BIANNUAL MAGAZINE OF MIDWESTERN SEMINARY AND SPURGEON COLLEGE
Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp!
Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals!
Let everything that has breath praise the LORD! Praise the Lord!
BY JASON K. ALLEN
ARTICLE BY MATTHEW SWAIN
ARTICLE BY SAM PARKISON
ARTICLE BY MATT BOSWELL
Throughout my years in ministry, it has always been a delight to order the church’s worship service, especially through the selection of hymns for Sunday morning. As ministers, we are entrusted with this profound stewardship for the benefit of Christ’s Church.
When Paul exhorts the church in Ephesus to be “imitators of God,” he encourages the saints to “be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your hearts to the Lord” (Eph. 5:18–19). Every church is strengthened, both doctrinally and spiritually, by a faithful practice of hymnody. It is therefore my delight to present this edition of the Midwestern Magazine , entitled “Singing the Gospel: Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs For the Church.”
In this edition, you’ll find select articles from Midwestern Seminary faculty members, including Drs. Matt Boswell and Matt Swain, along with Midwestern Seminary alumnus Dr. Sam Parkison. It is my prayer
that this edition will spiritually enrich and challenge you as you joyfully participate in the worship of your local church.
Sincerely,
JASON K. ALLEN, PH.D. President, Professor of Preaching & Pastoral Ministry
Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary Spurgeon College
ADMINISTRATION
Jason K. Allen
PRESIDENT
Jason G. Duesing
PROVOST
James J. Kragenbring
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT FOR INSTITUTIONAL ADMINISTRATION
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Midwestern Seminary maintains professional and academic accreditation with three accrediting associations: The Commission on Accrediting of the Association of Theological Schools (ATS) in the United States and Canada, The Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (HLC), and The Association for Biblical Higher Education (ABHE).
EDITOR’S NOTE
In his introduction to Athanasius’ On the Incarnation, C. S. Lewis famously encouraged Christians to read old books—“to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds.”
The same is true for old hymns. To adapt Lewis’ wisdom and wording:
It is a good rule, after singing a new worship song, not to allow yourself another until you have sung an old one in between. If that feels too rigid, at least sing one old song for every three new ones.
Old songs bring the clean sea breeze of the centuries into our worship. They put us in conversation with believers who sang before us and help us remember what we might otherwise forget.
For these reasons and more, I’m grateful for the godly leaders featured in this issue—Drs. Jason Allen, Matt Boswell, Matthew Swain, and Samuel Parkison. Your love for Christ and His Church is evident. You spur us on to sing loudly.
I am also thankful for the gifted and faithful Midwestern Magazine team. Special thanks to Michaela Classen, Gabriel Reyes-Ordeix, and Jacob May for magnifying Christ through your work on this issue. May the Lord use it to bless many.
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The Pastor as the Lead Worshiper
12 Keys to Strengthen Worship in Your Ministry
BY JASON K. ALLEN
The pastor is a worship leader, and he should carefully consider the weight of that responsibility. Intentionality is the order of the day. You must give careful attention to planning a service that is faithful to Scripture, honoring to Christ, and edifying to God’s people.
Throughout my years of ministry, I have found that ministers are best aided through strategically structuring their church services. The foundational framework for a church service should be the regulative principle of worship, where the church’s corporate worship is based upon the specific directions of Scripture. But even those who disagree with the regulative principle can surely agree that a robust worship service is glorifying to the Lord and good for His people. Thus, consider these 12 keys to strengthen the worship service in your ministry:
1. Focus on Christ
From beginning to end, help your people focus on Christ. He is why you have gathered, and in His name you have gathered. Your attendees may not even realize how desperate they are for Jesus, but He is the only satisfier of the human soul. From start to finish, give them Jesus.
2. Saturate with Scripture
In addition to the formal reading of Scripture, look for other ways to incorporate God’s Word into the service. Meditate on Scripture, sing Scripture, and pray Scripture. Open the service with a Scriptural call to worship; conclude it with a Scriptural benediction. Speak the Scriptures clearly. It is the only inerrant word the congregation will hear all day.
3. Preach Expositionally
Solid exposition has carried along many otherwise poor services. There is just no replacing a steady diet of God’s Word. Make sure your people know what to expect when you enter the pulpit. Over time, a strong pulpit will lead to a strong church—and stronger worship.
4. Plan Worship for Those Who Can Worship
Remember that the church gathers to worship and scatters to evangelize. Paul writes in Ephesians 4 that God has given the church its leaders “for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4: 12–13). Paul’s focus here is that the leaders are meant to equip Christians while they are together so that they can scatter and do the work of the ministry. If pastors never equip their churches while they worship, when else are they going to fulfill this Scripture? While you should be attuned to guests and unbelievers who may be in attendance, design the service for God’s people to worship God and be equipped in the process. This biblical model makes the service more enriching for your members. What is more, guests can better see and behold Christ and why He is worthy of worship.
5. Sing with Musical Accompaniment, not Vice Versa
Generally speaking, modern church architecture is designed more for stage presentation than for corporate worship. Lighting, speaker systems, and acoustic panels are designed more for attendees to receive than to contribute, musically speaking. Encourage congregational singing by toning down the stage music. The worship leader’s singing and musical accompaniment should facilitate congregational singing, not drown it out.
6. Feature the Ordinances
Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are to be celebrated until our Lord returns, and they are a cause for celebration. They are not an interruption to corporate worship; they are an essential part of it. Try to avoid “tacking-on” the ordinances around the margins of the service. Work to feature them, explain why they are important, and cultivate in your people a sense of celebration when the church observes them.
7. Rein in Technology
I am not a curmudgeon on this point, but generally speaking, I believe less is more. The more you use videos and other visual and technological supports to prop up the service, the more your people will grow accustomed to—and dependent on—the same.
Do not underestimate the power of the big four: Scripture reading, prayer, congregational singing, and preaching. As we have seen, they are essential.
8. Use Strategic Silence
In general, our culture dislikes silence. We tend to appreciate noise, and we fill our lives with music, podcasts, audiobooks, and the like. We even have “noise machines” to provide background noise. The same mentality can creep into our worship service. But silence can aid reflection, create space for repentance, or elicit impromptu prayers from God’s people. Don’t underestimate the value of strategically doing nothing at certain points in the service. In fact, I would recommend you have a 30-second moment of silence every time after the Word is preached. Ask your people to reflect on the sermon and ask God to help them apply it to their lives. Even this 30-second time of reflection can help reinforce what they just heard from God’s Word.
9. Declutter and Simplify the Order of Worship
Over time, churches tend to accrue items in their worship service that have no place in it. Typically, the announcements and promotions run amuck, but I have seen all sorts of strange activities and items slip into the service. Be careful not to add too much to the service and be mindful when you do.
10. Allow Only Believers to Lead Worship
The choir is not intended to be a halfway house, and the praise team is not an outreach program. Building a relationship with those who lead will aid in determining fitness to lead. A worship leadership covenant, including writing out one’s testimony, can also aid the process.
11. Be Kid-Friendly
Some churches signal that children are not wanted in corporate worship. They herd them out like cattle and all but state that restless children are not welcome. There are a host of good reasons why parents may elect to leave a child in nursery or send them to children’s church, but sensing from the leadership that
children are not welcome in the service is not one of them. Kids can sit for hours at school and in front of the television, so most can sit for an hour through a worship service. Encourage families to do so together.
12. Evaluate Your Worship Regularly
It is easy to fall into a routine and mindlessly proceed in it. You and other church leaders should evaluate your worship services regularly. What is more, you might occasionally ask a friend or guest preacher to give you feedback on your service as well. Distractions, hindrances, or just poor practices can creep in and undermine what you are trying to accomplish in corporate worship. Be on the lookout for these things—and eliminate them.
I once frequented a restaurant that had fabulous food, but it always seemed just a bit much. The entrée, which was hard to beat on its own, always had an added sauce splattered on the top or a garnish protruding from the steak. The chef intended the additives to complement the meal, but they wound up distracting—and detracting—from it.
Sometimes we do the same thing in public worship. Our attempts to improve Christian worship may, in fact, distract from it. Often, less is actually more. There can be a beauty in simplicity. We would do well to declutter our worship services.
When it comes to the pastor as worship leader and embracing the regulative principle, I am not legalistic. I still facilitate an offering, greet visitors, and make announcements. But a broad recovery of the regulative principle’s four elements, a commitment to them, and pastoral intentionality from start to finish, might well revive our worship services. Pastor, be intentional about your corporate worship services; after all, you are the worship leader.
JASON K. ALLEN | President, Professor of Preaching and Pastoral Ministry
Why We Sing
BY MATT BOSWELL
The Christian faith is a singing faith. A singing saint brings deep joy to the heart of God. There is not a chapter and verse in Scripture that explicitly states this, but when you consider the sum of singing commands and the role singing plays at so many critical points in redemptive history, we easily come to the conclusion that our God really, really likes to hear his people sing. It brings serious joy to God’s heart to hear his people sing psalms of praise, hymns of devotion, lyrics of lament, melodies from hearts made new. Like my heart swells when I hear my children singing within our home, the heart of the Father is stirred by his sons and daughters singing to him in love and devotion.
