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BCMC JOURNAL 2005
Report of the
Educational Division Meeting
By Buford Cox
Addressing the
diversity both among and within churches—helping
students understand that their education is
relevant—recruiting church musicians—leading students in
character formation—responding to the "performance" mode
most churches embrace—These are some of the challenges
presented by our Southern Baptist college and seminary
faculty at the Education Division session of the Baptist
Church Music Conference.
The 22 people
attending the session discussed the need for more
students. "Are people responding to the call of God to
church music?" one participant asked. All institutions
are competing to recruit good students, and much time
and money is devoted to this effort. The tension in
churches and in our denomination was cited as a possible
barrier to students entering the church music ministry.
Another possible deterrent is the move away from an
educational model of church music to a performance model
in the churches. Many churches simply work toward
performance, choosing music that will win instant
approval rather than that which has educational value.
The question about
the challenges faced in the college and seminary
classroom was raised in order to determine if there are
ways the SBCMC can address these issues among educators,
thus involving more of our colleagues in the conference.
As THE professional organization for the Southern
Baptist church musician, we educators need to stress the
importance of such an organization to our students. What
better way is there to do so than by our own
participation?
Perhaps the SBCMC
has taken the route of the church in moving to more
performance sessions and fewer instructional sessions.
The inclusion of more educational content was cited as a
possible strategy for attracting more educators to the
conference. The presentation of prepared papers and a
panel of ministers of music during the Education
Division meeting were suggested. Noting the lack of time
for the division meetings, the group suggested a
breakout session just for educators in addition to the
division meeting.
This year's
conference was full of inspiring moments. No one
discounts the value of the inspiration for attending the
SBCMC; however, we want to make the conference what YOU
want. All of the ideas gleaned from the Education
Division meeting will be considered carefully, and your
representatives and I will work to make next year's
conference such that many more educators will attend. I
certainly welcome other suggestions and comments
throughout the year and look forward to seeing many more
of you in New Orleans June 4-6.
Buford Cox
is the Baptist Church Music Conference
Educational Division Vice-President at the time of this
writing; he is on the faculty of Baptist College of
Florida in Graceville, Florida.
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