Best Practices for 04/09/08

Effective Worship:
The Andrews University Music and Worship Conference
by Best Practices Editor, Loren Seibold

A confession: so often, when I attend a continuing education event for pastors, I'm disappointed. Most of it doesn't quite connect with my situation. In the past year, though, I've found two that I like a lot and will attend again.

One I've already talked about here: the Vervent-sponsored Innovation Conference in Columbus, OH. The other I just discovered this past week: The Andrews University Music and Worship Conference. This conference was organized by Nicholas Zork

, a student of worship at Fuller Seminary, and already the golden boy of contemporary worship studies in our denomination. (In addition to Nick, his father Stephen, AU's vocal music director, and his brother Ben were also part of the mix--leading to the surprising spectacle of a formal choir and pipe organ joining in with drums, guitars, and bass in a praise service.)

Two things can go wrong with this kind of event: it can be all talk and theory, or it can be just performers showing off how cool they are. There was a touch of the latter, but for the most part the worship experiences the Zorks planned were exemplary, accessible and multicultural, and the workshops supportive of the examples.

I can't speak for all the workshops, but the ones Carmen and I attended (Roger Ryan on song-writing, Scott Reed on worship theory, Nick Zork and friends on arranging praise music for worship) were excellent. Jon Dybdahl began and ended the weekend by trying to sort out for us the Biblical from the cultural in worship. (I'll link to Dybdahl's presentation as soon as it is available on line.)

The highlight was Friday night's worship event, involving the University Singers, Nick and his worship team, and several other groups. They managed to keep it mostly sincere and God-directed, a big achievement given the enormous talent of the participants.

The conference came at worship mostly from the music direction; I would have liked to hear a bit more about preaching--not how to preach, but how to make the sermon part of the integrated worship event rather than a performance of its own.

This was an excellent event. Any of you who are struggling along with a mediocre praise team that isn't quite sure what its role is will find it especially helpful.

The next conference is already scheduled for March 26-28, 2009. The featured speaker will be Roberta R. King, Associate Professor of Communication and Ethnomusicology in the School of Intercultural Studies, Fuller Theological Seminary. Check the AU Worship Conference Website for more information.