For more than a decade Baylor University’s Dunn Center for Christian Music Studies has sought to equip young people within the local church for service and leadership. Through Worship Lab, Baylor seeks to enhance the faith of young people through resources and trainings that enable greater student leadership in youth and corporate worship gatherings. With this call, Worship Lab continues to grow and evolve into a broader brand for worship=related resources and research.
The Dunn Center seeks to expand Worship Lab’s reach in the following ways:
Summer Music Camp
The annual Worship Lab summer music camp brings together 100 high school students for five days to learn and engage with practicing minister professionals in a space that is encouraging and intentionally focused on the worship of the church.
Local Church Worship Workshops
Throughout the year, the Dunn Center hosts worship workshops in churches across Texas. These gatherings are an opportunity for Baylor to provide a condensed version of the summer music camp in faith communities throughout the state. Workshops are typically one day and feature breakout classes, worship gatherings, and large group sessions. Learn more about Worship Workshops.
Church Partnership Program
Baylor’s Church Partnership Program exists to walk alongside church communities, deepening connections, offering trainings, and providing resources to local communities. Each year, the Dunn Center partners with up to 10 churches. These spaces are visited regularly and these congregations send students to attend the annual Worship Lab summer camp. These partners are divided into one of two types: model partners and growth partners. Model churches are churches that already have established youth music ministry practices that are functioning well and equipping students. These churches will be researched as case studies which will provide models for different types of youth music ministry. Growth churches are churches that are either starting a youth music ministry or are currently stagnant in their growth. These churches will be used as case studies for the implementation of the models in their context. Each model will be evaluated for the types of churches for which they function the best as well as the key qualities that can apply broadly to any context. Read more about the Church Partnership Program.
Worship Resources
Beyond researching our partner churches’ current or new practices, Worship Lab will become a broader brand for all activities that are equipping youth music ministries. The Worship Lab website will be expanded to include a resource library. Research case studies will be made available on the website. Additionally, the findings from this research will be disseminated through articles and a book that will provide access to the practical takeaways from the project that churches can learn from and implement in their churches. Ultimately, this final activity in the project focuses on expanding Worship Lab beyond a summer camp to a resource that equips the Church for youth music ministry in any context.
