Smith uses musical gifts to exalt Christ’s name, not her own

Though she didn’t see it at the time, Courtney Smith, a Master of Music in worship leadership student at Southwestern Seminary, said God used her time serving in a worship band at the Baptist Student Union at East Central Community College (ECCC) and the college ministry worship band at Clarke-Venable Baptist Church, both in Decatur, Mississippi, to “point” her away from music therapy.

When Smith, a native of Philadelphia, Mississippi, began as a student at ECCC, she said she “wasn’t sure what I wanted to do yet with music” she “just knew I wanted to major in it.” She recalled during her second year of college she had the “idea” of studying music therapy. Smith had plans to transfer to William Carey University (WCU) in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, to begin that study . However, after taking a tour of the music therapy program with her dad, Smith said she “just didn’t feel right about transferring and doing music therapy and I wasn’t sure why.”

“About a month before transferring, I was just praying and praying and decided to look into the worship leadership program that they had,” Smith recalled. She “ended up deciding to do that” and graduated from WCU in 2022 with a Bachelor of Science in music with a concentration in worship leadership.

Courtney Smith, a Master of Music in worship leadership student at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, began studying at the Fort Worth-based institution after earning an undergraduate degree in music with a concentration in worship leadership. She said God used experiences leading worship through the Baptist Student Union at East Central Community College (ECCC) and the college ministry worship band at Clarke-Venable Baptist Church, both in Decatur, Mississippi, to lead her to music ministry.

Smith grew up “around music” as her father, William Smith, has served as the music minister at First Baptist Church of Philadelphia since 2002. She was involved in children’s choir, which she believed “really helped influence how I grew up and wanting to continue to do music.” While she was in high school she played clarinet in the band which helped her “really learn how to read music,” she explained. Smith said she began learning to play the piano in the fourth grade and continued lessons through her senior year of high school.

Using her musical skills “was one way that I was able to plug into my home church and I felt like I had a place in my home church with music,” Smith explained, adding that “being able to serve in that way was a really big deal to me.” She said this prompted her to want music lessons to “learn more and grow more … because even as a child, it just felt so purposeful, I think, in my life.”

However, Smith said, “Before community college, I had no idea what I wanted to do.” Though she “knew” that she “loved music,” she recalled that she did not “want to just major in music because that’s what I like to do.” But, Smith said she “didn’t have an interest in anything else” and continues to believe “God used that” and she is “thankful for it now,” although at “first it was very scary, I think, to go into that.” The “opportunities” Smith has had to “continue to serve in the church” have “been a really big deal as to why” she stays in music ministry, she said.

When Smith began as a student in the School of Church Music and Worship in August 2022, the opportunities to serve expanded. Smith is one of 16 members of Southwestern A Cappella, a select ensemble that has performed at Keith and Kristyn Getty’s “Sing!” Conference and at the 2023 Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana. Smith will be a part of the group that helps lead worship during the SBC annual meeting this June in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Smith called the experiences “very humbling.”

“I would never have thought that I would have had those opportunities and so getting those opportunities, I think for me, … I want to make sure that I’m doing it for the right reasons,” Smith explained. “Because it’s easy to go into those things and just do it, you know, for a fun trip, or whatever, but really, when you look at it, it’s still ministry, and all of it is ministry.”

Smith, who sings with Southwestern A Cappella, has had opportunities to help lead worship with the ensemble across campus and with Keith and Kristyn Getty’s “Sing!” Conference and at the Southern Baptist Convention. Additionally, she has been able to put her classroom instruction into practice in real-time as the worship intern at First Baptist Church in Benbrook, Texas.

She added that you have to make “sure that your heart is in the right place, and you’re doing it to glorify God and not … to glorify your name or exalt yourself, but it’s all to exalt God.”

The words of Joseph R. Crider, dean of the SCMW, are words that Smith recalls as she said he says, “We’re not the point. We’re the pointer.” She said these words are “true” as she has “gotten to see how, you know, that plays a role in any setting, whether you’re leading at a small country church, or at the Gettys,” the goal is the same: “to exalt Christ’s name, not your own.”

Smith said, “One of my favorite things” when helping lead worship is to “look out into the congregation and engage with them in a way.”

“It’s not about performance when you’re up there and you’re looking out in front, like into the congregation, and you’re singing with them,” Smith explained. “You get to worship with them.” She added that she “love[s] getting to see that because when you’re in [the] congregation, you’re not always like seeing what’s happening around you. So, I love being on stage and just getting to see everything that’s happening all together in unity. I think it’s a beautiful thing.”

Currently, Smith is the worship intern at First Baptist Church of Benbrook, Texas. Through her ministry at the church, she was able to help launch the children’s choir that began in November of last year, which she said was “really fun because children’s choir had a big impact on me as a child in music.” The children’s choir, which includes kindergartners through fourth graders, sang at Christmas and recently reassembled for Easter.

Through serving at First Baptist Benbrook, Smith had the opportunity to lead worship in the church’s contemporary service when Timothy Tucker, minister of contemporary worship and communication and Master of Arts in worship leadership student, had to be away. She said the opportunity was “very helpful” and provided “good learning experiences.” Additionally, Smith led worship during the traditional worship service when the church’s traditional worship leader, Crider, was gone one Sunday.

Smith said she feels “like I’m doing a lot more hands-on ministry things this semester than I have the past year” which she called “really exciting.” She added, “You definitely grow a lot doing the actual hands-on stuff versus just sitting in a classroom.”

The opportunity has allowed Smith to implement the lessons she is learning in her music classes, most notably a course she is taking with Charles R. Lewis Jr., associate dean of the SCMW, called “Ministry of Planning and Leading Worship.”

“He teaches us how to plan a worship service and he shows us different ways to do that,” Smith explained. “There’s different styles of services. And he also teaches us how to not just go up and sing a song, but actually engage with your congregation and speak to your congregation.”

Smith said a conducting class she took with Lewis was also “helpful.” Additionally, the course Lewis teaches on “congregational song,” which provides a history of church music, has given Smith a “new love for hymns” and “seeing the beauty of continuing to sing hymns in the church today and not neglecting those.”

Smith encouraged students who are interested in music ministry to attend Southwestern because “overall, it’s very rewarding.”

“Before coming to seminary, I was just intimidated,” she said. “I had this fear that I wasn’t supposed to go” however, “since being at seminary, it’s been very rewarding because you get to do hands-on ministry” as “you’re not only learning about ministry, but you I feel like the seminary does a really good job at giving you those opportunities. So, you’re not just sitting in the classroom and learning but you’re actually going out and doing the ministry work.”

Noting the “great” community at Southwestern, Smith said that if she “could have told myself” something before attending seminary, she would “remind” herself that “it’s not about me.”

“The reason why you go to seminary is to be equipped to do ministry, which ministry is to exalt Christ’s name, not your own,” Smith concluded.