Symposium for a Junior

My name is Mary Hua, a junior at Ontario Christian High School. I joined Chapel Leadership when I was a sophomore. This year I am really glad I went to Calvin College Symposium on Worship. This event was a great learning opportunity for how to lead worship for the student body at Ontario Christian High School. 

First, the event at Saturday night worship was a great experience. They had an international service. People who came from different countries,  different denominations, spoke different languages, and all came together as ONE body in Lord Jesus Christ. The service was based on Psalms 15-24, and people from different countries read in Spanish and English. Also, they led people to sing in different languages. When Korean students were singing in their own language it wasn't just really cool. It also really put everyone together in Christ Jesus. This reminds me that our God can draw together completely different people.

Secondly, the most helpful things I learned at the Symposium were how to worship, how to lead worship, and how to reveal God to other believers. During the Thursday session, I learned that worship is not just singing praise songs and preaching the Gospel to believers. Worship is also having the visuals prepared for the audience. And also I learned that the transition between each section is an important element to have in the chapel service. For example, between a song and a verse there needs to be a connection in the middle of it, so Calvin College students showed us how to have a flexible transition between a song and a verse. They set up a great example for us, so we could get the idea of what was the transition looked like, so we could apply this to the chapel services.

                  

The Power of Testimony

Hello fellow blog readers! My name is Kayla Paul. I'm a senior Chapel Team member at Ontario Christian. Today, we will embark on a journey that extends through a few memories of mine--specifically from the Calvin College Worship Symposium. Please feel free to sit back and relax with a steaming cup of coffee in hand as I tell you my story. 

I went to Symposium with something laying very heavy on my heart. I went wanting to learn how to reach my fellow students. There seems to be a great divide between the people on the stage and the audience. When the Chapel team speaks on stage, there seems to be no ‘conversation’ with the audience; it’s almost as if the students in the audience view the kids on stage as being “holier-than-thou.” This proves just how disconnected the Chapel leaders are from the crowd. We wish to be examples in worship, but even more so servants of Christ. In no way are we trying to be presented as righteous. 

With this problem in mind and laying heavy on my heart, I went to the Symposium. The first session that I attended was about 5 ways to plan church services and chapels better and more efficiently. As I walked into the room where it was held, the savory scent of coffee filled my lungs. Not being too shy, I plopped my things down on a chair at a table in the middle of the room and introduced myself to the young man seated next to me. His name was Jake and he told me that he was from Alabama. As we sat there chatting, a group of college age students came to our table and asked us if they could sit next to us. After further introductions had been made, I discovered that they were from Canada, of all places!

As the session began, we sang a traditional African spiritual called “Uyai Mose,” which I was quite familiar with. Immediately, I felt at home seated next to newly acquired friends, singing a familiar hymn. During this session, I learned invaluable lessons. Centered around 5 key ideas of how to plan events in a church service, this session dove deep into how to better make use of prayer, choosing worship songs, transitioning from parts of worship, storytelling and testimonies, and, lastly, effective planning.

A scene from the Symposium session mentioned here.
(image courtesy of www.calvin.edu/worship)

These 5 key concepts were fascinating and invaluable. However, I think that the most rewarding and encouraging idea was the one about storytelling and testimonies. I suddenly realized what the school Chapels were missing; student testimonies. The students we are speaking to need help in being reminded that the people on the stage are no better than they, themselves, are. The sins of those who are on stage are equally as shameful and disgusting to God as the sins of the people in the audience. There must be some form of vulnerability in our school Chapels. Paul Ryan, the man who facilitated the discussions during the session, also spoke about vulnerability and being unmitigatedly honest and transparent while speaking to the congregation. This truth particularly touched my heart because I have struggled with the realization that we are all sinners in the hands of a holy and just God. I have been prone to viewing others’ sins as ‘worse’ than mine and some of my sins as ‘worse’ than others’ certain sins.