Psalm 96:1–3 will serve as a sturdy foundation for us to build on.
1 Oh sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth!
2 Sing to the LORD, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day.
3 Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples!
An Act of Worship
The first truth we come to is that singing is an act of worship (Psalm 96:1).
For the Christian, singing is not merely singing, but is something so much more. It is an expression of worship unto God. Of course worship is more than singing, but as we lift our voices in song it is certainly not less than an act of worship. Whether we sing alone, at home with our family, or in a chapel with our church, our singing should be seen first and foremost as an offering unto God.
Our song involves a divine audience. Not once, not twice, but three times the Psalmist calls us to sing to the Lord in this opening verse. Implicit in this passage and explicit in others (Psalm 40:1) is the stunning reality that the Lord of All Creation condescends to hear our song. What a profound thought that he would receive our songs. So we worship God not only with narrative and prose, but also with music and poetry, melody and harmony, rhythm and rhyme, notes and hearts joined together.
Let’s ask a few questions of these opening two verses to help highlight some important aspects to worshiping through song.
A New Song
First, let’s explore, “What kind of song is called for?” You will notice first that it is a new song. In the same way that God’s mercies are new every morning, each day brings new reasons for praise.
This new song is a “fresh song responding to a freshly received, fresh experience.” There is something about singing new texts and tunes of praise that causes us to pay attention in a fresh way. Crisp expressions allow our hearts to experience the same unchanging truths in brand-new ways.
Each published hymnal has a beginning and an end. However, the hymnal of the church has no back cover. The reason for this is clear. New songs will continue to be written as the Lord continually gives his people reasons to sing.
At the time this psalm was written, David could not have imagined the ways that new songs would be birthed in the millennia that followed. New songs of God’s praise expanded far beyond the border of Israel to include a diversity of developing styles and genres, many multicultural and musical expressions: the talking drum of West Africa, the high-church hymn of London, the buzzing sitar of northern India, the Gaelic psalm singing of the Hebrides, and the blues guitar of Muscle Shoals. Just as God’s new mercies visit us daily, new songs should be a welcomed addition to our everexpanding hymnals.
Does this mean old hymns should be boxed up and stored in the church attic never to be hummed again? Not so fast! Old songs are also a meaningful part of Christian worship. With equal zeal to sing new songs, let us sing the old ones too. Scripture is replete with timeless songs which are meant to be sung through the ages. Church history contains a repository of riches that we should continue to sing. Historic hymns of our faith remind us that we are not the first generation who have wrestled, prayed, lamented, and praised through life. Many of us remember particular songs from our past that carried us through specific seasons of our lives. So, we continue to bring out the old songs while gladly welcoming the new.
A Congregational Song
The next question we ask of this text is, “Who is summoned to sing?” Here is where a particular choir takes the stage to lift their voices together—a congregation composed of every tribe, every tongue, and every nation. All the peoples of the earth are summoned to join in the chorus. The ancient Israelites would have understood this phrase to anticipate the day when Gentiles joined their song of praise to the Lord Almighty who is “great and greatly to be praised” (96:4), the One True God who is to be “feared above all gods” (96:4). This is a bidding for people to leave behind the worthless things they have worshiped in the past (96:5) and bring their collective worship to God alone. Though individual praise has its place, the singing called for here is not a solo performance but a congregational song.
We will return to this thought again, but for now let this pebble roll around in the shoe of your thoughts: if Scripture envisions people singing together, how well does your church sing together? When you think about the sound of your church’s music, do you first think about electric guitars and drums, keyboards and a choir, or does the sound of the whole congregation singing come to mind? Each person has been welcomed to come and sing praise to the King!
One of the results of the Reformation was that congregational singing was given back to the people of God. For too long, Christians gathered for worship as a choir of church leaders sang praise while the congregation simply watched the performance. The reformers sought to return the practice of singing to the church with songs in their own language. This allowed the people to participate once again in worship. If we are not intentional in our day about involving the whole church in singing, I fear we may retreat to having professionals lead worship under the lights while the congregation silently disappears in the dark. Let us see that the songs of Scripture are largely meant to include the whole congregation.
A Commanded Song
The final question I’d like us to ask is, “Why do Christians sing?” I realize this might seem like a silly
question at face value, but have you ever stopped and thought about it? Of course, there are untold reasons that believers sing. We sing as a practice of prayer, to express emotion, to communicate creatively, the list goes on. But the ultimate reason that Christians sing is because we are commanded to. Singing is not a divine suggestion but a holy commandment from the Almighty God. Yet, like all the words of God, this command is not a burden to bear us down but a law to lift us up. The command to sing to the Lord sends our thoughts and hearts Godward understanding that each member of Triune God is worthy to be praised.
Paired with this commandment to sing to the Lord is the admonition to bless his name. Singing for the people of God is more than just melody making and lyric reciting. Singing is an act of worship by which we bless the Lord. To bless the Lord means to praise and adore him. So, how can we summarize an answer to the question: why do we sing as Christians? We sing to the Lord as an act of worship, together with the people of God, because we are commanded to.
A Delightful Command
Christian singing is a harmony of duty and delight. It is a delightful command. God delights in our singing, and singing fuels our delight in God.
I had become a Christian some years before, but at the age of 15, the Lord gripped my heart with his grace in such a profound way that the only thing I knew to do in response was to sing. I started writing songs about who God is, what God had done, and what he was doing in my life. I had something to sing about. God’s love causes the silent heart to sing.
When we truly enjoy God our hearts are compelled
to praise him and in the act of praise our joy is made complete. C.S. Lewis drew a straight line between these themes when he wrote, “I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation.” If your heart has been remade, reformed, and recalibrated by the love of God in Christ, the deepest part of you can’t help but sing in response to what God has done.
Think carefully and you will realize that you have 10,000 reasons to lift your voice. As you consider the privilege of singing—the who, the what, and the why of it all—you understand from Scripture that congregational singing is more than an arrangement of melody and lyrics performed by a group of strangers. Congregational singing is an act of worship offered to the Living God by a group of fellow believers who have participated together in Christ.
The next time a service begins, try not to see the songs as a prelude to preaching, or think of them as a warm-up exercise before an exposition of Scripture. Treat singing seriously, like something you have been commanded to do before the Lord. Join your voice with those around you with whom you share a great salvation. Sing as an expression of worship with your heart full of this divine mixture of faith and song.
Editor’s Note: Excerpted with permission from What if I Don’t Like My Church’s Music? by Matt Boswell. Copyright by 9Marks, published by Crossway.
MATT BOSWELL | Professor of Worship Ministries, Visiting Worship Leader
THE SINGING SEMINARY
Training
Musician-Theologians for the Church
BY MATTHEW SWAIN
Prelude: A Brief History
For over a century, Southern Baptists have been committed to strengthening the Church’s corporate song. In the early 20th century, “schools of music” were established among several of the convention’s theological seminaries with the intention of training God-called men and women for church music ministry. Over time, as Southern Baptists established new seminaries, the seminaries added church music programs to their core academic offerings. Today, five of the convention’s six theological institutions offer degrees in church music and worship, with the mission of training men and women to lead music ministries in the local church.
Although the youngest of the Southern Baptist seminaries, Midwestern Seminary (and Spurgeon College) boasts an almost 50-year legacy of training musicians for leadership in the local church. During the 1980s, the seminary established its Department of Church Music under the leadership of Dr. A.L. “Pete” Butler and his wife, JoAnn. The Butlers taught students hymnology, church music history, general church music, music theory, conducting, voice, and piano. Their ministry paved the way for Midwestern Seminary’s commitment to educate church musicians well into the 21st century.
In the last decade, the seminary has experienced tremendous growth and revival under the leadership of its fifth president, Dr. Jason K. Allen. His “For the Church” vision has deeply impacted every branch of ministry preparation on campus. In 2015, the Department of Church Music was renamed the Department of Worship Ministries and, building on the foundation established by the Butlers, has since grown and fortified its effort to train musiciantheologians for lifelong ministry service.
Call to Worship: Our Mission to Support and Strengthen a Singing Church
The mission of Midwestern Seminary’s Department of Worship Ministries is to equip musician-theologians who will strengthen the worship of the local church, namely her corporate song. The church’s Sunday gathering, and the singing that takes place therein, is a priority and biblical mandate. Our worship programs, therefore, train individuals who will commit to leading their churches in this weekly endeavor with strength, confidence, and biblical integrity.
At its core, the seminary is a vibrant worshiping community. Twice-weekly chapel services include the robust singing of Christ-centered hymns and theologically rich songs alongside Scripture
reading, prayer, and expository preaching. These worship services spiritually strengthen and enrich our students, faculty, and staff. Seminarians who participate in full-throated, joy-filled singing in chapel are more likely to replicate those experiences in their local churches in culturally-sensitive and thoughtful ways. Regardless of ministry or degree emphasis, all students on campus experience this formation through chapel, shaping their understanding of worship and impacting the worshiping life of their local churches.
