Church musicians, sacred dancers, preachers, and choir directors are invited March 17-19 to a first-of-its-kind national seminar on the West Coast, to experience training and coaching on how to Christian congregational praise and worship to spiritually exuberant, higher levels.

The March 17-19 event, held at Holman United Methodist Church in Los Angeles, Church, 3320 West Adams Blvd., is presented by the Junius B. Dotson Institute for Music and Worship in the Black Church and Beyond©. This training is open to all church worship practitioners. 

Early-bird registration is $125 ($60 for students with I.D.) and includes meals; onsite registration will be $150. Day passes are $75 per day.

Sessions begin at 9:00 a.m. PST Christian worship leaders, pastors, musicians, choir directors, and sacred artists may register at https://form.jotform.com/250304564669158.

Workshop will include techniques to elevate choral singing, how to organize an intergenerational sacred dance ministry, designing worship for people experiencing trauma, ways to incorporate genres “from Bach to Boogie” in church music, and forging more effective and Biblically grounded collaboration between pastors and church worship leaders. 

The training event will culminate in a citywide worship celebration at 7:00 p.m., Wed., March 19, featuring a performance by Grammy-nominated, Billboard Award-winning gospel and R&B artist, Brian Courtney Wilson (“Already Here”).

Free and open to the public, the worship event, also held at Holman United Methodist Church, will showcase workshop participants in a mass choir and a sacred dance presentation. 

The Junius B. Dotson Institute is an interdenominational, intergenerational, and multicultural coaching and mentoring program that offers training, and support for leaders of Christian congregations who want to expand and enhance their church’s Christian worship experiences. 

The Institute, founded in 2022 by Grammy-winning vocalist, musician, and educator, the Rev. Dr. Cynthia Wilson, was born from collaborations between Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, Evanston, Ill., and Discipleship Ministries of Nashville, Tenn., an agency of the worldwide United Methodist Church. 

The workshop leaders represent some of the most respected music, worship, preaching, and dance practitioners, and educators in the United States, explains Dr. Wilson, herself a solo artist and worship leader and educator who has led events across six continents and who has shared the stage with celebrated musical legends Richard Smallwood, Edwin Hawkins (“Oh Happy Day”), Ken Medema, Nancy Wilson, Patti LaBelle, Shirley Caesar, Cissy Houston, the late Lionel Hampton, and the late Rev. James Cleveland. 

Among those faculty:

• The Rev. Dr. Theon Johnson III, senior pastor of Campbell (Calif.) United Methodist Church, and former member of the pastoral team at historic Glide United Methodist Church in San Francisco.

• Dr. John Paul McGee, keyboardist, vocal arranger, producer, and songwriter for gospel, jazz, R&B, and classical artists; executive vice president of the Gospel Heritage Foundation, and assistant chair of the piano department at Berklee College of Music Berklee College of Music, Boston.

• The Rev. Dr. Kathleen Turner, director of Christian Education, at Greater Allen AME Cathedral, Jamaica, N.Y., an adjunct lecturer at the Institute of Sacred Music at Yale Divinity School and adjunct professor at Lancaster (Pa.) Theological Seminary.

• Monya Davis Logan, director of music and arts at St. Luke Community United Methodist Church, Dallas, Texas, and member of the United Methodist Church’s Hymnal Revision Committee, charged with updating the denomination’s official worship and song book for the 21st-century churchgoers.

• The Rev. Marilyn Thornton, storyteller, violinist, vocalist, author, music historian, and pastor of Blakemore and Dixon United Methodist churches, Nashville, Tenn., who developed and produced intergenerational, multimedia teaching resources for church schools and vacation Bible schools, including, Under the Baobab Tree, Shouting in the Hush Arbor, and Hip-Hop Hope. 

The Junius B. Dotson Institute for Music and Worship in the Black Church and Beyond honors the late Rev. Dr. Junius Dotson, preacher, lover of music, church-growth expert, and denominational executive for the United Methodist Church, who died of cancer in 2021.               

To learn more about the Institute or to schedule a training event in your area, please visit https://garrett.edu/dotsoninstitute.