Worship Matters

Director of Music Ministries, Dr. Diana Sanchez Bushong, and Director of Worship Arts, Dr. Lisa Hancock, invite Dr. Marcell Silva Steuernagel, Assistant Professor of Church Music and Director of the Master of Sacred Music and Doctor of Pastoral Music program at Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University, to discuss performance and worship music. Dr. Steurenagel served as Minister...

Does music proclaim even without words? That’s the question that the worship team raised in conversation with the Rev. Joe Stobaugh, Senior Pastor of University Park United Methodist Church in Dallas, Texas. Rev. Stobaugh previously served as Pastor of Modern Worship at Grace Avenue UMC in Frisco, Texas, and as Executive Minister of Worship and Arts. He is also an ordained deacon in the North Texa...

Rev. Dr. Natalya A. Cherry, assistant professor in Methodist studies and theology at Brite Divinity School and elder in the Susquehanna Annual Conference, talks with Dr. Lisa Hancock, director of worship arts for Discipleship Ministries, about her recent book "Believing Into Christ: Relational Faith and Human Flourishing." Join us for this thoughtful conversation about how one footnote led Cherry...

Connye and Kevin are local musicians who have produced a “Jazz Vespers Experience” that they call “On the Rise” and have begun to take it to churches and community groups as a way of beginning conversations about crossing the divides that separate us. Connye is a North Carolina native and an award-winning vocalist, actor, published songwriter and teaching artist. She has toured on and off Broadway...

Worship Team Executive Director Dr. Diana Sanchez-Bushong speaks with Camisha Chambers, the executive director of The Fellowship of Worship Artists (formerly The Fellowship of United Methodists in Music and Worship Arts); Trenton Teegarden, the chair of the convocation committee for the national event in Dallas; and Michael Doughtery, the chair of Music and Liturgical Arts week held annually in Ju...

Dr. Jake Myers, the Wade P. Huie, Jr. Associate Professor of Homiletics at Columbia Theological Seminary, talks with Dr. Derek Weber, Director of Preaching Ministries for Discipleship Ministries, about his most recent book, Stand-Up Preaching: Homiletical Insights from Contemporary Comedians. Jake is also the author of Making Love with Scripture: Why the Bible Doesn’t Mean How You Think It Means;...

Join the Discipleship Ministries Worship Team for a conversation about the upcoming service of lament and subsequent webinars helping the church navigate the emotions and experiences of this time of disaffiliation within The United Methodist Church. The Out of the Ashes service is shaped around Psalm 77 and the expression of lament and then the grounding of hope. This service will be broadcast on...

Dr. Marcia McFee is the creator and visionary of Worship Design Studio, author of The Worship Workshop, Spiritual Adventures in the Snow: Skiing and Snowboarding as Renewal for Your Soul, and Think Like a Filmmaker: Sensory-Rich Worship for Unforgettable Messages. Connecting worship professionals and volunteers to their passion and depth of spiritual leadership is Dr. McFee’s aim in teaching and c...

Join the Discipleship Ministries Worship Team as we walk through three upcoming lectionary worship series for the upcoming high holy season. We begin with “In Awe of Grace,” a worship series that begins on Palm Sunday, then includes Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter. We share the thought behind grouping the special days in this way and some suggestions on how you might use th...

Dr. Joseph Bush is professor emeritus at Wesley Theological Seminary and is now serving as a United Methodist minister in Evergreen. He has taught congregational ministry in theological programs around the world, including Fiji and New Zealand, as well as New Jersey and Minnesota. The worship team explores with Dr. Bush how themes of creation are already present in both our scriptures and the litu...

Our lectionary worship series for Lent 2023 is titled “Learning to Live Inside Out.” In this episode of Worship Matters, the worship team discusses what is behind the thrust of this series and how local churches can shape these resources to fit their context in a dynamic way. Lent has always been considered an important time in the worship and discipleship life of a community of faith, but it can...

The Worship Team discusses the new project that came from a Lilly Grant to explore and enhance preaching in the local church. Dr. Derek Weber, in addition to the Director of Preaching Ministries for Discipleship Ministries, is the project director the Compelling Preaching Initiative. In this episode, he shares with the team the intent to create resources and foster relationships to encourage and h...