Many churches and church leaders struggle with knowing how to effectively encourage their congregations to sing with greater vigor and vitality. Beyond chapel, we hope to strengthen the local church and its biblical mandate to worship by providing resources, conferences, and regular interaction with local church ministry leaders. Our goal is to be an arm of support and encouragement to pastors and lay leaders serving in churches of all shapes and sizes. As the current generation of worship pastors and church musicians retires, we hope to supply their churches with capable men and women who are adequately prepared to lead out in corporate worship. By training theologically-minded, biblicallyfocused, and skilled church musicians, we aim to resource the Church with individuals who care deeply about the form and content of corporate worship and who prioritize singing truth without compromise.
Teaching: How We Equip Musician-Theologians For the Church
A call to worship ministry begins with a general call to ministry. Such a call brings a unique set of expectations and a burden of preparation. Some students sense a very specific calling to combine music leadership with a pastoral role which includes preaching and teaching. Others sense a more general call to combine music leadership with discipleship, evangelism, church planting, counseling, youth ministry, women’s
ministry, missions, or Christian education. A common misconception is that a worship ministries degree limits one’s service to music and nowhere else in the church. Nothing could be further from the truth! Our worship curriculum starts with a strong foundation that enables individual students to pursue multiple avenues of ministry, helping students understand that serving people with the gospel and training them to be disciple makers is at the heart of all ministry.
At the same time, individuals pursuing a call to worship ministry must be equipped with a comprehensive and diverse set of musical skills to fit the needs of today’s church. Such a musicianship goes deeper than performance; it is about stewardship, service, and shepherding others. We, therefore, train our students to understand the God-given language of music so that they can lead a broad range of musical styles and genres, rehearse and train vocalists and instrumentalists, and compose and arrange music to serve their churches. We train our students to focus the core of their musical efforts toward leading congregational song, teaching them the skill of healthy and effective singing from behind a piano, guitar, or microphone. We also train our students with a biblical and theological foundation to help them discern what types of congregational songs are good and fitting for a congregation. We pray that the musician-theologians who graduate from our institution walk away with tools to know the musical culture of their local churches and lead with confidence.
Response: A Call to All Ministry Leaders
“Everyone studying at Midwestern Seminary, regardless of their focus of ministry preparation, is ultimately a worship major.” This motto in the Department of Worship Ministries expresses an important sentiment for every seminarian—and ultimately for every church leader and believer. We should all care deeply about worship. God created us for worship, and the Bible is replete with examples. We therefore want everyone to see their value as a worshiper and the role they play as individuals who can strengthen the Church’s mission to worship. Although not every pastor is called to be a trained musician, all pastors ought to care about what their congregations sing and how their congregations worship. We pray that they and all ministry
leaders—from children’s ministers to youth ministers, from small group and discipleship leaders to evangelists and missionaries—will see the beauty, importance, and priority of preaching, teaching, praying, and singing the Word week in and week out.
Benediction: A Charge to the Local Church
Our task in training the next generation of church musicians is a big one, and we need the local church’s help. A biblically robust and healthy worshiping church can be strengthened by seminary graduates who have experienced the priority of corporate worship and the power of strong, unified corporate song. Furthermore, a seminary’s ability to resource the Church with capable music ministry leaders can happen easily when churches identify members who are qualified and gifted for music ministry and send them to institutions like Midwestern Seminary and Spurgeon College to be further trained and readied for Kingdom work. To start this process early, the local church should seek to provide opportunities for students and youth to serve using their musical gifts and be mentored in worship.
When this synergism takes place, in which both seminary and church partner together to strengthen one another’s mission, a “singing seminary” like Midwestern can more effectively encourage the Church to sing and worship so that the world might see and encounter the beauty of the gospel and our great Savior, Jesus.
MATTHEW
SWAIN | Associate Professor of Worship Ministries, Assistant Dean of Worship Ministries, Wayne and Berna Dean Lee Chair of Church Music and Worship Ministries
The Sufficiency of Scripture in Christian Worship
ON NOT CHASING NOVELTY
BY SAM PARKISON
The Reformation of the 16th and 17th centuries would gravitate around matters of worship. This fact is often missed, since we rightly devote so much attention to doctrinal matters like the five solas. But the Reformation was felt and fought in the domain of weekly worship. Its retrieval of biblical doctrine eventuated in a reformation of Lord’s Day liturgy, which focused on bringing the proclamation of the Word of God back to its rightful, central place in weekly worship. And with the Word elevated to center stage, every other liturgical transformation flowed as a direct consequence.
In our age, when many are burnt out on secularism, materialism, and the disenchantment of modernity, not a few “seekers” are desperate for stability, tradition, and ritual. In their book, Why Do Protestants Convert, Brad Littlejohn and Chris Castelo respond to the small but growing trend of (mostly evangelical) Protestants converting to Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. Among the top reasons for these conversions, Littlejohn and Castelo identify the longing for reverence and appropriate solemnity in sacred worship. In the estimation of some who “swim the Tiber,” evangelical worship is too shallow and irreverent. Evangelical pastors would do well to identify what truth there is in this critique. If we’re honest, the cliché that evangelical worship is glib and vacuous became a cliché for a reason.
The Christianity we are a part of did not originate yesterday, and it is right for us to make that fact explicit and even felt with our practices. On the other hand, this search for historical continuity can get out of hand fast. While the evangelical pastor would do well to retrieve a sense of continuity with the past, he finds himself in a conundrum: Which liturgical tradition is the right one, and how should we weigh the importance of any given act in the corporate worship service?
It is precisely at this point that the evangelical Protestant pastor should be liberated and unembarrassed by his own tradition: sola Scriptura is the guiding light.
Scripture and Sufficiency
While the Protestant Reformers retrieved and championed the doctrine of sola Scriptura, they most certainly did not invent it. Augustine, for example, noted how even creeds and councils could err, while Scripture cannot. Aquinas, also, arguably defends something very much like sola Scriptura in his refusal to attribute inerrancy and infallibility to anything besides Holy Scripture. This, at the very least, means that letting sola Scriptura inform our corporate worship is no deviation from Christian tradition. Such “informing” might look like adopting a principle that was demonstrated by 16th-century continental Reformers like John Calvin
and later refined and elaborated on by the English Puritans of the 17th century—the Regulative Principle of Worship. There are many ways this principle has been articulated, and even its strictest adherents (the Puritans) did not apply it in a monolithic manner. Often, this principle is cast in its negative dimension (i.e., what it forbids in Christian worship), but I want to accentuate its positive dimension, that is, Holy Scripture tells us what God expects of us in our worship.
The Regulative Principle is the idea that our corporate worship should be regulated by the Word of God. Underneath the Regulative Principle is the conviction that God has never left His people without instruction for how they ought to worship Him. The people of God have never had to guess what God wants in worship.
When it comes to the New Testament church, God’s Word commands Christians to (1) read the Scriptures publicly (1 Tim. 4:13), (2) teach/preach the Scriptures (1 Tim. 4:13; 2 Tim. 4:1–2), (3) pray (1 Tim. 2:1; Acts 2:42; 4:23–31), (4) sing (Col. 3:12–17), and (5) practice the ordinances of baptism and communion (Matt. 28:19; Acts 2:38; 1 Cor. 11:23–34). The Regulative Principle is the commitment to build the corporate worship service around—and chiefly around—those five elements. This rationale assumes that if God desired for our corporate worship to include anything else, He would have said as much in His Word. Theologically, the Regulative Principle follows directly from Christ’s lordship of His Church (He sets the agenda), and the sufficiency of Scripture (the Word of God is capable to do the work of God among the people of God; an innovative posture implies that we could improve upon what God has expressly told us to do).
The Evergreen Relevance of the Regulative Principle
So what does this mean for the local church’s weekly worship? It means we need not reinvent the wheel. This Regulative Principle, as a direct application of sola
Scriptura, is incredibly liberating. We do not have to be novel or inventive in our corporate worship. We do not have to guess what kind of activities will “resonate” or “be effective” for Christian discipleship or evangelism.
Additionally, the Regulative Principle strikes an important chord in the heart of pastoral ministry. A local church’s pastors bind the consciences of her members to practice whatever a local church does in worship. This is no small thing. When a church gathers, she gathers as a single body to worship her King. The church that includes an element in its corporate worship that is not expressed in Scripture requires something of all who are present; the conscientious member who objects cannot simply opt out on the personal level. He is there as a participant of what the church is doing. The pastors have essentially already declared, “This is our corporate expression of worship.” This is a weighty reality, so the Regulative Principle is a way of protecting not only the theological integrity of a church’s worship but also the consciences of a church’s members and pastors.
Because the Regulative Principle is just that—a principle— its application need not look uniform in every instance. Not every church who adheres to this principle will look and feel the same, though the central activities Holy Scripture prescribes in Christian worship will necessarily be there. Nevertheless, a local church must structure its worship and choose its songs and determine how it will administer its ordinances somehow. The Regulative Principle leaves plenty of room for freedom on these matters, even while naturally providing useful considerations on them. For example, since the Regulative Principle is concerned with safeguarding biblical worship, a church that adheres to the Regulative Principle should naturally be concerned with singing Scripture. This might look like singing the psalms directly or it might look like singing theologically rich songs that reflect biblical doctrine explicitly (as opposed to singing theologically ambiguous songs that could be taken to mean any number of things).
