DPM Graduates
David Anderson
David Anderson, DPM ’24, is Director of Pastoral Music and Liturgy at Ascension and St. Edmund Catholic Parish (Oak Park, Illinois). In addition, he serves as editor-at-large for GIA Publications in Chicago.
Advisor: Marcell Silva Steuernagel
Second Reader: C. Michael Hawn
Community Reader: Victoria Tufano
Thesis completed and approved: April 3, 2021
Doctoral of Pastoral Music Degree Conferred: May 11, 2024
Thesis Abstract
This thesis examines the foundational call to Christian unity, communal prayer for unity, and the practice of ecumenism through pastoral musicking and performing unity through the lens of performance studies. It asks the question: Can we sing and perform Christian unity? The ecumenical call is considered from ecumenical documents of both the Protestant and Roman Catholic traditions since the Second Vatican Council. Ecumenical worship is considered a performance of unity viewed through the lens of performance studies with scholarship from ritual, liturgical, and church music studies. Two distinct services of ecumenical prayer are considered as “performances of unity.” One service is adapted from the daily prayer of the Taizé Community in France and the other is a newly created ecumenical liturgical service of healing and anointing. “Performing unity” is realized through creating, performing, and nurturing ecumenical Christian worship through embodied prayer practices, both old and new, and communal singing, all pointing to the living out and embracing God’s unifying mission in the world.
Bryan Black
Bryan Black, DPM ’24, serves St. James Episcopal Church in Marietta, Georgia, as Organist / Choirmaster. He is also the founding conductor of the Georgia Symphony Orchestra Chorus and an active volunteer with the chaplaincy department at Arrendale State Prison.
Advisor: C. Michael Hawn
Second Reader: Harold Recinos
Community Reader: Susan Bishop
Oral Defense: February 13, 2024
Doctor of Pastoral Music degree conferred with Honors on Thesis: May 11, 2023
Thesis Abstract
Churches in the United States have faced institutional decline due in part to an unprecedented half-century of intense cultural shifts and digital acceleration. Many leaders responded to this disorientation with technical fixes that have exacerbated divisiveness rather than addressing the underlying crisis of alienation and loneliness. Driven by fear of decline, communities of faith have forsaken their alterity of purpose and become lost in the marketplace as a “purveyor of religious goods and services” (George Hunsberger). This thesis considers the imagery of Huub Oosterhuis’s hymn “What Is This Place?” in theological dialogue with the Voices of Hope—a choir of female offenders incarcerated at Georgia’s Lee Arrendale State Prison. Their collaborative ministry with Chaplain Susan Bishop models an adaptive response formed by the spirit of improvisation that sustains community under constant threat for survival. Through ritual musicking in a liminal context, the Voices of Hope embody an alterity of identity rooted in mutuality, inclusion, and wholeness. An ethnographic analysis of their lived example reorients questions of institutional decline away from technical fixes toward sacramental awareness best revealed, practiced, and sung together in holy relationship for the sake of others before God.
Nicole Gray
Nicole “Nikki” Gray, DPM ’24, is the Director of Worship Arts and Music at Dickinson First United Methodist Church of Dickinson, Texas. She also serves as the Associate Worship Director for the Texas Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church.
Adviser: C. Michael Hawn
Second Reader: Michael J. Bauer
Thesis completed and approved: April 18, 2024
Doctor of Pastoral Music Degree Conferred: May 11, 2024
Thesis Abstract
Liturgical arts are meaningful resources and vessels for reclaiming and renewing the storytelling abilities of dynamic worship. This thesis explores a strategic evaluation of liturgical arts through the foundational and relational subjects of theology, ritual studies, and liturgical theology. Through the Holy Spirit, liturgical arts have formative powers that lead congregations into a deeper meeting with God—sending them forth as renewed signposts of Christ’s transcendence. They provide the space where pain and brokenness meet hope and grace for the renewal of the world.
