Chris Alford - Studio Info

He was responsible for coordinating all artistic planning, including repertoire and artist selection (including negotiating their contracts), all creative and technical aspects of special productions (including pops, seasonal, and regional concerts), and writing the orchestra's program notes (from 1989-1994). Those notes represent a significant volume of writing and cover a wide range of repertoire and music history over several seasons of performances by the orchestra.

Alford also created, produced, and hosted the Symphony's local cable TV news magazine, "Symphony Scene", which aired several times weekly, and wrote and produced the orchestra's popular educational programs for kids seen annually by thousands of elementary and middle school chldren (left).

A member of the League of American Orchestras, he was invited to be a guest speaker at that organization's 1992 national convention in Washington D.C.

While at the KSO, Chris also wrote the curriculum and led a community-based music appreciation course offered by the KSO and especially targeted to inner-city families titled "A Symphony Sampler" (right), a project for which he also wrote the grant. He made regular, live appearances on the University of Tennessee’s public radio station to promote and discuss upcoming concerts, and managed the Knoxville Symphony Youth Orchestra.

Alford completed undergraduate studies in music history/music literature at both the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and overseas at the Victoria University of Manchester, England, where he stayed for a year and completed his undergraduate degree (left). The Fellowship in Manchester came about as the result of a competitive selection process of the International Student Exchange program. He later earned a Master's Degree in Musicology from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

While working toward an additional Master's Degree in

Church Music at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, Chris discovered a then brand-new doctoral degree program in worship offered by the Robert E. Webber Institute for Worship Studies (IWS). He completed the Doctor of Worship Studies program and graduated with the Institute's inaugural "Alpha" class in the spring of 2002, with a thesis focus on the church, worship, and contemporary culture.

Chris is an avid student of worship and an admirer of the late Dr. Robert E. Webber (right), whom he calls his "greatest mentor and an important theological influence." Webber was noted for his numerous writings and workshops in worship and worship renewal. His over 40 books include such titles as Evangelicals on the Canterbury Trail, Worship Is a Verb, Worship Old and New, Ancient-Future Faith, Ancient-Future Time, Ancient-Future Evangelism, Journey to Jesus, The Younger Evangelicals, and The Divine Embrace. He served as editor of the seven-volume The Complete Library of Christian Worship and was a regular columnist for Worship Leader Magazine.

Webber asked Chris to serve as a faculty member in the IWS's new master's degree program, a post he held until his move to California. He continues to serve as the thesis form and style consultant for the Institute. When Bob was first diagnosed with the cancer that eventually took his life, he asked Chris to produce a series of seminars for worship workshops and also asked him to go in his place and teach at "BreakForth Canada", billed as north America's largest renewal and equipping worship conference. The BreakForth organization asked Chris to return again the following year. You may learn more information about Chris' workshops by choosing "Worship Workshops" at the top left hand side of this page.

During the Tennessee years, Chris remained active in the artistic and musical life of his community and state: He continued to collaborate with the KSO from time to time, taught a popular music appreciation course for adults at the University of Tennessee, served on the Tennessee State Arts Commission's Performing Arts Grants Advisory Panel, was an advisor for the Knoxville Arts Council's Ticket Subsidy Program, guest lectured at both Carson-Newman College and Jackson University for the Tennessee Baptist Convention, served as band director for the state's youth music week at Camp Carson, and served on the executive advisory board for the internationally-acclaimed Tennessee Children's Dance Ensemble.

Two years prior to the Alfords' move to California, Chris was asked to serve as music director and conductor of Knoxville Tennessee's annual Nativity Pageant (right). The 40-year-old Knoxville tradition and non-profit organization is run by a dedicated volunteer board of directors and features a festival chorus, full orchestra, cast, and crew (not to mention animals) numbering in the hundreds.

An active trumpet player and teacher with early plans for a professional performing career, Alford is a strong proponent of the use of a variety of instruments as well as orchestral musicians in the church. He is a frequent guest speaker and lecturer on the topics of worship, the church, and contemporary culture, as well as the use of professional musicians in worship. Chris was recently asked to write a chapter in a music ministry textbook published by Smith and Helwys on the subject of instrumentalists in worship.

From 1997-2004, Chris traveled about twice a year to Indianapolis' Aire Born Studios (left) to conduct live orchestral and choral recording sessions for Monarch Music, a division of the Lorenz Company headed up by long-time friend and well-known church composer Mary McDonald, for its demonstration recordings and performance accompaniment tracks. Chris' skills in both choral and instrumental conducting made him especially suited for the work and his likeable and lighthearted demeanor on the podium made him a big favorite of both studio singers, instrumentalists, and staff at Aire Born.

Chris was called as Worship Pastor of Fair Oaks Presbyterian Church of Fair Oaks, California, and served there until February of 2009. Since moving to the Golden State, Chris has continued to teach, present worship workshops, and mentor students. In the winter of 2005, he was invited to be the plenary speaker at the Sacramento regional Presbytery meeting. That same semester, he began an ongoing adjunct faculty affiliation with Fuller Theological Seminary (Northern California) by serving as a mentor for the M.Div. Cohort program. In the fall of 2007, Chris was asked to design and lead the worship services of the annual convocation of the New Wineskins Association of Churches which was held at Fair Oaks.

If you'd like to take a look at some of Chris's writings or listen to some messages, please click this link: Go to "Articles, Publications, and Audio Sermons".

For some reading, listening, or choral music recommendations by Chris, try out one of these:

Go to "Reading Recommendations".

Go to "Listening Recommendations".

Go to "Anthem Recommendations".

Resume - Brief Statement of Faith

Dr. Mark Christopher Alford
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For a more standard, printable résumé in .pdf format, please click here:
Current Résumé

For a statement of faith in .pdf format, please click here:
Brief Statement of Faith

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Thoughts about Ministry, Worship, and Teaching...

