean when it speaks of beauty? How does this affect our engagement with the arts in worship? Part of our challenge in congregations is that everyone comes to worship with such a different understanding of what is beautiful and how much it really matters. This day will probe how we might more meaningfully convey the "glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" in this challenging environment.

In this day we will discover how worship and arts ministries thrive in the cradle of collaboration and teams. From conception to realization of a worship service, the Spirit of God unites individuals and groups for creative, thoughtful, and formative experiences. In these moments community is built, character is formed, competency increases, and our unique callings are affirmed. Pastors, musicians, artists, choral directors, worship team leaders, planners, etc.–all who work collaboratively or desire to develop the collaborative potential of their ministries are encouraged to participate in this seminar.

Throughout history, we've always been concerned about our youth. The reality is, we still are. If we think about it, the question is "why aren't they coming back?" But it's the wrong question. The question should be "why do they leave in the first place?" One of the challenges we face is asking the right questions, as the questions determine where we end up.

This workshop is meant to inspire us to consider our use of words in worship, and goes along with Debra Rienstra's book - an excerpt from the synopsis below.

"Words have great significance. They both form and inform us. They convey meaning and shape understanding. They express our highest thoughts and our deepest emotions. But because of their ubiquity, words are easily taken for granted.... [The] goal is to help students, pastors, and worship leaders come to a renewed appreciation and understanding of words in worship and to inspire them to use words more intentionally–to the greater glory of God and the greater blessing of God's people."

This workshop is to help us think through some of the larger issues in relationship to pursuing the renewal of our worship through our built environment. Along the way we should think intentionally about hanging onto those artifacts that are working really well that we need to maintain for memory, continuity, and our communities. We also need to maintain a physical location where we can go as community to celebrate together, which is why we also need to consider our geographical location in time and space.

I wanted to begin just being clear that worship is celebrating the work of God. AT the same time, you cannot ignore gender, as every one of us in this room is a gendered being. In Genesis 1:27, it tells us that God created us as male and female in the divine image. ... Scripture implies but does not spell out that the full image of God requires the action and worship of both male and female. Worship is never carried out by generic human beings.

How many of you have experienced some tension in your church regarding worship styles? Basically, this seminar came about as a result of studying worship for the past 10 years or so. A lot of times people choose sides on issues that need both sides. This is what we tend to do, we find something that has worked for us and say this is the way that we must do it, and rather than seeking to understand each other, read Scripture, or learn from each other, we just fight. There are seemingly paradoxical ways we need to think about worship.

Adding vocal harmonies to worship songs can sound lovely, but it is not easy to do well. In this session, worship team leaders and vocalists will learn how to create vocal harmonies for everything from two voices to full choir. Participants will sing and see each example.

This is intergenerational worship, including children in worship. How many of us have all the generations together in worshIp? It's very interesting, because in the past this was the way it was always done. Over time, we seem to have separated back out and now we need to focus on bringing them back together. We're going to focus on children since that seems like the biggest issue when bringing the generations together. No one ever questions the inclusion of adults.

For centuries, the voices of diverse Christian congregations have been empowered by shared, ecumenical hymns. In Let the People Sing: Hymn Tunes in Perspective, Paul Westermeyer provides a broad overview of selected hymn tunes, analyzing each for genre, earliest sources, creativity, and congregational appeal. Westermeyer completed a survey of 14 modern, multi-denomination English-language hymnals to find the tunes most representative of those sung in today's church. Organized chronologically, this study moves form the earliest tunes to those of the late 20th century. Although not encyclopedic in nature, Let the People Saying was inspired by Erik Routley's comprehensive work The Music of Christian Hymns, to which reference is often made. This workshop focuses on the closing chapter, which includes a Hymn of the Day sequence.

Hymns teach people something. They tell us something about God, part of His character or qualities that are meaningful to us. Part of it is due to familiarity, the next generation might go back to praise songs because that's what is familiar. Sometimes with prayer songs, we say that they're repetitive, but there is something about a praise song that's simple in that it is easy and memorizable.

The question is how to relate justice to worship. The two words in English are justice and righteousness. It is imperative to understand that where the Bible says "righteousness," very often it actually means justice. Righteousness is an individual virtue, whereas justice has more to do with social relations and the reign of God.