A scene from worship service at the 2015 Calvin
Symposium on Worship.  (image courtesy of
www.calvin.edu/worship)

Thus, I attended the Worship Symposium with a heavy and disappointed heart, but returned with a heart full of restoration and a mind filled with ideas. 

When I walked into my home for the first time in 3 days, I was so excited to tell my parents all that I had learned. I thank God that I went to the Symposium because I would never have learned what was missing from our Chapels if I had not gone.  

All in all, I was greatly impressed with the Symposium at Calvin College. I was happy that I went, as it answered a major question that was laying heavy on my heart.

Experiencing the Depth of God's Church

John Milton once said, “Gratitude bestows reverence… changing forever how we experience life and the world.”  Now I am a fan of quotes, but this one particularly affects me after attending the Calvin Worship Symposium. My name is Katie Inge, child and servant of God. That, is my definition. But before this trip I am not so sure I would have presented myself that way. For, “gratitude bestows reverence” and I lacked gratitude. Growing up in the church my entire life I took my faith, better yet I took God for granted. I had no gratitude therefore I had no reverence. I knew of God and we talked often. However, never in my life had I even slightly come into contact with an opportunity that showed me His vast diversity, His sovereign reign, His global Church. Attempting to understand God, for me, was like trying to understand the ocean. No one can tell me how deep the deepest part of the ocean is. No one can tell me everything that makes it up. Because I never had a gratitude for this ocean and its greatness, I took it a surface value. It was beautiful and powerful. Vast and strong. The waves showed timing, rhythm, and sound. That is not nothing. I stayed on the beach and enjoyed its beauty. There was much I saw and learned to appreciate about the ocean, but I never dove in. God was my ocean and it was time to get my feet wet.

Image courtesy of
www.calvin.edu/worship

The Worship Symposium at Calvin College in 2015 had one of the greatest impacts on my life spiritually. There were times where I was learning something completely new. There were times when we were learning something I had learned many times before and I saw it in a new light. I was introduced to the diversity of the Church and for the first time, I began to understand in a small way how big our world and our God is. This experience stretched me intellectually and spiritually, and for that I am forever grateful.

On day one of Worship Symposium I was not sure what to expect. I knew the basic idea of what the Symposium was about but had no comprehension on how much it would impact my life. As a collective Chapel Team we began day one together. Starting at the Timothy Blackmon morning worship service, we learned about The Comfort of God.

After the morning service our teachers allowed us to divide and choose which seminar we would like to attend. I was the only person to choose Seminar 2: What is the Most Important Word in Preaching: Story or Exposition?. Awesome. I was one of the youngest people at this symposium and I was interested in a seminar I have to attend alone. Also, I was on a college campus that I was not at all familiar with. So, like a kindergartner at my first day of school, I was dropped off outside my seminar building. I quickly found the auditorium and found a seat. It was a well-sized room and I was hopeful that I would not have any company. I sat on the end of the row so I would only be subject to one neighbor. The room began to fill quickly, apparently I had chosen a popular topic. Soon I came to accepting that the two seats to my right would not remain empty for much longer. So I desperately looked for a friendly face. Sure enough, I saw a college-aged guy that wouldn’t make me feel awfully young and under-educated, so I smiled and offered him a seat. He was a junior at Calvin College whose major was biology. This will do, I love biology and he is not over 50 like everyone else here. The second seat was filled by a pastor from Canada. 

The seminar began with author Scott Hoezee explaining his thoughts on the topic. Hoezee believes that humans innately desire to listen to stories. He strongly emphasizes narrative in preaching. Now, I believe Scott has a point in saying people enjoy and relate to stories. In the sense of trying to relate to the modern age stories can be helpful. However, we can not become so complacent as to only teach through stories, and forget the value in expository lessons. This was the point made by the next speaker, Mike Graves. Mike believes that there is some value in narrative while preaching. However, he also recognizes the importance of the facts when teaching such an important message. 

Image courtesy of 
www.calvin.edu/worship

The second half of the seminar was focused on two Bible passages. Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand as told by Mark and part of Paul's letter to Corinth. These were both passages we had all heard many times before. We studied a common passage yet I found myself learning a completely new lesson. All my life I had read the story wrong and missed the message. Then, while at Symposium I saw it. I saw the passage. I saw the point. I saw what God was trying to show me. Not reverence for a miracle but for His provision to those who serve in His name. It was a great experience in a lecture and studying setting to learn how to learn and teach more efficiently about God.

   

That night, I attended a vespers service which featured the band Urban Doxology. From the Call to Worship to the Sending I was locked in. It was an absolutely beautiful service emphasizing culture and freedom. This vesper was certainly one of my favorite parts of the Worship Symposium. Unfortunately, an experience like that will never be justified or explained by simply writing about it. You had to be there to hear the cry out to God in the Call to Worship from Isaiah 58. You had to be there to feel the emotion of the congregation as we sang out, "Declare Your name, Jehovah reigns, despite our problems. And through the pain we'll learn to trust in You." You had to be there in a room full of drastically diverse people to feel the greatness of God's church. You had to sit by the man from Liberia and woman from Canada both praising the same God with their hands held high. I had to be there, and I was.

   

The next day at Symposium was also very impactful. We began again with morning service this time

Image courtesy of  www.calvin.edu/worship

lead by Meg... Meg was by far the greatest female pastor I had ever heard speak. Her confidence and character made the sermon a pleasure to listen to.

Next, we had a seminary service on the history of certain traditions of the church. I was utterly prepared to be bored to death. History if not my forte and I doubted anything interesting could come from the history of a tradition I have known for 17 years. But my, oh, my, God works in the most mysterious ways. The first woman who spoke covered the topic of the Communion bread or wafer. This lecture was exceptionally dry. So, in my mind, I have confirmed my assumption of brutal boredom. Prepared to endure 3 more painful lectures, I waited painfully as the next speaker began. May I just say the history of the church and tradition was presented with such grace and interest in the next three speaker I was forced to swallow my hypothesis of boredom. It was a fantastic and education piece that I actively took notes on. Interesting how something you are certain will go one way is transformed by God.

         

Instead of one long seminar like the day before we had the opportunity to attend workshops. I was meant to attend two workshops and miss one lesson for lunch. Well, instead I missed lunch and took 3 classes. My hungry stomach didn't appreciate it but my hungry spirit did.

    

My classes were on various topics. I began with one on cultural diversity and ensuring people of all races feel welcomed and expected in the church. The speaker made a great point of anticipating "different" people each week rather than changing only when "different" people come.

        

Next, was a class on the past ten years and future ten years of the church and what those looked or would look like. This was interesting because, unfortunately, many people had a poor view on where the church is going. They believe our generational change will make church-going scarce. Personally, I believe it is just because they are on the other side of the equation now. Traditional parents of the 70s/80s probably had the same hypothesis because the children were experiencing new lifestyles. What they are forgetting is the church has survived plenty of change and no cultural trend is going to change that.

Learning to Appreciate Hymns

This post was written by Brianna Ma.  She is a Chapel Team member and a senior at OCHS.

The first day that we pulled up to Calvin and trudged through the snow for morning worship I was exhausted and not at all pumped for the service. As we filed in to our seats, all I could think about was the coffee and snacks that were waiting for us in the lobby and how we were some of the youngest participants. The service was filled with organ playing, hymns, unison reading and a structure that I have never been exposed to before. When the service concluded I couldn’t help but compare it to funeral services, not because it was sad but because that was the only time that I had ever attended a similarly structured service.

As time went on, I realized that it was important to be exposed to different worship styles because not all churches worship the same way. I decided to stop complaining and instead learn something from a style that differs from what I am used to. I realized that even though it felt robotic and impersonal at first; group reading connected the audience and forced everyone to reflect on the meaning of the words. Even though it is not my favorite way to worship, I also accepted that hymns are more theologically deep and are a more accurate representation of the Bible than many contemporary songs that I hear on Sundays or on the radio. The older people who were at the Symposium also taught me that the pastors and worship leaders put tons of work into Sunday services and people complain no matter what service is like or how much time is spent in preparation.

During one of the sessions that I attended I realized that there can be a better connection between traditional worship and contemporary worship styles. I know that our school does a great job of tying the global/historic church to the modern one but I think that we have a hard time adding variety and aspects of connectedness to our services. 

At my second session I learned that we should start a document where we write down what books of the Bible that we used and our main message so that we can assure that our services are a healthy mix of messages and styles which will interest the audience and ensure that we are serving a healthy variety of things to our spiritual life.

Hearing God's Call

Hello! My name is Allison O’Connor, and I am a junior at Ontario Christian. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend Symposium this year. However, I did attend two years ago, my freshman year, and it was a very memorable and meaningful experience for me. Before I share the things I learned, I think it’s important for me to share some back story.

I had been involved with the worship team at my church for about two years in a few different ministries. I also started to play guitar occasionally in chapel services here at OC. I was a part of worship ministry because I loved Jesus and playing music, but I didn’t think it was anything more than that for me. When Mrs. Kraut and Mr. Dykhouse asked me to attend the Symposium, I got this weird feeling in my stomach (a good kind of weird, of course). It felt like God had perfectly orchestrated for me to go to this event. I was so excited to go, and I remember counting the days until we left.

I don’t remember a lot of the specific workshops and seminars, but I do remember going to workshop on worship leading. It was taught by a lovely woman who was a worship leader at a church in the area. She also did a lot of service within her community to minister to those who are less fortunate. She spoke with this contagious joy and excitement about worship, and once again, I got this good-kind-of-weird feeling in my stomach. She talked about how leading worship was like being a shepherd to the congregation, much like how a pastor is. She also talked about how it was privilege to be called to lead worship. In fact, she said at one point, “You are called to be a worship leader.” It felt like God was speaking through her directly to me. The feeling that I had was now overflowing in my heart. It was at this moment that I received God’s calling in my life to be a worship leader. I didn’t know where or how I would do this, but I knew that this was what God wanted for my life. After the workshop, I felt like my heart and soul were going to burst with joy. I felt so much comfort and love in knowing that God had a specific plan for my life.

Since then, I now lead worship for our main congregation, junior high, high school, college, and women’s ministries at my church. This is also my second year in Chapel Leadership, and I have gained so much experience and knowledge from being a part of this class. While I was really sad I couldn’t attend Symposium this year, I spent the past few days at my youth group’s winter retreat, and I had the privilege of leading worship during the weekend. It was really cool to reflect on where God has brought me since then, even though I still have quite a long way to go. I am so unbelievably grateful for Calvin’s Worship Symposium, Mrs. Kraut, and Mr. Dykhouse for the countless things they have taught me about worship leading. The time I spent there two years ago (and hopefully again next year) was such a meaningful experience that I will remember for the rest of my life.

Connecting with Something Old and Something New

My name is AJ Curtin, I am a student in chapel class as a junior and I attended the 2015 Symposium trip. When I first heard about Symposium I was sort of unsure of what it was. I heard stories from past students and teachers saying that it was a fantastic trip so when I heard that we could all go I was excited but wasn’t sure what to expect. 

Denise Kingdom Grier leads a worship service during the
2015 Calvin Symposium on Worship. (image courtesy
of www.calvin.edu/worship)

When we got there the first day, I walked into something that was like a standard church service but less modern than mine. It was great to go in and try something different than from the church services I usually go to. The pastors and speakers were fantastic and really connected to me in a way that made me think deeper into what they were saying. 

When the service was over we went to the workshop things which was probably the most interesting part of the program to me. We had plenty of choices daily of things we could do whether it was a sermon, music or art related, a class about the world wide view of Christianity and more. This sort of reminded me that even just my musical talents can be such a blessing in the eyes of the Lord and really helped me see the importance of who I am in God's eyes. 

Along with new things I saw, there were things that reminded me of our school whether it was a song or two or the visuals or the way they related something as silly as a children's book to our lives as C

Tim Blackmon uses the children's book Knuffle Bunny by
Mo Willems during a message. (image courtesy
of www.calvin.edu/worship)

hristians. These similarities and others really connected with me and sort of enlightened me to the fact that the similar things we do can really have an impact on students. 

When it comes to the new things, I saw there was plenty. There was a great sense of community to me, everyone said hello and how are you doing as if they’ve known you for years. That connection between fellow brothers and sisters is something I think should be even more encouraged at our school someway. 

AJ Curtin with other members of the Chapel Leadership
Team during our trip to Symposium.

For example, on this trip alone I became more connected to the people in my class and became more like brothers and sisters in Christ as we all should be. This fellowship and more really shows that it is possible to enlighten more of a sense of community and love for each other as we were made to as Christians. This really opened my eyes to things I can do in my own life and for my small group or church or school and more. If I had the chance to go back I would go back in a heartbeat to connect with my fellow classmates, teachers, brothers and sisters in Christ, and most importantly with Christ himself.

Symposium from a Student's Perspective

Natalie Miller (far right) with OC Chapel Team members and
other high school students attending the Symposium.

Hi everyone! My name is Natalie Miller and I am a student of Mrs. Kraut and Mr. Dykhouse in Chapel Leadership Class. I attended the Symposium this year and had an awesome time! Here is my experience in more of a journal form:

Thursday: Morning Worship, Session 8: A New Song a Skillful Song, Vesper**: Ancient Words and Modern Music: A Fresh Musical Interpretation of the Heidelberg Catechism

Graham Kendrick (image courtesy
of www.calvin.edu/worship)

On Thursday, I learned how certain songs are easier to sing for congregations when there is a reachable range for all of the people in the audience, when there is repetition in a song, and when it is an easier tune to sing. This session was geared toward songwriters and being in the room with so many of them gave me awesome ideas. Heading the session was Graham Kendrick, who has written and co-written many popular songs sung in the church. We were able to some of his songs, as well as other songs that people in the room had written. The vesper on Thursday was very interesting as well due to the fact that all of the songs sung by the congregation were based on the catechism.

Friday: Morning Worship, Plenary Address: Church History as an Indispensable Source of Wisdom for Contemporary Ministry, Workshop A: Sticky Liturgies-Worship, Youth Ministry, and the Faith of American Teenagers, Workshop B: Resources in the Ancient Church for Today’s Worship, Vesper: Worship & Reconciliation across Racial, Ethnic, and Socioeconomic Cultural Lines

On Friday, I learned the reasons why teenagers were not staying in the church. The most interesting reason to me was because the church is not encouraging students to use their talents in a Christian environment where they can be encouraged to continue using their gifts for God. In a different session, I became aware that other denominations do not believe in communion until one is baptized and say a proclamation of their faith in front of the congregation. This made me aware of the different practices of denominations in the Christian Church as a whole. The vesper** on Friday was very interesting as well because the songs were geared towards people of all different types of ethnic groups (The Urban Doxology Band: http://www.makingamelody.com/urban-doxology-project/ check them out they are fantastic!).

Some of the practices in the worship services that I already see at Ontario Christian are the congregational singing, invites to worship, call and response pieces, and the interactive aspects between the leaders and the students. The most interesting things that I learned and came to my attention was that there are a variety of practices at different denominations of Christianity. Because of this, I have decided  to gear my planning in more of a way so that everyone will be able to feel comfortable in attending chapel.

**A vesper is an evening service that was provided each night during the Symposium at Calvin College. It was more of a worship setting, but there were call and response pieces as well as readings from scripture.*