New Standards

Ouida W. Harding has focused her attention on music ministry and by doing so she has provided a useful resource, not only for those who serve in music ministry, but also for the rest of us who are a part of the

worshipping community of faith. —J. Wendell Mapson Jr., Pastor, Monumental Baptist Church, Philadelphia, PA, Author, The Ministry of Music in the Black Church



In this very precise and readable handbook, Ouida Harding summarizes from her doctoral research the foundational understandings of music

leadership for worship in the Black Church. She provides important

perspectives to pastors and churches in the selection of music leaders for the contemporary church based on qualities from the Bible and spiritual maturity in addition to musical ability. —Gerald L. Borchert, PhD, LLB, Thesis Director, The Robert E. Webber Institute for Worship Studies



The relationship between the local church pastor and the local church musician is a critical one. To give inadequate attention to this crucial partnership in ministry is to potentially imperil the church’s effectiveness in Kingdom mission, community outreach and vital spiritual witness and discipleship. Dr. Harding makes a strong case for the importance of the church musician’s training in Christian theology, church doctrine, spiritual formation, the technical craft of music and the art of servant leadership. This book is a clarion call for churches to employ biblically, theologically, historically, culturally and artistically sound standards to the ministry of worship leadership as churches invite all of creation to enter into the Great Story of God. —Dr. James R. Hart, President, Robert E. Webber Institute for Worship Studies, Orange Park, FL