Crider elected 2024 SBC annual meeting music director

NEW ORLEANS – Joseph R. Crider, dean of the School of Church Music and Worship at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, was elected music director for the 2024 Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana, on June 14 during the 2023 SBC annual meeting in New Orleans.

In addition to Crider, Dean Inserra, lead pastor of City Church in Tallahassee, Florida, was elected the 2024 convention preacher, and Mike Keahbone, lead pastor of First Baptist Church of Lawton, Oklahoma, was elected the alternate 2024 convention preacher.

“The congregational singing at this year’s SBC annual meeting in New Orleans was the most participative and engaged response from the messengers I’ve heard in years,” Crider said. He noted that James Cheesman, 2023 music director and current Southwestern Seminary Doctor of Philosophy student, “did an outstanding job of choosing music people know and love” while serving the “convention in a beautiful way.”

“To be charged with that role next year is indeed an honor and a stewardship that we will take very seriously as the School of Church Music and Worship provides the music for Southern Baptist messengers to respond to our glorious triune God,” Crided added. “As we lead next year in Indianapolis, we pray that we would serve Southern Baptists and SBC President Bart Barber in a way that points people to Christ and glorifies God the Father.”

David S. Dockery, president of Southwestern Seminary, expressed gratitude at Crider’s election and responsibility to serve Southern Baptists.

“How grateful we are that Joe Crider has been selected to provide leadership for the music and times of worship at the 2024 Southern Baptist Convention in Indianapolis,” Dockery said. “The SBC will be extraordinarily blessed by Dr. Crider’s gifts. I know he will represent Southwestern with Christ-centered excellence.”

Crider, who has served at Southwestern Seminary since 2019, previously served at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Liberty University, Southwest Baptist University, and Westmont College. He holds a Doctor of Arts in Performance and Pedagogy from the University of Northern Colorado as well as a Master of Arts in Performance and Bachelor of Music, both from Bowling Green State University. He is also the author of Scripture-Guided Worship, a 2021 publication of Seminary Hill Press, the publishing arm of Southwestern Seminary.

Since assuming the leadership role of the SCMW, Crider, who is also professor of church music and worship, has sought to guide the school around the three pillars of faithfulness to the Scriptures, musical excellence, and being ministry driven. The three elements align with the original foundations of the school when it was founded as a department in 1915 by I.E. Reynolds, who sought to establish the church music program around the principles of spiritual fervor, scholarly and efficient musicianship, and practicality and application.

During his tenure at Southwestern, Crider has led the SCMW to strengthen and establish more than a dozen student worship bands and ensembles, including Southwestern A Cappella, a select musical ensemble comprised of graduate and undergraduate music students in the school. Southwestern A Cappella assisted in leading worship during the worship sessions of the 2023 SBC annual meetings in New Orleans, as well as during Southwestern’s Alumni and Friends Luncheon.