Letting the Regulative Principle inform the worship service might also look like trying to shape the worship service to reflect the gospel story—the heartbeat of the Bible—itself. In other words, in addition to speaking about the gospel, a church that adheres to the Regulative Principle might also feel compelled to lead its congregants to rehearse the gospel story. This might look like the call to worship (corresponding with the reality of God in His glorious splendor, who exists independent of creation), followed eventually by a corporate confession of sin (corresponding to the fall of man), followed by an assurance of pardon (corresponding to the grace of God in Christ to redeem us), followed eventually by a sermon (corresponding with Christ’s continual teaching ministry from on high as the church pilgrims toward our Promised Land), and at some point observing Communion (which, among other things, calls our attention to our heavenly hope and the great wedding feast of the Lamb).
Conclusion
When we look through the history of the Church, these five activities (reading Scripture, teaching Scripture, praying, singing, and observing the ordinances) stand out as constants. While the Church has occasionally— and even grievously—added to or obscured these central pillars of Christian worship, they tie together the doxological practices of the great, sprawling body of Christ. Therefore, as pastors consider how they might learn from the Church’s history in the practice of Christian worship, they ought not forget that God has given us everything we need in His inspired Word. The best and most important way to ensure that our worship is both pleasing to God and continuous with the Church’s worship down through the ages is by heeding Holy Scripture. God wants us to worship Him with reverence and awe by reading His Word, sitting under the proclamation of His Word, praying to Him according to this Word, singing back to Him the truths of His Word, and obeying and displaying His Word by celebrating
baptism and the Lord’s Supper. If these prescribed expressions of worship are reverently observed in a local church, that church thereby does well.
There are no shortcuts to Christian discipleship or silver bullets to transformation. These are the ordinary means of grace with which Christ has entrusted us. Let us accept them with gratitude.
Let us trust that our Lord will bless their exercise according to His good pleasure.
SAMUEL G. PARKISON | Professor of Theological Studies, Gulf Theological Seminary
Our Hymns, Our Heritage
How Our Stories Form the Church
Behind every song is a story—not just of melody and lyric, but of suffering, surrender, and steadfast hope. Hymns are often forged in the fires of personal loss, revival, and conviction, forming the writers who penned them. Yet their power extends beyond individual experience. Hymns take root in the memory of the Church, shaping generations of believers with their theology, devotion, and desires for Christ. In each of the hymns that follow, you'll hear stories of deep pain and deeper faith, of personal trial and enduring truth. They teach us how to worship, how to grieve, how to hope, and how to endure. Our hymns are more than music—they are our heritage. As you reflect on these stories, consider the ones that have shaped you—and may we continue to sing the gospel together as the Church.
Abide With Me
HENRY FRANCIS LYTE (1847)
Lyte, a noted hymnwriter, composed “Abide with Me” in September 1847, during the final weeks of his battle with tuberculosis. The lyrics, reflecting a plea for God’s presence through life and in its waning moments, were written just after his last sermon. He died two months later.
Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus
HELEN H. LEMMEL (1918)
Lemmel, who had become blind by adulthood, penned both the lyrics and melody of “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus” after reading “Focused,” a little gospel tract by missionary Isabella Lilias Trotter. The key line “turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face...” deeply moved her; these words echoed in her mind until she composed the hymn, which was first published in 1918 and later included in a 1922 collection.
O Love That Wilt
Not Let Me Go
GEORGE MATHESON (1882)
Matheson, a brilliant but blind Scottish minister, wrote this hymn on the evening of his sister’s wedding in Innellan while mourning his own lost engagement—his fiancée left him upon learning of his blindness. He recalled that the poem came in just five minutes and required no revisions.
I Need Thee Every Hour
ANNIE S. HAWKS (1872)
A devoted wife and mother of three in Brooklyn, N.Y., Hawks was going about her everyday routine when she was suddenly overwhelmed by the sense of Christ’s nearness. The phrase “I need Thee every hour” filled her mind, and she wrote the lyrics. She shared this with her pastor, Robert Lowry, who composed the refrain and helped publish it publicly later that same year.
He Keeps Me Singing
LUTHER B. BRIDGERS (1910)
Evangelist Luther Bridgers experienced unspeakable loss when a house fire tragically killed his wife and three young sons while they were staying with relatives. Moved by profound grief and faith, he wrote “He Keeps Me Singing.” The hymn’s message of finding peace in God and praise in suffering resonated deeply in revival circles.
A Mighty Fortress Is Our God
MARTIN LUTHER (C. 1527–29)
Luther’s hymn, originally “Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott,” was written between 1527 and 1529. While often seen as the “Battle Hymn of the Reformation,” Luther intended it more as a hymn of comfort, drawing on images from Psalm 46 to affirm God’s power and presence amid fierce spiritual and worldly challenges.
Amazing Grace
JOHN NEWTON (1779)
Penned in 1772 and published in Olney Hymns in 1779, “Amazing Grace” was written by John Newton—a former slave trader who underwent a dramatic conversion, partially during a violent storm at sea. The hymn beautifully encapsulates grace meeting sin, undergirded by Newton’s personal redemption story.
It Is Well With My Soul
HORATIO SPAFFORD (1873)
After losing his children in a tragic shipwreck (the Ville du Havre), Spafford wrote this enduring hymn during the voyage to meet his grieving wife. As the ship passed the site of the disaster, he penned the words that express profound peace rooted in Christ, despite deep sorrow. The tune was composed by Philip Bliss and named after the sunken vessel.
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MBTS What are a few key experiences at Spurgeon College that have most impacted you and equipped you to serve the Kingdom?
ADDY WIERCK My time at Spurgeon College has been impactful and growing in so many ways. One specific way happened during Welcome Week my first semester on campus, when I got to attend Meet on the Lawn. Faculty and current students were so quick to introduce themselves and get to know me. I remember thinking how thankful I was to be joining such a sweet community.
Another impactful experience was serving at the For the Church Conference on the Student Leadership team. During this intentional time for pastors and church members to be encouraged in their ministries, I learned so much about serving with joy and grit. These experiences do not even scratch the surface describing my time at Spurgeon College but are a glimpse into the blessing of living in, being known
Meet ADDY WIERCK
From Ankeny, Iowa, Addy Wierck serves as a vocalist for North Oak Collective, the chapel worship team at Midwestern Seminary and Spurgeon College. She is pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Communication at Spurgeon College and is a member of Fellowship Kansas City.
by, and serving with a Christ-centered community of believers.
MBTS How has your local church contributed to your growth and equipping for ministry at Spurgeon College?
ADDY The church I grew up in was where I learned the importance of studying God’s Word, being a part of the community of the church, and serving joyfully for the benefit of the body and glory of Christ. Opportunities to serve on the worship team and in young adult ministry gave way to experiencing the joy that comes with serving the Lord and fellow believers. These things now carry over into my time at Spurgeon College in my desire to study the Word diligently in a deep community of believers. I serve as an RA in the dorms and on the Student Leadership team, and it is a blessing to serve the campus’ mission to be for the Church and for the Kingdom.
MBTS What drew you to help lead worship in chapel through North Oak Collective?
ADDY Serving in North Oak Collective is such a joy and privilege. I was told about this position by my Academic Advisor, Beverly White, who knew about my love for leading worship in my local church. At the time, I had been accepted into Spurgeon College and would be transferring credits from community college. After meeting Dr. and Mrs. Swain and auditioning, they granted me a position on the team, and I am so thankful to the Lord for such a sweet means of serving the seminary community. After joining North Oak Collective my first year on campus, I learned from the Swains what it means to be a musician-theologian, and as I return to the team this year, I look forward to growing my view of worshiping the Lord all the more.
MBTS How has your experience of both communications and worship ministries contributed to your understanding of worship in all of life?
ADDY In studying communications and regularly leading worship, I continue to learn how the Lord can be praised in all we do, whether that be singing with His people, creating a written piece of communication used in public relations, or anything in between. In studying communications, I am seeing how I can praise the Lord for His greatness and holiness through the gift of communicating and creating things that declare His character. The same is true in singing worship unto Him.
MBTS What is one of your favorite hymns, and how has it influenced your love for Christ?
ADDY “He Will Hold Me Fast” has a special place in my heart. Not only did I use it in my North Oak Collective audition; I also have it on my lips constantly in dayto-day life. I love it because it reminds me of how unchanging and steady our God is. Life is an everflowing wave of change, but our Lord is holding us fast, which means He holds us firmly and unwaveringly. As His children, we are found securely in Him. What confidence we can have in our God to keep us in life and death!
Meet
AUSTIN BRYANT
After seven years as a worship pastor, Austin Bryant moved to Midwestern Seminary with his growing family to pursue an M.Div. through For the Church Cohorts. As a member of North Oak Collective, he helps lead worship in Midwestern Seminary’s chapel services as a pianist and vocalist. He and his wife, Deborah, have two children and are members of Mill Creek Community Church.