This thesis examines those powers in combination with a foundational and contextual evaluation to restore and apply innovative liturgical art that allows for the possibility of a vibrant and active dialogue between worshipers and the Triune God. A series of liturgies are included as examples highlighting these powers. Through a continuous process of evaluation and innovative application of the liturgical arts, a worshiping community has a foundational strategy to actively maintain, reimagine, and renew an ever-evolving, enlivened worship experience that intersects with the Divine.
Yvette Lau
Yvette (Ying Wai) Lau, DPM 24, works as a freelancer for worship related ministries including consultancy work and coaching. She is the founder and Chief Executive of Anabas Ministry, a non-profit based in Hong Kong, for worship renewal. She also serves the wider church community by being a choral conductor, song writer, hymn translator, worship book translator, event organizer, guest preacher, and workshop facilitator for worship training. She has been the guest instructor on Worship for several seminaries in Hong Kong and Thailand, including Bethel Bible Seminary, ConnectAll Bible Institute, and Thailand Baptist Theological Seminary.
Advisor: C. Michael Hawn
Second Reader: John D. Witvliet
Oral Defense and approval: July 22, 2024
Thesis completed: May 2024
Doctor of Pastoral Music Conferred: August 2024
Thesis Abstract
Because of the unprecedented and unexpected force of the pandemic since 2020, most churches around the world have experienced some online worship during the lockdown of their cities or the mandated closure of the church buildings. For many people, online worship seems to be an equivalent, if not better, alternative for gathering together—a physical co-presence in worship—even after the pandemic has ended. As necessary and vital as online worship experiences have been for Christians during the pandemic, the witness of the church from Pentecost throughout Christian history indicates that gathered worship in physical spaces is irreplaceable for faith formation and the embodiment of the Christian community. Seeing, hearing, reciting, singing, and moving with others while offering praise, confession, intercession, thanksgiving, dedication, and receiving God’s Word in a physical space are unifying worship acts indeed. Week after week, the worship actions are stamped and sealed in our memory, shaping us to live as God’s people together. This thesis explores and analyzes the potential and perils of online worship, our pastoral response to the hybrid life, the benefits of in-person embodied worship, and wisdom from the hybridity of the workplace to suggest a reimagined healthy hybridity for worship and the other ministries of the church. Nine aspects of corporate worship are advocated for the renewal of worship. Advice for pastoral care for online worshippers, guidelines for joining online worship, and a Trio Digital Detox practice are also highlighted at the end.
Cristen Mitchell
Cristen Mitchell, DPM, ’24, is the Director of Worship Arts at Blacksburg United Methodist Church in Blacksburg, Virginia. She is also the Artistic Director for The Voices of Appalachia, a professional choir for young adults in Roanoke. She is active with children's ministries and music in the community working with various children’s choirs as well as volunteering and bringing music to tutoring programs.
Advisor: C. Michael Hawn
Second Reader: Deborah J. Rogers
Thesis completed and approved: April 19, 2024
Doctoral of Pastoral Music Conferred: May 11, 2024
Thesis Abstract
Frozen II (2019) is a popular Disney animated movie for children and depicts striking spiritual elements while weaving in feminist practices such as justice and equity, and feminist theology through representations of female spirits and connection to the earth. Through this movie, its themes, and the historical exclusion of women in the church, this thesis seeks to show that representation of women in the divine is an important, and necessary part of the spiritual and psychological development of girls and women. The methods of this thesis include exploring the following synchronicities:
- Parallels between feminist issues in the church and Walt Disney Animation Studios
- Frozen IIParallels between the feminine dimensions of Christianity and
- The convergence of spiritual formation and psychological development of girls and women
- and Spiritual formation with women and girls from Blacksburg, VirginiaFrozen II Conversations around
- Frozen IIThe analysis of selected songs from
Patriarchal and misogynistic values have been perpetuated in both Disney and the church, and this thesis shows the importance of inclusion of women, and the calling that women have in the church as leaders and disciples. While women have been working, whether behind the scenes, or in the spotlight, there is still work to do!
