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For the last few weeks, we’ve been talking about musical virtuosity. This week’s guest is Dr. Birgitta Johnson, Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology and African American Studies at the University of South Carolina, and the President of the Southeast and Caribbean Chapter of the Society for Ethnomusicology.
In this episode, Birgitta discusses being anointed for music ministry. In the African American churches that she’s studied as an ethnomusicologist, musical skill is important but not the be-all-end-all. Musicians should also be called to ministry.
Here’s the heart of what Birgitta is seeing between virtuosity and being anointed for music ministry:
“You have some people who don’t know anything about Jesus and who can play really, really well. If you give them enough tracks, or enough recordings, or enough guides—they can play it just like the most anointed musician on the pew. And so, when you start talking about how we identify what is anointing, often I’ve seen, it really comes down to the larger relationships that happen in music ministry.”
Musicians often spend the most time together of any group in the church. And people leading music ministry often spend more face-time with lay people than other ministers can. So, Birgitta says, the relationships that a minister of music has with other musicians in the church “reveal where the person’s heart is for ministry.”
You can find Dr. Birgitta Johnson on Facebook, Twitter, and at her University of South Carolina faculty page.
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Other episodes in our virtuosity series:
- Ep. 18: Virtuosity, Amateurism, and Amateurishness in Evangelical Worship Music, with Joshua Busman
- Ep. 19: Showing Off or Glorifying God? Musical Virtuosity in Fundamentalist Christianity, with Sarah Bereza
- Ep. 20: What IS Virtuosity? Musical Skill and Guitarist Tony Melendez, with David VanderHamm
Resources Mentioned in This Episode
- Worship as a Lifestyle by Judith Christie McAllister
- No Gimmicks: Relevancy, Commitment, and Excellence in Worship Ministry by Leo Davis
- The Seed of David: A Worshipper’s Guide to Mend the Heart and Discipline the Flesh by Stephen Hurd
- The Spirit of Praise: Music and Worship in Global Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity, edited by Monique M. Ingalls and Amos Yong. This book includes Birgitta Johnson’s chapter “‘This Is Not the Warm-Up Act!’: How Praise and Worship Reflects Expanding Musical Traditions and Theology in a Bapticostal Charismatic African American Megachurch.”
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