Building Community Outside of the Classroom

The Church Music faculty have for many years invested in the lives of our students both academically and personally. This intention focus comes from a deeply rooted desire to help our students mature and build long lasting relationships. One of the goals for the Dunn Center is to help facilitate space for community growth outside of the classroom, offering conversations, meals, and experiential opportunities. 

On Friday, November 1st, Dr. Matthew Laube and his wife, Elizabeth, opened their home to members of the School of Music family for an evening hymn sing. This event, combined with dinner, gave students, faculty, and staff a space to gather off of the Baylor campus for a deliberate moment of communal worship, reflection, and fellowship. 

In response to this event, Dr. Laube was asked to share about the experience and the significance of hosting students in an intimate setting. 

Q: How do you see an event like this being a meaningful space for community growth?

A: Doing a hymn sing is a great way to model for students what church music (and the church itself) should be. First and foremost, gatherings like this remind us that we are a worshiping community. Worship is something we do not just at church, but it’s for all parts and spaces of our lives. The church should also be hospitable and welcoming, and give everyone the opportunity to participate. Elizabeth and I were so excited to have everyone come to our house. Opening our homes to one another changes the way we relate to each another and therefore what the musical experience is like. An event like this also leads to the literal growth of community. Several people from outside church music came and enlarged our circle of friends just that little bit more.

Q: What makes this event different from a class on hymnody? 

A: Well, it was longer than a class period! Instead of 50 minutes, we spent 2.5 hours together eating and singing. It brought together faculty, staff, graduate students, and undergraduates, who are rarely all in the same place at the same time. Some of the students brought friends, spouses, and children, which doesn’t happen in the classroom but is what the worshiping church community is. Our classes are often fun in their own way, but I think I speak for everyone when I say we had a blast together! And finally, classes can sometimes feel like one-sided social environments, with one person standing at the front and the class all looking at them. Our hymn sing had no one person as a focal point. We were gathered in the room all singing and facing each other. It was great!

Q: Why is it important to build relationships and gather for communal worship experiences?

A: One writer has described how Americans in the 21^st century live in a “present-tense culture” where innovation is one of the most talked-about cultural values. There is rarely any concerted effort to look back together and place ourselves in the middle of a longer story that is still unfolding. In the class Formation for Christian Musicians, we talk about what it means to worship with the “communion of saints,” those united with Christ across all time and space. The hymns we sang on Friday are helpful for enabling us to hold different tensions about the Christian faith together at the same time. Songs like “Blessed Assurance,” “Holy, Holy, Holy,” and “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty” articulate so helpfully how Christian belief simultaneously involves the individual and the corporate, internal feeling and external realities, resting in God’s character and putting faith into action, and the interconnection of present, past, and future. What better way to build true Christian community!

Participating in this evening event were undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, staff, and members of the greater School of Music. “It was a special time that allowed us to practice what we're studying, and it gave us a window to see this is not just something we talk about in class, but church music is tangibly happening in real life,” said Isaac Montgomery, a first-year doctoral student. “It was also nostalgic to be a part of something like that again and remembering all the times participating in hymn gatherings back home.”

Events like this are important to the fabric of our program and the Dunn Center hopes to host many similar meetings for our students throughout the academic year.