Sessions

How did early Christians understand their illness and pain in their Greco-Roman context? How did they develop their theology of pain and suffering in light of Christ’s pain and suffering? How did they also develop their theology of healing and extensive medical charity? How might these theologies and practices affect and inspire our worship today?

Pastors of three Hispanic churches will share what they learned from experiences implementing congregational projects related to the development of new understandings and practices of worship and preaching. Representing three different Hispanic contexts and denominational traditions, they worked on topics such as jubilee, the immigrant church, and congregational poetry and songwriting. Their congregations were part of the second cohort of Hispanic congregations receiving grants from the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship through an annual cohort program launched in 2022.

What is creativity, and why do we still need to talk about it? Join Sandra McCracken in a conversation on faith, imagination, and creativity. As a songwriter, she will share stories of her own creative process, helping us to discover and strengthen our creative identities in Christ as image bearers of truth and beauty in a broken world.

In today’s diverse and interconnected world, understanding and addressing trauma through a culturally responsive lens is essential for creating inclusive and healing worship experiences. In this session, Christian leaders from different countries will share varied contextual strategies and best practices for planning and leading worship services that are both trauma-informed and culturally responsive.

Many consider the author of Hebrews the most adept storyteller in the New Testament due to the epistle’s comprehensiveness and rhetorical finesse. Join this study of the epistle to gain a fresh perspective on God’s trustworthiness constructed through the author’s intense use of challenge and comfort to portray of the theological arc from creation to new creation, from Israel to the unshakable kingdom.

Mark 4:34 claims Jesus never said anything to the crowds without using parables. Although Jesus is said to have explained the parables when he was alone with his disciples, he never explained them to the crowds. But in a way, when we preach on Jesus’ parables, we are explaining them. That has upsides and downsides. In this workshop we will recall the nature of parables and ponder best ways to preach them to let them retain their original mystery and revelatory power.

Musical collaboration in worship can be rewarding: it can build relationships, enrich the musical life of a congregation, and add more colors, timbres, and textures. We’ll discuss how to incorporate instrumentalists of all kinds into the musical life of your congregation, as well as how to use the organ in different ways. You’ll listen to musical colleagues collaborate and experiment together in real time. Musical collaboration takes time, but it brings great rewards.

Explore how Christians in the earliest centuries of Christianity engaged topics related to wealth and poverty in their preaching, public prayers, offerings, celebrations of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and the shaping of buildings and spaces for Christian worship. Together we can learn from their pastoral, theological, and practical instincts as we seek to be faithful witnesses to Christ in our own globally diverse contexts.

Listen to and learn from scholars from diverse backgrounds and cultural experiences who provided exegetical expertise and unique interpretive lenses to The New Testament in Color: A Multiethnic Bible Commentary (IVP Academic, 2024). Too often Bible commentaries have focused on the particular concerns of a limited segment of the church, missing fresh questions and insights that are fruitful for biblical interpretation. Gathering wisdom from a wider range of scholars offers us an opportunity to explore the Bible more deeply and more faithfully as global, multicultural people of faith. This conversation will introduce the book as a whole and engage panelists on insights from the project that relate to preaching and other practices of public worship, including the Lord’s Supper and public prayer.

Suicide is a deeply personal and all-too-present reality in Christian congregations. In addition to accompanying those who have lost loved ones to suicide, pastors and worship leaders have the opportunity to engage directly in the work of preventing suicide. Drawing on Paul’s response to the Philippian jailer in Acts 16:28—“Do not harm yourself, for we are all here”—we will examine how corporate Christian worship might engage the delicate topic of suicide, address root causes of suicide, and support a culture of connection, belonging, and life.

Often the task of preaching falls on the senior pastor or a few gifted speakers. However, congregations need diverse diets and voices to be nourished and equipped by the preaching of God’s word. This workshop teaches how pastors and preachers can share and diversify the pulpit to mature their congregations. You’ll also learn how to form and develop a vibrant preaching team in your church, no matter its size.