MBTS What drew you to pursue an M.Div. in worship ministries at Midwestern Seminary?
AUSTIN BRYANT Over seven years in worship ministry, I became increasingly convinced of my need for more education and a stronger intellectual, practical, and spiritual foundation for ministry. I was interested in pursuing seminary online because I didn’t think residential education would be feasible for my family.
In October 2023 at the Missouri Baptist Convention Annual Meeting, I heard Dr. Allen announce the Shepherds Fellowship Cohort for the upcoming fall semester, and that announcement led my wife and me to consider Midwestern.
We had heard that Midwestern was friendly to families, so we decided to bring our little girl to Spring Preview Day and put that to the test. At
Preview Day, we began to fall in love with the seminary and realize that we were being led here at just the right time for our family. The Lord provided us with a job, on-campus housing, and ministry opportunities, and I was thoroughly impressed by the academic program, the faculty, the campus, and the community. I became convinced that a residential M.Div. in Worship Ministries is what the Lord had for me during this season.
MBTS How have your experiences at Midwestern Seminary equipped you to serve the local church?
AUSTIN While at Midwestern, I have had the joy and honor of serving in the North Oak Collective, helping lead corporate worship for our chapel gatherings. Though I have experience leading corporate worship, North Oak Collective has pushed me to new heights and challenged me to develop new skills. Through Shepherds Fellowship, I have also served as an intern at a local church, where I have learned from my worship minister and collaborated with him in planning and leading worship services. These experiences have given me the opportunity to consider different ideas and perspectives on worship ministry and grow as a musician and church leader.
Shepherds Fellowship has also given me opportunities to discuss and practice various aspects of church leadership with peers and pastors. In class, I discussed matters of philosophy and best practice with other students from varied backgrounds. In my internship, I observed a healthy church, asked questions about the church’s traditions and convictions, and engaged in real ministry. I had the chance to prepare and deliver a sermon, lead a worship service, and assist in youth ministry. All these opportunities have challenged me and taught me different methods of ministry in the local church.
MBTS Why is music an important aspect of the Church’s call to glorify God?
AUSTIN Scripture puts an emphasis on music as a mode of worship throughout the Old and New Testaments. The people sang in and around the Tabernacle in the wilderness. The sons of Korah provided music in the Temple. God’s people sang His praises after every major work they saw Him do.
Music—particularly singing—is a fundamental part of how God’s people worship throughout the Bible.
Colossians 3:16 indicates that one of the purposes of singing in the church gathering is to teach and admonish fellow believers. What an amazing thing to consider! Gathered believers should be singing to and about the triune God, as well as with and to one another as they teach and correct each other through song. Their songs, then, become a unified, public declaration of truth. Setting truth to tune allows our declarations to be proclaimed in unison and unity, showing believers and unbelievers alike that the church is drawn together by something greater than anything its individual members bring to the table.
MBTS For seminary students and others pursuing theological education, what encouragement would you offer to help them view their studies as worship?
AUSTIN It is exceptionally easy, especially for students who thrive in an academic environment, to view seminary education as another task to complete or grade to earn. Colossians 3:23, however, tells the believer to “work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,” in whatever he does. If one takes this command seriously, it means that while in seminary, every book read, every paper written, every chapel service attended, and every lecture listened to can and should be acts of worship to the Lord. Study can be especially worshipful when a student considers that each piece of a seminary education is an act of preparation for ministry—for “good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them”(Eph. 2:10).
Seminary also brings experiences and relationshipbuilding that prepare students for all sorts of ministry. Worship in seminary, then, is also found in building relationships with fellow students, faculty, and staff to the glory of God and the benefit of His Kingdom. A worshipful attitude between classes, around campus, and with online class discussions helps illuminate God’s vision for the universal Church to be united around His Kingdom. A lifestyle of worship is all-encompassing and includes all of seminary life and study.
MBTS In what ways does your love for leading worship influence your pastoral ministry?
MATT BOSWELL It’s impossible for me to think about pastoral ministry apart from the influence of worship leading in my life. The two are intertwined. My aim in every song our church sings is that the truths of the gospel would ring in our hearts. My hope in every sermon I preach is that those same truths would ring through our lives. I treasure standing with our church, side by side, lifting our voices in praise. I equally love
Matt Boswell
Professor of Worship Ministries and Visiting Worship Leader
Matt Boswell joined the Midwestern Seminary and Spurgeon College faculty in 2025 as Professor of Worship Ministries and Visiting Worship Leader, training the next generation of pastors and worship leaders for the Church. He is the planter and lead pastor of The Trails Church in North Texas and a widely respected hymn writer known for songs including “His Mercy is More,” “Come Behold the Wondrous Mystery,” and “Christ Our Hope in Life and Death.” He has been involved in worship leading and songwriting for 30 years and is founder of Doxology & Theology, a ministry aimed at equipping and encouraging gospelcentered worship.
Dr. Boswell holds a master’s degree in Christian ministry, a Th.M. in Biblical Spirituality, and a Ph.D. in Christian Worship from Southern Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. He lives in Texas with his wife, Jamie, and their four children. In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his family, watching Manchester United, and drinking quality coffee—to the glory of God.
standing before my church, eye to eye, proclaiming the glory of Christ through His Word.
MBTS How can pastors, especially those who don’t serve as music leaders, be involved in leading their church’s worship?
MATT The call to oversee a church is the call to oversee its gathering. One expression of pastoral ministry involves shepherding the service from the call to worship to the benediction. Though the
pastor (or other elders) may not lead every element of the service, the pastor is still responsible for what is sung, what is said, what is prayed, and each emphasis made. One of the ways our churches can be strengthened today is by having pastors once again take up the call of this high and holy privilege.
MBTS What are some ways that the biblical spiritual disciplines help cultivate virtue?
MATT Though definitions of spiritual disciplines differ, it’s clear that Scripture calls Christians both to see God’s good gifts and to dwell on the invisible Giver (James 1:17). It’s also clear that dwelling on the unseen does not come naturally to us as we stumble toward heaven in this fallen world (2 Cor. 4:18). A “spiritual discipline,” then, is a practice of focused attention on the invisible God (1 Tim. 1:17) by strategically denying ourselves His good gifts for some time. This definition obviously fits fasting, but it also fits many other biblical practices. For example, private prayers and devotional reading of Scripture deny us earthly company and input so that we can attend to the presence of God and His written voice.
Christians throughout the centuries have talked about “virtue” as the growth and putting-right of a soul. Who we are determines what we do, just like a good tree produces good fruit (Matt. 7:18). For the believer, we are “good trees” because we have been grafted into (Rom. 11:17–18) the One hung on a tree for us (Gal. 3:13–14), and He is the Righteous One, like a fruitful and stable tree planted by streams of water (Ps. 1:3). Meditating on God’s Word (Ps. 1:2) and tending to God’s presence in prayer (Heb. 4:16) cultivate virtues by reorienting us to God’s presence, power, and promises, empowering us to live in light of what He has revealed (1 Pet. 4:11).
MBTS What advice do you have for church music leaders and songwriters to balance creativity and “singing a new song” alongside the rich heritage of Christian hymns?
MATT The hymnal of the church has no back cover. While the canon of Scripture is closed, our hymnal remains an ever-growing testimony of praise. We rightly continue to sing the historic songs of our faith, yet we
should not blush to add new expressions of worship to God. Many recent hymns are biblically faithful, theologically rich, and congregationally edifying.
The “new song” we sing is shaped by the “old song” of redemption (Exodus 15) and anticipates the song we will sing before the throne of the Lamb (Rev. 5:8–10). Through the lens of the past, and with an eye to the future, our songs find their place in the unfolding story of God.
MBTS As a professor, what values do you seek to impart to the next generation of pastors and ministry leaders?
MATT As a professor, my call to the next generation of pastors and worship leaders is that they would be committed to always reforming: continually shaping their lives, families, churches, and ministries according to the Word of God. I want the next generation of pastors and worship leaders to think carefully about what the church is, understand what the church is commanded to do, and see the church gathering as a high and holy privilege. I pray that those I teach will love the church in which the Lord has planted them, cherish the good news of the gospel, and experience deep and abiding communion with Christ.
Meet
JOHANN ACUÑA
Johann Acuña earned his Master of Divinity at Midwestern Seminary in 2020. With more than 15 years of experience leading musical worship in the local church, Acuña is the Worship Pastor at Broadmoor Baptist Church and serves as Assistant Professor of Music and Ministry at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He and his wife, Aubrey, live with their sons in Mississippi.
MBTS Tell us about how God led you into ministry and worship leadership.
JOHANN ACUÑA I grew up in a small, Spanish-speaking Baptist church outside of Houston, Texas. My older sister served as the church pianist, and my older brother played guitar for our church band. I believe that hearing them practice and watching them serve piqued my interest in music. Though I began actively serving in our worship ministry when I was about eight years old, I had no intention of pursuing vocational
ministry. Instead, like most of my peers at the time, I planned on pursuing a degree—and eventually a career—in music performance.