We're going to get through the book of Job and then make some applications for worship. A series of questions to ponder: Does your congregation pray regularly for others, for the world? Would anyone notice if you didn't? If you had to choose one word to describe that prayerful part of the service, what would it be?

An estimated 80% of families affected by disability do not attend church even though many wish they could. 8.1% of persons with disabilities seek pastoral care compared to only 4.0% of those without disabilities. 8 out of 10 people with and without disabilities consider their faith to be important to them; with approximately 65% saying their religious faith is very important. Churches have the unique opportunity to make a difference.

Today's session is going to focus on worship in the sixteenth century. We're going to be talking about the ways in which worship changed at the Reformation, and what stayed the same, we're going to especially talk about the place of Psalms in Reformation worship, we're going to show off a number of books from our rare books collection, and we're also going to do some Psalms singing.

A workshop offered by Joyce Borger discussing how to lead a singing activity, including considerations of how to best make activities good for children, teenagers, and adults.

I will be talking with you this afternoon about the complementary roles of personal worship and corporate worship in spiritual formation. Let's define spiritual formation, using my favorite definition, so we can understand where I'm coming from. I like Robert Mulholland's definition: Spiritual formation is the process of being conformed to the image of Christ for the sake of others. I want to try and answer the question: how does personal worship develop spiritual formation?

The goal of what follows is to offer every congregation, every pastor, every worship leader, two or so ideas (o.k., maybe three) that can make your work more joyful, effective, and spiritually edifying... Listen prayerfully, discerningly for what that might be for you in your context...

A video journey in "blended" worship from Assemblies of God, Baptist, Congregational, Foursquare, Reformed, Presbyterian and United Methodist congregations.

A caution about this topic is that it is not dealing specifically with church music. When we read the church fathers and they talk about music, the assumption is often made that they must be talking about church music. This is incorrect. They did not make the distinction between church music and music in the life of a Christian. It is in that context that this workshop is presented.

This workshop conveys some ideas about where people live. We hear the term postmodernism thrown around quite a bit in church circles and ministry circles - but what does "postmodern ministry" mean? It has a lot of different definitions and nuances, but one aspect often not on the radar is geography. This is key to understanding the movement. We will also look at how geography plays a role in ministry models in general, as well as specifically the postmodern style.

The introductions of Pat Zandstra, Heidi De Jonge, and Darwin Glassford, as well as the opening prayer for this panel. This is not a complete recording.

The conference theme of divine glory arises out of the basic conviction that long-term worship renewal is best sustained not merely by attention to technique or style, but rather by attention to the triune God we worship. Indeed, we should worry a lot about the mechanics, style, and techniques of worship, but mostly in terms of how adequate they are to fittingly proclaim and approach this particular God.

Worship throughout scripture and history is culturally diverse, not monolithic, reflecting the diversity of God and his creation. True biblical worship is also holistic, involving the soul, the mind, and the body. This workshop explored the culturally diverse and holistic nature of worship, with reference especially to African American, Caribbean, and Hispanic worship.

A session led by Jeff Barker and Northwestern University theater students about how to act out prayers during worship services.

How do we find God outside the sanctuary? Do we have to wait for teachable moments? Can we worship God in the midst of the noise? What does worship look like beyond Sunday morning? A practical and formational approach to helping families find and worship God throughout life.

The church is engaging in ministry to prisoners as never before. Due to skyrocketing recidivism rates (75% of released inmates will return to crime within five years), it is blatantly obvious that our correctional centers do not correct and our reformatories do not reform. This societal crisis of enormous proportions has led to the emergence of the restorative justice movement as a way to repair the criminal justice system and to facilitate restoration and healing in collapsing communities. Along the way, however, it has become evident that prison ministry is having a profound impact upon the life of the church and that the principles of Restorative Justice are not only for offenders and victims, but for anyone to live all of life as worship.

What is the homiletical counterpart to the "Emergent" church movement/conversation? In an increasingly postmodern world-one that resists individual authority, is bored with linear structure, mistrusts language's capacity to convey truth, and is deeply suspicious of meta-narratives-how does the church speak a Word from God? The panel explored some of the current experiments in postmodern proclamation as the church makes its way to finding a culturally authentic "NuHomiletic."

