Purpose

The purpose of the Center for Music and Worship (CFMW) is to equip and train highly skilled musicians to serve as worship practitioners and commercial musicians in the evangelical community. This is accomplished through curricula development, local church ministry, partnerships with the publishing and recording industry, artist development and empirical research.

Today’s local churches need both music ministers and worship leaders to take charge of a multi-faceted, changing ministry. These ministries no longer require personnel exclusively equipped as musicians. Rather, they require professionals who have broad experience in worship teaching, worship training, team management and discipleship, worship evangelism, principles of marketing technology, drama and music.

Pastors seek to meet the challenge of ministry to increasingly more diverse congregations with theological integrity practical to broad ranging needs. They look for worship leaders who capture their vision and seize the opportunity to minister worship with excellence and creativity. Liberty University’s Center for Worship seeks to equip students for these multi-faced career opportunities.

IAACT and CAF Membership

The Center for Music and Worship holds membership with the International Association of Artists in Christian Testimony (IAACT), a missions-sending agency based in Brentwood, Tennessee. This agency endorses young artists, music ministries, worship leaders, and support personnel for local, regional, and international artistic service. Key to their mission is partnerships with worship institutions and evangelical organizations committed to training worship personnel for full time church related ministry.

In the spring of 2006, Liberty University’s Center for Music and Worship was granted approval to host a student chapter of Christian Artist Fellowship (CAF). This is a national organization that encourages training, mentoring, advancement, internship opportunity, career placement, over-seas mission opportunity, fund raising tax shelter, and research related to individual musicians, groups and artists.

Department of Applied Music Studies

The Department of Applied Music Studies serves the Center for Music and Worship by providing training and supervision of the performance and applied music studies in the Bachelor of Music in Commercial Music, Bachelor of Music in Music and World Cultures, the Bachelor of Music in Worship Leadership and the Bachelor of Science in Music and Worship. Faculties serving in this department touch and influence the lives of every student participating in some type of undergraduate major in the Center for Music and Worship.

Department of Commercial Music

The purpose of the Department of Commercial Music is to serve the Center by facilitating the training and equipping of  commercial music practitioners for the Evangelical Community. Commercial music programs have grown in influence and popularity over the past four decades. More and more, local church ministries are developing “in-house” recording, publishing, songwriting and film score divisions. They are expressing need for personnel skilled and equipped to manage these highly visible and influential initiatives.

Liberty University School of Music has answered this call by designing five programs of study that will have immediate appeal to the student seeking employment in the evangelical community as Christian artists, songwriters, recording engineers, music producers, publishers, performers of jazz or film industry practitioners. Liberty University adds Biblically-centered worldview instruction to this growing discipline preparation. We believe scores of qualified musicians will graduate from these programs of study fully equipped as performers, songwriters, film composers and/or creators of commercial music for the Evangelical Community.

Department of Music and Worship Studies

The purpose of the Department of Music and Worship Studies is to serve the Center as an academic training agency solely committed to the mission of equipping worship leaders and church practitioners for ministry in the various evangelical traditions. The Department of Music and Worship Studies is a division of the Liberty University Center for Music and Worship and is committed to meeting academic requirements critical to successful examination, communication and implementation of practitioner-oriented curriculum the growing worship disciplines.

The Department of Music and Worship Studies strategically, and more specifically, provides opportunity for students to obtain job familiarity and proficiency through meaningful and professional, practitioner experiences. Each major, no matter the emphasis, is required praxis, practicum, and internship training. The end goal is to “equip the student” so that upon graduation employee/job tasks may be immediately performed with skill and professional ability. Much of this training is accomplished through comprehensive instruction in historical and contemporary music practices, principles of leadership and creative worship design, study and recognition of the critical roles of the worship leader in 21st century culture, and contextualization of worship practice – all undergirded by the foundational truths of Scripture.

The Department of Music and Worship Studies faculty is committed to offer each student occasion to study with godly, highly-skilled instructors, receiving a broad-based musical and theological education that enables students to function successfully as worship practitioners in the diverse and ever-changing field of evangelical worship ministry.

Department of Multi-Ethnic Music Studies

The purpose of the Department of Multi-Ethnic Music Studies is to uniquely equip students to work in a diverse global, ethnic and multi-cultural society by using the medium of music as a tool for communicating the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Department of Multi-Ethnic Music Studies supervises undergraduate degrees in world music. This study incorporates Music and World Cultures into the total music discipline and provides Liberty University music students opportunity to engage in the music of various cultures through: field experiences; ethnic ensembles; studies in ethnomusicology; and, the discovery of regional music practices around the globe. The various programs in the department fit well with the institution’s emphasis on intercultural studies and its stated aim to “contribute to a knowledge and understanding of other cultures.”

B.M. in Commercial Music Degree:

• Film Score Composer/Arranger
• Songwriter
• Studio/Live Event Producer
• Professional Christian Music Artists
• Jazz Studies Specialist
• Recording Engineer
• Publisher

B.M. in Worship Leadership

• Worship Leader
• Worship Pastor

B.S. in Music and Worship Degree-Concentrations:

Cinematic Arts

• Short Film for Worship
• Visual Arts Ministry

Pastoral Leadership

• Lead Pastor
• Worship Pastor
• Worship and Preaching
• Associate Pastor of Worship

Worship Technology

• Director of Audio Ministry
• IMAG for Worship
• Computer Technology in WRSP
• Radio & TV Director in Worship

B.S. in Music and Worship Degree-Cognates:

Biblical Studies

• Worship Theology Instructor
• Worship Conference Speaker

Business

• Worship Administrator
• Worship Administration Assist.

Theater

• Directors of Worship Arts
• Worship & Theater Ministry

Women’s Ministry

• Women’s Conference
• Worship Leader
• Worship Leader for local church Women’s Ministry

Youth Ministry

• Student Worship Director in a variety of cultural or ministry settings

B.M. Music in World Culture Degree:

• Ethnomusicologist
• Worship consultant on mission field

B.S. Music in World Culture Degree:

• Cross Cultural Worship Leader/Trainer/Facilitator
• World Arts/Cultural Exchange Facilitator
• Music Researcher/Journalist
• Festival Organizer for Local Arts
• Pursue further training in MA or Ph.D. as Ethnomusicologist
• Preservation and Oral History
• Music Teacher/ Elementary Teacher in Global Context
• Missionary (specializing in arts contextualization)
• Performer or Recording Artist
• Vernacular Media Specialist
• Pursue culminating degree for University Teaching