But that was not God’s plan for me. One night, after my youth pastor’s ordination service, a visitor to our service approached me and struck up a conversation. He took an interest in my plans after high school and encouraged me to pray about pursuing a life of vocational ministry. The thought had never crossed my mind, but God quickly confirmed this calling
through prayer and wise counsel. Thinking back to the ordination service, I am thankful that God used this singular conversation to call me to ministry and change the course of my life.
MBTS How did your studies at Midwestern Seminary equip you practically for your ministry today?
JOHANN I am incredibly thankful for the theological preparation I received at Midwestern Seminary, for it has proven to be foundational to my ministry. Not only did the M.Div. provide me with a robust and comprehensive understanding of biblical and theological concepts, but it also cultivated an increasing appreciation and affection for God’s Word.
MBTS Why is theological education important for those called to serve the church through music?
JOHANN We live in an increasingly complex and divided society whose advances in technology have enabled the creation and distribution of new music to occur at an unprecedented rate. These technological advances have also created a contemporary Christian music and worship music industry that is often driven more by profit than by biblical fidelity. Additionally, social media has created platforms for every worship ministry with an internet connection, pressuring many churches to prioritize talent and charisma over character and integrity. This often leads to questionable decisions, ministry burnout, and a seemingly endless supply of news headlines covering the moral failures of ministry leaders.
What is the remedy for this leadership crisis? The church is in desperate need of musical shepherds, servants who love God (Deut. 6:5), treasure His Word (Ps. 119:11), and equip His people (Eph. 4:11–13). We need worship leaders with a rich understanding of the Scriptures, who thoughtfully and faithfully test the lyrical content of each song, choosing only those that are biblically faithful and doctrinally sound. And we need those who have been trained to properly understand and embrace their role as servants and ministers—not artists or musicians—for the glory of God (Ps. 96:3) and the edification of His people (Col. 3:16).
MBTS What are some ways that music ministry leaders in the local church can participate in teaching and proclaiming the gospel to their congregations?
JOHANN During a sermon in October 2012, John Piper stated, “Worship is the goal and the fuel of missions: Missions exists because worship doesn’t.” In other words, you cannot worship a God that you do not know. Worship flows from a genuine understanding of, and heartfelt response to, who God is and what He has done. As worship leaders, the primary way that we can proclaim the gospel to our congregations is to choose songs with rich lyrics, songs that faithfully teach and declare the gospel rather than those that merely express our response to the gospel. This is not to say that we should not include songs that express emotion. There is a time and a place for this in corporate worship, just as there is a place for repentance, supplication, and intercession. However, we must remember that congregational worship is primarily meant to glorify God and edify His people, and this cannot occur without songs that are rich in their theology.
Additionally, music ministry leaders must remember that their role in teaching and proclaiming the gospel extends beyond music—it includes their ministry leadership, their words, and their ability to disciple those under their care. In other words, the ministry is people, not music. Successfully navigating the tension of musical responsibilities and the biblical expectation to shepherd and disciple God’s people is essential to cultivating a vibrant and biblically anchored music ministry.
The Heights Church
LOCATION:
DENVER, CO
For nine years, The Heights Church has been worshiping Christ and making disciples in Colorado’s most populous city. With a focus on following Christ in biblical doctrine, prayerful community, and ministries of mercy, The Heights pursues the Great Commission in downtown Denver under the leadership of planter and pastor Corbin Hobbs.
MBTS Tell us about the history of The Heights Church, and how the Lord called you to serve here.
CORBIN HOBBS The Heights Church was planted in late 2016 in the heart of Denver, Colorado. It began in our apartment with a vision to make disciples for the renewal of the city. We met in five or six different locations before eventually purchasing a permanent home on Colfax Avenue. Today, The Heights is made up of 600 members, with around 1,200 worshiping with us on Sundays. God has been incredibly kind.
The journey to Denver began while my wife, Allie, and I were living in Louisville, Kentucky. We moved there so I could attend Southern Seminary, simply desiring to be equipped for service in the local church. Through the discipleship of several mentors, we discerned that planting a new church in an urban center would be the best way to steward our gifts and calling for the glory of God. We moved in 2015, completed a church planting residency with The Summit Church in Denver, and launched The Heights in 2016. Again, God has been so kind.
MBTS How have you seen theological education contribute to the spiritual growth of your members?
CORBIN My theological education has been an invaluable resource in leading our church toward spiritual growth for three reasons.
First, my education produced theological depth. When making disciples in a context like downtown Denver, there is no substitute for depth. Shallow disciples of Jesus simply do not last over the long haul. The secular current is too strong.
Second, it produced biblical conviction. Seminary gave me the space to allow my convictions— especially around the authority of God’s Word—to be deeply formed and solidified.
Third, it produced pastoral stability. Theological depth and biblical conviction have given me a kind of pastoral steadiness that I’m not sure I would have otherwise developed. This is what has allowed us to stay rooted and fruitful for nearly a decade in the city.
I believe these three elements—depth, conviction, and stability—are what lead to long-term spiritual growth in both a pastor and a congregation.
MBTS As a pastor, what are some ways you seek to encourage and equip your congregation for worshiping Christ in all of life?
CORBIN The primary measure of any church is the quality of disciples it produces. In a place like Denver, if we don’t intentionally equip our people to be deep disciples of Jesus, the cultural current will
carry them away. To address this, we emphasize five core practices of a disciple and have developed five environments to help equip our people in each one.
Our Five Practices encourage our people to read their Bibles, live in community, seek God in prayer, know what they believe, and sacrifice for the mission. Our Five Environments equip them through men’s and women’s Bible studies, which teach basic hermeneutics and how to read the Bible; community groups, which help them open their Bibles and their lives to one another; prayer rooms to practice Scripture-fed, Spirit-led prayer together; The Heights Institute, a two-semester program to learn the core doctrines of the Christian faith; and Alpha and Lovewell, ministries that equip our people to share their faith and pursue mercy and justice in our city.
MBTS In what ways have you seen the Lord work in the life of your congregation through gathered worship each Sunday?
CORBIN We believe everything we do should contribute to making disciples, and the primary disciple-making environment we have is our Sunday gathering. For that reason, we strive to incorporate all five discipleship practices into each service.
We open the Scriptures together. We create space for response and encourage people to pray for one another. I seek to bring theological education into my preaching every week so that we grow in doctrinal depth as a congregation. And we finish each gathering with the benediction, “You are sent,” as a reminder that we are sent into the world to sacrifice for the mission of Jesus.
Where Your Treasure Is
How God Led Gene Downing to Give for His Glory
When Gene Downing got his first car, a choice came with it.
The younger brother of two sisters, he had seen the freedom and mobility that adolescence brings. At 16, he was eager for his turn.
“I’m not going to set rules and regulations,” his father told him at dinner one evening, after he got his car. “I don’t care what you do, I don’t care where you go, as long as you wouldn’t mind if I was standing right beside you.”
Marked as his father was by integrity, his words gave Gene a choice. With the newfound freedom of young adulthood, Gene could go where honesty, work ethic, and generosity would join him. Or he could go anywhere else.
“That stayed with me my entire life,” Gene reflected.
Freedom to Give
Gene gave his life to Christ at Vacation Bible School the summer he was 11. He often spent summer days after Vacation Bible School joining
his father at work, delivering oil and gas to farms surrounding their hometown of Liberal, Kansas. Driving under the wide prairie sky gave father and son many hours side by side, many opportunities for Gene to hear his father’s wisdom and watch his life.
“Son, the goal in life is you need to leave this world in a better place than how you found it,” his father told him. “You can’t take, take, take. You got to give, give, give.”
When Gene finished school, he spent a year in college and came back to marry his high school sweetheart, Jo. Following in his father’s footsteps, he went to work that summer in the oil business, a career that opened doors to new places.
First, he drove a cement truck for installing pipe. Then he installed refinery equipment. Eventually he landed in the wellhead industry. In 1971, he and Jo moved to Oklahoma City, but his work took him around the country. He worked on drilling rigs and prevented well fires. His experiences gave him a wealth of expertise. After 10 years in Oklahoma City, he was rising in his company, on track to become the president.
But he came to a crossroads.
Gene Downing served as a trustee at Midwestern Seminary from 2002 to 2012. His service on the board coincided with key milestones in Midwestern Seminary’s history, including the acquisition of Charles Spurgeon’s library, the construction of the Daniel Lee Chapel, and the election of President Jason Allen. In 2024, Gene and his wife, Jo, funded the establishment of an endowed chair of biblical studies, underscoring Midwestern Seminary’s commitment to train the next generation of leaders for the Church.
Troubled by a fellow company leader’s lack of investment in employees, Gene doubted they could work side by side.
“In those 10 years, I trained 50 technicians,” Gene recalled. “And every time I’d get one really trained well, my competitors would hire him away, because coming to work for us really didn’t pay very good wages.”
He decided to start his own business. Drawing from his rich experiences in the industry, he trained his employees, understood their challenges, and mentored them. Jo became the company’s vice president, managing the books while they raised three daughters.
