Music is often called “the universal language” but digging deeper, we can see how music helps us communicate values, deeply felt needs, complex feelings, and core identities. At church, when we sing, sing a certain way, fund and defund singing, or argue about singing, we’re conveying something about who we are or want to be.

In this presentation, Dr. Carolynne Hitter Brown will share her research on ways the Black Church has historically relied on music to navigate challenging waters and changing courses, resist racist forces without and power structures within, and formulate an authentic and Christ-centered community identity. Considering how cultural polarities, diverse social issues, and global struggles effect congregations today, Dr. Hitter Brown will suggest possible ways music in worship can heal and build Christian community.

Dr. Nicholas Rowe, Kenneth and Jean Hansen Associate Professor of Leadership, and Dr. Wes Vander Lugt, Adjunct Professor of Theology and Acting Director of the Leighton Ford Initiative in Theology, the Arts, and Gospel Witness, will give the response.

The Dean’s Forum discussion is free and is open to the public. RSVP is required for those who are planning to attend in person. NO RSVP NEEDED IF YOU PLAN TO WATCH ONLINE. Lunch will be provided to those who will be attending in person.

Registration closes on Wednesday, April 8

The Dean’s Forum is hosted by the Academic Dean’s office. The event will take place in Alumni Hall in Kerr Building at the Hamilton campus of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. It will be streamed live through Facebook and at www.gcts.edu/live.

Many of our events are recorded (with speakers permission) and photographs may be taken for publicity purposes and promotion on social media. For more information regarding this or to request that your image not be used for this purpose, please contact the Academic Dean’s office at [email protected].

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

After earning her MM in Music Composition from the School of Church Music at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Dr. Carolynne Hitter Brown served as music and worship minister at churches in Laurel, MD and Cambridge, MA, where she also assisted in church planting. Her curiosity about the influence of historical memory on worship and congregational life led her to pursue a ThD at Boston University School of Theology in biblical and historical studies. As an interdisciplinary scholar, she applied herself to a rich exploration of Christian history and worship with a deep dive into evangelical history and Black Christian experience. A lifelong passion for urban ministry that began in Detroit and continued in cities like Dallas, St. Louis, Washington D.C., and Boston, led Carolynne to pursue a teaching role at Gordon-Conwell, where she felt called to support the seminary’s ongoing commitment to urban ministerial education and training.

Carolynne’s book Singing Through Struggle: Music, Worship, and Identity in Postemancipation Black Churches came out from The University Press of Mississippi last spring and represents over 15 years of archival research.

Dr. Nicholas Rowe is the Kenneth and Jean Hansen Associate Professor of Leadership at Gordon-Conwell. His teaching and research interests investigate how communities use the past to form collective identities and how this fuels intergroup conflict. He spent more than twenty years consulting about cross-racial and cross-ethnic reconciliation and conflict resolution. He also provided pastoral counseling and spiritual direction for reconciling communities in the USA and South Africa.

Dr. Wes Vander Lugt serves as adjunct professor of theology and acting director of the Leighton Ford Initiative in Theology, the Arts, and Gospel Witness at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He received an MDiv from Covenant Theological Seminary and a PhD in Theology, Imagination, and the Arts from the University of St. Andrews. In addition to teaching and writing, Wes is the co-founder of Kinship Plot, a nonprofit in Charlotte that cultivates resonant relationships of every kind.