Center for Church Music

As most of you continue your planning for the upcoming church music season, I am closing out my 13 years as director of the Center for Church Music.  This a good time for some reflection…

I am continually awestruck by the generosity of the people who helped bring the Center this far---the founding donors, our advisory group, the many volunteers, the award juries and the CUC staff and faculty---who all gave of themselves to keep things moving along. I’m also grateful to Concordia University Chicago for the opportunity to work on this. It has truly been an honor and a joy!

I’ve always loved the parable of the three bricklayers. The one, when asked what he was doing, said “I’m helping Christopher Wren build a cathedral.” It’s humbling to remember those great cathedrals which took several generations to build. Those who laid the blocks of stone as a foundation never saw the walls go up. The group who built the walls never saw the building topped off and the interior completed. Their currency was trust – trust that what had come before was carefully done, true and right and trust that those who came after would continue with the same dedication to their “high and holy calling.”

Last February the cathedral of Barcelona, La Sagrada Família, begun in 1882, celebrated the completion of its latest part---the central Tower of Jesus---which makes it now the tallest church in the world. Looking over pictures of the cathedral, one can see how each generation made their mark on its design.

And so it is with each of our ministries---all our creative work and planning are but a part of the Church’s larger story, looking forward to what comes next…

I am grateful for the role Dr. Elisabeth Joy Urtel will play as she takes the reins as interim director. Of course the vision and activities of the Center will evolve to the next level. Who knows what tomorrow might hold?

As St. Paul said many generations ago, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.” 

(1 Corinthians 3:6).

Amen! “Soli Deo Gloria!”

Barry Bobb
Carmel IN
August 2026

Resource Room

• Books, magazines, recordings, the Schalk American Lutheran Hymnal Collection (541 volumes) and the ever-expanding archives of the original manuscripts of great American Lutheran composers & hymn writers.
• Liturgical Choir Music Library

Digital Initiative

• All of the volumes in the hymnal collection can be perused online at www.hymnary.org or from this website. See "Hymnal Collection Index."
• Many of the original manuscripts are accessible online at the Center’s website (including Manz, Schalk, Hillert, Pelz, Thoms, Busarow, Bouman and others...) See "Composer Manuscript Indices".

Website

• Devotions, interviews, profiles, essays, forums, ideas, an arts registry

Print publications

• Books and monographs in the Shaping American Lutheran Church Music series available through Amazon and Fortress Press

Encouragement of the next generation

• Hillert Award in Student Composition---open to any undergrad or graduate student at a Lutheran university or seminary in the United States
• Schalk Scholars
  • Creates awareness and access to current research in the areas of music and the arts
  • Provides stipends for research as well as publication and venues for presentations for these emerging scholars
  • Arts Registry
  • Contact information and samples from composers, visual artists, writers, designers, media artists.