Music Ministry at CMU
Ryan McLouth 
By Ryan McLouth
I often have friends in the church community ask me about my position at Central Methodist University and our Music Ministry program. Today I thought I would tell you a little bit about what we do.
The Music Ministry program at CMU has several purposes. The first of which is to provide student worship teams that lead music and worship at our weekly on-campus chapel service. In addition to our weekly service on campus, the CMU Worship Bands also perform off-campus at youth rallies, conferences and weekend services in United Methodist Churches. Each band consists of CMU students from any denominational background who are interested in leading music, sharing their faith and refining their skills. Each band rehearses twice a week and performs a variety of music ranging from United Methodist Hymns, to contemporary worship, to traditional country gospel, to classic worship songs and much more. We maintain a variety in our repertoire in hopes that we can reach worshippers of many backgrounds and ages. For prospective students who are interested in participating, we offer competitive scholarships. Our Worship Bands have enjoyed leading music at many United Methodist Churches and events including Good Shepherd of Platte County, Salem in Ladue, Community of Columbia, First of Jefferson City, WOW in Springfield, Missouri Annual Conference Session, and many others. This fall we are excited to be leading worship at Good Shepard of Platte County once again at the end of September, and we’ll be at revival with Macon United Methodist Church near the end of October. Let us know if you’d be interested in having us visit your congregation or event.
The second purpose the Music Ministry program is to provide a professional academic major for students that plan on choosing a career in the field of worship music. The goal of this degree is to train Music Ministry students for positions as worship leaders, music directors, creative arts directors, performers, accompanists, and more. Students complete coursework rich in religion, traditional music, contemporary music, performance and pedagogy. We have a tier of courses offered only in this degree that consist of music technology, recording, worship design, music business, commercial music theory and rehearsal techniques. The coursework is intended to train individuals for jobs that would require skills in both traditional and contemporary worship and musical styles in hopes that they could serve the needs of the community that they are called to work in. Though the degree and bands are open to students of any denomination, we hope to directly serve the United Methodist Church by training some of its future leaders.
If you know of a young person that would be interested in participating in our program, please let us know. We are happy to discuss scholarship opportunities with students who want to study Music Ministry, or are even interested in being a part of the CMU Worship Bands. I can be contacted by phone or email anytime. My email address is rmclouth@centralmethodist.edu and my phone number is (660) 651-9964.