Nurturing the Religious Lives of Youth
Enhancing the faith of young people through resources and trainings that enable greater student leadership in youth and corporate worship gatherings.
In partnership with Lilly Endowment, Inc., the Center for Christian Music Studies has developed a project within Lilly's Strengthening Congregational Ministries with Youth Initiative to explore youth participation in worship in the local church. During this project, the Church Music department is working to design and implement programming and resources that directly support youth ministries and their leaders. The CCMS project is titled Building Bridges to the Future (BBF) and seeks to strengthen the participation of youth in the worship and music ministry of the local church.
Primary Research Objectives:
- Assess how youth are currently connected to the music and worship ministries of BBF partner churches, especially how they are participating in and leading worship in intergenerational contexts;
- Provide expanded musical and leadership training sessions in order to prepare youth better for success in ministry roles, especially in music ministry;
- Encourage students to explore ministry vocations;
- Establish additional best practices for improvement of youth engagement in worship and spiritual formation activities by assisting churches to involve young people in the fuller worship life of their congregation,
- Disseminate findings from our research and programming to the broader ministry community.
Putting This Into Action
Baylor's CCMS project exists to assess, equip, and empower young people to not only participate in worship, but to actively seek leadership opportunities in their churches. Worship Lab, our summer training event, serves as the foundation to our work and brings students and their ministry leaders to Baylor’s campus each July for a one-week training program. Worship Lab offers music rehearsals, classes on ministry-related topics, small groups and devotionals, concerts, worship gatherings, and more. Through the project’s church partnerships, Baylor CCMS continues to build a network of church connections, allowing for future collaborations and youth and worship trainings.
Church Partnership Program
From 2019-2024, Baylor's Dunn Center for Christian Music Studies (CCMS) worked to both develop and improve the Building Bridges to the Future project while walking alongside churches to assess the strengths and shortcomings of youth ministry worship teams and youth choir programs. Research conducted by the CCMS was specifically focused on how students were involved in worship leadership both within youth ministry gatherings and in larger corporate worship settings. In seeking greater intergenerational collaborations and leadership, Baylor partnered with churches each year to help provide resources and offer trainings in the area of music and worship.
Questions?
If you have questions about the work of this past initiative, please contact our office at 254-710-1355.