Lisa Allen-McLaurin appointed to MTSO faculty

Methodist Theological School in Ohio has appointed pastor, professor, composer and public theologian Dr. Lisa Allen-McLaurin Professor of Worship, Music and Spirituality. She will begin teaching at MTSO in the upcoming Fall Semester.

Allen-McLaurin comes to MTSO from the Interdenominational Theological Center, where she has served as the Helmar E. Nielsen Professor of Church Music and Worship. She also coordinated ITC’s Master of Arts in Liturgical Arts and Culture program.

An ordained elder in the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, Allen-McLaurin is the author of the books Worship Matters! A Collection of Practical Essays on the Practical and Spiritual Discipline of Worship; Development Comes Before Deliverance: A 9-Week Sermon Series and Bible Study for Pastors and Congregations; and her latest, A Womanist Theology of Worship: Liturgy, Justice, and Communal Righteousness.

Allen-McLaurin is CEO and curator of Sunday’s Coming, a weekly online worship planning webinar; CEO and founder of Creating Collegiality, a collaborative leadership mentoring program; a member of the Sisters Chapel Advisory Council at Spelman College; a mentor with the RISE Together National Mentorship Network; and a 2018 inductee into the Morehouse College Board of Preachers.

She serves on the Arts, Religion and Literature and the Music and Religion Program Unit steering committees of the American Academy of Religion, and she is a member of the editorial board of The Methodist Review Journal.

Among Allen-McLaurin’s musical compositions is Christmas Is Waiting to Be Born: An Advent Cantata Inspired by the Works of Howard Thurman, which debuted at ITC in 2019.

From January through June of this year, she was director-in-residence at the American Church in Paris, France, where she taught and demonstrated diverse worship methodologies and styles.

Allen-McLaurin holds a Ph.D. and a Master of Music Education degree from the University of Southern Mississippi; a Master of Divinity from Candler School of Theology, Emory University; and two bachelor’s degrees, in piano performance and music education, from Millsaps College.

“The MTSO community is about to be blessed with the leadership and creativity of a world-known scholar,” said MTSO Dean and Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Valerie Bridgeman. “I’ve seen Dr. Allen-McLaurin teach, direct and inspire, and I know she will bring those gifts to us.”

Methodist Theological School in Ohio provides theological education and leadership in pursuit of a just, sustainable and generative world. In addition to the Master of Divinity degree, the school offers master’s degrees in practical theology, social justice and theological studies, along with a Doctor of Ministry degree.

CONTACT:

Danny Russell, communications director
drussell@mtso.edu, 740-362-3322