Worship & Music Lecture by Rev. Peter Marty with Sung Evening Prayer

The Annual Herbener Lecture by Rev. Peter W. Marty
Sponsored by the Luther Center of North Texas
Sung Evening Prayer Sponsored by Church Music Institute
Wilshire Baptist Church, 4316 Abrams Road, Dallas, TX 75214

To register to sing in the choir during sung evening prayer, click here.
To make a reservation for the dinner following the lecture, click here.
The meal and choir registrations close Thursday, October 27 at noon CDT.

About the Lecture from Rev. Marty:

Those who make a practice of committing their lives to worship discover, over time, something interesting. When they leave worship they see an “outside world” that is smaller and more paltry than they had thought. Its politics are puny, its consumerism is hollow, its care for the weak is peripheral. The very assumptions of what constitutes the “Real World,” assumptions that typically guide our lives as shoppers, scientists, social workers, and sales associates suddenly become undone once we realize how the grandeur and mystery of God make us more whole than the more cramped outside world. We can do all kinds of things on our own, quite independently and self-sufficiently, thank you very much. But what we can never become without worship is fully human. Worship is where we figure out who we get to be in the presence of a God who gives and gives, and always out of love.

About Sung Evening Prayer from the Church Music Institute:

Evening prayer on October 30 is based in one of the important forms of worship for the Church. Morning and evening prayer services, the official daily public prayer of the church, are comprised chiefly of hymns, psalms, readings, responsories and collects.  These services are influenced by ancient Jewish customs when Christians prayed at sunrise (lauds) and sunset (vespers).  It is customary to sing the Benedictus (Blessed be the Lord/Canticle of Zachary) at lauds/morning prayer and the Magnificat (My soul praises/Song of Mary) at vespers/evening prayer.  Luther provided a form for morning and evening prayer in the Deutsche Messe which included scripture reading and preaching similar to the form that will be used in this service. The musicians leading the service are musicians/theologians who plan for coherent sung and spoken word. Rev. Marty will offer a homily as part of the service.

About Rev. Peter Marty

Peter W. Marty serves as senior pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church, a 3500-member congregation in Davenport, Iowa, and editor/publisher of The Christian Century, a journal devoted to shaping America’s conversation about religion and faith in public life. He writes a monthly column for the Century.

A frequent preacher and speaker at churches and conferences across the country, Marty has written numerous articles related to culture, character, and faith issues in our day. He is the author of The Anatomy of Grace (Augsburg Fortress, 2008). From 2004-2009, he served as host of the national radio broadcast, Grace Matters.

In 2010, the Academy of Parish Clergy named him “Parish Pastor of the Year,” an award recognizing leadership excellence and faithfulness in congregational development.

Peter has preached in some of America’s more notable pulpits including Washington National Cathedral, Duke Chapel, and Yale University. From 2010 to 2016 he served as the lead columnist for The Lutheran magazine. In 2009, he was named the visiting Hoskins Fellow at Yale Divinity School.

Peter Marty has served on various hospital, college, foundation, and community boards. He has served as narrator for different faith broadcast documentaries. Marty is a one-time fellow of the Fund for Theological Education, past member of the Louisville Institute’s Pastor’s Working Group, and a former participant in the Duke Project for the Study of Ministry.

He is a graduate of The Colorado College and Yale Divinity School, and was the recipient of an honors fellowship in history for study at Oxford University.

Peter W. Marty has piloted interfaith dialogue events, been active in anti-hate group efforts, and served on different ecumenical ministry boards. On the St. Paul church campus he leads a pastoral residency program funded, in part, by the Lilly Endowment Inc. This program, designed for fostering pastoral excellence, is the only such program in the country situated in a Lutheran Church setting.

He is the recipient of two honorary doctorates. Peter is married to Susan and they have two adult children.

