Through a thoughtfully curated collection of essays, interviews, and sermons, Ponder Anew raises the questions church musicians should be considering as the church lives into its third millennium.

A definitive look at how church music is changing in the 21st century.

There is no lack of resources for the church musician focusing on particular skills or repertoire. But this is the first collection of essays created specifically for musicians working in parish ministry that imagines how those vocations will change along with the evolving church.

Ponder Anew chronicles the rapid changes in the church music landscape in the last 20 years including the role of technology, education, relationships with clergy and choristers, and cultural presumptions. Contributors are parish musicians, professors, clergy, and bishops.

Foreword | The Rev. Dr. William Bradley Roberts

Introduction | Jessica Nelson

I. Essays

1. How Can I Keep from Singing: On Music As Pastoral Care | The Rev. Jennifer M. Deaton

2. Tablets and Technology: Liturgy and Music in the Information Age | David Sinden

3. Story of Stories: The Language of Story in Song | The Rt. Rev. Deon Johnson

4. You Will See Rare Beasts and Have Unique Adventures: Considering Again the Clergy/Musician Relationship | Jessica Nelson

5. Celebrating One Another’s Way of Worship | Keith Tan

6. A Shift in Tension: Leveraging Music Programs for Evangelism and Formation | Michael Smith

7. Reckoning with the Anglican Inheritance: Stories from the Episcopal Chaplaincy at Harvard | The Rev. Rita T. Powell

8. Colonialism in Church Music | Ellis Montes

II. Conversations in Vocation

1. Claim the High Calling: Conversations in Vocation

2. Musicians in Bivocational Ministry

III. Sermons

1. A sermon preached by The Rev. Erika Takacs at the closing Eucharist of the 2013 Mississippi Conference on Church Music and Liturgy

2. A sermon preached by The Rev. Erika Takacs at the closing Eucharist of the 2019 annual conference of the Association of Anglican Musicians

3. “The Two Calls,” a sermon preached by The Rt. Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton at the opening Eucharist of the 2014 annual conference of the Association of Anglican Musicians

4. A sermon preached by The Rev. Canon Carl F. Turner at the 50th anniversary annual conference of the Association of Anglican Musicians

5. A sermon preached in two parts by The Rev. Andrew Mead and The Rev. Canon John Andrew at the Requiem Eucharist for Gerre Hancock

6. A sermon preached by The Rev. Dr. Katherine A. Grieb at the funeral of Ray Glover