Bryan Page
, composing antiphons all of the psalms and canticles in the Revised Common Lectionary.The Northridge PsalterBryan Scott Page, DPM ’24, is a composer, trumpeter, singer, and conductor in Dallas, Texas, currently Director of Music at Northridge Presbyterian Church. He is an active member of Presbyterian Association of Musicians (PAM) and The Hymn Society. Bryan’s music is published by Paraclete Press and Triplo Press. He plans to complete
Advisor: Marcell Silva Steuernagel
Second Reader: John Thornburg
Community Reader: Marisu Fenton
Thesis completed and approved with Honors: April 24, 2024
Doctoral of Pastoral Music Conferred: May 11, 2024
Thesis Abstract
Responsive psalmody is one of the primary musical vehicles for presenting the Psalms in worship by choir and congregation. Existing responsive psalmody features congregational antiphons with texts derived directly from the psalms. Working with the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL), this thesis presents fifty newly written and composed antiphons with texts derived from the accompanying RCL lessons. The goal of this method is to emphasize prophetic connections between the Old Testament lesson and Gospel lesson via the antiphons. This thesis also features a history of lectionary development, a detailed account of the creative process, rubrics for presenting the responsive psalmody in worship, a musical-theological analysis, and psalm reflections.
Darnell St. Romain
Darnell Allen St. Romain, DPM ’24, is the Associate Director of Music at Prince of Peace Catholic Church in Plano, Texas, where he conducts the Children’s Choir and the Youth Choir and provides musical support for worship. He also operates private piano studio.
Advisor: C. Michael Hawn
Second Reader: Theodore Walker
Community Reader: Annette Nevins
Thesis completed and approved with Honors: April 24, 2024
Doctoral of Pastoral Music Conferred: May 11, 2024
Thesis Abstract
In 2020, the United States experienced a global pandemic and the murder of Mr. George Floyd. With the murder of Floyd, many churches were confronted with the racial divide in the United States. This thesis is a response of one community, the Prince of Peace Catholic Church in Plano, Texas. Using Negro Spirituals, the folk song of Black Americans, as the foundation of an ethical-theological framework, this thesis poses one way for addressing the anti-Black structure prevalent in the Catholic Church in the United States of America. This work progresses from despair to hope, addressing the link between the institution of Slavery and the Negro Spirituals, providing an overview of Catholic documents on racism and reconciliation, and illustrating a theology of accompaniment championed by Pope Francis, to provide strategies on addressing the racial divide.
Darrell St. Romain
Darrell St. Romain, DPM, ‘24, is currently the Director of Music at St. Stephen United Methodist Church in Mesquite, Texas. He is also a Piano Instructor at Centre for Musical Minds in Frisco, Texas and the Dallas Music Academy in Dallas, Texas.
Advisor: Marcell Silva Steuernagel
Second Reader: Mark Stamm
Community Reader: Gail Hartin
Thesis completed and approved: April 10, 2024
Doctoral of Pastoral Music Conferred: May 11, 2024
Thesis Abstract
The United States is growing more diverse, and its houses of worship are embracing this diversity to engage congregants and build membership. Liturgical inculturation is a tool to help worshiping communities to articulate the diversity of cultures. Liturgical inculturation, as defined by Anscar Chupungco, is the process whereby the texts and rites used in worship by the local congregation absorb the thought, language, and ritual patterns of culture. Incorporating the goals and functions of liturgical inculturation, worshiping communities can begin to re-evangelize themselves and celebrate unity through diversity.
This document provides a framework of liturgical inculturation through the lens of the Mosaic Liturgy for a Roman Catholic Mass. The mosaic liturgy includes various cultural traditions in the structure of a single rite. The three cultures that are the basis for this study are European American, Latinx, and Francophone African. Spirituality and inculturation of Latinx and Francophone Africans are discussed at length. To show how the mosaic liturgy works, the author applies liturgical mosaic process to two different Masses and examines them from the planning process through the execution of the Masses. In addition, two Roman Catholic parishes that have vibrant Hispanic and Francophone African communities are profiled to feature parishes that already use the mosaic liturgy.
