Theopolis ended its second year of operation with its Pentecost Term course on Music in Life and Liturgy last week.

Co-taught by Ken Myers of Mars Hill Audio and scholar-in-residence James Jordan, the Music course was the largest Theopolis course yet. Sixteen pastors, seminary students, and music ministers from nine different states and several denominations came to Birmingham for a week of listening, singing, worship and conversation.

Myers lectured on musical meaning, the epistemological implications of musical meaning, the cultural dimensions of music, and gave an overview of Western music from plainchant through Bach to Arvo Part. He insisted that Christians need to develop better habits of listening, going against the grain of the culture’s diet of 3-minute musical offerings.

“Church music is bad,” Myers said. “The question is how to develop practices in the church that will ensure that music will be better in the future.”

Jordan explained the Trinitarian roots of music, laid out a biblical theology of music, and taught the students plainchants, chorales, and various settings of Psalms.

“It was life-transforming,” said Sarah Davis, a church musician from Springfield, Missouri. “It was wonderful worshiping three times a day for a whole week.”

“The class was a wonderful reminder that the music of our Christian heritage must not be neglected,” added Caleb Skogen, a student at Covenant Theological Seminary. “It’s an honor for Christians to continue these forms of music not just because they are intelligently beautiful, but to show honor to musicians whom God has used to bring His glory into the world in such powerful ways.”

Theopolis’s next intensive course will be “Mission to the City,” taught during Trinity Term (August 10-14, 2015) by Rev. Richard Bledsoe of Boulder, Colorado.