Southwestern Seminary Dismantles Church Music Studies

[Rvaughn]

[Sandy]

Long, long overdue. We are decades past the time that seminary church music departments heavily influenced the development of church music. The days of pipe organs, robed choirs and other cultural elements of professional, classical church music are long, long gone. It was a fad, a trend that had more staying power in the church because of the adjective "sacred" added in front of music. The style of music the seminary was teaching was developed out of the preferences of previous generations. Even when I was at Southwestern in the 1980's, students getting degrees in the school of church music were saying they were going to have to re-tool when they left because elements within the evangelical movement was pushing forward to a more contemporary, relatable style of music in worship than hymns accompanied by piano and organ.

[Dave Roberts]

[William Thornton]

I would stay for the postlude if it was sans seans on an organ. There's not many churches that want that. Maybe

[KeithE]

[Dave Roberts]

I suspect that the future of worship will involve more and more blended types of worship with both traditional and contemporary elements. In fact, that is what I hope is coming in the development of worship.

[Rvaughn]

[Haruo]

I'm currently indexing the the data from A Teaching Hymnal, a 2018 publication from Wipf & Stock, written/compiled for use in pastoral training courses at Fuller, for the database.

[Haruo]

[Sandy]

[William Thornton]

[Haruo]

!

[Tim Bonney]

Every Methodist local church I worked with got its music leadership from the local college or university. Some Methodist, some not. I don't see why a seminary degree is necessary for a church musician when music degrees and training are so available. My current Worship Arts Director is a graduate of Simpson College and University of South Dakota. My previous Choir Director in Sioux City was a Professor at Briar Cliff College.

[Dave Roberts]

[Tim Bonney]

[Sandy]

[Tim Bonney]

I just wondered Sandy. Honestly since I left the SBC I've heard almost nothing about seminary music degrees. I've been lucky to have professional musicians leading music in my last ABC church and all my UM congregations. But all of them received degrees in music from colleges or universities. Some are church affiliated schools but many not. We have full time music staff but only the larger UM churches in Iowa do.

Part of this may just be a different emphasis/polity. The mindset in both the ABC and UMC is that seminary is for pastors or other clergy and not so much for other church positions, maybe with the exception of Directors of CE.

[Haruo]

!

[William Thornton]

So... a fairly new church with the usual band and a few singers needs what is falsely called a part time "worship pastor" and has had a parade of possibilities. All have caps, unkempt under describes them all; shirttail, obese (don't know why this is the consistent pattern), generally making a poor presentation for worship of God on the Lord's Day.

So, I asked why...this is all we can find" was the answer. Nice guys. Maybe can sing, I'm not a good judge. Reminds me of a raucous night club in Memphis years ago where the owner put in a strict "no hat" policy. He said that totally cleaned up the crowd.

...but, my day is past.

[Tim Bonney]