Dirk Damonte
J. Dirk Damonte, DPM ‘22, is an ordained deacon in the Northern California-Nevada Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church. He serves Los Altos United Methodist Church in Los Altos, California, as Minister of Music and Worship Arts
Advisor: C. Michael Hawn
Second Reader: Elaine Heath
Community Advisor: Samuel S. Yun
Oral Defense: May 9, 2022
Doctor of Pastoral Music Conferred with Honors on Thesis: May 14, 2022
Thesis Abstract
The United Methodist Church has seen a decline in membership for many decades. Accompanying this numeric decline has been a decline in the vitality of worship in many churches. This denomination traces its roots to a renewal movement in the Church of England, led by John and Charles Wesley, which spread across the Atlantic and took hold in the American colonies, where it soon became a separate church. This new church was characterized by lively and Spirit-filled worship and exponential growth. This thesis explores and analyzes the theology of the Wesley brothers and the Wesleyan movement, the history of that movement as it developed into a new denomination in colonial America and the United States, the worship practices that emerged with that history, and the music that inspired that worship. That analysis is applied to a modern worship context with new musical expressions of Wesleyan ideas and practical application of the core of Wesleyan theology and practice.
Hillary Doerries
Hillary Doerries, DPM ’22, is the Director of Music Ministries at Christ the King Lutheran Church (ELCA) of South Bend, Indiana, where she is also active in the congregation's mental health ministry. She leads Christ the King's Mental Health Ministries Team and is a facilitator for Fresh Hope for Mental Health, a weekly support group for people living with mental health diagnoses and their loved ones.
Thesis Advisor: C. Michael Hawn
Second Reader: Jeanne Stevenson-Moessner
Oral Defense: November 15, 2022
Doctor of Pastoral Music Conferred: December 17, 2022
Thesis Abstract
One in five people lives with a diagnosable mental health problem in any given year. Thus, the presence of mental illness already permeates faith communities. The church’s history with mental illness remains complicated, especially as some communities of faith continue to espouse negative lay theologies that are harmful and dismissive to people living with mental health problems. Guided by the tenants of liberation theology, this thesis argues that mental health justice is a part of God’s overarching justice intended for all creation. When we, as God’s people, encounter or observe injustice, it is our theological task to gather the weary, the oppressed, and the marginalized and bring them back to their seat at the table of God’s grace where God calls them by name: beloved. This document proposes that pastoral musicians, clergy, and others charged with planning and facilitating worship are essential to developing a theology of mental health that welcomes and accepts all people into the family of God, regardless of physical or mental, or emotional disability. Within communities of faith, engagement with such a task begins within the context of worship, for the musical and liturgical choices we make as pastoral musicians shapes our community’s understanding of the Body of Christ in all its wonder and diversity. Therefore, when people with mental health challenges see and hear themselves and their lived realities of mental illness represented in the musical and liturgical landscape of their faith community, they are liberated from destructive stigmas and can break the chains of prejudice, stereotypes, and injustice.
Stanton Nelson
Stanton Nelson, DPM '22, is a composer, pianist, and organist. Stanton concertizes in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, sharing musica divina experiences with his solo piano pieces. He is currently one of the organists at Highland Park United Methodist Church in Dallas, TX, where he also coordinates the Cox Chapel services and accompanies the Youth Choir. Stanton is looking forward to starting his non-profit, Noted with Honor, which springs from his Doctor of Pastoral Music research.
Advisor: C. Michael Hawn
Second Reader: Marcell Steuernagel
Community Advisor: Joel Watson
Oral Defense: November 29, 2022
Doctor of Pastoral Music Conferred: December 17, 2022
Thesis Abstract
This thesis investigates the intersections between theology, music therapy, and psychotherapy when creating a music composition that honors a hospice patient’s walk of faith. A pioneer organization inspiring this thesis is in Austin, Texas, where musical moments are created for the patient and family. However, its model is primarily based on collating previously composed pieces for recitals without a personalized honoring of the patient’s witness of faith. Noted with Honor is an emerging non-profit organization that creates an original work that reflects upon the testimony of the patient and forms a new narrative towards the end of one’s life, bringing peace and dignity to this final rite of passage. The author employs an interdisciplinary methodological approach. Besides theology and four types of therapy, some pre-compositional strategies are also examined: generating musical cryptograms of the patient’s and family members’ names via the French method of solmization, setting the style of the piece within the patient’s preferred sound aesthetic, and mathematically structuring the piece according to the patient’s duration of life and milestones.
