July 24, 2000
Dickson, Mims leave SBTS music school
___By Trennis Henderson
___Kentucky Western Recorder
___LOUISVILLE, Ky. (ABP)--Two longtime leaders of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary's school of church music and worship have announced their resignations.
___Lloyd Mims, dean of the music school, will become dean of the school of music and fine arts at Palm Beach Atlantic College, a Baptist school in West Palm Beach, Fla. Texas native John Dickson, the music school's choral director and associate dean for doctoral studies, will become director of choral activities at Texas Tech University in Lubbock.
___Mims' wife, Marilyn, has taught since 1994 as the Louisville, Ky., music school's vocal artist in residence. She has accepted a similar position at Palm Beach Atlantic.
___The recent resignations come amid decreasing enrollment at Southern's school of church music and worship. Although seminary officials declined to cite specific enrollment figures, President Al Mohler attributed much of the decline to shrinking enrollments in undergraduate music programs that traditionally have fed graduate-level programs.
___"The whole context of musical education is in a time of transition," Mohler said. "Enrollment in undergraduate programs has been seriously declining. At this point, it seems unlikely any graduate program in music can expect to operate with the number of students seen back in the heyday of undergraduate programs producing music majors."
___Figures published in the Southern Baptist Convention Book of Reports show enrollment in Southern's master of church music program dropped in half from 1994 to 1998, with 58 students enrolled in 1998-1999. Figures for the 1999-2000 academic year were not available for review.
___Enrollment in the basic music degree offered at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, however, has increased during the same period Southern's enrollment has declined, according to the SBC Book of Reports.
___From 1994 to 1998, enrollment in the master of music degree at Southwestern increased 14 percent, to 157. Figures for the 1999-2000 academic year were not available.
___Mohler said he is "not sure what the right size" of Southern's music school will be in the future. "We are not primarily concerned at this point about being large or small, but the issue of quality and maintaining leadership."
___Dickson, a graduate of the University of Texas who previously taught at Baylor University, also served the past 14 years as minister of music and worship at Highland Baptist Church in Louisville. He told that congregation the music school's enrollment decline played a direct role in his departure.
___Dickson wrote in a recent church newsletter article to Highland members that after 15 years at Southern, "we returned from England this past year to discover a music school severely depleted of singers and with little hope of a rewarding future for a choral conductor."
___"As much as I have worked to resist the politics," he wrote, "the inevitable has finally arrived, and we knew we had no choice but to leave."
___Earlier this year, seminary officials announced plans to restructure the music school to focus more on praise and worship leadership. The school will move from two divisions to three, including an institute of praise and worship.
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