Dr. David W. Manner is Director of Worship and Administration at the Kansas-Nebraska Convention of Southern Baptists. He blogs at http://kncsb.org/blogs/dmanner . You can follow him on Twitter: @dwmanner.
Worship change is inevitable as congregations consider the fluidity of their surrounding cultures and contexts. It would stand to reason, then, that the leaders who facilitate worship in those ever changing congregations must also learn how to develop, cultivate, and lead change by listening to the voice of their community and congregation.
How will those leaders be prepared to recognize and respond to cultural shifts if the educational institutions that train them for ministry have not also embraced a comparable attitude of acceptance and adaptation?
Several colleges and seminaries have already modified their educational and methodological systems in response to the changing churches and cultures while still respecting the foundations of the past. Their commitment to considering the pulse of the present and flexibility for the future has resulted in renewed enthusiasm and substantial enrollment growth.
Other institutions have been hesitant to embrace those needed changes and as a result have experienced waning interest and enrollment decline. Their curriculum seems to be preparing the students they have left for a church that no longer exists. If this is your educational institution, maybe some of the following suggestions could serve as a starting point to begin some new conversations:
- Help students discover that music and worship are not exclusively synonymous. If music is the only driver during their educational preparation it will inevitably surface as the primary point of contention during their congregational implementation.
- Don’t compromise preparation for congregational acclimation in the name of institutional accreditation.
- Open their eyes to the foundational tenets of worship based on history, theology, Scripture, prayer, and communion before immersing them in the music.
- In addition to traditional musical analysis, teach them to be conversant in the language and praxis of chord charts, capos, and kick drums.
- Educate them in the various and fluid dynamics of worship teams and praise bands as well as choirs and orchestras.
- Keep them abreast of the current trends in audio and video media and technology.
- Expand their awareness of the arts to include other genres and media expressions beyond music. Help them understand that embracing the arts as both verbal and visual relieves the pressure of music as the primary driver and culprit.
- Help them to understand that leading music doesn’t necessarily equate to leading people.
- Spend multiple semesters preparing them for staff and congregational relationships. Most worship ministry failures and forced terminations are as a result of leadership and relational conflict and rarely occur as a result of musical deficiencies.
- Help them to better understand and appreciate the relational dynamics of multigenerations before ever considering the musical dynamics of those generations.
- Train them to be curious and open but also judicious students of the culture.
- Provide resources and principles to help them weather the changes that will inevitably occur in the future. Model healthy change that values conviction, collaboration, and patience.
- Encourage the students to read ecumenically and study worship through the eyes of various denominations, faiths, cultures, and generations.
- Remind them constantly that their college or seminary training is not the end but the beginning of their worship education. A terminal degree should not signify the death of learning.
- Require institutional administrators and faculty to attend worship conferences, concerts, classes, and workshops outside of their areas of expertise, stylistic preferences, contexts, cultures, and even comfort. How can they teach new worship and media languages if they don’t speak them?
The role of the worship leader in the church has changed drastically. Good advice. Good thoughts.
Hebs.12:22ff tells what a Baptist Church really is in worship. The fact is that there is likely to be no churches available for pastors, if the calif. initiative succeeds and if we can’t have freedom of religion. We will likely spend time in prison unless we succeed in praying for a third great awakening.
Dr. Manner,
Great article! These changes are long overdue across all the seminaries. I don’t know which are ahead of others, but they should all be on the same page regarding teaching how to develop one’s own worship philosophy.
These new worship pastors need to know how to think through scripture as though a preacher and bring flow and harmony to the entire service, not just pick some random songs or drama. I’d like to see more leaders discriminating against a song or drama because the worship pastor has the theological where-with-all to do so.
I am soon to graduate from THE Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
I have been attending since Aug 04. My major is Mdiv in Worship.
This program has done all of these things and more.
I took all the systematics, three semester of languages, Old and New Testament, etc.
This particular program has been outstanding in regards to the issues noted in this post. If you want a biblically informed worship leader, you could do no better than a Southern graduate.
Don,
My guess is that even in the last 8 years you have been at Southern you have seen some radical changes in the preparation of students. I also know the future of Southern’s preparation of worship leaders is in good hands with men like Joe Crider as leaders.
Amen to that! I was elated to hear that Southern brought Dr. Crider to their program.
What colleges/seminaries did you have in mind? Or rather, without naming names, what specific points (including the inverses of the positive points you made above) do you think are being incorrectly implemented or stagnated? I’ll say that as a student but not a major of the SEBTS music program (in a couple ensembles but ‘music’ or ‘worship’ won’t appear on my degree), I think both the music faculty and the school as a whole are meeting almost all of your points, and it’s apparent inside the program that a solid theological education is much more valued than a technical standard… Read more »
It is often said that the music you love has a way of finding you. We ask, in our Christian faith, how can this be?
I think, that in the realm of the Holy Spirit, it becomes possible for you to know when you hear a hymn that lifts your heart up to the Lord.
