Summary

How does music express and form a congregation’s identity? How can that identity be defined and shaped by the relationships it seeks to nurture and the mission it seeks to promote?

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Details

What if we approached music not just from the point of view of the music we may like, or the music that most quickly fills the seats in church, but rather the music that nurtures the healthiest congregations over time? Learn from 3 worship musicians as they discuss these questions.

Recent Media Resources

Psalm Singing and the Genevan Psalter

Why and how did psalm singing become such a hallmark of Reformed worship? Join Dr. Karin Maag for a fascinating journey through time, from Reformation Geneva to Scotland and from the Netherlands to New England, exploring the roots and impact of metrical psalm singing. Along the way, we will hear the voices of early modern Christians as they learned how to sing the psalms, both in unison and in harmony.

December 4, 2025 | 38 min video
Vinroy D. Brown Jr. on Black Psalmody is for Everyone

Vinroy D. Brown Jr.—conductor, musicologist, educator, and minister of creative worship and music at the historic Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City—explores the vibrant intersection of Black sacred music and the psalms. He talks about Black composers and how they have reimagined the psalms through choral music, spirituals, and the gospel tradition for the benefit of everyone.

December 2, 2025 | 34 min listen
John Goldingay on the Psalms as Full of Theology and Straight Talking

John Goldingay, an Anglican priest and the senior professor of Old Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary, posits the psalms are the densest material in the entire Old Testament. They expound the nature of God as the compassionate, faithful, and committed one, but also as the one who makes demands upon us. The psalms help us talk to God, even about difficult things—and when we do, we are talking to someone who is in a position to do something about it.

December 2, 2025 | 29 min listen