Twenty-three years ago, I graduated from Valparaiso University (VU) with a music degree in voice performance. I was on a path toward a career in performance until some discernment during my fourth year led me to apply to Luther Seminary’s Master of Sacred Music Program. I see now how those hours vocalizing in a practice room, preparing Lieder recitals, and how performing opera roles helped to prepare me for a church music vocation with skills that I use daily in my context. But at the time, I was simply working to improve my technical skills as a musician generally.
That I developed these skills in Lutheran communities was more than happenstance. Growing up, I had participated in and led worship at my church. I chose to attend VU in part because of its rich Lutheran heritage and liturgical sensibilities, and I fully expected to be involved in worship on a regular basis. Even though, then, I did not see myself being formed as a liturgical leader, the VU community nourished my call to a vocation in church music, which eventually led me to seminary. This “pipeline” story is common for my and earlier generations. But in those twenty-three years, the number of students in this pipeline has decreased even as the number of people being called to church vocations as a second or third career has increased.
This shift, combined with our growing need for pastors and musicians, especially in rural areas, has compelled us to rethink and redesign theological education so that students can remain in their contexts and move more quickly through their programs. Luther Seminary no longer offers a Master of Sacred Music program. Other seminaries and universities have ended graduate programs for church musicians and reduced liturgical training for clergy and lay leaders. And yet, we still need thoughtful liturgical leaders in our parishes. As higher education moves through a period of institutional transition and discernment, we must continue finding new ways of raising up and educating liturgical leaders through processes of lifelong learning.
Professional organizations like Lutheran Summer Music Academy & Festival (LSM), the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians (ALCM), and the Institute of Liturgical Studies (ILS) are well positioned to fill this gap. Surely, many others are as well. We need all hands on deck to supplement and augment programs in higher education at this pivotal time—for the sake of the gospel.
Lutheran Summer Music is a four-week, faith-based residential music academy for high school students, seeking to renew churches and communities through music. Students participate in ensemble rehearsals, private lessons, classes and liturgical experiences like vespers and hymn festivals. They may not be considering a career in the Church, but their home congregation will view them as leaders.
In addition to directly learning musical and leadership skills, spending time in a community that values the liturgy helps form these students as liturgical leaders. Currently, LSM takes place in the mid-west and has reached maximum capacity in recent years. What would it look like if multiple opportunities like this were offered in other parts of the country—providing space for more students and requiring less travel?
The Association of Lutheran Church Musicians hosts a large conference that rotates locations around the United States each year. It always offers something engaging for experienced church musicians, but the conference planners excel, I think, in offering sessions that help newer church musicians learn skills that equip them to lead the liturgy confidently and lovingly. ALCM also offers many one-day events throughout the year. Often hosted and led by members in their contexts, these workshops are as thoughtfully planned and relevant as the larger conferences. In addition, there are webinars available on practical topics throughout the year. Thinking more broadly, can ALCM expand its reach to musicians beyond those already engaged in a church? As we have fewer “pipeline” church musicians, we may need other community musicians to become liturgical leaders.
The Institute of Liturgical Studies brings together a variety of folks at its annual gathering at Valparaiso University—clergy and musicians, academics and parish leaders seminarians and church professionals. To generalize, plenary sessions are typically academic, while workshops offer more content around applied practice. While all sessions are insightful and relevant, seminarians in attendance indicate that they gain the most from the practical sessions because these offer the skills that are not refined in seminary. To “shape liturgists and musicians for the whole church,” as its vision includes, ILS might provide a more intentional place for seminarians to develop their role as liturgical leaders, through intensive sessions with experienced liturgists.
Even as many congregations find themselves with decreasing membership and attendance, we need thoughtful leaders who value the liturgy and understand how it forms us in faith for the week ahead. We need pastors and musicians who confidently carry out their vocations in the Sunday assembly so that parishioners can, in turn, carry out their vocations in the world. With fewer trained musicians engaged regularly in church communities, its time to get creative and collaborative about how we engage and support professional training programs and pipelines to those programs so that we can raise up liturgical leaders in ever new ways.
Sally Messner is director of worship for the Institute of Liturgical Studies (Valparaiso University) and director of worship and music at Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church in Minneapolis. She has been a contributor for worship planning resources in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and has published articles related to hymn writing, worship planning, and assembly singing. She also served as hymn editor for Lutheran Forum magazine. Sally is the current president of the Twin Cities chapter of Choristers Guild and is founding musical director of the Elm Ensemble, a liturgical project that brings together professional and amateur musicians with great sacred music and creative worship planning to help keep the church in dialogue with diverse voices from Christian history.