Key points:
- About 150 lay and clergy attendees came from across the country for an academy in worship arts and opportunities for onsite coaching and networking.
- The Junius B. Dotson Institute for Worship and Music in the Black Church and Beyond and Strengthening the Black Church for the 21st Century collaborated on the event, which featured 19 plenary and workshop sessions.
- While most of the offerings focused on enhancing spiritual worship, some emphasized learning to create transformative outreach ministries.
A United Methodist conference served up a cornucopia of creative instruction and inspiration to help leaders of predominantly Black congregations seeking to elevate worship and ministry in and beyond their churches.
The Junius B. Dotson Institute for Worship and Music in the Black Church and Beyond collaborated with the denomination’s Strengthening the Black Church for the 21st Century to convene Shifting the Atmosphere April 29-May 2 at Hamilton Park United Methodist Church in Dallas.
About 150 lay and clergy attendees — most but not all African American — came from across the country for an academy in worship arts, featuring plenary and workshop sessions and opportunities for onsite coaching and networking.
This third iteration of the institute followed one in 2025 at Holman United Methodist Church in Los Angeles, which preceded the 2025 annual caucus meeting of Black Methodists for Church Renewal, and the inaugural institute held at churches in Atlanta in 2022.
A partnership between United Methodist Discipleship Ministries and Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois, the institute is named in honor of the Rev. Junius B. Dotson, who led Discipleship Ministries from 2016 until his death in 2021. The evangelism and church revitalization agency granted $500,000 to help start the institute in 2022, and the Rev. Cynthia Wilson became its founder and executive director.
Wilson, a renowned vocalist and choral music conductor with a doctorate in Worship and Liturgy, previously directed development of worship resources at Discipleship Ministries and taught sacred music at Garrett-Evangelical. Her strong ministry credentials and relationships across and beyond the church help to inspire loyal support for the institute’s vision and efforts.
“I’m trying to find partners because our vision is really for that individual who has answered a call to ministry and is committed to the revitalization of the church and its mission and witness in worship, but who would not be able to attend seminary,” she said in an interview. “Yet, they know they need to hone their skills. Many of these people are not professional musicians, but they’re called to be worship leaders where they are. So how do we establish for them a solid understanding and foundation for biblical and theological leadership?”
The institute’s partner for this event, SBC21, was created by the 1996 General Conference and became a major program initiative and one of the denomination’s five national Racial Ethnic Plans in 2020. Administered by Discipleship Ministries, it trains and equips Black clergy and laity for effective leadership and ministry in their congregations and communities.
The Rev. Michael Bowie, a former pastor, church coach and consultant, has led the agency since 2020 and is co-author of the book “Dare to Shift: Challenging Leaders to a New Way of Thinking.” This is SBC21’s first training focused on fundamentals and new approaches to worship in Black churches.
“In equipping church leadership, music and preaching are key and must go hand in hand, working in concert with one another,” Bowie said in an interview. “We need to shift from the decline in worship many churches suffered from the COVID pandemic and even before, and find new ways to do worship better.”
He mentioned a T-shirt he saw recently with the admonition, “Normal isn’t coming back; but Jesus is.”
Thus, he wants his agency to help launch “mini-institute” trainings in more diverse settings —urban, suburban and rural — while embracing variations in Black worship, including traditional and contemporary styles of music and preaching.
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“I believe right now, leaders should look at what generations and cultures are in their churches and communities and realize that while you can’t be all things to all people, you still may be able to create a multigenerational and multicultural movement where you are through creativity and collaboration.”
Collaboration was a primary theme throughout the event’s curriculum of 19 plenary and workshop sessions. Titles included: Relationship Building for Pastors and Lay Leadership; Intergenerational Worship Planning; and Better Together: Pastors and Musicians Strengthening Conversations, Communication, Community.”