Lily Wong
Lily Wong Kueng Mee, DPM ‘22, is a full-time ministry staff, in charge of worship and music, at Telok Ayer Chinese Methodist Church in Singapore.
Advisor: C. Michael Hawn
Second Reader: Lorna Lock Nah Khoo
Oral Defense: February 16, 2022
Thesis completed: February 18, 2022
Doctor of Pastoral Music Conferred: May 14, 2022
Thesis Abstract
Hymn singing was an important practice in the early Methodist movement, a heritage still recognized among Methodists today. In addition to their sermons, John and Charles Wesley used hymns as the primary vehicle to convey the theology and doctrine of Methodism. Unfortunately, the culture of hymn singing is slowly disappearing in many local Methodist churches in Singapore. Due to the rising dominance of contemporary Christian music (CCM) and unique linguistic context in Singapore, congregations who retain hymn singing are struggling as they face the possibility of losing this tradition among younger generations. The restrictions imposed on worship gatherings by the current COVID-19 pandemic have exacerbated this problem. This thesis examines the Wesleyan hymn heritage, discusses the reasons for the decline in hymn singing in Methodist congregations in Singapore, and proposes a methodology for helping the Chinese Methodist churches in Singapore to regain the heritage and distinctiveness of Methodism. The goal of my research is to recover discipleship formation through hymn singing. While not advocating a form of denominational triumphalism, Methodists do not need to abandon their distinctive identity, unique experience, and vibrant expressions of the Christian faith in hymn singing to have efficacious worship in the twenty-first century.
Hyun Min Lee
Hyun Min Lee, DPM ’21, is an ordained pastor in the Presbyterian Church of South Korea and is pursuing a Ph.D. at the Presbyterian University and Theological Seminary in Liturgics and Homiletics in Seoul.
Advisor: C. Michael Hawn
Second Reader: Christopher S. Anderson
Oral Defense: February 25, 2021
Thesis completed: March 15, 2021
Doctor of Pastoral Music Conferred: May 14, 2021
Thesis Abstract
The political situation on the Korean Peninsula appears to be more hopeful now than for several decades, calling for a new strategy for reunification. Through music, people in the two Koreas can reclaim one ethnicity and the spirit of a unified nation. This thesis explores the possibility of achieving a unified ethnic identity through church music and poses a role for church music in overcoming the musical, cultural, and ecclesial divisions between South and North Korea. I examine the Korean National Music Theory (KNMT) of composer and church musician Lee Geon Yong as a musical and philosophical construct for analyzing the history, social culture, theology, and the implications of establishing a unified ethnic identity for South and North Korea. After comparing the political identities, artistic cultures, and musical characteristics of the two Koreas, I provide a brief history of the two Korean churches since their division. This research provides directions for a Koreanized church music to overcome musical heterogeneity of two Koreas. Based on this, I suggest the potential musical and theological characteristics of reunification hymnal and offer implications of Lee Geon Yong’s work for the reunification of church music for the North and South Korea.
Tommy Shapard
Thomas Shapard, DPM ’21, is an ordained Baptist minister serving as Minister of Music and Worship at Hendricks Avenue Baptist Church (Jacksonville, Florida). In addition, he is on the faculties of the University of North Florida and Florida State University where he is a choral music director and teaches church music.
Advisor: C. Michael Hawn
Second Reader: Marcell Silva Steuernagel
Community Reader: Ulysses Owens Jr.
