Ministry Monday National Association of Pastoral Musicians (NPM)

Holy week is coming, and with it comes a level of personal commitment that may exceed the normal weekend liturgical life: schedules are rearranged, extra music is learned to support the sacred days, and our bodies- especially our voices- have extra pressure put upon ourselves. Not only that, this season has seen a lot of sickness circulating, especially colds and upper respiratory infections.
For these reasons, we thought it would be a perfect opportunity to revisit an episode from 2021 featuring Lynn Eustis on vocal health.

Today we listen to an episode of Ministry Monday from 2020 that celebrates the role women play in music ministry today. We hear the stories of Nancy Douglass and Janèt Sullivan-Whitaker, both active, longtime composers and pastoral musicians. It is a great way to start our celebration of Women's History Month.

At the beginning of each year we look back at the episodes that made Ministry Monday in the last 12 months. We had several popular episodes in 2023, but one of them stood out from the rest. It featured a story of a father-daughter duo who both serve in music ministry in their respective parishes. In fact, Daniel Ladner - the father in our wonderful story - has served in music ministry for 72 years- at the same church!

I can say from a personal note that this episode was one of my favorites to record. Hearing Daniel and Beth’s stories, both together and separately, was so inspiring. It reminds me of the lives that light up our parish music ministry, across the country, and the gift that I have to share them with you on the podcast.

This week we speak to the creators of the "Meet Father Rivers" podcast: Emily Strand and Eric Styles. Emily and Eric share the stories of how their lives have been impacted by Fr. Rivers, which led them to create a podcast honoring the many ways the Holy Spirit flow through his life to others. For more information on this episode, visit ministrymonday.org. For more information on the Meet Father Rivers podcast, visit www.meetfatherrivers.libsyn.com.

I hope you had a lovely holiday season thus far, and are well-recovered after the immense amount of effort and time you contributed to Christmas season celebrations in our universal Church today. I’m happy to share this first episode of 2024 with you, listeners! January so often comes with New Year’s resolutions, which are oftentimes out of vogue for making. But what if we, as sacred musicians, made a personal continuing education resolution for 2024?

This week on Ministry Monday we speak to Vince Carr from the American Guild of Organists. Vince details the AGO certification program, specifically in regards to the two, dual certificate opportunities available to NPM members: the Service Playing Certification (SPC) and Colleague exam (CAGO).

This week on Ministry Monday we are excited to speak to leadership from the NPM Saginaw Chapter. The Saginaw Chapter is NPM's 2023 Chapter of the Year. Today they share the chapter's origins, some of the chapter's most-loved programming, and some of the reasons they find inspiration and motivation through NPM, both locally and nationally.