Concordia University, Nebraska hosts 2024 Institute on Liturgy, Preaching and Church Music conference

The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod 2024 Institute on Liturgy, Preaching and Church Music - themed “Songs of Deliverance: Psalms in the Great Congregation” - was conducted July 9–12, 2024 on the campus of Concordia University, Nebraska. Presented by LCMS Worship, the conference was attended by more than 400 musicians, pastors, teachers and interested laypersons. 

“With the Psalter as its focal point, this conference featured fresh and perennial topics on music, leadership, preaching, pastoral care, art and spiritual growth in Lutheran worship,” said Rev. Sean Daenzer, director of LCMS Worship. “The Psalter is the church’s oldest hymnbook, filled with the songs of the Lord’s deliverance: delivering Israel and David from their enemies, delivering the Lord’s children from foolishness into wisdom, delivering the nations from blindness and foretelling the Anointed One’s deliverance from death. The church takes these psalms up daily in Christ Jesus, who prays them first and best.” 

The Psalter is the church’s oldest hymnbook, filled with the songs of the Lord’s deliverance: delivering Israel and David from their enemies, delivering the Lord’s children from foolishness into wisdom, delivering the nations from blindness and foretelling the Anointed One’s deliverance from death. The church takes these psalms up daily in Christ Jesus, who prays them first and best.

Conference participants chose from a variety of instructive and interactive sessions addressing practical topics of interest. Keynote speakers included Dr. Charles Brown of Concordia University Chicago, who spoke on singing the psalms; Rev. Dr. Adam Hensley of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis who spoke on the order and arrangement of the psalter; and Rev. Dr. Geoffrey Boyle of Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne who spoke on the psalms as a conversation between God and His people. 

Breakout session topics included the psalms as a source of comfort, using the psalms in preaching, Psalm resources for small congregations, composing music for the psalms and leading psalm-singing from the piano. The conference also featured variety of sessions on other worship-related topics including preaching, organ playing, choir directing, worship planning and more. Attendees also tackled a challenge together: to pray all 150 psalms. 

The conference also featured a recital showcasing students from the music and pre-seminary programs of the LCMS’s Concordia Universities including many from Concordia Nebraska. These students also served as counselors for the Institute Youth Choir program while taking in the services and sessions of the conference. The student recital and conference overall made extensive use of the university’s new Borland Center for Music and Theatre. The conference also included a parallel youth choir track for unchanged voices that provided music for some of the institute’s worship, a series of recitals featuring professional LCMS church musicians and student musicians, “Bach at the Brewery”, which was an opportunity to enjoy a beverage while singing Bach chorales for fun, an ice cream social with folk dancing and nightly Compline. 

Concordia Nebraska hosts a variety of conferences and events on campus year-round. Learn more about upcoming events and campus happenings here.