Remember the next generation of worship leaders. Of course, it is urgent to be concerned with what is happening on your platform this Sunday, but what seeds are being planted by your church in the children’s and youth ministry that will be harvested in the future? Public education is abandoning music. The children in your church are probably not singing at school or at home. Are they singing at church? We should not be surprised when no crops grow in five years if no seeds are planted today.

I teach church music and worship at a seminary. Every week, churches contact me to fill their worship leadership needs. While I’m thrilled to see the demand for qualified individuals, there’s one big problem.

I don’t have students for them.

The Old Model

When churches contact a seminary looking for a worship leader, they’re doing what worked for a long time. A generation ago, there was an established system: students came to seminary to get a Master’s degree in Church Music (MCM) before becoming a music minister or worship pastor. This mirrored the path young men took, pursuing an MDiv degree before becoming preachers.

Historically minded readers could investigate Westminster Choir College’s influence on theological music education from the 1920s onward. This model influenced many seminaries across the country. Perhaps the peak of this movement came in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when enrollment at my seminary’s School of Church Music surpassed 530.

That’s a lot.

However, through changes in the church and cultural landscapes, this model faltered. By the 1990s, Westminster Choir College financially couldn’t keep its doors open. There are many contributing factors which we’ll discuss later, but the old system hit its heyday in the late 1980s and gradually ground to a halt in the 1990s and early 2000s.

The New Model

Now, a new model for musical theological education operates in a different order. Worship ministers already serving in local churches study at a seminary to “level up” their ministry and personal lives.

Have you seen this? By and large, worship leaders in today’s churches do not need a seminary degree to qualify for leading a congregation in worship.

As someone who trains worship leaders at a seminary, you might think that I’m worried. I am not worried. That’s because our seminary worship training program pivoted to help students who are already serving the Lord Jesus in their local church grow in their skills.

Our students come from a variety of backgrounds and join our program to take their next steps of growth for their lives and ministries.

• Some have been trained as music educators but lack the biblical and theological knowledge or ministerial skills needed to serve in a church ministry.
• Others are very skilled musical performers and producers who are adept at planning high-impact Sunday morning gatherings, but they recognize their need for further education if they want to become church leaders and elder-qualified pastors.

These are my favorite people on planet Earth!

So when churches contact me for a graduate to fill their job opening, I do not have students. Our students are already in churches, growing and flourishing within faith communities that are investing in them.

What Changed? Schools and Churches

As we consider how we got here, think with me about two changes that have drastically affected the ecosystem of worship.

First, public schools have drastically reduced music education. There was a time when I would meet with prospective undergraduate students who would tell me that they wanted to study worship ministry and become ministers of music in their local church, but they felt like they needed to pursue a degree in music education as a career fallback. Music education was seen as the safer, more viable career choice.

That is no longer the financial or vocational reality. Over the past 20 or 30 years, as public-school funding shifted towards STEM (mathematics, science, and computer-based) priorities, musical education and opportunities have dried up.

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