The church of the 21st century needs pastoral musicians, and this, with God's help, is what I am becoming. In the words of one of my mentors, a church musician is someone who takes musical skills and development seriously and places them in service to the church. A pastoral church musician does this as well, but frames musicianship in the context of worship. A pastoral musician is immersed in the Scriptures more deeply, understands the liturgy, the church year, the theology of worship, the prominent role of music as servant to the Word, the dynamics of pastoral care and leadership, and the importance of administering effectively.

Early on in ministry, I developed three basic goals for music ministry: 1) That all things undertaken and accomplished in the Church's worship will honor and glorify our Triune God. Worship is the Church's singular purpose and there is more to worship than music; 2) That with excellence and the highest of standards, the program will provide a vital, challenging, and relevant ministry through worship to the Church and community. Jesus said, "If I be lifted up, I will draw all people to myself"; and 3) That the music staff, ministry participants, and minister alike will strive together for the deepest level of discipleship, both personally and corporately, because God deserves our whole persons as living sacrifices.

I have enthusiastically embraced the 2006 Call to an Ancient Evangelical Future. The Call incorporates and expands the influential evangelical "Chicago Call" of 1977, and sets forth an Ancient-Future faith for a postmodern world. The Call was convened by Northern Seminary theologians, Phil Kenyon and the late Robert E. Webber. Over a period of seven months of crafting, more than 300 theologians and pastors participated, representing a broad diversity of ethnicity and denominational affiliation. The Call's listing of theological editors and members of the board of reference is without equal, but most remarkable is that hundreds of pastors, theologians, and lay persons across the world have signed the Call, lending voice to its concerns and affirming its timely truths.

Chief among the aims of the Call is to highlight the pressing need for Evangelicals to reflect more deeply on the substance of the biblical narrative, its articulation in the historic faith, and to recover the fullness of that heritage. In my worship and creative arts ministry, I am actively using the Call to help craft worship and am constantly trying to find ways to sing, preach, and enact God's story. If you'd like to download a .pdf file of the complete Call, please click here.

About Worship...

I am absolutely passionate about worship and believe that it is the singular purpose of the church. The tasks of evangelism, missions, discipleship-- all vital to a healthy, growing New Testament church-- grow out of vital, healthy worship. As my mentor and friend the late Robert Webber said it, worship is the source of a church's spirituality; discipleship, evangelism, and other of the church's important tasks are the fruit of that spirituality. I believe that God deserves my selfless worship and that worship has little to do with me and getting my needs met. I believe that worship must never be used as a tool for achieving any kind of goal, no matter how honorable, and that great worship really can't be evaluated in terms of numbers. There is a big difference between reaching people and getting a reaction out of them; my goal as a worship leader is to help connect people with the Triune God through authentic, God-directed, Christ-centered, and Holy Spirit-inspired worship.

The modern world did some damage to matters of faith and the church and her worship. As its influences now recede into the past, I'm excited and energized by the worship renewal presently occurring in our land. So many believers, especially the younger evangelicals, are finding refreshment at the deep well of classic Christianity and the ancient church and I'm convinced that many of the postmodern world's thirsts can be marvelously and even uniquely quenched there. There are rich treasures to be found in the liturgy, practice, and pattern of the ancient church and I am delighted to see congregations and leaders revisiting the foundational elements of classic Christianity.

So, what would worship look like if we began to rediscover these roots? Doing so may prove key as we make the shift from the modern to the postmodern world. "Ancient-Future Faith" will, I am convinced, be responsible for a great refreshing of worship and a key to engaging the postmodern person. I am committed to following the Christian Year cycle and believe that sign, symbol, and vibrant, creative arts are vital parts to healthy worship. Ancient-Future worship will also be "bathed" in Scripture and prayer, and will feature more frequent and more celebratory Communion, as well as more meaningful participation by lay persons.

One of the damaging things that the modern era did to the church and her worship was to encourage the dividing up of congregations along stylistic lines. A particular desire of mine is to promote convergent worship, an ancient-future approach to worship, which says in part that style is not the same thing as content-- that style must no longer be the tail that wags the dog.

If you'd like to visit my blog on worship, or perhaps sign up to receive an occasional newsletter from me about worship, please click here: Go to Chris' Blog.

About Teaching...

Teaching and mentoring students has been at the core of my life since my youth, whether rounding up the neighborhood kids for a basement Sunday School class, spending summers teaching at marching band camps (right), instructing young trumpet players, or teaching music appreciation to adults. I love to teach, and students tell me that I'm a gifted teacher.

An especially strong sense of calling to a ministry of teaching came about at the end of my graduate experience at Northwestern University. Here's the story:

The musicology department had a policy where graduate students would participate in a kind of exit interview at the end of their academic experience. The purpose was to get students’ feedback about their time at Northwestern with an eye toward improving the department. The truth is that the experience was one of the most intensely challenging of my life, but not because of the academics, though they were very rigorous. The experience was challenging because of some professors’ treatment of students: The environment was sometimes quite harsh, especially when dealing individually with professors, and some seemed to care far less for teaching students as they did for their own specialized research and publishing efforts.

“This experience almost drove the love and joy of music right out of me,” I told the apologetic professor. “But it didn’t. I’m going to go from this place with that joy still intact. If I should ever get the chance to teach students, I’m going to pour myself into their lives and mentor them—care for them—all while sharing the love and joy of music and training them to a high standard. I know we can have both.”

I believe that the calling of teaching is as high and weighty as that of ministry, for I believe that teaching is ministry. From young trumpet players to seminary students, from discipleship courses to worship workshops to preaching, I have devoted my life to this truth: Every good minister must be a teacher, and every good teacher must be a minister.

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