John Witvliet

Biography

Dr. John D. Witvliet serves as Chief Officer for University Missional Initiatives and professor of theology, worship and the arts at Belmont University, where he serves in the Office of the President, nurturing engagement with Belmont’s ecumenical, Christ-centered mission and identity across the university’s 12 colleges, formation initiatives and administrative offices. He supports Vice Presidents, Deans and other leaders as they engage the rich resources of global and ecumenical Christian intellectual traditions and shape a culture described in Belmont’s SOUL framework, serves as theologian-in-residence in the Belmont Formation Collaborative, and oversees the Office for University Missional Initiatives which includes the Office of Hope, Unity and Belonging; University Ministries; Church Relations and Faith-Based Engagement; and the Rev. Charlie Curb Center for Faith Leadership. Each month, he leads formation group discussions for students, staff and faculty on topics related to spiritual and cultural wellness, including sessions that feature immersive Bible engagement, group readings of historically significant sermons and group singing of Psalms, hymns and songs that explore Belmont’s SOUL framework.   

Before joining the Belmont faculty in June 2025, Witvliet served for 28 years as the founding director of the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship and professor at Calvin University and Calvin Theological Seminary, where he continues to serve as senior advisor. At the institute, he led teams that published works on fourth-, sixteenth- and twentieth-century liturgical history; edited multicultural collections of congregational song and choral music; organized Calvin University’s annual Symposium on Worship; collaborated on seminars hosted in Nepal, Mexico City, Northern Ireland and Hong Kong; organized travel seminars in Northern Ireland and the Southern United States; administered a small grants program that awarded grants to more than 1,300 worshiping communities and teacher-scholars from Orthodox, Roman Catholic, mainline, evangelical, Pentecostal and nondenominational church traditions; shaped a learning collaborative among the 142 grantees in the Lilly Endowment’s Compelling Preaching Initiative; and curated comprehensive web resource libraries. 

His areas of expertise and publications include Trinitarian theology of worship and the sacraments, the Psalms, intergenerational faith formation and worship-related arts, especially congregational music for worship and choral music. Since 2020, he has co-led exploratory courses on cultural intelligence, African American religious autobiography and global Christianity.