A session about the use of projectors and screens in worship services and different ways to use it effectively within a worship context.

Ten "new" texts for Holy Week, including a song in Spanish. All hymns lyrics are listed, as well as the tune to which they are sung (if the sheet music is not also included).

Some congregations think too little of their buildings, and see the walls and property boundaries as containers of square footage for program and parking spaces for cars. Other congregations think too much of their buildings, seeing them as iconic sculptures bearing witness to beliefs and values in contradistinction to those of the surrounding community. In contrast to these views, this session considered a church building as being part of, and contributing to, the neighborhood that surrounds it. We explored how a building connects to a neighborhood in terms of scale and style, helping to shape the public realm, and how threshold points operate between the church and the public.

Handout for a workshop about exploring 'new' and 'old' ways of improving diction, intonation, choral blend, and musicality.

As preachers we commonly assume that preaching and proclamation are synonyms. This workshop will introduce ways in which proclamation has distinct forms that are in contrast to those of teaching. By becoming familiar with them we can be more faithful to the gospel, more creative in our articulation of it, and more effective in making our sermons a joyous witness to the triune God.

In this session philosopher John Cooper presented key points in the theology and philosophy that undergirds our understanding of God's providential care in a world where terrible things happen all the time. Why do bad things happen to good people? When a bad thing is averted in someone's life, can we chalk that up to God's providential care? What about people who prayed just as hard but were not spared some hurt or calamity? Cooper addressed these painful and complex issues. Scott Hoezee connected these thoughts to the pastoral care that preachers can provide from the pulpit. How can pastors construct thoughtful sermons that will help members of the congregation see their lives in ways that are both true to Scripture and pastorally comforting? This session aimed to be both rigorously thoughtful and pastorally practical for the life of the church.

This workshop discussed how contemporary short stories from writers such as Flannery O'Connor, Doris Betts, and Raymond Carver resonate with New Testament themes and how such stories might help preachers find ways to relate contemporary themes to their listeners.

A talk about how preachers can train the instrument of their bodies to communicate as part of their preaching.

What should preachers keep in mind in composing sermons? Toward what sermonic goals should they aspire? What evaluative categories can church members become aware of to dialogue more meaningfully with their pastors (and with one another) about the preaching life of the church? This session will hold up the rubrics "Biblical, Authentic, Contextual, and Life-Changing" as goals for preachers and as helpful categories for congregations to use in discussing sermons. When pastors and church members come to a common understanding of what preaching should be, possibilities for helpful conversations begin across the life of the congregation, to the mutual benefit of all!

Asaph was a comprehensive psalm-writer, depicting God through numerous, and sometimes paradoxical, lenses throughout his psalms.

This session took the Psalms as a case study for considering what it means for the preacher, first, and then the congregation, to be astonished by the biblical text. How might this ancient poetry be surprising, and therefore revelatory, to those who hear it in our contemporary contexts? What sort of preparation is necessary for the preacher who wishes to engage the Psalms as poetry?

This workshop reflected on the rise of Alternative Worship in the United Kingdom over almost two decades, which has led at different times to both sublime and ridiculous innovations in worship practice.

While recognizing that a diversity of worship 'tribes' is likely to persist within our churches, Doug Gay argues that alternative/emerging worship practice is a key indicator of the future shape of Reformed worship in both the UK and North America. Audio recording.

The relationship between churches and the news media is too often one of mutual indifference or mistrust. Having the stories of your congregation or organization told in the news media is an important way to communicate your mission and service to a wider audience and to have a public presence in your community. This session explores practical ways of connecting with local reporters and maintaining healthy and beneficial relationships with the media.

All congregations experience crises, transitions, and conflicts. Worship will be affected by these difficult times, and can be the place where healing begins and continues. This audio session examines the reactions of congregations to difficult times; explores themes and resources for worship in times of crisis, transition, and conflict; and provides advice for congregational leaders as they guide their congregations through the turbulence of difficult times.

In this workshop, participants were led to discover the form of Biblical lament and how lament can be used in worship to facilitate the revitalization of a Gospel community experiencing loss and change. The workshop was based on the presenter's book, When Steeples Cry: Leading Congregations through Loss and Change (Pilgrim Press, 2005). Session audio recording.