Symposium Finishes with a Flourish

The Calvin Symposium on worship, which drew some 1,600 participants from around the world, finished on Saturday afternoon with a powerful praise- and joy-filled worship service in Calvin's College's newly refurbished Covenant Fine Arts Center Auditorium.

Based on Philippians 4:2-9 and titled Finally, Rejoice!, the closing service worked to tie together many of the themes addressed during the annual, three-day event.  

Put together by Rev. Kathy Smith of the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, the service included a sermon by Jerry Pillay, a South African pastor who is the first president of the newly created World Communion of Reformed Churches.

"It was a joyful celebration on the fourth chapter of Philippians, 'Finally, Rejoice!," says Smith, associate director of the institute. "Jerry Pillay delivered a powerful sermon on that text."

Pastor CJ Kingdom-Grier and a large band led inspiring songs of praise, and the conference choir, directed by Jimmy Abbington of the Candler School of Theology at Emory University and accompanied by pianist Rawn Harbor and soloist Charsie Sawyer, led the crowd in great rejoicing, said Smith.

"A drama group from Neland Avenue CRC helped us to confess what our hands have done, and showed us how Christ's hands brought us salvation," she says. 

"We confessed with open hands, and hearts, and lifted our hands in gratitude to God, even as we viewed a hanging banner full of hands created in the conference's community art project."

Also, as part of the service, participants "shared communion together with people from Christ's church in many countries and denominations. The Lord's Supper was hosted by Neland Avenue CRC's pastors and elders," says Smith.

"After we received God's blessing in several languages, we concluded with a rousing chorus of 'Again I Say Rejoice!'"

People Arrived from all Over

The ecumenical conference brought together a wide audience of pastors, worship leaders and planners, artists, musicians, scholars, students, and others interested worship.

People came from around the world, many of them young people, to gather for a time of fellowship, worship, and learning, seeking to deepen and integrate all aspects of worship, develop their gifts, encourage each other, and renew their commitment to the full ministry of the church.

The symposium began Thursday and finished with the worship service on Saturday, January 29. For more information, visit Symposium.

About 40 countries and 75 schools in North America and beyond were represented. Half the attendees were from CRC congregations, while the other half came from other denominations. Also, half the participants came for the very first time.

The symposium is sponsored by the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship and the Center for Excellence in Preaching.

"I know that registration was very high - our second-highest ever. However, snowstorms out east prevented a few groups from coming, so our actual number was lower, though we also had several on-site registrations.

"In short, we were very happy with the high registration and very disappointed for those who were prevented by the weather from coming," says Nathan Bierma, communications director for the institute.

Two Plenary Addresses

Besides workshops and break-out sessions on a range of topics, there were two plenary addresses, both made available through live streaming on the Web.

The first plenary speaker was Jamie A.K. Smith, a Calvin College philosopher who challenged worship leaders "to raise the stakes" in the work that they do in their churches across the country and abroad.

The second plenary session was on Saturday morning and provided worship perspectives from around the world. Titled "Just Worship," it featured Ruth Padilla De Borst, a Christian Reformed World Missions missionary who currently is presiding over the Latin American Theological Fraternity.

Also speaking were Mary Mikhael, president of the Near East School of Theology, Beirut, Lebanon, the only English-language seminary in the Middle East, and Pillay, who also serves as pastor of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Benono, South Africa, and moderator of the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa. The plenary panel was moderated by Scott Hoezee, director of Calvin's Center for Excellence in Preaching.

Themes Come Together

Saturday's final service worked to tie together many of the themes addressed during the annual, three-day event.

In his workshop, "From Scripture Reading to Scripture Proclamation: There is a Difference," Jeff Barker helped to define that theme.

Worship in most Christian congregations includes readings from scripture, which congregants often expect to be fairly flat, boring recitations on the way to the "main event" — the sermon – but it doesn't have to be that way, Barker said.

Barker teaches in Northwestern College Department of Theatre and Speech. He says presenting scripture should be "vital, artful, relevant, gripping, loving, convicting, inspiring, and memorable," according to a report by Claudia Greer in the Congregational Resource Guide, for which she wrote blogs from the symposium.

"What new assumptions should underlie a transformed approach to scripture? A significant assumption is that the Bible is not a book to be read, but a set of stories, plays, songs, and sermons to be performed," Barker said.

Of the conference itself, Bruce Benedict, a conferee, said on Facebook: "What a treat (the) Symposium (was) this year. Few places where you can share stories and fellowship with so many in the Church universal."