Their family was active in church, where Gene served as a deacon. He invested his time in denominational ministry, serving with the Oklahoma Baptist Foundation. Following his father's wisdom, Gene worked to give his life away for the good of people, to make the places where he went better than how he found them.
He could not have foreseen where one of those places would be.
A High Calling
Not long after starting his business, Gene boarded a plane bound for Houston. It was a routine trip. He flew every week.
But in the sky, he began to fear this flight would be his last.
“The plane did some unusual things,” Gene remembered. “Everybody in the plane was panicking. I really thought the plane was going down, that I was going to die.”
When the flight landed, the experience threatened to keep Gene on the ground.
“I was making excuses for not going places because I didn’t want to fly,” he shared.
But in his line of work, he couldn’t avoid traveling forever. He decided to fight his fear, so he enrolled in pilot training.
“I just wanted to study aerodynamics to figure out what makes an airplane fly, so I could figure out what happened to that plane,” he said.
A young Gene Downing and his father
Passing his classroom training, he decided to continue with flight lessons. He bought his own plane to train in, and he ended up using it to return to the skies for his regular business trips.
In the sky again, Gene discovered a new place to serve others. He joined the charitable organization Angel Flight, giving his weekends for more than three decades to fly medical providers nationwide for humanitarian purposes, including in the aftermath of 9/11.
“That was kind of my hobby,” he said.
While Gene’s business freed him to invest in employees, flying gave him a path to serve people he would never meet. Soon, a new door opened for him to invest in generations of people beyond his own.
Investing in the Future
Through Gene’s service in the Baptist Foundation of Oklahoma, he developed a friendship with a trustee at Midwestern Seminary who recommended him to serve on the board. Gene began his first term in 2002, a time when the seminary was burdened by weak enrollment, campus needs, and financial constraints. Yet Gene saw the institution’s missional potential. When he became chairman of the board, he focused on leading the trustees to invest their expertise in the institution’s long-term survival.
As they did, they dreamed of adding endowed chairs to ensure that key faculty roles would exist from generation to generation. Endowing a chair marks a theological discipline, and the faculty member who teaches it, as essential to the seminary’s mission—and,
ultimately, to its investment in students and the churches they’ll serve.
While Gene was chairman, Midwestern Seminary established its first endowed chair, in partnership with the Missouri Baptist Convention, later renamed the Gary Taylor Endowed Chair of Missions and Evangelism in 2012. The same year, Jason Allen assumed the presidency of Midwestern Seminary.
During Allen’s first 10 years, the institution enjoyed record enrollment growth and campus improvements, including the establishment of six more endowed chairs. The new chairs funded faculty roles in key disciplines such as pastoral ministry, Baptist studies, Church history, worship ministries, and Old Testament.
A few years after Gene’s term on the board ended, Allen visited him and Jo in Oklahoma City. Catching up over dinner, he shared the vision for an endowed chair in biblical studies.
Listening, Gene knew the importance of such a chair to equip ministers and missionaries for years to come. He thought about his own place in life, the success God had given his business, the fruits it had borne for him to do what his father had long ago advised him.
Leave this world in a better place than how you found it.
Give, give, give.
The choice was easy.
“We jumped all over that,” Gene recalled.
In 2024, Midwestern Seminary announced, and soon filled, its ninth endowed chair: the Gene and Jo Downing Endowed Chair of Biblical Studies.
The Treasure That Remains
In 2014, Gene retired and sold his business. The thought of retirement hadn’t been on his mind long. For more than three decades, his work had taken him to numerous places where he could give for the good of others. He loved his work.
But driving under the Oklahoma sky one day, radio playing, he heard Hank Williams sing, “I’ll never get out of this world alive.”
The old lyrics, new to Gene, stuck in his mind. “That saying will preach,” he thought.
So he began the process of selling his business, careful to find a successor in whose hands he could confidently leave the employees he’d invested in, many of whom had been with him since the business began.
He passed along the song’s insight. “I tell people, since you’re not going to get out of this world alive, why don’t you spend some of that money you’ve got and do some things that make a difference.”
“The best investment you will ever make in your life is
the investment you make in another person’s life,” Gene reflected. “I have learned that as you go through life, you find out that the only thing you get to keep is what you give away. Because you can’t take it with you.”
Indeed, giving away to invest in people—in God’s mission to redeem them—is investing in the only treasure that lasts, the treasure of the Kingdom, where the Father is.
MICHAELA CLASSEN | Associate Editor, For the Church; Editorial and Email Marketing Manager, Midwestern Seminary
WHEREVER THEY'RE CALLED WE'LL PREPARE THEM FOR THE KINGDOM
Recent News
The latest news and events from Midwestern Seminary and Spurgeon College
Peter Williams Delivers Sizemore Lectures
March 4–5, 2025
Renowned Bible scholar Peter Williams delivered two lectures at Midwestern Seminary focusing on the depth and brilliance of Jesus’ storytelling, demonstrated in the story of the prodigal son.
First On-Campus Workshop from MIPP
March 27, 2025
More than 100 regional pastors and ministry leaders gathered in Kansas City for the first on-campus preaching workshop from the Midwestern Institute for Preaching and Preachers, featuring speakers Jason K. Allen, H.B. Charles, Jr., and Robert Smith Jr.
Panel on Technology & Ecclesiology
April 1, 2025
Justin Taylor and Denny Burk joined Midwestern Seminary faculty members for a panel discussion surrounding biblical wisdom for the use of artificial intelligence in ministry, the consumption of recorded sermons, and the rise of online church venues.
Spring Trustee Meeting
April 8–9, 2025
Overlapping with Great Commission Week, the Spring Trustee Meeting highlighted the institution’s ongoing growth and stewardship to equip and send out faithful ministers for the Church.
Ronni Kurtz Joins Faculty
April 16, 2025
“I am pleased to announce that Dr. Ronni Kurtz is coming back home to Midwestern Seminary,” said President Jason Allen. “Ronni is a very gifted scholar and churchman, and we are delighted that he will be coming back to his alma mater to serve on our faculty.”
New MBA Pathway Announced
April 15, 2025
Beginning in May of 2025, Midwestern Seminary and Spurgeon College students are able to complement their theological education with advanced business training through a new partnership with Cedarville University.
Spurgeon Library Conference
April 29, 2025
The fourth annual Spurgeon Library Conference featured speakers Joel Beeke, Thomas Kidd, and Geoff Chang, as they focused on Spurgeon’s gospel-centered preaching.
Spring Commencement
May 2, 2025
Nearly 300 seminary and college graduates received their degrees and heard a charge from President Jason Allen to pursue a life of faithful service to the Great Commission in the spring commencement exercises.
Spurgeon College Announces
New
Education Degrees
May 1, 2025
Starting in the fall of 2025, Spurgeon College students will have the opportunity to pursue three new pathways to a degree in Christian Education.
Korean Alumni Celebration
April 26–30, 2025
“Whether on the campus of Midwestern Seminary or in South Korea itself, the Lord is doing a work among the Korean peoples for His glory,” said President Jason Allen. “I am very thankful that we get to be a part of raising up the next generation of Korean ministers.”
Summer Faculty Books
June–July, 2025
Midwestern Seminary celebrated the release of several new book publications from faculty members, including Drs. Jason K. Allen, Joe Allen III, and Jason DeRouchie.
FTC Dallas
June 10, 2025
Nearly 1,400 participants gathered at Midwestern Seminary’s For the Church Dallas event at the SBC Annual Meeting to hear convention leaders discuss the 100-year impact of the Southern Baptist confessional statement, the Baptist Faith & Message.
Reformation Study Tour
June 22–July 3, 2025
Seminary students traveled to Europe for an intensive practicum course on the Reformation. During their time, they visited many historical sites and heard lectures from seasoned scholars in the field of Church history.
Fusion Dorm Expansion in KMC
August 22, 2025
Spurgeon College completed dorm expansion renovations to its KoehnMyers Center on campus to be able to host Fusion students preparing for overseas ministry service.
Two New Doctoral Emphases Announced
August 20, 2025
Midwestern Seminary celebrated the announcement of two new doctoral degree emphases: the Ph.D. in Church History and the D.Min. in Biblical Spirituality.
MIPP Workshops
September 2025
The Midwestern Institute for Preaching and Preachers hosted three regional workshops in the fall of 2025 on the topic “Preaching from the Gospels.” The workshops featured preachers such as H.B. Charles, Jr., Jared C. Wilson, Michael Staton, and Jason K. Allen.
FTC National September 29–30, 2025
Midwestern Seminary hosted hundreds of pastors and ministry leaders on campus for its annual For the Church National Conference. This year’s conference focused on the theme “Kingdom Come: Ministry in Light of Glory.”
The Butler Collection
The Legacy of the Singing Seminary
In the fall of 2025, Midwestern Seminary announced its acquisition of the Butler Collection, a treasury of historic songbooks, modern hymnals, and various worship resources.