Often, such music will touch a chord within a person that the Holy Spirit has placed there in order to prepare someone to respond to Christ in faith.
Stephen, In response to your last sentence, I definitely don’t mean schools should consider getting rid of choirs and orchestras or canceling theory classes. If you’ll notice in my 4th and 5th bullets I stated: In addition to traditional musical analysis, teach them to be conversant in the language and praxis of chord charts, capos, and kick drums; and Educate them in the various and fluid dynamics of worship teams and praise bands as well as choirs and orchestras. Also, as I mentioned, several colleges and seminaries have already modified their educational and methodological systems in response to the changing… Read more »
Dr. Manner, For what it’s worth, choirs and orchestras are still vital. In my town, First Baptist is the “high church” setting with choir and pipe organ. Most other big box SBC churches in the area have gone to mostly worship teams. My church, on the other other hand, has the reputation for great contemporary music although we have a big choir and orchestra (with rhythm section and praise team front) and do a mix of new songs, older P&W songs, and classic hymns. Many people come to the church because of the music and stay because of the great… Read more »
I appreciate Carl Cartee’s heart for worship and training others. Anyone with a chance to hear him at a ‘concert’ or attend a seminar/conference that he leads should go.
Hey David,
Which is the best school for worship leadership in the SBC, in your opinion.
Blessings!
Hey Ron,
Hope you are doing well. I think there are numerous fine schools that are offering some great preparation for worship leaders. I’ll share a few suggestions as a message to you on facebook.
There is no methodology in worship. Worship comes from the personal relationship with God through Christ. Everyone who has a continuous relationship with Christ worships and the leader of worship brings it all together in unity. We worship corporately and individually. We also worship in small groups. We worship in pain and we worship in success. Job worshiped and Solomon worshiped. It is God who is worthy of all worship.
Bruce, If methodology is defined as practices, principles, and guidelines, then I would disagree with your statement that there is no methodology in worship. The prophet Micah condemned Israel’s dishonest, corrupt, and meaningless worship by pointing out what God considers good worship and what he really requires, “He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8). Worshipers must worship in “spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the… Read more »
“If music is the only driver during their educational preparation it will inevitably surface as the primary point of contention during their congregational implementation.” What an excellent statement. As a musical worship leader, I have learned this lesson the hard way. Matters of preference and performance can quickly become the most important things in people’s minds. “Worship leaders” need to be taught that they are not the lead worship leader; their pastor is. Music does not serve the musical worship leader’s tastes; the musical worship leader serves the people of the church. We should always be gauging the culture to… Read more »
David, do you have any thoughts on the push from some ecclesiological reformers (thinking especially of Mark Dever and 9 Marks) to separate out the theological/doxological components of worship leading from the administrative or technical? I believe at Capitol Hill Baptist, there is not a Music Minister on staff but instead the preacher of the week (or perhaps a presiding elder if there is a guest preacher) picks the hymns to sing and a piano/guitar player in a deacon role will prepare an accompaniment for the congregation to sing along with. A less radical move in some of our cultural… Read more »
Stephen, I guess my question in each circumstance would be why? If out of Conviction then I still believe in the autonomy of each congregation as they determine their worship voice. If out of Convenience because of the expense of adding a Music Minister/Worship Leader then I understand each congregation has to determine their priorities and determine how to use the people and resources they have to do their best to worship in Spirit and Truth. If, however, it is out of Control then that attitude will impact every ministry of the church, not just the worship. When that occurs… Read more »
After relocating a couple of years back, my wife and I began visiting nearby churches. And in my current job, I often wind up visiting congregations other than the one I now belong to. What I’m seeing is that churches, in particular the larger ones, have several staff members who do not have any seminary training at all, and I’ve been to at least one where that statement applied to the pastor. Up here in the Northeast, there are several “cohorts” that have sprung up out of followers of some of the celebrity church leaders across the country, and they… Read more »
I’ve mentioned this once and I would like to mention it again. I think the trend of the future are the bi-vocational churches. A bivocational pastor serves the membership much better. The church is relieved of the expense of a full time pastor. Even though he is on call 24-7. Any gradugate of a bible college or seminary needs to be trained in another field. If the economy gets mush worse it will happen more sooner than later.
“”””The church is relieved of the expense of a full time pastor. “”””
Having pastored bi-vocationally for over half my 35 years, I can say that saving money and having a bi-vocational pastor are not necessarily the same thing, if you are implying there will be more money for other ministries.
Bi-vocational churches should be able to devote more to mission causes, but it doesn’t always work that way.
Frank L ,
“More money for ministries”, Is not what I’m implying, I am saying this is the trend. Matter of fact, the last twenty new churches that opened up around Cincinnati area are bivocational.
That’s great. I spent over half my ministry in bi-vocational ministry.
Let God do the training, He is very good at doing the calling, & also He can do the training much better than you or I, if only we will truly do those little jobs God has given us.