A Conversation with Rev. Dr. Marcelo Gomes Dr. Marcelo Gomes is an Ordained Elder in the New England Conference of The United Methodist Church and is Director of Training and Church Planting Systems for Path 1 with Discipleship Ministries. A native of Brazil, he served the Methodist Church of Brazil for 12 years. He was also a university professor and president of one of the public colleges in Rio...

The worship team of Discipleship Ministries looks back on 2022 and looks ahead to 2023 in this wide-ranging conversation about resources and possibilities and directions. Join us to meet new members of the team and some new initiatives and priorities that we will be working on for the new year. It continues to be a joy to serve The United Methodist Church and beyond as we seek to provide inspirati...

Katie Schoenhoff is director of programs for the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund in Hutchinson, Kansas. Among other things, she is responsible for the early childhood development portfolio, which includes social emotional health, breastfeeding support efforts, and the Community Health Worker project for the organization. She also leads the Healthy Congregations Initiative, a Health Fund prog...

Rev. John Thornburg is director of research at the Texas Methodist Foundation, where his recent work in encouraging congregations centers in five practices: grieving well, discerning purpose, walking alongside neighbor, de-centering power, and expanding imagination. He's retiring next week after ten years at TMF, and 43 years in ministry settings both in the United States and West Africa. Whether...

On this episode of Worship Matters, Lisa Hancock, Director of Worship Arts, talks with Rev. Katie Newsome, Lead Pastor and Executive Director of Union Coffee, a missional congregation, non-profit, and business all wrapped up into one generous coffee shop in Dallas, Texas. Listen as they talk about how Union Coffee’s worshiping community Kuneo got started, how Kuneo looks similar to and different f...

Kevin McBeth, Director of Music at Manchester United Methodist Church in suburban St. Louis joins the worship team for this episode as we discuss worship planning for multiple types of worship expression. We discuss the terms “modern” and “traditional” as applied to various services of worship, as well as where liturgy and music can help connect across multiple worship times. We reflect on churche...

In this episode of Worship Matters, the worship team discusses the worship series created for Year A and posted on our website: “An Advent Song of Ascents” for the four weeks of Advent, and “God of the Dark and the Light” for Christmas and special services of the season. Both series cover a range of human experiences and invite us into the unique celebration of the incarnation. Listen in as the te...

On this episode of the Worship Matters podcast, we’re joined by Dr. Scott Hughes, the new Associate General Secretary (World Service) at Discipleship Ministries. Scott is a United Methodist elder in the North Georgia Conference, but has served (and continues to serve while seeking a replacement) as Director of Adult Discipleship with Discipleship Ministries. Scott has co-hosted the Small Groups in...

A Conversation with Dr. William P. Brown Bill Brown is the William Marcellus McPheeters Professor of Old Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia. His writings explore the intersecting issues of ecology, justice, faith, and science from various biblical perspectives. He is the author of numerous essays and several books, including Wisdom’s Wonder, The Seven Pillars of Creatio...

Dr. Lisa Hancock is the newly hired Director of Worship Arts at Discipleship Ministries. Lisa is a lifelong United Methodist whose passion for worship and the arts began when she joined children’s choir at 3 years old, eventually leading to undergraduate and graduate degrees in sacred music. While completing her Master of Sacred Music at Perkins School of Theology, Lisa discerned a call to develop...

A Conversation with Rev. Sara Nelson, Senior Pastor of First United Methodist Church, Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Have you ever considered a ministry coach? Perhaps you’ve received an email or read a social media post inviting you to consider working with a coach for your preaching or leadership or even a life coach of some sort. Many annual conferences in our United Methodist Church are training a...

On this episode of Worship Matters, we’re joined by Dr. David Lose, Senior Pastor of Mount Olivet Lutheran Church in Minneapolis. Lose is the former President of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia and previously held the Marbury E Anderson Chair in Biblical Preaching at Luther Seminary, where he also served as director of the Center for Biblical Preaching. His 2013 book, “Preaching...

In this episode of Worship Matters, Diana Sanchez Bushong, Executive Director of Worship Ministries, talks with Dr. Raquel Martinez, retired church musician in the Rio Grande (now Rio Texas) Conference for over 40 years, and editor of Spanish Language Hymnal “Mille Voces” in 1996; and Bishop Joel Martinez, retired from the episcopacy in 2008. He co-authored "Fiesta Cristiana" in 2003 with his wife...