In partnership with Lilly Endowment Inc., the Dunn Center for Christian Music Studies (CCMS) has developed a project within Lilly's Nurturing Children Through Worship & Prayer Initiative to identify and explore ways of nurturing children in worship and prayer beyond the children’s choir model, through creating and curating scholarly resources, teaching, and producing practical and holistic resources for children’s music ministry. Through Baylor’s dialogue with church leaders as part of the Building Bridges to the Future project, currently funded by the Lilly Endowment, a consensus emerged that focusing solely on high schoolers, while important, is insufficient.
Developing a cohesive and integrated ministry with all young people requires starting early, during their formative years. Scholarly research and pastoral literature are now calling for many of the established strategies of children’s ministry to be rethought. During this project, the Church Music department is working to provide resources that directly support those working in children’s music ministry.
The CCMS project, Shaping Young Worshipers through Transformative Music Ministry, seeks to support the current and future church leaders who will shape young worshipers for years to come.
Primary Research Objectives
CONNECTConnecting scholars and practitioners | CREATECreating inclusive resources | TRAINTraining leaders to shape young worshipers |
|---|---|---|
| Promote academic and pedagogical reflection on the spiritual formation of children in the context of church music ministry. | Create and curate scholarly and holistic practical resources for transformative church music ministries to integrate children into the liturgical life of the congregation. | Design and implement interdisciplinary training opportunities that address all children’s spiritual and musical development including worship and prayer. |
Putting This Into Action
This project is currently bringing together learning communities composed of current church leaders, the practitioner-writer cohort, children’s ministry practitioners, and theologians, to form learning communities across Texas. These communities will consider the key challenges and key needs of the church today as it seeks to engage young worshipers through music.
Join the Conversation!
Are you an educator, minister, or theologian interested to participate in this work? Send us an email to introduce yourself and connect with our team.
Want to be notified about resources produced by this project? Click here to subscribe for updates!
If you would like to speak with someone on the phone, our team can be reached during standard office hours at 254-710-1339.