Doctoral of Pastoral Music Conferred: August 2021
Thesis completed and approved with Honors: May 28, 2021
Thesis Abstract
This thesis develops a philosophy of musicking that intersects with missional ecclesiology and expands the role of music-making beyond the church walls. The central hypothesis assumes that predominantly white congregations in the Free Church tradition located in the southern United States incorporate ways of singing that reinforce, albeit inadvertently, attitudes toward others that buttress white ethnocentricity. Musical practices arising from a Western European heritage can promote cultural exclusivity as well as a perceived—yet false—sense of superiority. Is there an implicit theology of singing in white churches that engenders a culture of complicity and apathy in matters of racial injustice, or are there alternative ways of understanding singing that can encourage white Christians to join the journey for racial justice?
The author employs an interdisciplinary methodology and identifies ways music-making as social activity builds community and reframes relationships across the color line in Jacksonville, Florida. Detailing an ongoing partnership with Ulysses Owens Jr., and Don’t Miss A Beat, Inc., the author offers a first-hand account of exploratory steps in missional musicking and augmenting the music program at Hendricks Avenue Baptist Church. The author prescribes a pneumatology of singing that connects missional musicking to the life-giving breath of the Spirit and the responsibility to form more equitable communities reflective of the earliest Christian community as recorded in Acts 2. After discussing his own missteps, challenges, and increasing awareness, the author shares his thoughts on “white work,” anti-racism, and cross-cultural musicking, particularly how musicians in white churches can join the journey for racial justice.
Joshua Taylor
Joshua Taylor, DPM ’21, is Director of Worship and Music at First United Methodist Church of Denton, Texas, after a brief tenure as the co-musician for the Iona Community in Scotland. He previously served as the Director of Worship and Music at First Presbyterian Church in Dallas, Texas and as the Instructor of Sacred Music Studies in the College of Music at the University of North Texas.
Advisor: C. Michael Hawn
Second Reader: Robert Hunt
Oral Defense: November 18, 2020
Thesis completed: January 31, 2021
Doctor of Pastoral Music Conferred: May 14, 2021
Thesis Abstract
Pilgrimage has been a part of Christian experience since biblical times. Creating new stories, pilgrimage affords sacred travelers experiences that transcend nationalism, denominational identity, and cultural borders melding their individual constructs of meaning with communal experiences to create new insights. On these pilgrimages, music has played a significant role in the development of community. While pilgrimage is an independent act, it is also a shared existence with other pilgrims with music serving as a bridge between these two realities. With an estimated 100 million people undertaking pilgrimages at the beginning of the twenty-first century, the rediscovery of pilgrimage, and the music that accompanies it, has meaningful connections for the post-modern church struggling to find a new identity. The ecumenical communities at Iona and Taizé provide particular case studies for the role of music in forming community among disparate travelers. The individual and communal nature of pilgrimage, the ability of pilgrimage to provide commonality in a diverse society, and the role of singing and traveling music calls for the reexamination of this ancient practice for the post-modern church.
Kevin Turner
Program Pioneer: First Doctor of Pastoral Music Graduate (Find Perspective article )
Kevin A. Turner, DPM ’20, is an ordained deacon in the Western North Carolina Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church and serves Davidson United Methodist Church, Davidson, North Carolina as Pastor for Worship and Music.
Advisor: C. Michael Hawn
Second Reader: O. Wesley Allen
Doctor of Pastoral Music Conferred: May 16, 2020
Thesis completed: April 23, 2020
Thesis Abstract
How can ministry leaders in the twenty-first century provide guidance for those who are at the leading edge of the church’s next generation? How might emerging adults become contributors to congregations where they are given space to offer and plan for themselves rather than passively acquiesce to traditional church structures where a strict, top-down leadership style dominates? In conversation with author Letty Russell, this paper will describe a more democratic vision of ecclesiology for music ministry and ministries of the larger church. The methodology employed in this thesis involves a case study examining the creation of a choral ensemble focusing on Millennials and Generation Z that became a community of service and song dedicated to egalitarian leadership and a focus on social justice. This work will also give insight into a more egalitarian approach to leadership for a new generation of church leaders.