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 text book used by Carson-Newman ministry students on the subject of instrumentalists in worship.

From 1997-2004, Chris travelled about twice a year to Indianapolis' Aireborn Studios (right) 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 composer Mary McDonald, for its demonstration cassettes and performance accompaniment tracks. Chris was a favorite of both studio musicians and staff at Aireborn.

Since moving to California, 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 adjunct faculty affiliation with Fuller Theological Seminary by serving as a mentor for the M.Div. Cohort program. Chris was asked to continue the affiliation in 2006 and in 2007.

If you'd like to take a look at some of Chris's recent writings, please click this link: Go to "Articles" Page

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".

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A Personal Statement of Ministry and Music...

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.

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.

I have 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 U.S. and Canada 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 shape the very way I go about my calling. If you would seek to understand part of what motivates me, I commend the Call to you.

I am absolutely passionate about worship and believe that it is the church's primary purpose. 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. I believe that returning to these foundational elements will be crucial 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 reaching 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, for convergence, which is an ancient-future approach to worship, says in part that style is not the same thing as content-- that style can no longer be the tail that wags the dog. If you'd like to learn more about convergent worship, try this recent article I wrote: