“From Generation to Generation”

The conference itself is over, but you can still experience every worship service, workshop, concert, and group learning session. Click the link above to register and enjoy everything that the conference had to offer. It’s the next best thing to being there!

Throughout the psalms, we glimpse God’s people in a grand and noble procession—a people gathered “from the east and west, from the north and south” (Ps. 107:3) whose hearts are “stirring with a noble song” (Ps. 45:1). Accompanied by a veritable symphony (Ps. 150), their praise for God’s marvelous creation, saving acts, and promised redemption resounds “from the rising of the sun to its going down” (Ps. 113:3). 

The psalmists know, too, that their thanksgivings and laments transcend time and place. The “old and young together” (Ps. 148:12) from a “thousand generations” (Ps. 105:8) remember, teach, sing, and share these songs “from one generation to another” (Ps. 45:17). 

Across those generations, the church’s song has been voiced by a dazzling array of languages, melodies, harmonies, styles, and rhythms. And yet to lead this song sometimes requires new and updated techniques and skills, or perhaps rethinking or reimagination of past practices. This is especially true as we come to understand the needs of local assemblies in a post-pandemic paradigm.

Accordingly, this conference—held on the Valparaiso University campus in conjunction with the fortieth-anniversary season of Lutheran Summer Music—invites participants to strengthen their gifts and explore new skills through workshops, discussions, and hands-on learning opportunities related to topics such as worship and technology, working with intergenerational voices, composition, enriching assembly song, nurturing faith and community, and more.

Framed by morning and evening prayer with the LSM community in Valparaiso University’s Chapel of the Resurrection, each day’s schedule includes opportunities for the ALCM and LSM communities to teach and learn together—indeed, from generation to generation. Thanks to generous financial support from Mark and Kathy Helge, participants will also have the opportunity to attend workshops and performances by three featured guest artists: the Minneapolis-based Cantus, the Leipzig-based Calmus, and organist Martin Jean.

And so, take up your voices and instruments—lyres and harps, djembes and guitars, strings and pipes—and join the young, old, young at heart, and everything that has breath for this time of worship, learning, and fellowship.