Much wisdom was shared in highly interactive sessions, which included some non-United Methodist leaders and participants. Information-sharing and free-flowing questions and answers explored: how to hire and manage hard-to-find church musicians committed to ministry; how to organize, teach and direct choirs of various age groups and abilities; and how pastors and laity can work together effectively to create a viable music program or a visionary community outreach project.
Gregory Wright, Minister of Music at Woodlawn Faith United Methodist Church in Alexandria, Virginia, was elated to network and learn tips from other music directors and musicians — including how to manage choir members without being overly demanding of their commitment.
“I’ve been wondering if I need to step back and not be so judgmental or hard on them,” he said. Wright oversees four adult and youth choirs, and he recently organized a 150-voice men’s choir for the National United Church Ushers Association of America.
Two sessions taught teams how to align church leaders’ vision and values in planning worship and other congregational and community ministries. Other sessions focused on:
- Praise team, choir and congregational singing;
- Liturgical movement and dance;
- Using multimedia tools and visual storytelling in worship;
- Singing global and cross-cultural church music;
- Foundations for trauma-informed worship and music;
- Worship practices that “move the needle” to spur congregational vitality; and
- Reclaiming the “why” of a church’s commitment to mission.
Two more sessions concentrated on engaging children and youth in music and ministry. Another popular workshop explored ethical uses and benefits of artificial intelligence for ministry in Black churches.
While most of the institute’s offerings focused on enhancing spiritual worship, some emphasized learning to create transformative outreach ministries in an ever-changing and more challenging society.
Yet, oddly perhaps, there were no sermons preached throughout the three days. In fact, the opening plenary session was titled Prophetic Preaching for the 21st Century, but the main presenter spoke about reaching people more through deeds than words.
The Rev. Rudy Rasmus, retired copastor of the prominent St. John’s Downtown United Methodist Church in Houston, said that in his 31 years there he typically only preached once a month. He spent more of his time moving about to touch people’s lives directly by extending compassion, support and encouragement.
“Most people will never hear your sermon, but they’ll be looking for it,” he said, noting the visible footprint of the church’s expansive outreach ministries that provide food, funds, housing, health care, education, employment opportunities and other necessities to thousands of its economically disadvantaged neighbors.
In addition to the likely economic recession that has worsened poverty and hunger in his city and elsewhere, he also spoke of a “friendship recession.” Sociologists report an “epidemic of loneliness,” he said, that is shredding the social fabric of communities and challenging churches to respond in the spirit of Jesus Christ’s teaching in Matthew 25:35-40.
Joining Rasmus on stage in a keynote chat, Bowie commended him as a “pulpiteer of the streets.” But shifting the discussion back to their topic’s emphasis on proclamation, he called on pastors to shift the spiritual climate of discouragement in many of their churches and communities through vibrant, life- and faith-affirming preaching, teaching and worship.
“Things can shift when prophetic preaching confronts darkness and dryness by speaking the truth to help dead things come back to life,” he exhorted. “But they don’t shift accidentally. They shift with the Holy Spirit’s power in our voice, because death and life are in the power of our tongues.”
The conference offered two inspiring praise and worship services in Hamilton Park’s sizable sanctuary. Wilson led a choir comprising her associates, proteges and former students in a moving revival service on the first evening, with music, prayer and an altar call.
An emotional tribute to Dotson featured some of his Discipleship Ministries colleagues, including top executive the Rev. Jeffrey Campbell, plus a video message from Bishop Ruben Saenz Jr., newly elected president of the United Methodist Council of Bishops.
The institute climaxed on the final night with a stirring instrumental and vocal performance of Robert Ray’s historic “Gospel Mass,” led by Wilson with other singers and musicians. Ray’s groundbreaking 1978 composition and concert fused classical Western music with African American gospel traditions, creating a unique worship experience for the Roman Catholic Church.
Coleman is a longtime United Methodist Church communicator and a part-time licensed local pastor.
News media contact: Julie Dwyer, news editor, [email protected]. To read more United Methodist news, subscribe to the free UM News Digest.