Conductor for Evening Prayer Rehearsal and Service - Dr. Don Horisberger:

Don Horisberger holds degrees from Capital University (B.M.) and Northwestern University (M.Mus. and D.Mus.) where he studied with Karel Paukert, Wolfgang Rübsam, and Margaret Hillis.  He also studied organ and church music as a Fulbright-Hayes scholar to Germany.

His career spans service to churches in multiple denominations, with 30 years at The Church of the Holy Spirit in Lake Forest, IL where he led adult, children’s, and handbell choirs, taking the adult choir to five week-long residencies at major English Cathedrals.  In addition, he was Associate Conductor of the Chicago Symphony Chorus as part of his 40 year association with the CSC as singer, bass section leader, German coach.

Now semi-retired in the Madison, WI area, Don continues as guest conductor, recital organist, clinician, and lecturer.  A member of the Association of Church Musicians in Madison, he recently conducted a choral festival and played on member benefit recitals, and he continues with occasional church work, especially at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, Madison.

Organists for Evening Prayer Rehearsal and Service: Dr. Tim Shewmaker & Dr. Jeff Brummel

Cantor Dr. Timothy Shewmaker has led the music at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Dallas since 2011. He directs all music ensembles, plays the organ, and teaches elementary music at Our Redeemer Lutheran School.  As a concert organist, he has appeared on the Bachstravaganza program with TCU and the Fort Worth Orchestra and was a solo performer at the 2015 regional conference of the American Guild of Organists in Fort Worth. In 2012, he took first prize and the prize for hymn playing excellence at the William C. Hall Organ Competition in San Antonio.  Timothy’s organ preludes are included in the Concordia Hymn Prelude Series from Concordia Publishing House. He enjoys writing original settings of psalms and hymns for worship.  Dr. Shewmaker holds a BFA in Parish Music from Concordia University (Nebraska), and M.M. and D.M.A. degrees in organ performance from Texas Christian University.

A native of the Pacific Northwest, Jeff Brummel earned the bachelor of science degree at the College of the Ozarks in Branson, Mo., majoring in vocal/choral music education, where he competed with NATS as a tenor vocal soloist. He studied organ with Al Travis and Yoon-Mi Lim for the master of music and doctor of musical arts degrees in organ performance and church music at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth. As an organist, he has competed in the Bank Street Organ Competition in London, England, and the William C. Hall Organ Competition in San Antonio. He has participated in master classes with notable organists including David Higgs in the U.S. and Daniel Roth, Thierry Escaich and Christoph Mantoux in Paris, France. Jeff previously served as the choir director/pianist at Trinity Baptist Church, Springfield, Ore.; collegiate organist at The Church of the College of the Ozarks, Point Lookout, Mo.; and choirmaster/organist at John Knox Presbyterian Church, River Oaks. In addition to serving Wilshire, Jeff is adjunct professor of music theory at Dallas Baptist University. At Wilshire, Jeff serves as associate minister of music and organist, and creator/director of the Wilshire Academy of Fine Arts (WAFA). In addition to playing Wilshire’s 80-rank Schantz pipe organ, Jeff is the director the 60-voice Youth Choir and Shekinah, Wilshire’s select youth vocal ensemble. The Youth Choir has been on tour to Washington D.C., New Orleans, Oregon. Memphis/Birmingham, Denver under Jeff’s leadership.

Schedule:

Saturday, October 29:
Choir rehearsal with Dr. Don Horisberger, 10:00 - 12:00 (registration requested)

Sunday October 30:
3:00 Choir rehearsal

4:00 Lecture and Discussion with Rev. George Mason

5:30 Meal (registration requested with opportunity for donation)

6:30 - 7:30 Sung Evening Prayer

Need more information?  Call 214.751.7669

Registration:

To sing in the choir during evening prayer, click here.

To make a dinner reservation, click here.

The event was originally intended for October 17, 2021.  Enjoy this special musical invitation and reflection by Rev. Marty below, prepared in fall of 2021 in anticipation of October 30, 2022.

Keep the faith, and keep on singing!