Named after the beloved Southern Baptist church musicians Dr. A.L. “Pete” Butler and his wife, JoAnn, the collection highlights historic contributions the Butlers made in church music around the world, in ministry within the Southern Baptist Convention, and in training church musicians at Midwestern Seminary. Dr. Butler, the seminary’s first church music professor, is best known for composing the hymn-tune “ADA,” named after the location of First Baptist Church in Ada, Oklahoma, where he served as Minister of Music for more than two decades. When combined with Fanny Crosby’s original text, the resulting song, “Redeemed,” gained global popularity thanks to the efforts of the Billy Graham Crusades, and appeared as a hymn in the 1975 Baptist hymnal.
More than five decades later, Midwestern Seminary Professor of Worship Ministries Matt Boswell composed the hymn, “Oh, What High and Holy Privilege,” and, taking inspiration from Dr. Butler, named the tune “CELINA” after the location of the Texas church he pastors. On April 8, 2025, the new hymn was debuted during a special concert at Midwestern Seminary. The concert also celebrated the 10-year anniversary of professors Matthew Swain and Angela Swain in the Department of Worship Ministries, who have continued the Butlers’ legacy of training musician-theologians for the Church.
MEET ON THE LAWN
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MIDWESTERN WOMEN’S INSTITUTE
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Surrender to Ministry
BY JASON DEES
When I was a kid growing up in church, it was common to hear someone say, “I surrendered to ministry in 1968,” or “It was on a Sunday night that I surrendered to ministry.” You don’t hear that kind of language much anymore— the word surrender. But it’s actually an incredibly powerful idea.
It doesn’t mean ministry is so bad, so hard, so awful that you finally give in to it. Rather, it means that God has placed a burden on your heart—so deep, so unavoidable—that you can’t give your vocational life to anything else but serving His church.
That word—burden—feels a little oldfashioned too, but it’s essential for understanding a pastor’s calling and staying in the race. Every pastor, at some point, receives a burden from God, a weight that pulls him toward vocational ministry. It’s not just a decision. It’s not just an opportunity. It’s a conviction, a compulsion, a sense that nothing else would be as faithful or as obedient to what God has put in his heart.
Most pastors I know could make more money doing something else. They could work fewer hours, have less stress, and deal with fewer challenges. And yet, they stay the course. Why? Because their heart aches for the church. Because they long to see it thrive. Because they want to be part of God’s work in a deep, meaningful way.
There’s been a lot written recently about why so many are leaving pastoral ministry. And yes, it is hard. But it’s always been hard. No one steps into this work because it’s an easy, stressfree job. We step in because we have a burden. Because God has placed in us an unshakable desire to see His church strong and healthy. Because we want
to see the church reach its full potential for the glory of God.
If you want an easy job, go do something else. If you want to make money off churches without carrying their heaviest burdens, go be a church consultant or start a podcast. But brother, if God has given you a burden for His Church—if you long to see His people flourish no matter the cost— become a pastor and stay a pastor. Even when it’s hard. Even when it’s exhausting. Even when you wonder if it’s worth it. Surrender to the burden of Christ’s bride and be faithful to that calling.
And if you do, one day, in the presence of the Lord, you’ll see the fullness of her beauty. You’ll share in the joy of Jesus as He looks upon the people you had the privilege to care for, disciple, teach, and shepherd. You’ll see how God used your faithfulness—how He took your prayers, your sermons, your tears, and your struggles—and built something eternal.
Pastoral ministry is a heavy burden, but it is a beautiful burden. And I pray that God would lead many of His best to surrender to it—until we hear His words, “Well done.”
The Quiet Work of God
BY ELIZABETH RITZ
The Hidden Movement Beneath Stillness
There was a season when my spiritual life felt suspended between routine and emptiness. I read my Bible faithfully, yet the words felt flat; I prayed, but my voice seemed swallowed by silence. The rhythms of grace remained, yet the fire of transformation felt distant.
Nothing was broken, and yet it seemed as if nothing was growing.
But in time, I began to see the stillness not as absence but as preparation. Beneath the quiet surface, a hidden work was unfolding. It is the work that only God perceives, the silent shaping of the soul.
This is how God often moves: slowly, patiently, invisibly, crafting growth while our eyes are elsewhere. Until, one day, we realize we have grown.
Scriptural Patterns of Patient Formation
The Bible is filled with stories of faithful waiting and unseen growth.
Moses shepherded sheep in Midian for decades before leading God’s people. David tended flocks in obscurity long before the throne. Ruth gleaned quietly in foreign fields before redemption found her. And Jesus Himself lived thirty years in hidden obedience before stepping into public ministry.
These are not mere backstories. They are the very foundation of God’s redemptive pattern—a divine preference for depth over speed.
Charles Spurgeon captured this well when he wrote, “By perseverance the snail reached the ark.” The pace may be slow, but the promise remains sure.
Jesus said the Kingdom of God is like a seed growing silently (Mark 4:26–29), sprouting even when no one watches, blooming in God’s perfect timing. There is grace in this quiet process—growth we cannot force but only trust.
Fruitfulness Beyond Visibility
Perhaps you find yourself in such a season now. Where the disciplines of faith feel heavy. Where you
show up to prayer and Scripture, wondering if your efforts mean anything.
Know this: You are not behind. You are not forgotten. You are being formed in ways that matter most.
God calls us to faithfulness, not flashiness. Paul speaks of transformation “from one degree of glory to another” (2 Cor. 3:18)—a steady, sacred progression.
Robert Murray M’Cheyne reminds us, “It is not great talents God blesses so much as great likeness to Jesus.” Often, this likeness is sewn in the quiet moments unseen by others.
Growth in Christ is rarely glamorous, but it is always good.
The Long View of Grace
The patient work of God in the hidden places points to a greater purpose: His glory and our good. Every quiet season, every moment of waiting, contributes to a story far larger than our immediate circumstances.
As Philippians 1:6 assures, “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion.” The unseen shaping of character and faith is a testament to God’s steadfast love and power.
This truth invites us to trust not in fleeting feelings or rapid results, but in the eternal promises of the One who holds time and growth in His hands. The slow, steady work of grace is God’s faithful artistry, creating beauty for His glory and our deepest flourishing.
When You Can’t Listen to the Sermon
BY BLAKE LONG
Attending church on Wednesday evenings is difficult for my family. Not because we don’t want to be there, but because we are busy. Busy with the day, with dance class, with dinner. And so we’ve let Wednesday night Bible study go by the wayside far too many times because of busyness.
Recently, however, we were determined to be there. And it was a blessing—but I found myself not able to listen to some of the lesson (and my wife, Shale, wasn’t really able to listen at all) because of the kids. Now, kids are kids. They were restless. When we weren’t having to quiet them down, Shale was having to take our youngest to the bathroom, or something else.
When that happens, what’s the point of even showing up? What purpose is there in going to church when you aren’t able to listen to the sermon or lesson? Why even bother?
Your Presence Is a Blessing
There have been moments when I am sitting in the pew before service begins and notice a family whom I haven’t seen in a while walking through the doors. Their mere presence is a blessing to see, because it shows they prioritize coming to church.
The same applies to you. Simply showing up to church or a mid-week Bible study is going to bless others in attendance. They will be encouraged by seeing you show up even amid busyness, exhaustion, and frustration.
Focus on Fellowship
Even if you can’t focus on the sermon because of factors like caring for your kids, you can focus on fellowship before and after. Our children are generally good during Bible study, but every now and then they hinder us from truly getting much from the lesson. Therefore, we make the effort to stay for a little bit after the service to mingle with others (even if it means a later bedtime for everyone involved). We’re not perfect at this, but there’s deep value in simply talking with other Christians after service. Catch up with the person you haven’t spoken with in a while. Check in on the person you’re discipling. Invite someone over for dinner. Share your heart with someone.
Set an Example
If you have kids, they will notice what takes priority in your family’s life. Though you can’t get through
the sermon or Bible study without taking care of them, they will see the example you’re setting and follow it in the future. It’s the little things here and there that children will notice and that will make an impact later in their lives.
Obey the Lord
Perhaps this is an obvious one, but it bears mentioning. We should still go to church even if we can’t listen to the sermon, because we must obey the Lord. It can be discouraging to attend service and not be able to listen because of various factors, certainly including your kids. This might cause you to feel like just not going. I’ve been there. But we can’t allow that feeling to become the norm; we can’t let that take hold in our hearts. Even if it’s hard, we must still go.
Bits and Pieces Matter
As distracted as we can be at times during a service, there will always be moments—even small ones— where we hear the preaching of God’s Word or perhaps are blessed by a particular song lyric during worship. God can take the tiniest information and use it to sanctify you. Don’t lose heart.
Encourage Your Pastor(s)
Your pastors will appreciate you showing up. They will be encouraged by your faithfulness to attend service even when you are too distracted with caring for your kids to listen. You’re there, and that means the world to your pastor. We need to remember ways to intentionally encourage our pastors—the ones keeping watch over our souls (Heb. 13:17)— and this is one of them.
If it seems like a waste of time to venture out to church when you are certain that distractions will hinder you from listening, don’t let that stop you. Satan wants nothing more than for you not to attend service. We have to make the point to go to church even when it’s hard, even if it feels like we’re getting nothing out of it. God is working amidst that.
Next to the Word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world.
